The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Mr. Zhang, please take a seat." Chen Zhiwen brought Zhang Zhongmou to his headquarters office in Xinghe Building, and said with a smile, "Casual."

"Thank you, Mr. Chen." Zhang Zhongmou said, and then sat down with Chen Zhiwen, and the secretary beside him also brought coffee.

"Have you figured it out?" Chen Zhiwen took a sip of coffee and asked with a smile.

When he was in the United States before, Chen Zhiwen specially arranged a meeting with Zhang Zhongmou, just to persuade him to return to Wanwan to start a business, so that he can also participate in it and enjoy the huge benefits of TSMC in the future. The Group's strategic supply security has helped a lot.

"Think about it, let's come back and start a business together." Zhang Zhongmou said: "There are 11 other Chinese who have achieved certain achievements in different fields of semiconductors in the United States. Thanks to Chen Sheng for his promise, otherwise I would not be so easy to convince them .”

"Eleven people? That's not bad. Remuneration is not a problem. We can promise them higher income than the United States." Chen Zhiwen said a little surprised.

He remembered that in the original history, Zhang Zhongmou should have brought back 6 people when he started his business, but now there are 11 people. There is a lack of orders, so the risk is much lower.

Although the performance of TSMC in later generations has basically reached the limit of an electronic foundry giant, for Chen Zhiwen, it is more in his interest to grow at a faster speed.

On the one hand, I can’t build such an industry in Hong Kong. It is too sensitive and easily controlled by Europe and the United States. Second, Hong Kong’s local real estate will destroy a large number of industries in the future. It is a talent problem. Hong Kong does not have enough high-tech talents in electronics. At most, it is almost impossible to make low-end electronic civilian products and chips. Even now, most of Midea's engineers who specialize in low-end industrial or home appliance chips are dug from the Gulf or Japan.

In the whole of Asia, the Chinese cultural area, only Wanwan has this possibility to be built, and the East Asian culture is similar, and the people in Wanwan can be as popular as Japan and South Korea, and eventually occupy a certain degree of chip foundry market.

"Yes, there were originally 18 people. I talked with them separately for a long time, and finally 11 people joined. In addition to salary, they also have their own conditions. I have sorted it out and everything is here." Zhang Zhongmou said.

"Let me take a look." Chen Zhiwen took a list, looked at it carefully, and said: "These houses in Wanwan or the United States, car distribution, insurance, and air tickets to and from the United States are not a problem. I can agree now. But these few people want shares, almost a total of 5% of the shares, are they worth it?"

"Among the Chinese, they are indeed one of the most cutting-edge in the industry. If I start my own business, I will give them a certain share." Zhang Zhongmou said.

"But now it's not you starting a business, but us working together. We don't lack funds, which is different." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "When we can use Chinese, we naturally give priority to using Chinese, but this does not mean that It has to be like this, you can talk about salary, benefits, etc., but you can avoid talking about shares, there is no need to discuss, as long as I am willing to pay, even IBM's high-end technical chief engineer, I can also hire it."

In normal entrepreneurship, when the company has no money in the early stage, it is natural to take out stocks in order to attract big-name talents. If you travel to the Internet age, when you don’t have much capital, you will also operate in the same way. This is normal. business logic.

But now it is completely different. The new company has no shortage of funds, and even the initial orders. Under such circumstances, Chen Zhiwen naturally welcomes high-quality Chinese talents to join, and even a little share in the future based on credit. Yes, but not many. At most, it is the normal business model in Europe and the United States, giving senior management personnel and technicians a certain number of shares as year-end bonuses.

And these people want a few percent of the shares at every turn, so it is impossible for Chen Zhiwen to agree, not even 1%, because it is completely possible to directly use cash to hire other people of the same level, at most it is a white face That's all, or go to Japan to dig people.

Zhang Zhongmou is a special case. He is the best management talent, and he has mixed to the limit that Chinese in the IT industry can reach in the United States: the vice president of Texas Instruments.

It is evidence that TSMC was able to develop like that in the previous life. Without Zhang Zhongmou, I would not be able to compete with the chip processing industry, and even without myself, Zhang Zhongmou may continue to carry out the industry in a few years in the same way as in the original history. Therefore, Chen Zhiwen and him are the same In a cooperative relationship, the shares naturally need to be given to the other party.

"Is there no room at all?" Zhang Zhongmou asked with some doubts.

