RBCT Chapter 217 Dividing the Meat
Chapter 217 Dividing the Meat
Chapter 251 Dividing the Meat
June 18th.
morning.
Shanghai.
Vilan Headquarters. Third-floor conference room.
Four people were sitting on the other side of the table.
Naura Technology Group, AMEC, ACM Research, and Sinyuan Microelectronics are all leading domestic companies in the MEMS and semiconductor equipment field.
All three are listed companies. Naura Technology Group is a state-owned enterprise. AMEC, ACM Research, and Sinyuan Microelectronics are all privately owned.
On the other side sat Lin Wei, Jiang Mingyuan, and Su Chen.
Jiang Mingyuan led the discussions.
He took out a document. It was titled "Secondary Authorization Framework for Production Line Simulation System".
"The Vilan production line simulation system uses Vilan as its sole access interface. However, Vilan alone cannot support the deployment of over 350 local MEMS and semiconductor companies."
He turned to the next page.
"Villand is willing to issue a 'secondary license' to local alliance companies for its simulation system. This secondary license means that you can provide 'Villand simulation system deployment services' to companies outside the alliance within the service framework defined by Vilan. However, you cannot resell the simulation system itself, nor can you transfer the original sample library data."
"In the service revenue, Vilan takes the middle price, and you take the implementation price. The specific ratio is 30% to 60%."
The attendee from North China Electronics was Senior Vice President Chen Wei. After listening, he asked a question.
What price must be paid to obtain a secondary license?
Jiang Mingyuan glanced at Lin Wei. Lin Wei remained silent. This was his representation.
"The consideration will not be settled in cash. It can be in the form of shares, stock options, or a share of future revenue. Vilan does not want controlling interest. Vilan does not want a board seat. Vilan wants a certain percentage of shares as proof of a secondary authorization."
Chen Wei glanced at Shen Hong, the middle representative. Both of them understood the essence of this framework. The locked shares meant that when Weilan deployed simulation systems outside the alliance, it would need to go through them.
Jiang Mingyuan took out the third page.
"Enterprises that obtain secondary authorization must comply with three additional constraints. First, the service pricing cap must be based on the alliance price list published by Vilan, and mutual undercutting is not allowed. Second, the process data generated during the service process must be anonymized and fed back into Vilan's sample library. Third, supplementary technologies generated by alliance enterprises during the simulation service process that are of the same type as the simulation system cannot be blocked from Vilan and other alliance enterprises."
"These three factors are prerequisites for the alliance ecosystem to converge."
After listening, Chen Wei asked a crucial question.
Which companies are eligible for the secondary licensing?
Jiang Mingyuan produced a fourth document: a list of over 300 local MEMS and semiconductor companies. Twenty-seven companies from the alliance were highlighted in red. The remaining 300+ were marked as "for secondary licensing services."
Chen Wei finished reviewing the list. He didn't ask any more questions.
These 300-plus companies are second-, third-, and fourth-tier enterprises outside the "top" of the domestic MEMS industry chain. They weren't qualified enough for Vilan to directly access them. However, after obtaining simulation system deployment services, their production capacity will be boosted. Whoever obtains the secondary authorization will be able to take on an immeasurable amount of orders from this list.
"North China Electronics accepts three constraints. The shareholding ratio needs to be voted on by the group's board of directors. The initial offer is based on a valuation of 600 million yuan as the starting point for negotiations," Chen Wei said.
Six hundred million is twenty-three percent of North China Electronics' market value. Jiang Mingyuan wrote it down in his notebook.
Shen Hong continued, "China has not accepted three constraints. The initial offer was based on a valuation of 800 million as the starting point for negotiations."
AMEC is a listed company. 800 million is 3.5% of its market capitalization.
Shengmei and Xinyuan Microelectronics subsequently reported valuations of 400 million and 300 million respectively, representing 20% to 30% of their market capitalization.
They all added a sentence after their initial quote: "Initial quote. Requires board approval. Requires valuation report from a valuation agency." Negotiations entered a stalemate.
Jiang Mingyuan glanced at Lin Wei. Lin Wei nodded.
"The initial offer is accepted. Villan will issue a detailed offer this week. The board vote will be on August 15th." He concluded verbally.
Chen Wei, Shen Hong, and the representatives of the two private companies all nodded.
The meeting ended at 11:00 AM. After the four representatives left, Jiang Mingyuan said to Lin Wei.
"All four parties will reach an agreement. The shareholding ratio will be shortened. However, the three constraints will not be affected."
"These three things are what Wei Lan wants," Lin Wei said. "The shareholding percentage is a later decision."
Jiang Mingyuan understood.
Three constraints ensure the simulation system can continuously converge, drive the local MEMS industry chain, and prevent Vilan from being biased towards other alliance companies. These three are the key to whether the "alliance ecosystem" can become an "industry chain centered on Vilan".
The shareholding percentage is just a price to pay.
……
June 20th.
Berlin.
Make way for the 25th floor of the Luyun Hotel. A meeting room that's a size smaller than the one from last week.
This was a "second-level meeting" following the closed-door meeting. Only the initiator, equipment manufacturers, and EDA vendors were present. Executives from the three MEMS giants themselves were not present.
The initiator was Reinhard Hoffmann.
