Chapter 99 Plenty of Treasures
Yuanchip and Xinghai were considered premium partners of Texas Instruments. Whether it was the VCD chips or the cordless phone series of chips, all of them were produced by Texas Instruments. After all, improvements in process technology and yields required constant feeding of orders.
In return, TI strongly supported Yuanchip's EDA, sharing a vast amount of wafer manufacturing data, which in turn greatly boosted the simulation capabilities of Yuanchip's EDA.
Likewise, Yuanchip's EDA helped improve TI's yields and process maturity.
Thus, when Su Yuanshan requested a meeting, Vincenti immediately cleared his schedule and waited for him.
But Vincenti hadn't expected that Su Yuanshan would propose letting TI invest in Xinghai.
He admitted it — many people were eyeing Xinghai and Yuanchip, and TI was one of them.
After confirming that he hadn't misunderstood, Vincenti's mind began racing.
He immediately thought of recent rumors and looked at Su Yuanshan with a stunned expression:
"You guys are really planning to acquire Cyrix?"
Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded:
"Actually, even without the Cyrix deal, Xinghai had plans to deepen its partnership with TI through cross-shareholding.
But Cyrix ran into trouble, and we're just lending them a hand."
"No, you're trying to drag TI into gambling on Cyrix's lawsuit and future," Vincenti immediately pointed out the core issue.
"Acquiring Cyrix isn't a gamble," Su Yuanshan said calmly.
"It's a well-thought-out decision.
We did a rigorous analysis and concluded that Intel will eventually settle with Cyrix.
After all, your company still holds an x86 architecture license, and under current legal interpretations, I believe a just judge would make a ruling that benefits the broader semiconductor industry."
"After all, Intel is already very powerful.
A CPU company without rivals doesn't fit the spirit of the Sherman Antitrust Act."
Hearing Su Yuanshan's cool-headed analysis, Vincenti said seriously:
"You're forgetting the PowerPC alliance."
"In the near future, the PowerPC alliance will lose," Su Yuanshan said confidently.
Vincenti raised an eyebrow:
"Why?"
"Because Mr. Gates is a genius.
The PowerPC camp also had a genius — but unfortunately, he left to make movies," Su Yuanshan said with a smile.
Vincenti knew exactly which "filmmaker" Su Yuanshan was referring to — the idealistic, nearly obsessive man who had won endless praise from Silicon Valley legend Robert Noyce.
Someone who could walk into Noyce's bedroom at will.
Yes, Steve Jobs.
Still, Su Yuanshan's reasoning didn't entirely convince Vincenti.
Instead, Vincenti smiled and teased:
"Then why don't you join the PowerPC camp?
Maybe you could even help defeat the Wintel alliance."
Su Yuanshan sighed quietly in his heart.
Despite its technical prowess, TI, like other old-guard companies, often lacked a broader strategic vision.
Sure, in the 1990s they looked glorious, especially after Japan's semiconductor industry began declining.
But after 2000, TSMC, thanks to Liang Mengsong's breakthroughs in 0.13-micron copper process technology, crushed IBM, UMC, and Infineon, seizing the top of the wafer fab industry.
Since then, UMC, TI, NEC, and GlobalFoundries would never rise again.
TI had strong technology and resources — yet ended up like the defeated Japanese fabs.
It really came down to short-sightedness.
"It's like this, Mr. Vincenti," Su Yuanshan said seriously:
"The Wintel alliance is far more solid and technically superior.
I can even predict that Intel will soon launch new products.
Because they haven't been collaborating deeply with our EDA, we believe they have been developing products based on other EDA tools."
"Meanwhile, even though Motorola and IBM are strong, the semiconductor industry is increasingly specialized.
In the future, each subfield will have its own giant.
Intel's CPUs will likely remain stronger."
"That's why we chose to embrace the x86 ecosystem.
And even if TI doesn't want to jump into the war, you can still collaborate with us — and quietly enter the CPU world through Xinghai."
Su Yuanshan smiled lightly:
"Mr. Vincenti, surely you don't think Yuanchip and Xinghai rose through luck?"
Vincenti's eyebrows slowly furrowed.
TI had long been aware of Yuanchip and Xinghai's meteoric rise.
Their internal analysis chalked it up to three words: "good luck."
But anyone in the tech world knew — behind "good luck" was always another truth: "vision."
After a long silence, Vincenti finally exhaled and said:
"I'll take it to the board.
What's the maximum equity you're offering?"
"Around 20%."
Vincenti didn't question the number.
He simply nodded, then laughed:
"I heard you guys have become famous as Silicon Valley's newest angel investors.
Found any treasures?"
"We have," Su Yuanshan grinned.
"Plenty."
Thanks to Qin Si's scattergun investment strategy — casting a wide net but prioritizing promising catches — Xinghai had invested in dozens of small teams.
While they hadn't gotten lucky again with another blockbuster like Howard's cordless phone team, they had still hatched several useful projects.
Among the most valuable was a company called RenderMorphics.
Qin Si had taken an interest in RenderMorphics because Su Yuanshan had earlier recruited an elite GPU team.
And these GPU veterans, thrilled to finally have a boss who fully backed 3D graphics, weren't just designing chips —
they also planned to develop a professional 3D graphics API.
Before they could build it themselves, RenderMorphics showed up — proposing exactly that idea.
It was a perfect match.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, Xinghai invested directly in RenderMorphics and commissioned them to create a 3D API tailored to Xinghai's GPU — eventually named DirectX 3D.
Yes, that DirectX.
If nothing went wrong, two years later Microsoft would buy RenderMorphics and integrate DirectX into Windows.
At first, it would be weak — easily crushed by 3DFX's Glide and OpenGL.
But Microsoft's staying power would eventually let DirectX win the long war.
This time around, with former 3DFX talent backing it, DirectX was already reborn stronger.
Soon, Su Yuanshan planned to introduce RenderMorphics to Microsoft himself.
(End of Chapter 99)
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