Chapter 896
The Giants' Reactions
March 8, Central Time, evening.
Dallas, Texas Instruments headquarters.
On the desk of Texas Instruments Chairman Xia Bo, there was an exquisite envelope.
The envelope was milky white and heavy, with an unfamiliar emblem embossed in the lower right corner.
It was an abstract chip design with clean, sharp lines, and below it were four words: Oracle Semiconductor.
There was no sender's address, no return receipt, only Xia Bai's name, written in elegant handwriting in the center of the envelope.
The invitation was just delivered by my assistant; it's related to the young, wealthy man who recently made headlines for officiating at the Queen's wedding.
Xia Bai frowned.
Lin Haoran, of course he knew, last month his news was everywhere.
However, he has seen countless invitations, such as charity galas, industry summits, new product launches, government receptions, etc. Every year, at least eighty or a hundred invitations pass by his desk.
But he refused to participate in most of them.
Given his status, he wouldn't be worth showing up in person unless he had a certain amount of influence.
Oracle Semiconductor?
never heard of that.
He used a paper cutter to cut open the seal and pulled out the letter inside.
The paper is also milky white, with a delicate texture and a heavy feel to the touch.
Then he immediately saw the two lines of signature at the very bottom.
The first line was in a handwriting he knew all too well.
Zhang Zhongmou.
My colleague of twenty-three years, someone who just left my office two weeks ago.
The second line contained a name he had only seen in newspapers and magazines.
Lin Haoran.
The new king of Hong Kong who just conquered global public opinion with a wedding of the century.
The young tycoon whom Fortune magazine called the “builder of an invisible empire.”
That Eastern business leader whose wedding was officiated by the Queen of England.
The two names are written side by side.
Xia Bo was stunned for three seconds.
Then he began to read the letter.
"Dear Mr. Xia Bo:
Thirty-three years ago, I first encountered semiconductors at Harvard University.
I was 18 years old then, and had just arrived in the United States from Hong Kong. I only had two hundred dollars in my pocket, but I believed that I could conquer the whole world.
Twenty-four years ago, I joined Texas Instruments.
It was raining that day. I stood in front of the glass facade of the Dallas headquarters, thinking to myself: I want to work here for the rest of my life.
I didn't finish my whole life's work.
I passed away at the age of fifty-one.
I left not because I no longer love semiconductors.
On the contrary, it's because I love it so much that I can't bear to watch it be slowly marginalized as a sunset industry.
So I came to Hong Kong.
Many people may ask me, why Hong Kong?
The answer is simple: because there's nothing here.
There is no ready-made industrial chain, no mature engineering team, and no historical heritage to rely on.
Nothing at all.
Therefore, anything can start from scratch.
Three months later, Oracle Semiconductor’s first wafer production line will be put into operation in the Kwun Tong Industrial Park in Hong Kong.
Six months from now, our packaging and testing plant will officially begin production in Hong Kong.
One year from now, I hope to be able to provide your company with the first batch of engineering samples.
It's not to prove anything.
It's to give this industry more options.
A neutral, professional, and reliable option.
If you are interested, you are welcome to visit Hong Kong on March 21st.
If you don't have time right now, that's okay.
I will wait here.
Zhang Zhongmou
1982/3/7
In Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
At the end of the letter, there was another line of text, a signature in a different handwriting:
Lin Haoran
Xia Bai's hand, which was holding the letter, froze in mid-air.
He stared at the line of text: "Being treated as a sunset industry and slowly marginalized."
He recalled the expression on Zhang Zhongmou's face when he handed over his resignation letter in his office a month ago.
It was a calm, even a kind of liberating calm.
He recalled what he had said to Zhang Zhongmou after Zhang left: "Dr. Zhang Zhongmou is an excellent engineer, but excellent engineers often cannot see the future clearly."
The future belongs to the market, not the laboratory.
He recalled that executive meeting, where everyone was agreeing, nodding, and laughing.
