Chapter 414: This Hatred Lingers Endlessly
Mitarai Fujio frowned tightly at the supplementary contract signed with China on the screen.
“China has recently added three supplementary agreements. In addition to the already signed order for 20 FPA-1200NZ2C complete machines, they have added three more supplementary agreements.
Including spare parts for enough core replaceable modules to equip 100 machines, from laser controllers to wafer transport robotic arms, nothing is omitted.
Additionally, they signed a five-year, sky-high-priced long-term supply contract for imprint resin and template substrates.
They prepaid the full amount for three years, and the required supply volume is enough to support 10% of the global existing semiconductor production capacity.
The strangest is the third one; they sent us a list requiring the purchase of safety data sheets for the chemical compositions of all specialty chemicals used for equipment cleaning and maintenance on our production line, even including the detailed technical parameters of the plasma cleaning machines customized from suppliers for cleaning templates.”
Mitarai Fujio murmured: “China is not procuring.
This is preparing for a systematic technology reverse engineering. They not only want to buy NIL lithography machines, but also reverse engineer the synthesis methods of the chemical materials accompanying NIL lithography machines.
This is indeed very much in China’s style.
But the question is, what is the significance?”
Ogawa Kazuhito nodded: “This is also my confusion. We haven’t even determined the use of the NIL lithography machine yet, haven’t let it formally enter the industrial large-scale production process, and the Chinese people are already eager to reverse engineer it. What is the significance?
The Chinese people act as if they are even more convinced than us that this technology route has enormous value and will definitely replace traditional EUV lithography machines.
This is really baffling.
From the data transmitted back from the backend, China’s received NIL lithography machines haven’t even conducted a somewhat formal production run, let alone large-scale production.
Where on earth does their confidence come from?”
Lithography machines will definitely have backdoors reserved for you; ASML does so, and Canon’s most advanced 5nm NIL lithography machine does even more so.
As for remote shutdown to prevent startup, it’s possible, but not to that extent.
Not to that extent doesn’t mean the Americans aren’t that malicious, but because what’s handed over to China includes the NIL manufacturing technology itself; if you remotely shut it down, they’ll disassemble your parts and replicate the NIL lithography machine right after.
It would merely make China spend more time.
Foreign operators have far less sense of urgency about time than China.
“I must go see Minister Saito.” After hearing Ogawa Kazuhito’s words, Mitarai Fujio felt the same unease surging in his heart, and he made a decision.
The next day, in the office of Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Saito Katsuya, like other Japan bureaucrats, there weren’t many things.
“President Mitarai, Vice President Ogawa, welcome.” Saito Katsuya personally poured tea for them; these were all meritorious ministers who sacrificed for Japan!
“Regarding the smooth progress of Canon’s NIL project in China, I represent the government in congratulating you.”
Hearing this, Mitarai Fujio itched with hatred inside; if it weren’t for the incompetence of the insects in Chiyoda, would Canon have to sell its future to the Chinese people? And you dare to say congratulations here?
Chiyoda refers to Japan’s power center, where Japan’s Imperial Palace, Prime Minister’s Official Residence, and central office building are all located.
Helplessly, the situation is stronger than people; he could only bury the hatred in his heart. Canon can’t be considered financial magnates.
“Minister Saito,” Mitarai Fujio got straight to the point. He pushed a streamlined report in front of Saito. “We’re here today not to report good news, but to warn.”
He methodically reported Ogawa Kazuhito’s discovery and the analysis by the company’s internal expert team to Saito.
“So, Minister,” Mitarai concluded, his tone extremely serious, with a hint of hatred that couldn’t be discerned, this hatred not toward China, but toward Chiyoda.
“Our guess is that they are attempting, in a comprehensive manner, to completely and systematically replicate the entire NIL technology ecosystem.
Therefore, I request that the government reassess the risks of technology export.
At the very least, we should suspend subsequent equipment and materials exports until we”
“President Mitarai.” Saito lightly interrupted him: “Your analysis is very brilliant and very accurate. Our Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Cabinet Intelligence Room receive similar reports every week. We are crystal clear about China’s intentions, just like you.”