He's the one who proposed the "next-generation architecture winner" argument last week. He's the Vice President of Strategy at Infineon. He's not convening this meeting on behalf of Infineon. He's convening it as the "Initiator of the Next-Generation MEMS Architecture Pre-Research Consortium."
There were nine attendees.
Applied Materials Chief Technology Officer, Herishard.
Osamu Ota, Senior Vice President of Tokyo Electron.
Head of the DR Business Division at Ram Research Institute...
Three representatives from second-tier equipment suppliers.
Two representatives from European and American EDA vendors. One is the CEO of a company called "Menren" and the other is the Senior Vice President of Cisco.
The meeting began at 4 a.m.
Hoffman hosted the event. He started by saying three sentences.
"Last week's closed-door meeting in Berlin reached three implicit agreements. The second of these is to simultaneously launch preliminary research on next-generation architecture. The three companies will contribute over one billion euros in total, with a timeframe of three to five years."
"I've gathered you all here today because I think three to five years is too slow."
"Three to five years means that Vilan has three to five years to deliver, capture the market, and win alliances within the existing framework. Three to five years later, the prototype we present will not be far ahead of Vilan."
He paused. He glanced at Heleshard.
"I propose to compress it to eighteen months. By the end of next year, the three joint second-tier equipment vendors and EDA vendors should produce a prototype of the submicron node."
There was silence in the conference room for several seconds.
Heleshard spoke first.
He is the Chief Technology Officer of Applied Materials, the world's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer. They are the key decision-makers in whether next-generation MEMS architectures can be translated into production capacity.
"Applied Materials originally planned for 24 months. But if the three companies are willing to provide equipment pre-purchase commitments, Applied Materials can reduce it to 15 months."
He filled in the sentence: "The pre-purchase amount for the equipment must be no less than 500 million euros."
Osamu Ota then spoke.
He works for Tokyo Electron, one of the world's leading suppliers of metal clocks. With the MEMS architecture pushed down to submicron nodes, the metal clocking stage has become one of the biggest challenges.
Tokyo Electron is willing to participate by contributing its "press-and-bend processing route" as its investment, amounting to 30 million euros.
Ramken, representing the company, spoke. Ramken is the second-largest second-tier equipment supplier in Japan, after Tokyo Electron. Ramken is willing to participate by contributing its "atomic layer deposition (ALD) process route," amounting to €25 million.
The CEO of Menrengui spoke. Menrengui is one of the three major EDA companies. Menrengui is willing to participate by contributing "architectural EDA pre-research". The investment is capped at 50 million yuan.
Cisco then made a statement, announcing a €30 million investment in its "Next Generation EDA Pre-research" project.
Two second-tier equipment vendors spoke. They presented "Access Equipment Purchase Contracts," indicating they were procuring equipment for the next-generation architecture.
They all understand one thing. They are all second- or third-tier companies in the MEMS industry chain, outside of the "three MEMS giants." If they merely convene after the next-generation architecture emerges, they will be overshadowed by the domestic MEMS industry chain driven by Vilan. If they join now, through investment, pre-purchase, or equipment contracts, they will secure a place on the list of winners in the next-generation architecture.
They were holding each other.
Hoffman picked up the quotes below. He added them up one by one.
"The total is 658 million euros."
He glanced at the attendees. "As long as the three companies are willing to scale back, it's possible to launch a prototype by the end of next year."
There were no representatives from higher levels present at the meeting. Bringing them up is a matter for the next stage. But today's meeting prepared a proposal for further adjustments and a detailed list of funding commitments for the "next stage."
Hoffman needs to prepare a table by tonight out of the hurdles that Weber, Stein, and Linenthi need to overcome.
The meeting ended at 6 p.m. Hoffman walked out of the meeting room. He took out his phone and sent a message to Weber.
"Klaus, I'm sending you tonight a compressed proposal. Eighteen months instead of three to five years. With committed investment from Applied, TEL, Lam, Mentor, Synopsys, and two second-tier equipment vendors. Total: 658 million euros in non-Infineon investment. Please decide before tomorrow morning."
He then sent two more messages. One to Stein. One to Rinnetti. The same proposal.
He glanced at Berlin at night.
If the three companies agree to compress the timeframe to eighteen months, they will present a submicron node prototype next summer.
Vivian will arrive before the next summer.
This is a problem with the "track," not a problem with the "technology."
……
June 22nd. Morning.
Shanghai. Vilan Headquarters.
Vilan and the five core companies of the alliance officially signed the "first batch of pilot access" agreement.
The five core members of the alliance are: CR Microelectronics, SMIC, JCET Group, Huatian Technology, and AVIC MEMS.
All five companies adopted the "full-featured modular package". The service fee is based on the alliance price previously set by Lin Wei.
The signing ceremony took place at 9:00 AM. Lin Wei, Jiang Mingyuan, Su Chen, and Zhou Zhiyuan attended in person. Executives from all five companies were also present.
The signature on the China Resources Microelectronics side was personally obtained by President Sun Jian.
After signing, Lin Wei said one sentence.
"For the next three years, Wei Lan will be working with the alliance, not alone."
This statement was captured by CCTV's financial channel and broadcast during a break in the "China Finance Report" program that noon that day.
After seeing this, He Wentao posted a short commentary.
Title: [A secondary licensing technical architecture behind the phrase "Let's walk together"].