No one told him that when Zhang Zhongmou left, he took more than just his resignation with him.
They took away a plan, and even more importantly, a belief.
During this period, many reporters wanted to interview him, and many colleagues also called him to inquire.
The purpose was to find out where Zhang Zhongmou was.
But he didn't know that after Zhang Zhongmou left Texas Instruments, he disappeared without a trace.
Now, the other party has finally shown up, actually running to Hong Kong, thousands of miles away, a city mainly based on finance, shipping and trade, a city known as a technological desert in the technology world.
Unexpectedly, it was indeed beyond his expectations.
The phone on my desk rang.
Xia Bai answered the phone; it was the voice of the Human Resources Director, carrying a palpable sense of barely suppressed panic.
“Mr. Xia Bo, there is something I need to report to you. This morning, we received seven more resignation applications, all from the core R&D team of the semiconductor business group.”
Xia Bai remained silent for two seconds.
"Seven people?"
"Yes, sir. Moreover, according to our understanding, more than 30 people have completed their resignation procedures in the past three weeks. They are all core technical and management members of the semiconductor division. They likely chose to leave because of Mr. Zhang Zhongmou's departure."
“Okay, I understand,” Xia Bai said calmly.
"Should we prevent them from leaving? For example, should we talk to them, improve their compensation, or do something else? If we persuade them properly, they shouldn't leave," the HR director continued.
"No need. The future market belongs to consumer electronics. Semiconductors? They're just a sunset industry. Let them go." Xia Bai hung up the phone.
As the head of Texas Instruments, Schaffner saw semiconductors as a bottomless pit, constantly devouring Texas Instruments' profits.
Therefore, in previous years, Texas Instruments' stock price hovered at a low level. As a technology giant and a leading semiconductor company, its market value was not even among the top 30 in the United States.
Wall Street analysts unanimously condemn the semiconductor business as a "profit black hole" and a "capital meat grinder."
Those financial elites, dressed in custom-made suits and holding diplomas from Ivy League universities, repeat the same words in every research report: Texas Instruments should divest its semiconductor business, focus on consumer electronics, and become "the Sony of America".
Xia Bai listened to him.
He not only listened, but he also believed it wholeheartedly.
Therefore, over the past five years, the semiconductor business group's budget has been cut again and again, and R&D projects have been stopped repeatedly. Those long-term technology plans that Zhang Zhongmou regarded as his lifeline have been thrown into the shredder one by one.
As a result, Texas Instruments' stock price did indeed rise.
Wall Street has indeed shut up.
The analysts started writing in their reports: Texas Instruments has finally found the right direction, and Schaffner is a visionary leader.
Shabby really liked those reports.
For the past few years, he has been trying to squeeze out Zhang Zhongmou, this "technological fanatic".
This is the label that Xia Bo attached to Zhang Zhongmou at the board meeting.
He spent five years gradually pushing this person out of the core decision-making circle.
Cut his budget, halt his projects, veto his personnel nominations, and refute his technology vision with marketing data at every strategy meeting.
He did it very patiently and skillfully.
Xia Bai knew that Zhang Zhongmou had connections and supporters on the board of directors, including the old guys who had followed him from the laboratory all the way up.
Therefore, he never directly targets Zhang Zhongmou himself.
He disturbed the foundation beneath his feet.
Zhang Zhongmou tolerated the cancellation of a research and development project. He also tolerated the rejection of a technological approach.
Cut one more, reject one more, cut another, reject another...
Zhang Zhongmou endured it for five years.
Xia Bai thought he would keep enduring it.
After all, it's been 23 years. His roots are here, he is here, and everything he has is here.
Where can he go?
Silicon Valley?
Texas Instruments is a leader in the semiconductor industry. Even though it has not focused on its semiconductor division in recent years, it is still an undisputed leader. It will not be easy for newcomers like Intel to surpass Texas Instruments!