“Then why?!” Mitarai Fujio couldn’t help raising his voice. “Why do we continue selling to them?”
“Because we have no choice.” Saito’s smile remained unchanged, but his eyes were filled with helplessness.
“Mr. Mitarai, you see this matter as a commercial competition between Canon and Chinese peers.
But understand, from the moment China’s spacecraft returned from the Moon without relying on fuel, from the moment China successfully recovered the spacecraft in our nearby waters, we have already lost the qualification to independently formulate commercial rules in the East Asia region.”
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the iconic pyramid roof of the Congress building below.
“On one hand, our ally, Washington, it was they who personally designed this trap. It was that new century’s MacArthur, John Adams Morgan, holding a gun to our heads, ordering us to sell NIL to China.
If we unilaterally stop exports now, guess who would be the first to stop us? Not Yanjing, it’s Washington.
They would say we destroyed the hard-won achievements aimed at easing regional tensions.”
“On the other hand, it’s our neighbor with an enormous appetite, Yanjing.
After Prime Minister Sugawara came to power, we finally stabilized bilateral economic and trade relations.
Now, because of a future risk that we ourselves cannot verify, tear up a multi-hundred-billion US dollar commercial contract that is being executed?
This would be equivalent to actively inviting the other party to slap bans directly on our automobile or machine tool industries?”
Saito Katsuya turned around, looking at Mitarai Fujio who was already speechless.
“So, Mr. Mitarai, tell me, what can we do?
Offend America, and we will die immediately in finance, technology, and security.
Offend China, and we will similarly die in economy, trade, and security, just a slow death.”
“And now,” he spread his hands, making the final conclusion, “since the Americans have already made the decision for us, allowing us to export; since the Chinese people are willing to pay us generous cash far exceeding market prices.
Then we, as people who have already lost the ability to resist, why not smile and collect the full toll?
Moreover, even if China really replicates successfully, the one who should have the biggest headache is not us, but Washington.
Their self-thought trap is actually not the Chinese people’s, but theirs; they themselves built and destroyed the chip curtain.
Isn’t this exactly the manifestation of our dear ally’s arrogant behavior?
As for Tokyo, as for us, what crime have we committed? We are executing the ally’s task to ease relations with the greatest opponent; this is Washington’s task! Not Yanjing’s.”
Saito was speaking, but Mitarai Fujio sensed madness and hatred from the other party; the other’s hatred toward America seemed no less than his own toward Chiyoda.
Ogawa Kazuhito sighed with emotion; great figures are indeed great figures. Speaking of Japan’s current unbearable situation, he could remain so calm and composed, as if they were the victorious side, and China was the defeated side in the recent silent confrontation.
This was also a form of winning studies.
“So sell!
Whatever they want, we sell as much as they want!
Whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t violate the final red line drawn by America, we provide it all.
We will use the astronomical cash paid by the Chinese people to invest in our technology research and development. What Canon needs to do is to become the fastest runner in this race.
As for whether they are replicating our technology, that’s not something we need to worry about; that’s for the distant ally who designed this trap to headache over.
Even if it becomes a problem in the future, it will be the result of their own cleverness backfiring.
From now on, we are just the gatekeeper of a toll station, nothing more.”
At Apollo Technology headquarters, the founders and technical leads from Cambricon, Moore Threads, Lingxi Technologies, and Biren Technology gathered to compete for that one slot.
As colleagues in China’s chip industry, everyone has good relations, but today, no one spoke, not even while waiting in the lounge earlier, after all, this might relate to the ticket for a future trillion-dollar enterprise, with the pricing unit even in US dollars.
Entering the meeting room, they thought the audience would be full of experts taking turns asking questions, like some major projects with a so-called committee responsible for selection.
Who knew there was only one excessively young male sitting below.
At the entrance was a young female in the secretary role.
“Everyone, I am Lin Ran. In alphabetical order, take turns starting. No need for chit-chat; I’ll ask technical questions during your presentations.
The computer and projector are on the podium; let’s start directly.”
These four companies each submitted a detailed technical white paper, along with prototypes of their respective right brain chips.
