RPAGF #512 - Fighting in the Overworld
#512 - Fighting in the Overworld
The semiconductor industry burns too much money. Ren Zhong's previous 'buy, buy, buy' model from the main world simply doesn't work here.
An investment in a 6-inch wafer fab producing a million wafers annually easily costs 2 billion. This kind of fab is already considered a low-end factory in the main world. If you switch to building an 8-inch wafer fab, a plant producing 520,000 wafers annually requires a staggering 3.2 billion US dollars!
This is a super money-guzzler that ordinary capital can't drive.
As an ordinary billionaire in the main world, Ren Zhong's net worth is less than 10 billion. He can't even afford a basic 8-inch wafer fab.
Of course, it's not absolutely impossible. If he's willing to take out a loan, the local government would be happy to provide more than 80% of the loan to support him. The key is that Ren Zhong doesn't understand how to operate this wafer fab business. Such a huge investment would most likely bury him.
Ren Zhong can invest 2 billion with a bit of gritting his teeth, but more than that is impossible. After all, he's already spread himself quite thin. Although these factories are still making a profit, it's hard to say whether they can survive on their own. Once there are market fluctuations, Ren Zhong will have to pour money in.
The automotive industry in Black Africa seems to be on the right track. It has built a certain reputation in Black Africa. Whether it's civilian agricultural vehicles or pickup trucks, sales have formed a stable channel in West Africa.
With both passenger and cargo capabilities, plus being much cheaper than the competition, it's following a route of high volume and satisfying needs. The Black African car factory is currently healthy. The Lynx series of special vehicles has also opened up the market among local warlords and civilian armed forces, but sometimes they receive ore instead of US dollars, which is a bit inconvenient in terms of converting it into income.
Fortunately, the domestic demand for raw materials is quite strong. These ores, received locally at 80% of their value, can earn a little more than the original transaction price when shipped back to China by sea.
So the Black African car business is Ren Zhong's strongest sector, bringing in about 20 million after splitting profits with Nigerian partners each year.
The battery business is not so optimistic.
Competing in the domestic market is very difficult. Even though Ren Zhong keeps the R\u0026D expenses separate, the Jin City battery factory still experiences ups and downs, with both profits and losses. Overall, it's struggling on the verge of survival. There's no way a battery factory of this scale can be supported by Ren Zhong occasionally bringing a bit of lithium batteries to the Bright Sword world.
In the main world, Ren Zhong's battery factory has no technical advantages whatsoever. On the contrary, apart from some innovations in assembly and safety, the battery cells are all bought ready-made. You could say that there is no core technology mastered at all. Such a factory, without squeezing labor costs, simply doesn't have much profit.
But Ren Zhong opened this factory in Jin City. Regardless of whether he's subjectively willing or not, the objective environment doesn't allow it!
Fortunately, over the years, it has basically broken even. As a stable supplier of batteries for the Black African car factory, it can still make a steady profit, so there's no immediate risk of bankruptcy. Therefore, Ren Zhong hasn't paid much attention to it, letting it develop freely.
As for the gaming peripheral factory, the current situation is so-so. It's worse than the car factory, but much better than the battery factory. It earns several million a year, constantly developing new peripherals following the development of games. After Ren Zhong no longer needed it to research weapon imitations, it could focus more on the market and make products, and the results have been better.
Anyway, his three best friends have basically achieved financial freedom and are now pursuing personal spiritual fulfillment.
They are working diligently on their chosen paths. Although they are small shareholders who receive dividends, they are more concerned than Ren Zhong, the major shareholder.
In this situation, these industries of Ren Zhong's are almost useless to the semiconductor industry. Even as auxiliary support, they are of little use.
After returning to the main world and clearing out his industries, Ren Zhong sighed.
It's impossible to run a physical factory.
Given the current economic situation, even if he can still get valuable items like gold, jade, and antique calligraphy and paintings in the Bright Sword world, the amount he can convert into cash is relatively limited.
Gold is okay. It can be readily converted into cash in Hong Kong or overseas markets. Unfortunately, this hard currency is relatively scarce at any time. It's also difficult for Ren Zhong to obtain large amounts of gold from the Bright Sword world. After all, a few tons or less aren't very meaningful to Ren Zhong. A few tens of kilograms of gold, with tens of millions in income, doesn't help Ren Zhong's career much now.