Can those places compare to Texas Instruments?
Japan?
Language barrier, cultural difference—you'd be an outsider there.
Europe?
Europe's semiconductor industry is even worse than the United States'; they're just living off their past achievements. What can they do there?
Xia Bo calculated it very clearly.
Zhang Zhongmou had nowhere to go.
As for Hong Kong or Southeast Asia? Those are technological wastelands, and he never needed to consider them.
So, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Zhang Zhongmou will stay at Texas Instruments until retirement, spending the rest of his career in various honorary positions, and slowly and quietly exiting the stage of history.
Then Schapper could fully implement his "consumer electronics first" strategy and turn Texas Instruments into America's Sony.
Zhang Zhongmou's resignation was indeed unexpected, but he did not stop it; on the contrary, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Because he knew that finally no one would use those technological visions to refute his strategy at the board meeting anymore.
With Zhang Zhongmou gone, the old fogies in the semiconductor business group have lost their backbone.
They either accept the new reality and obediently switch to supporting consumer electronics, or they disappear along with Zhang Zhongmou.
However, what Xia Bo didn't expect was that they really disappeared as well.
At this moment, he felt very conflicted.
I felt both relieved and anxious.
He lowered his head and looked at the invitation letter again.
He was very familiar with Zhang Zhongmou's handwriting.
He had seen the angles of those letters, the spacing between those words, countless times over the past twenty-three years.
But he never looked at it from that perspective, from the opponent's perspective.
Outside the window, the Dallas sky was a clear, deep blue.
But Xia Bai suddenly felt that something was quietly changing under the sky he had known for twenty years.
“Zhang Zhongmou, and all these engineers and managers who left Texas Instruments, you will regret this!” Xia Bai murmured.
He remains convinced that the future belongs to consumer electronics, and semiconductors are merely a component attached to consumer electronics.
Just as tires depend on cars, and light bulbs depend on lights, they can never become the main character.
The future Texas Instruments should resemble a consumer brand company more than a technology-driven company!
Thinking of this, Xia Bai's anxious feelings vanished without a trace.
"Since you've invited me, I'll accept the invitation out of consideration for our years of working together. In about ten days, I'll be going to Hong Kong. I want to see what kind of mess this Oracle Semiconductor company you and Lin Haoran have come up with."
Xia Bai muttered to himself, picked up the invitation again, and lingered on the two lines of signatures for a few seconds.
Zhang Zhongmou.
Lin Haoran.
One was his colleague of 23 years, and the other was an Eastern super-rich man he had only seen in newspapers, magazines, and on television, who was said to be an important director of Citibank.
What can these two people do together?
Xia Bai shook his head, a barely perceptible sneer appearing on his lips.
Semiconductors can be a bottomless pit.
He even felt a little sorry for the super-rich man from the East, and even imagined that the man would invest all his money into the unfillable hole of semiconductors, and then watch helplessly as his business empire collapsed little by little.
Xia Bo has seen too many stories like this.
When wealthy people get excited and pour money into the high-tech industry, they start to get anxious, start to question, start to cut budgets, and start looking for scapegoats after three or five years when they don't see any returns.
Finally?
In the end, they either slink away, sell the company to someone who truly understands the business, or go bankrupt and liquidate.
The semiconductor industry is not something you can just play in with money.
It requires technological accumulation, talent reserves, a complete industrial chain, customer trust, time, and patience—people like Zhang Zhongmou.
But what can Zhang Zhongmou do all by himself?
He took dozens of people to a place where there was nothing, and started from scratch.
How long can he hold on?
One year? Two years? Three years?
Once Lin Haoran's money runs out, once the engineers' passion fades, and once the market's patience wears off, they will come back and regret it.
As Xia Bai thought this, the smile on his lips deepened.
He pressed the internal phone: "Reply to Hong Kong and say that I will personally attend Oracle Semiconductor's press conference on March 21."