Lin Ran had skimmed them before; today was their defense session.
The representatives from each company understood inwardly; who else but Lin Ran could have such decision-making power.
The other party was indeed qualified enough, with no interest relations with any of their four companies.
Biren Technology’s team went first.
Their chip design concept was aggressive, pursuing extreme performance from the start.
The company and personal introductions were just a few short sentences, quickly entering the professional content.
“Our concept is that the right brain must not only perceive but also think, capable of complex non-linear reasoning. Our Kunlun chip adopts a unique mixed-precision architecture, supporting both analog and digital computation.
We have integrated a large number of reconfigurable computing units, aiming to achieve true hardware programmability.
This means our chip can dynamically adjust its internal structure based on different tasks for the highest efficiency.”
Lin Ran asked: “Although your mixed-precision architecture has high theoretical performance, the actual engineering implementation is very complex. How do you ensure yield rate and cost control? Moreover, analog computation stability has always been an industry difficult problem; how do you solve it?”
Their technical lead: “We do face challenges, but we believe high risk brings high returns.
We have overcome multiple key technologies and achieved satisfactory results in laboratory environments.
As for costs, we believe they will gradually decrease with large-scale production.
Most importantly, our cooperation partner is Professor you; we believe only a sufficiently aggressive proposal can yield the greatest benefits. Technical difficulties require your assistance.”
Then Cambricon.
The CEO personally took the stage; his PPT showcased Cambricon’s deep accumulation in neural network processing units.
“We believe the core of the right brain lies in efficient pattern recognition and low-power real-time processing. Our Siyuan series chips have been widely used in ByteDance cloud inference and edge sides.
Our right brain chip, codenamed Ziguang, is based on the Siyuan architecture and further optimizes hardware support for spiking neural networks.
It has 1024 neuron clusters, each containing 256 programmable neurons.
Our advantage is that we can quickly reuse IP from existing product lines and form a mass-producible, reliable solution.”
This was actually imitating Intel’s Loihi chip design approach.
“The Siyuan series is mainly for convolutional neural networks. How do your power consumption and latency perform in handling SNN? I’m concerned that when task complexity grows exponentially, your architecture will face bottlenecks.”
Cambricon’s CEO answered frankly: “We have indeed done a lot of reconstruction on the underlying hardware for SNN, but the current architecture does have room for improvement in handling complex multimodal perception. However, we are confident in compensating through software and algorithm optimization.”
The four companies took turns; after Lin Ran listened, he asked some questions without showing particular bias.
“Thank you all for coming; all your proposals are highly feasible.
I won’t keep you waiting long; tonight, I will telephone notify the winner. If you don’t receive the call, it means no cooperation opportunity this time, but I believe we will have chances to collaborate in the future.”
Lin Ran finally came to the podium, gave a summary speech to the eight representatives from the four companies below, then nodded in salute and left the meeting room.
“Even more tense than speaking at my wedding site.”
“After all, this is the ticket to the Deep Red-Huawei ecosystem; how could it not be tense? Once confirmed, big A’s market capitalization can directly reach one trillion RMB; this isn’t a ticket, it’s a lottery.”
“Old Zhang, your proposal is pretty good.”
“Old Chen, why do I feel your proposal is better?”
Like after a 100-meter sprint race, the venue that had been holding its breath instantly filled with noisy discussions; everyone wanted to know who won first place in this 100-meter race.
That evening at ten o’clock, Zhang Jianzhong’s phone rang; his phone had rung countless times, harassing calls, calls from wife, investors, subordinates; everyone was like him, hoping to know the answer.
This time it was an unfamiliar call from Shanghai.
“Hello, Mr. Zhang?
I am Zhou Lei, General Manager Lin’s secretary from the meeting room this morning. Congratulations on successfully being selected for Deep Red’s right brain chip strategy. Our company’s official number has sent you a text message with an invitation code. Tomorrow, our company’s Vice President Li Xiaoman will await your visit in her personal office to discuss subsequent cooperation details. Whether General Manager Lin meets you depends on tomorrow’s specific arrangements.
Hope you have a pleasant evening.”
