.
A serious safety incident occurred in the distant Netherlands, but it only caused shock in a small circle. After all, the only ones directly affected were Taiwanese journalists, Samsung, and Yike.
At present, ASML has not disclosed the specific damage situation, only announced supply delays, which may also have an indirect impact on other customers.
After all, semiconductor upstream core equipment manufacturers are too far away. Except for a few people, this is just a few news and related accident investigations.
Perhaps it was the same method used by some manufacturers to control prices in the past. When such news came into the eyes of AMD head Su Zifeng, she didn't even intend to look at it for longer. She continued to flip through a few pages of the newspaper before turning her mind again.
for today's business.
Returning to Silicon Valley from China, Su Zifeng believes that she has gained a lot from this trip.
She is a Ph.D., and her first job after graduation was Texas Instruments. Later, she became the vice president of the semiconductor R&D department at IBM, leading a team of hundreds of engineers to focus on the R&D and innovation of semiconductor technology.
Before joining AMD in 2012, she served as COO and CEO at GlobalFoundries.
Su Zifeng is very knowledgeable about technology and R&D. Because of her ability and experience, she wanted to leave GF after becoming the head of AMD - others don’t know your technical level at GF, so don’t I, the former CEO, know?
?
Leakage of electricity!
The temperature control is unstable!
During this trip to China and Luzhou, she communicated with Qiu Ciyun, Hu Zhengming, and Liang Mengsong of Ice Core. She increasingly felt that as long as the situation did not deteriorate rapidly, AMD could counterattack the market competition with the help of Ice Core's process technology.
Su Zifeng arrived at the office and soon met Vice President of Technology Karni and told him about the cooperation intention negotiated during this trip to China.
However, before she could say a few more words, Karni jumped up.
"You sold the ZEN architecture?!"
Su Zifeng said calmly: "The US$450 million is limited to the Chinese market."
Karni frowned and sat down again with a hiss.
However, he jumped up again after listening to a few more words.
“You want to tear up the foundry cooperation with GLOBALFOUNDRIES?!”
Su Zifeng still said calmly: "Ice Core International promises to provide AMD with the most advanced 16nm production capacity as a priority."
Karni frowned and sat down again with a "hmm", looking at the leader with bright eyes, waiting for the next step.
Su Zifeng thought about it, and realized that the actual trip was mainly about these two items, one was money and the other was technology, but she still said something special: "If the performance is acceptable, Yike's notebooks are willing to be equipped with our processors."
"Yike, Yike." Karni chewed the name twice and said, "Yike is a good company. Its mobile phones and tablets have their own chips, but the sales of notebooks also grew rapidly last year. This is a good company.
Cooperation."
He changed the topic: "But our ZEN structure has not been completed yet. If you just sell it like this, Bourne and Nick will definitely not agree!"
"What's more, Yike has R&D capabilities that may not be inferior to ours. Well, I'm just talking about this area that we are good at."
Karni compared his own family with Yike's, and suddenly thought of a clear number, adding limitations to his comparison.
Among other things, AMD's R&D expenses in 2014 were US$1 billion. Yike has not released its financial report yet, but based on year-by-year growth projections, its R&D investment in 2014 may exceed US$4 billion.
Such a huge gap echoed in his mind, and for a moment Karni forgot what he wanted to say next.
Fortunately, Su Zifeng understood what he meant and explained: "Mr. Fang and I have an agreement that Yike cannot release products based on the ZEN architecture earlier than us."
Garnier carefully tasted the meaning of these words and understood the same deep fear of the leader.
Yike didn't want anything else, but chose AMD's ZEN architecture, which has not yet been completely successful. This goal is self-evident. Since it has launched notebook products, it is obvious that it does not want to limit its chip creation to mobile devices.
If based on Yike's scientific research capabilities and development speed, AMD is likely to be funding a strong competitor in the future.
Garnier thought over and over about the information reported by the boss. GlobalFoundries' process was indeed poor. Regardless of the research and development of advanced processes or the stability of the process, it was not as good as Intel, Taiwan Records, Bingxin International, and Samsung.
However, GF was born from AMD, and the cooperation between the two parties has more complicated reasons.