The assistant's surprised voice came from the other end of the phone: "Sir, you're going in person?"
"What, is there a problem?"
"No, no, sir, I'll take care of it right away."
Xia Bai hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, and looked out the window at the gradually darkening sky.
He wanted to see for himself what kind of trouble Zhang Zhongmou would cause after leaving Texas Instruments.
He wanted to see for himself just how much Lin Haoran, who was being lauded by the media, really was.
He wanted to see for himself whether Oracle Semiconductor, which started from scratch, was a joke or something else entirely.
It can't be anything else; it can only be a joke!
With that thought in mind, Xia Bai put the invitation into his briefcase, stood up, and walked out of the office.
at the same time.
Three thousand kilometers away from Dallas, in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara.
Intel headquarters.
On President Andy Grove's desk lay the same invitation.
He has already watched it three times.
“A neutral, professional, and reliable choice,” he murmured, repeating the phrase from the letter.
Sitting opposite him was his special assistant, who was holding a newly prepared briefing.
"Sir, according to our intelligence, at least dozens of core technical personnel have left Texas Instruments in the past three weeks, and that number is still increasing."
Zhang Zhongmou spent 23 years at Texas Instruments, and the engineers he personally mentored are now spread throughout the entire semiconductor business group. I suspect that the trust those people placed in him led them all to Hong Kong.
“I know,” Grove interrupted him.
He knew what that kind of trust was.
In this industry, technology can be replicated, funds can be raised, and production capacity can be expanded.
But trust—the kind of trust that has been built up little by little over twenty-three years, twelve technological generations, and countless times in the process of overcoming difficulties together—is something that nothing can buy.
Zhang Zhongmou didn't take away just a few dozen people.
He took away dozens of seeds.
Those seeds will take root and sprout in Hong Kong, growing into a forest that Grove cannot predict.
He noticed those two paragraphs in the invitation:
Three months later, Oracle Semiconductor’s first wafer production line will be put into operation in the Kwun Tong Industrial Park in Hong Kong.
Six months from now, our packaging and testing plant will officially begin production in Hong Kong.
Based on these two paragraphs, does this so-called price semiconductor company's future development direction lie in semiconductor foundry?
I hope so.
Intel both respects and fears Zhang Zhongmou, an industry heavyweight.
Therefore, Intel breathed a sigh of relief when Schapper took office and reduced Texas Instruments' investment in the semiconductor field.
One of Grove's biggest concerns over the past five years has been that Texas Instruments might suddenly realize its mistake and increase its investment in semiconductors again.
In recent years, he has been trying to invite Zhang Zhongmou to come. If Zhang Zhongmou is willing to come, he is even willing to step down and give the position of president to Zhang Zhongmou.
This was an idea Grove had never told anyone, but he had seriously considered it more than once.
If Zhang Zhongmou is willing to come to Intel, he is willing to step down to a secondary role, serving as Chief Technology Officer, Strategic Advisor, or whatever.
Grove knew that Zhang Zhongmou was the kind of person who could lead an era.
It wasn't through power or resources, but through an almost obsessive passion for technology and a personal charisma that could inspire top engineers to willingly follow him.
He sent people to contact Zhang Zhongmou more than once.
The terms offered became more and more generous with each offer.
On one last occasion, he even sent a message through an intermediary: "As long as Dr. Zhang is willing to come, I can give up the position of future president of Intel."
What was Zhang Zhongmou's response?
He smiled and said, "Thank Mr. Grove for me, but I still have unfinished business at Texas Instruments."
But to his surprise, the other party immediately went to Hong Kong, to a technological wasteland, and started a new company.
This was all too sudden for him.
Even the position of president of Intel couldn't attract him, so he actually went to Hong Kong to cooperate with an Eastern tycoon who was not even thirty years old.
Grove stared at the two signatures side-by-side on the invitation, speechless for a long time. (End of Chapter)