Chapter 215 Huajing Rises
"Everyone says second-generation rich kids rely on their parents, but how come I feel like it's the other way around?"
Su Yuanshan flexed his wrist and sighed at the draft papers in front of him.
Nearby, Zhou Xiaohui was sneaking in a bit of study time, flipping through the MBA textbooks from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. When the MBA course had first opened there last year, Su Yuanshan had encouraged her to enroll, saying that although enrollment only required paying the fees, the textbooks—mostly translations of foreign materials—were genuinely useful and worth studying seriously.
Hearing his comment, Zhou Xiaohui pursed her lips into a smile. "It just means the capable get more work, President Shan."
"Sigh..." Su Yuanshan sighed again. "Bring me the chip import report from the past five years."
Zhou Xiaohui quickly pulled the correct report from a pile of documents and handed it to him.
As he read through the data, Su Yuanshan flicked the edge of the pages with his fingers. "Look at this: over ninety percent of chips have been imported in the past few years."
"And at outrageous prices," Zhou Xiaohui added.
"Exactly, ridiculously expensive. Especially microcontrollers. Without my dad..." Su Yuanshan chuckled to himself and went back to writing the report.
The report was straightforward—a prediction of the future impact of the semiconductor industry on the broader industrial sector—or rather, a bold prediction.
In fact, academia never lacked for radical predictions about the future. The problem was that most of those voices came from scholars without enough industrial data or theoretical support. So, when you scrutinized those radical forecasts, they often had massive gaps.
For example, within Yuanxin's own think tank—established almost a year ago—the scholars, inspired by Yuanxin's meteoric rise, had come up with all sorts of visionary theories... yet none had really been taken seriously.
Su Yuanshan intended to change that.
And no one was better suited than he was to write about the development and impact of the semiconductor industry—because he was a living witness to the next twenty years. He knew precisely how far the semiconductor, internet, and mobile internet industries would go.
But to be convincing, his report had to be rigorous. And true rigor required comprehensive coverage—it wasn't enough to just cite Moore's Law and extrapolate transistor counts.
—After all, even now, a year after the official launch of the Pentium CPU, there were still people claiming that 486 processors were more than enough!
—Coincidentally, the same thing had been said about 386 when 486 launched.
And later, when 64-bit CPUs and operating systems came out, plenty of people said 32-bit was more than sufficient. "What can 64 bits do?"
When 4G arrived, some said 3G was enough.
When 5G came, the same chorus started again...
...
His pen skimmed rapidly across the paper. Su Yuanshan muttered to himself, "In the world of martial arts, speed conquers all. Other than, well, you-know-what, who doesn't want speed?"
Zhou Xiaohui: "..."
...
Two days later, a travel-worn Professor Su Xinghe arrived in Shanghai.
Su Yuanshan handed over the report to his father, and together they went over and edited the sections touching on sensitive information.
The Shanghai municipal government was taking this year's semiconductor conference very seriously. Not only were top leaders attending, but Zhang Rujin—who had been buried in work at the Zhangjiang factory—was also invited.
Thus, Su Yuanshan got "dragged along" by his father into the conference.
On the morning of the 21st, at 9:00 a.m., the Third Semiconductor Conference opened at the Shanghai International Conference Center.
At this time, the conference was still a domestic affair, more of an internal industry seminar. Its structure was much like any formal meeting: speeches by government leaders, followed by expert presentations summarizing the current state and future outlook of the semiconductor industry.
In the afternoon, there would be casual mingling among corporate heads and university professors, or small discussion groups. Then a dinner in the evening. The next day, everyone would part ways.
This year's conference followed the same format.
At 8 a.m., Su Yuanshan and his father arrived at the venue. At the entrance, Su Yuanshan spotted a beaming Zhou Boguang.
Professor Su Xinghe, knowing Zhou Boguang was closer to his son, greeted him politely and then drifted off to chat with other acquaintances.
"Uncle Zhou, congratulations," Su Yuanshan said as he walked side by side with Zhou Boguang toward the hall.
This year, Zhou Boguang had officially become the Director of Huajing Semiconductor Research Institute—a promotion worth celebrating.
"Heh, what's there to congratulate?" Zhou Boguang chuckled and glanced at Su Yuanshan, feeling a mix of emotions. "Besides, thanks to you, we'll be enemies from now on."
"No way," Su Yuanshan said modestly. "You guys have already achieved 0.8-micron mass production, right? Meanwhile, our photomask factory isn't even finished. By the time we're ready, you might be hitting 0.5-micron."
"Not that easy," Zhou Boguang said, shaking his head. "We're working with imported turnkey lines. It's not like you guys—I hear you bought the most advanced lithography machines?"
"Doesn't mean much without matching process technology. Besides, the lithography machines won't even be delivered until the end of the year," Su Yuanshan said.
He glanced at Zhou Boguang again, sensing something odd.
Logically, Zhou Boguang—now leading Huajing's R&D center—should be worried about Yuanxin's rise. Of course, Su Yuanshan didn't believe a man of Zhou's character would cut ties out of fear.
But Zhou seemed too happy.
Then a thought struck him. Testing the waters, he asked, "How much funding did the government give you?"
Zhou Boguang froze briefly, then looked at Su Yuanshan with some surprise. "Your nose..."
Su Yuanshan laughed heartily.
As he suspected!
Thanks to Yuanxin's early support for Huajing, the national 908 project had landed years ahead of schedule, and Huajing's mass production timeline had also accelerated.
Today's Huajing was no longer the doomed giant of history. Early this year, Huajing ended two consecutive years of financial losses and turned a profit.
Looking ahead, as their processes matured, profits would only grow.
From the government's perspective, while they welcomed private companies like Yuanxin, Yuanxin was, after all, a private enterprise.
So it was perfectly logical for the state to funnel more funding into Huajing, their "legitimate son," ensuring it stayed strong and didn't get overshadowed by a private upstart.
Especially considering that the biggest bottleneck in the semiconductor industry was still low self-sufficiency.
Investing in Huajing was a guaranteed, risk-free move.
The fact that Huajing was quietly surging ahead left Su Yuanshan feeling a complicated mix of emotions.
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