However, ice core is now the world’s number one manufacturing process!
Even, according to the R&D investment and team there, it will still be the first-tier capability in the future!
Karni thought for a long time before mentioning the recent voices floating in public opinion, and said cautiously: "Yike and Bingxin seem to have encountered some troubles in Washington. The White House obviously doesn't like Oriental Semiconductor to have developed to this extent."
"GlobalFoundries can't count on it. Taichi has not yet started production. Samsung is later than Taichi. UMC's R&D has encountered problems. Now in 2015, only Bingxin is willing to squeeze out production capacity for us. This is a way to solve the burden of GF
Opportunities." Su Zifeng first described the situation and then said, "The ice core will face troubles, but we only need it to help us through the two years of transformation. As long as our transformation is successful, it will be a different world.
.”
Su Zifeng does not expect to rely on Ice Core's process competitiveness for a long time. She is willing to sell the ZEN architecture for the present, and she chooses to cooperate with Ice Core for the present.
Only with the present can we have a future.
Besides, no one knows what the future will bring.
Karni frowned deeply: "In this case, once Washington launches a test on the stability of the ice core, it is not testing the ice core, but testing us. This... this risk..."
"For US$450 million + 16nm process, even if it doesn't take two years, if we can launch products with the same generation process as Intel within this year, I think it will be a great success." Su Zifeng emphasized, "This is a great success.
A good opportunity worth taking a gamble on.”
She looked at the technical vice president she had promoted, and finally said: "So what if we fail? What we lost was GlobalFoundries, and what we threw away was just a baggage. The market is nothing more than the current market."
Karni pursed his lips. It makes sense. Even if AMD does not get the expected cooperation with Ice Core, it will not lose much. If it can really achieve a leap in products this year, it will make a lot of money.
He suggested: "I'm afraid there will still be a lot of internal opposition. We need to communicate in advance before the meeting."
Su Zifeng nodded and expressed her attitude this time: "I am the CEO, and I will not hesitate this time."
Karni looked at the boss and couldn't tell for a moment whether she hated GF more or liked the ice core manufacturing process more.
In just two days, AMD, which was facing layoffs and restructuring, broke the news that five executives were about to leave, including the general manager of AMD's computing and graphics business group, chief marketing officer, chief strategy officer and other core figures.
Another day later, an internal email from AMD was exposed, claiming that the departure of five executives was "one of the steps to achieve the best organizational design and leadership team to further strengthen AMD's execution and promote AMD's growth."
After more gossip leaked out, distrust of the female boss, differences in the company's strategic decision-making, and better external development opportunities became the main factors for leaving.
News about AMD’s internal turmoil appeared on Bloomberg. However, Su Wei saw such news because she was also reading Yike news reported by Bloomberg.
The closed-door meeting in Washington was not so closed-door after all, and the uncertainty about YIKE's future became a moderately bad news, causing a correction in Nasdaq's YIKE stock price.
"Will AMD processors be used this year? That Mr. Su is so courageous, he fired them right away!" Su Wei took the tablet and asked Fang Zhuo, who was in the study with his son stepping on ink with his feet.
"It seems that it's not just because of the cooperation with us. There were quite a lot of disagreements over the 7% layoffs she made last year. Maybe the conflicts broke out when they accumulated together." Fang Zhuo carefully hugged his son from under his arms and nodded.
He said nonchalantly, "She still has to bring someone to finalize the cooperation this month. You can ask her in person then."
Su Wei made a "tsk" sound and asked a key question about AMD's cooperation: "Can AMD launch a 16nm CPU this year?"
"I really don't know about this. It depends on the cooperation between AMD and Ice Core." Fang Zhuo raised his head and thought for a moment, "It's a bit difficult. AMD's ZEN architecture still needs to be worked on, and it has to adapt to the sudden improvement in process technology.
But it’s not hopeless. It mainly depends on AMD. Anyway, Yike will get what he wants.”
Su Wei laughed and praised: "Okay, it's Mr. Fang who can set fires."
"Ahem, don't talk nonsense." Fang Zhuo reminded.
