Chapter 71: Call From Kyoto
The importance of the high-end chip market to the White Alliance, the bosses in the meeting room actually understood it better than Jin Ze.
Jin Ze spoke very bluntly.
Did these enterprises of their Semiconductor Alliance still have any way out now?
None!
The meeting ultimately decided that they would unite with upstream and downstream chip enterprises of the White Alliance to prohibit imports of end products that adopted Star Core Number One chips.
And warn enterprises with high cooperation with Xinghai that they would take, but not exclude, a series of sanctions measures such as freezing overseas assets.
The next day, this sanctions announcement, which could be called the broadest-reaching and strongest in history, was officially released to the public by the White Alliance.
On the day the news was released, the stock decline of White Alliance-related chip enterprises led by Nvidia stopped, and there was a slow upward trend.
Linhai, Xinghai Technology General Manager’s Office.
Jin Qiaoying held the next-phase development plan sent by Fan Ren in her hand, flipping through it page by page.
Boss Fan sat quietly across from her, waiting for a reply.
In terms of management, he did it very well, rarely directly ordering Jin Qiaoying what to do as Chairman, but always completing it through consultation.
The content in this proposal was not complicated, and some proposals even fit Jin Qiaoying’s ideas very well.
Such as using innovative technology to research and develop a mechanical automation factory, utilizing a calculation mode with Star Core Number One as the main and Star Calculation No. 1 as auxiliary, to achieve complete automation level for the factory.
The initial plan was to construct 10 such factories, costing 40 billion, and after being put into production, they would meet 50% of the current domestic high-end chip market demand.
The construction period was about one year.
She highly approved of this point.
Currently, with the production capacity of the chip manufacturing plant in the science park, it could only pitifully produce 200,000 to 300,000 pieces per month, and because of varying scales and models sold, a lot of capacity was wasted in vain.
A few days ago, when major chip application manufacturers came to purchase, there simply wasn’t enough to sell, and each household only got a pitiful quota of tens of thousands of pieces.
Therefore, for Xinghai Technology to increase investment in building new chip factories to boost output was particularly important at present.
But next, she somewhat dared not agree.
Establish a metallurgy laboratory.
This was still acceptable, after all, metallurgy wouldn’t cost much money, and Boss Fan’s ideas had always been very fanciful; if he came up with some novel stuff again, it would also benefit Xinghai’s development.
But the one at the bottom, ‘establish a nuclear fusion reactor laboratory’.
This made her feel like it was nonsense.
She raised her head and looked helplessly at Fan Ren across from her, thought for a moment, and decided to probe first.
“General Manager Fan, is there any explanation for this? Why suddenly think of researching in the nuclear fusion direction?”
Her implication was that for Xinghai Technology currently, the chip business was the main battlefield, and instead of this effort, it would be better to put energy into chip upgrade and follow-up R&D work.
But Fan Ren didn’t think so; the performance of graphene chips could completely satisfy current human use for quite a period of time. Even through optimizing circuit design or further three nanometer process, the improvement effect would be very limited.
He felt there was absolutely no problem leaving chip technology to A’dai.
After thinking, he said: “The cultivation of carbon nanotubes involves catalysts, which only exist in my mind and cannot be researched by others in a short time. No need to worry about chips.
As for the nuclear fusion reactor laboratory, it must be done. This is also one of the purposes for which I want to establish the metallurgy laboratory in advance, because I already have some ideas in my mind.”
Fan Ren didn’t explain specifically, Jin Qiaoying looked at him suspiciously, not knowing what ideas this guy really had, but his gaze was extremely firm.
Jin Qiaoying sighed and could only say helplessly: “It’s very expensive, you know?”
Fan Ren nodded; how could he not know how costly this thing was.
Since records began, the global R&D funds for nuclear fusion projects were nearly 50 billion.
And this was a huge amount invested when no results could be seen at all.
“But this path must be taken.” His eyes were extremely firm.
Jin Qiaoying stared straight at him, and after a long time, she gave in; she could only nod helplessly, although she was not optimistic about this project.
She might not understand specific technical indicators, but she also knew that current nuclear fusion research couldn’t solve the materials problem, which was a bottomless pit with no final results in sight.
Materials!
Metallurgy?
“Metallurgy laboratory? You mean?” Thinking of this, she suddenly stood up, her chest jiggling slightly due to the intense movement.
Fan Ren’s gaze lingered for a moment, then he quickly looked away.
He didn’t answer directly, but changed the subject: “The nuclear fusion laboratory isn’t urgent; set up the framework first. Currently, the main energy should still be on factory construction.”
Seeing him like this, Jin Qiaoying no longer pressed, and could only suppress her inner doubts and discuss the factory with him.
Midway, Fan Ren’s telephone rang.
The caller ID was Kyoto; although he was puzzled for a moment, he didn’t think much of it. After all, few people knew his current phone number.
“Hello, this is the Kyoto Ministry of Economy and Trade. Is this Chairman Fan Ren of Xinghai Technology?”
Hearing the other party identify themselves, Fan Ren instinctively sat up straight.
“Yes, I am Fan Ren of Xinghai. May I ask what this is about?”
The other end didn’t hesitate much and said directly: “It’s like this: due to message lag, your Xinghai may not have received it yet. The White Alliance has imposed the most severe sanctions measures on Xinghai Technology. This time the sanctions are so strong that they even affect enterprises with related cooperation with Xinghai.”
Fan Ren was surprised and somewhat at a loss after hearing this.
Xinghai had developed for so long without specific contact with upper-level figures in China; the highest-ranking person they had contact with was probably General Manager Luo of Guo Xin Technology.
This phone call directly threw a bomb at Xinghai.
Leaders from three major departments would attend the conference three days later.
He was shocked for a moment but couldn’t think of the specific reason, and became somewhat hesitant.
Seeing this, the other end unusually explained.
“It’s like this, because of message lag, your Xinghai may not have received it yet. The White Alliance has imposed the most severe sanctions measures on Xinghai Technology. This time the sanctions are so strong that they even affect enterprises with related cooperation with Xinghai.”
The rest wasn’t said; Fan Ren here could already vaguely guess the reason behind it.
This was to stand up for him.
Xinghai, which had always been fighting alone, could now stand tall and say there was someone behind it?
Jin Qiaoying watched Fan Ren on the phone across from her, his face inexplicably smiling, and she couldn’t help but wonder what good news it was.
“Alright then, on behalf of all employees of Xinghai Technology, I warmly welcome the three chiefs to attend the meeting at that time.”
“Okay, I will inform your side of the specific arrival times of the several leaders later. Hanging up now.”
After saying that, the call was hung up.
Fan Ren had already seen Jin Qiaoying’s puzzled gaze and sighed.
“Bad news, we’ve been sanctioned by the White Alliance again. This time the sanctions are very strong; they said that all enterprises cooperating with Xinghai will face varying degrees of sanctions.”
Hearing this, Jin Qiaoying was stunned. Worry instantly appeared on her fair face.
But Fan Ren smiled again and said: “Good news, Chief Zhang from the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Minister Li from the Ministry of Industry, and Chief Qin from the Foreign Affairs Department will attend our Semiconductor Alliance conference three days later.”
He blinked, and Jin Qiaoying’s face visibly changed to surprise.
