Chapter 162 Yuanxin's Structure
When they returned to Yuanzhong Technology, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing walked at the front, followed closely by Li Mingliu, with Jiang Tao trailing slightly behind.
The arrangement of the four reflected not only their personal positions but also the current organizational structure under Yuanxin's system.
According to the latest structure, Li Mingliu's team was technically just a second-level department under the X86 Architecture R&D Center. However, since the X86 division was directly under Su Yuanshan's command, Li Mingliu's actual status was equivalent to a first-level department leader.
Jiang Tao, on the other hand, as the head of a subsidiary under Zhongxin, was only considered a second-level leader within the Yuanxin system.
After several rounds of adjustments, Yuanxin's structure had clearly divided into three main areas: R&D, Operations, and Industry-Academia Collaboration. The R&D Center, based around the Science and Technology Park, was led by Xi Xiaoding. The business operations side was handled by Chen Jing. And the Industry-Academia Innovation Lab was directly supervised by Professor Su Xinghe, giving it an elevated status.
The R&D Center currently included the following first-level units:
X86 Architecture R&D Center, led by Su Yuanshan.Mathematics Research Center, led by Xi Xiaoding.Mobile Communications R&D Center, led by Tian Yaoming.YX Architecture R&D Center, led by Qin Weimin.Internet Technology R&D Center, led by Ding Lei.EDA R&D Center, led by Jiang Wanchao — now already spun off.
Meanwhile, the enterprise side had its own first-level units:
Mobile Devices Business Unit, led by Wang Rui.VCD Business Unit, led by Gao Xiaodi.Yuanxin Communications and Yuanxin Mall, both managed by Zhang Ke — pending spin-off.
Additionally, there were three first-level joint ventures:
Zhongxin Technology.Meijie Technology (Special Economic Zone branch).Yuanxin-Sony Optical Drive Production Base.
Besides these, the President's Office oversaw the Administration, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Procurement, Investment, Sales, and After-sales departments, all counted as first-level departments.
In the Industry-Academia Innovation Lab under Su Xinghe's personal leadership, the core groups included:
Lithography Machine R&D Team, led by Zheng Zhichuan.Copper Interconnect Process Breakthrough Team, led by Chen Jianguo.Servo Motor Breakthrough Team, led by Qu Hui.
As well as various other teams collaborating with UESTC.
Thanks to Su Xinghe's leadership, all these groups enjoyed first-level treatment.
...
"In general, our progress isn't very good. Cyrix didn't accumulate much technical know-how regarding cache memory..."
Inside the break room, Li Mingliu looked a bit worn out as he discussed their development progress.
"Hard to understand where they found the confidence to challenge Intel back then," he said, making everyone laugh.
Su Yuanshan smiled and reassured them: "Their strengths were mainly in the FPU (Floating Point Unit). Actually, Intel is already negotiating with Xinghai..."
Thanks to Xinghai's massive resource pool and legal team, Intel had suddenly realized that if the lawsuits dragged on, they might lose their 338 patent hammer entirely.
Xinghai had cleverly preempted this by aligning with TI, or at least by joining TI's camp early on.
Thus, after a long standoff, Intel finally chose to settle with Xinghai (Cyrix) over mutual infringement accusations, and negotiations were currently underway.
As usual, both sides initially made outrageous demands.
Intel's idea was: let's both step back—stop using each other's tech in the future and call it even.
But the two women leading Xinghai's negotiations, Carly and Yang Yiwen, insisted:
No way would they let Intel off that easily.
They demanded mutual licensing—if Intel wanted to use Xinghai's FPU technologies, then Xinghai would also be free to use Intel's X86 technologies!
There were big disagreements, but negotiations were still progressing.
"But now Claude is staring eagerly at us... it's ridiculous," Li Mingliu said, shaking his head. "He seems to forget we're a brand-new team."
Su Yuanshan laughed, "Mainly because Silicon Valley has this persistent delusion that Yuanxin gathered all of China's elite talents—and even government backing. Remember how the EDA peers jumped around for a long time, trying to petition for a background investigation into Yuanxin? After we spun off EDA, they immediately went quiet."
Everyone laughed at that.
Su Yuanshan continued, "Claude's side is mainly focusing on microarchitecture design now, and they've made some decent progress... So it's understandable that he's pinning hopes on you guys to deliver too."
Li Mingliu sighed, "I'll do my best. The problem is there's too little accumulated talent in this field domestically. I've been trying to reach out to some senior alumni abroad, but for now, none of them are willing to return."
"That's because in the West, collapse theories and even disintegration theories about us are still dominant," Su Yuanshan said, squinting slightly and smiling. "That's actually why we've had a bit of breathing room recently—and it's why all those Western companies are scrambling into the market, preparing for the 'collapse'..."
The other three looked at each other but wisely avoided commenting further.
(This topic wasn't elaborated much. The "collapse" theory of the 1990s was different from later instances in the 21st century.)
"But the high-level dialogue in Seattle this year was overall positive," Su Yuanshan added reassuringly. "The mainland's economic outlook will only keep improving, and more overseas Chinese talents will definitely return."
This year, the APEC informal leadership summit was held in Seattle.
It was during this occasion that important dialogues were held—providing Su Yuanshan the opportunity to apply to TI for the joint fab project.
(Reference: Breaking the U.S. Barrier to China's Semiconductor Development — Inside the Early 90s Diplomatic Exchange. As a side note, I love reading comments, but sometimes arguing gets tedious. Researching, organizing, and analyzing data is the writer's livelihood...)
At the same time, starting this year, American investment in China had exploded.
From 1990 to 1992, foreign investment into China barely reached $400–500 million per year.
But in 1993, it suddenly shot past $2 billion.
This showed clearly that capital's instincts were sharp.
Of course, compared to the fortune Su Yuanshan was now sitting on, that amount still looked small.
...
Afterward, Su Yuanshan also checked in on Jiang Tao's progress.
Learning that the campus IC card system had been completed and was ready for large-scale rollout, he emphasized that their company's core should remain IC design—develop it and pass it off to others to commercialize.
After completing their tour and inspections of Yuanzhong Technology, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing checked into a hotel.
That evening, after dinner, the two had one last discussion about the land acquisition strategy.
Since they would be negotiating with government officials, Chen Jing's strategy was very simple:
Play hardball.
First, flatter the government.
Then, unveil Yuanxin's grand plans.
Finally, beg for their full support.
Naturally, the government would support them—after all, Yuanxin was now a major financial powerhouse.
Any local government would be desperate to attract Yuanxin's investment.
However, government officials also had their pride.
They couldn't just abandon all dignity at the sight of money.
And that's where the conflict arose.
Yuanxin's appetite was simply too big.
They had already touched the government's bottom line.
It was important to remember that since the beginning of last year, after Shanghai opened up its commercial housing market,
and especially now, with pilot programs for the tax-sharing system beginning,
every savvy official understood:
From now on, local development and infrastructure would increasingly rely on selling land and issuing city investment bonds.
Therefore, when Yuanxin opened negotiations asking for 150 hectares (over 2,200 acres)...
the government was honestly a little terrified.
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