"This is because the pressure from Washington is too great and is driving you crazy, I think." Su Wei shook her head and sighed, her morals were slipping downhill.
"No, setting a fire is not crazy." Fang Zhuo denied.
Su Wei asked: "This doesn't count? What does it count?"
Fang Zhuo said seriously: "You are considered crazy only if you are caught setting fire."
Su Wei was suddenly speechless.
At this moment, I thought of a lot.
She patted her head, suppressed the evil thoughts that seemed to want to grow up under the influence, and stretched out her hand to wave to her son.
"I'm telling you, there are people crazier than me, and I think Kong Yu is the one who is really crazy." Fang Zhuo took out a few pieces of paper, wiped his son's feet randomly, and said, "You know what he is constructive about?"
Any opinions?"
"Build a chaebol." Su Wei had already heard about this.
"He invited Aozi's daughter to be an intern, and he also thought about letting Aozi continue the family line. He felt that now that technology is so advanced, Aozi could have another son." Fang Zhuo frowned, "Kong Yu is probably really crazy.
.”
Su Wei was stunned. She didn't know how to complain. What kind of trick was this...
"He is a guest of those rich people, and he is still very popular in Washington." Fang Zhuo shook his head.
Su Wei finally found the correct evaluation: "Kong Yu must have gasoline in his head!"
Fang Zhuo said "Huh", it's not impossible.
"What positions have you arranged for your American King of Yike?" Su Wei took her son's hand and asked another question.
"Let's keep it unchanged for now." Fang Zhuo hesitated, "There are also some different views on future development within the company. Zhang Yaqin sent me an email yesterday, taking Apple's car-building as an example, and thinking that Yike can make further changes.
But others don't agree, and I'm a little hesitant now, mainly because I don't know when the Yike matter will be settled, and when it will be generally stable."
Fang Zhuo wanted to see the company's situation and changes. As for Yu Hong's position, the Yike crisis had not yet started, and he was not in a hurry to adjust arrangements.
Su Wei looked at the man in the study with a half-smile: "Okay, President Fangda, please think more about the company. I will hold a welcome ceremony for her in two days. Her brother is also getting married this year. I have to think about it."
Give me something."
Fang Zhuo had no objection and waved his hand.
The study door was closed.
Fang Zhuo folded the paper and picked up the pen to write but suddenly lost interest.
He glanced at the computer screen, casually clicked on Sina's homepage, and saw the news that interested him.
——The resignation of two senior executives from Duji may be related to the poor performance of the search business.
In January, not only AMD had high-level resignations, there was also turmoil at Duji. However, this was not the first time, and the media reports were not as interested as before.
On December 31, 2014, the announced "Yisou" was launched. The mobile version of Yike was unified, and the PC version was only pushed to some Sogou browser users, but more users were curious about the search experience on their own.
.
"No difference."
This is how many people feel.
However, this may be a bad thing for Duji. "No difference" probably means there is nothing advanced, and it probably means that the accuracy of the search is not worse than that of Duji. Then... let's try it with or without changing it.
Yike's launch of online search this time is quite natural. It acquired Sogou first and announced the name later. It also took advantage of Mars 8.8's global number one and hot-selling momentum in the market, which made users like it very much.
The reflection of the brand value at this moment is probably... I will not replace other brands' products that are replaceable or non-replaceable, because I have been used to using Duji. As for Yike's products, give it a chance.
With such a head-on collision, Duji's market share and stock price have been hit hard again. Although it is expected, bleeding is still a little painful.
Du Ji is prepared to take action, but the market and product side really can't think of any other way.
This is completely unstoppable!
Yike's products are well-known to every household, Yike's hardware has an advantage, and Yike's layout is persistent...
Facing a behemoth like the Yike Department, Du Ji found that he had no room to struggle. When did all this start?
Perhaps, it was already doomed just because he started looking at Duji from Yike.
In the new year, during an internal meeting of the company, a question even came up: Does the company still have a future?
As the leader, Li Yanhong gave a clear and confident answer.
There is a future!
"At least Duji is a part of curbing Yike's monopoly."
It's better to die than live, just like AMD is to Intel!
This chapter has been completed!