Adding in jade, antique calligraphy, and paintings, averaging around 1 billion in stable conversion each year is considered good.
Adding in the investment income from nearly 4 billion in accumulated reserves, Ren Zhong's income is about 1.4 to 1.5 billion a year.
But the expenses are also high. Digging up information from the main world, finding consultants, and supporting technical research teams, the research funding for material research, like Hu Rentao's team, costs at least tens of millions a year. Now that the scale is getting bigger and the research topics are getting closer to the level of the main world, the expenses are even higher. Perhaps next year's budget will exceed 100 million.
Because they have included the research of the second-generation nickel-based high-temperature crystallization into the plan, the reference object is the second-generation nickel-based single-crystal high-temperature alloy DD406 that is already mature at Dongda, requiring characteristics such as high high-temperature strength, good comprehensive performance, stable structure, and good casting process performance. This is for the three-rotor engine jointly developed by Dongda and John Niu in the Bright Sword world.
Compared with the second-generation single-crystal high-temperature alloys PWA1484, ReneN5, and CMSX-4 used abroad, its tensile properties, durability, creep properties, oxidation resistance, and hot corrosion resistance have all reached or even partially exceeded their levels, and it has the advantage of low cost due to its low Re content. It is suitable for making turbine working blades that work below 1100 ℃ and guide blades that work below 1150 ℃ and other high-temperature parts with complex internal cavities. In the main world, it is the best material for manufacturing high-temperature components for PW4000 series, FJ2000 and RB211 engines.
The next-generation turbofan-11 engine based on the Spey also needs this high-temperature alloy. For Professor Hu Rentao's team, this project is their most challenging project to date, without exception.
Because all the detailed process flow and material formulas are now confidential, even if the country has already researched it, it will not disclose these technologies to them. All process details must be reinvested in research. For Hu Rentao, he doesn't quite understand the rationality of Ren Zhong's requirements, after all, the use of this thing is too narrow.
Now that there is already this kind of high-temperature alloy production in China, the market is almost monopolized. After Ren Zhong's product is researched, there is almost no space in the domestic market, and in the international market, this high-temperature alloy is also somewhat outdated. The mainstream aero engines in the world are basically starting to use the third-generation or even fourth-generation high-temperature alloys, and there are not many aero engines matching this high-temperature alloy anymore.
Unless it was... Hu Rentao knew that in that northern power, whether it was the RD-33 or RD-93, the demand for this kind of high-temperature alloy should still be quite high. Although they could produce some themselves, under the current circumstances, their production capacity was probably strained. If there were a cheap and high-quality second-generation high-temperature alloy, it would undoubtedly be very helpful in boosting their production capacity.
However, Professor Hu Rentao never expected that Ren Zhong's main sales destination was not on the main world, Blue Star, which was truly mind-blowing and hard to keep up with.
Now, the closer a technological achievement is to modernization in the main world, the more difficult it is to obtain, because behind every technology, a systematic research and development effort is required.
For example, semiconductors: the production of a single wafer is an extremely complex process. After the wafer is produced, photolithography is another massive and complex system that turns the wafer into a chip. But do you think that's the end of it? No, the chip is still bare and cannot be used directly; it still needs to be packaged and tested, and this packaging and testing is another hugely complex system.
Some people say that chip manufacturing can't be more complex than a nuclear bomb? In fact, it really is. The path that modern chips have taken, in terms of the variables involved in the system, is almost more complex than a nuclear bomb at every major step, and it becomes even more difficult later on.
Nuclear bombs could be developed with the technological level of the 1940s, and to date, more than nine countries have directly declared that they can manufacture and detonate them. At least a dozen more are secretly researching and possess manufacturing capabilities. But no country can independently manufacture top-tier EUV lithography machines. Even the next-best high-end DUV, no country can claim to be able to produce it independently!
The country that came up with the EVU lithography machine is just an integrator, concentrating the technologies and components from the world's top countries to be able to manufacture it!
From the result, modern lithography machines are indeed the most technologically complex systems in the world, perhaps even without the "one of." Before this, aero engines were known as the "pearl of industry," but compared to high-end lithography machines, there are many more countries that can pluck this industrial pearl. At least, realistically speaking, all five permanent members of the UN Security Council have the ability to independently produce aero engines.
Even spaceships and space stations now have several different factions that can independently complete this work.