"Unless no one can replace them in the entire industry, and our joint venture chip company must need him in the future, then we can give shares and discuss it." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

Chen Zhiwen will not be stingy when it comes to real top talents, but in this society, people who rely on technology for a living are unlikely to be replaced by others. With the explosion of Internet technology in the future, technicians either start their own businesses or have to work part-time. On the contrary, high-quality management talents can rely on their own abilities to become CEOs of some companies with great potential. Then many years later, they got very high shares, such as Microsoft's Ballmer and Google's Eric Schmidt.

It is normal for Zhang Zhongmou to hesitate, because he has no idea what kind of enterprise he will build in the future. For the future scale, it is rare to have such a vision. It may be Internet retail companies such as Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com, because their goal is to monopolize the entire market, and they can roughly see the potential in the early stage.

Zhang Zhongmou was naturally willing to give some people shares when he thought that his company would not be very large in the future.

"That's not the case." Zhang Zhongmou paused and said.

"That's fine, can you talk to them again? The ability is enough, and a little more salary is not a problem." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"Okay." Zhang Zhongmou nodded and agreed. In the future joint venture company, it is true that Chen Zhiwen has a greater say, not only that the other party's shares are higher than him, but more importantly, the entire initial order of the joint venture company will rely on Midea. In this case, even if he had no affiliation, he had to be obedient. Besides, what Chen Zhiwen said made sense, but he was thinking too simply.

"Have you been in contact with Wanwan?" Chen Zhiwen asked again. Apart from Zhang Zhongmou's ability and connections, the most important thing for TSMC's success is the support of the Wanwan government. If the Wanwan government cannot be brought in, Even if a factory is built in Wanwan, there is a high probability that it will not develop in the future.

"I have sent someone to contact me before, and Wanwan said that we can cooperate, but they want 40% of the shares." Zhang Zhongmou said.

"It's too much." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said, "Well, I'll ask Midea to dispatch a professional negotiating team from Hong Kong to accompany you to Wanwan. The shares can be given to the Wanwan government, but 40% Too much."

TSMC has a lot of financing opportunities in the future, because it depends on financing to attract large capital from all parties. Now that the Gulf government is going to take 40%, it is not known how its own shares will be diluted in the future. In any case, he must at least Guarantee that for a long time in the future, your own shares will be more than 16%, and you will have a board of directors with 20% voting rights.

This is a matter of balance. I need to guarantee my own interests, and I also need to let the Wanwan government and the founder of Zhang Zhongmou get enough benefits, and then the three parties will work together to expand the scale of the company. Now even the Wanwan government dare not Imagine how big TSMC will be in the future. Similarly, Samsung Electronics is the same now. Li Jianxi, who has unlimited ambitions for the future, will also not know the size of Samsung Electronics in the future.

This can be regarded as one's own advantage, and one must guarantee one's own interests in TSMC.

"In this case, it will be even better. As long as we negotiate with Wanwan, our new company can be established immediately." Zhang Zhongmou nodded and said.

Although it will be forced to give up a lot of shares to Chen Zhiwen and the Wanwan government, this is the price that entrepreneurs without capital must pay. Even Apple, which is now in full swing in the United States, the shares of its first founders are already very low. . There is no way, the business society is like this, if they all do it by themselves, then the company's development will inevitably be slow and difficult, while competitors can use other people's capital to develop rapidly, so the final result will inevitably be death.

But now with Chen Zhiwen's capital, factory infrastructure, high-performance equipment production lines, and inviting a large number of technical talents are not a problem. With the help of the Wanwan government, they can borrow infinitely from the existing electronics industry foundation of Wanwan and its reputation in the international community. Some of the effects, although not great, are much stronger than those of Hong Kong.

"Yes, my orders are ready for you at any time. As long as you can produce chips with qualified technology and reasonable prices, even orders for game consoles can be properly given to you." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The chip company he created himself, I only dare to put it on the home appliances with the lowest requirements, but I still have confidence in Zhang Zhongmou's ability, and Midea now has a reference program for core components, and important components such as chips will gradually be introduced from less to more. Guaranteed that there will be no batch problems.

"Thank you Chen Sheng." Zhang Zhongmou said with a smile.

"What's the name of the company? Have you figured it out?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

Zhang Zhongmou nodded and said, "After thinking about it, let's call it TSMC."