This system is so complex that even a billionaire like Ren Zhong cannot dive in and do it from start to finish.
Returning to the main world, Ren Zhong, after sorting things out, focused on semiconductors by continuously collecting and organizing system data of this system through technical consultants. From collecting manuals of ancient I-LINE lithography machines to production process instructions to principle structures, Ren Zhong, from the perspective of creating academic works, used the name of compiling practical teaching materials for semiconductor industry talent training.
According to this idea, there are more research objects to choose from among the I-line lithography machines that appeared in the main world from 2000 to 2010. You can even buy some old used i-line lithography machines to create a chip manufacturing laboratory model to build a complete chip factory.
The latest novel is first published on 69shu.com!
Jincheng University of Science and Technology, School of Electronics.
Dean Liu Xueren and a group of people were waiting expectantly for Ren Zhong's visit at the entrance of the school.
"Dean Liu, could it be a scam? How could such a good thing suddenly fall on our heads?" Professor Chen Shude, who was in charge of the construction of the semiconductor physics discipline, asked suspiciously.
"Professor Chen, it seems you've been scammed by too many telecommunications frauds. There's no basic trust between people anymore," Professor Sun Shanhe, who was in charge of microelectronics, joked, "Whether it's a scam or not, we old guys will at most waste half a day, what's the big deal?"
Liu Xueren glanced at them but didn't say anything. If he wasn't seventy or eighty percent sure, how could he have mobilized so many of the school's technology leaders to welcome him?
Because in the previous contact, the billionaire named Ren Zhong very clearly expressed the idea of jointly building a laboratory with the School of Electronics. Regarding Ren Zhong, Professor Liu Xueren had a simple understanding of him in advance. He was a veritable billionaire in Jincheng. Although no one could clearly explain Ren Zhong's path to wealth, it could be seen online that several companies with an annual output value of over 100 million were closely related to Ren Zhong.
Especially the overseas car company that was very profitable.
In short, although this person was young, he was definitely not a scammer.
Moreover, since the construction project was located in the School of Electronics and didn't require them to spend money, Professor Liu Xueren didn't have to worry about being scammed.
"Professor Chen, Professor Sun, and all colleagues, no matter what your thoughts are, this reception must maintain the respect due to the guest. Mr. Ren Zhong is a genuine rich man. Although we don't know why he chose us, this may be a major opportunity for the construction of our school's infrastructure. I believe you are all very clear about the importance of a complete infrastructure for our teaching and research work," Professor Liu Xueren glanced at his colleagues and said lightly.
Although he didn't say anything harsh, everyone understood the implication.
These old professors weren't out of touch with the world either. Just like Professor Sun Shanhe said, since they were already here, it would only take half a day. If it worked out, it would be a pleasant surprise. If it didn't, it would just be a waste of half a day for everyone.
"Dean Liu, I misspoke. I guarantee to fully cooperate to complete this reception work," Professor Chen Shude, realizing he had said something inappropriate, immediately stated.
The others also nodded, indicating that they understood the dean's meaning.
On the other side, Ren Zhong traveled light this time, bringing only a driver and driving his own Maybach to the front of the School of Electronics' office building on time.
In the car, Ren Zhong couldn't help but feel a little guilty when he saw the other party waiting by the roadside with seven or eight balding old professors.
He quickly opened the car door and walked quickly to Professor Liu Xueren and the others.
"Dean Liu, I'm sorry, what virtue or ability do I have to trouble all the professors to wait for so long?" Liu Xueren stood at the front. Although Ren Zhong hadn't met him before, he had basically recognized him from the pictures introduced by the school's professors. He quickly extended his hand and shook hands firmly with Liu Xueren.
"Mr. Ren is too polite. You are the guest, it is right for us to welcome you. Come, let me briefly introduce Mr. Ren. This is Professor Chen Shude, the academic leader in semiconductor aspects of our school, and this is Professor Sun Shanhe, the academic leader in microelectronics," After shaking hands, Professor Liu Xueren introduced his team to Ren Zhong with a smile.
Ren Zhong shook hands and greeted these old professors one by one, and the guests and hosts returned to the VIP conference room upstairs while talking and laughing.
Since it was known in advance that Ren Zhong was coming alone, the deployment in the conference room was not divided into two rows for the host and guest, but was deployed in a circle. Professor Liu Xueren and Ren Zhong sat together next to each other.