Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 1448 Changes (4k)

Fang Zhuo started another inspection trip of the mainland semiconductor industry from Luzhou.

After the Spring Festival, General Manager Qiu Ciyun fully resumed work, Professor Hu Zhengming also made more frequent appearances to stabilize people's hearts, and Dr. Liang Mengsong was working hard on the 10nm process at SMIC. As for Luzhou, each upstream and downstream of the industrial chain surrounding Bingxin performed its duties, including the research and development of Xinyang Luzhou, which had obtained the best resource allocation within the domestic capabilities.

Although Yike's production capacity is under great downward pressure and Bingxin's operation has been challenged, Fang Zhuo maintains the necessary patience, respects everyone's efforts, and does what he can within the industry.

Fang Zhuo had previously made a similar inspection trip with Zhang Rujing, and this trip was similar to the last one, but many projects had already borne fruit compared to the previous ones.

This kind of progress witnessed with one's own eyes can undoubtedly make people feel very good, and Fang Zhuo's visit this time also gained a lot of respect beyond the usual enthusiasm, especially in Xi'an, where there is a storage production line derived from the previous ice core peeling, and secondly, there is his old leader Qiu Di.

He and his old leader hadn't seen each other for a long time, so they didn't seem awkward when they met and started chatting animatedly.

Qiu Di couldn't help asking about the current situation of Yi Ke and Bing Xin. What he was most concerned about was the photoresist issue that was recently mentioned by Chinese and foreign media.

"I'm waiting. I don't know when the results will be out." Fang Zhuo answered truthfully.

Qiu Di was more straightforward in private conversation and asked, "Is it true? What about Yike's production capacity? I saw news that your production capacity has been restored or is close to being restored?"

He has always been more concerned about his old friend's affairs. After thinking for a while, he continued: "If it is not true, can those short sellers who shorted Yike's stocks escape?"

"You still care about this?" Fang Zhuo smiled in surprise, "The financial market is unpredictable. Do you believe what I say, or their guesses?"

Qiu Di looked at Mr. Fang and shook his head: "You are not a technical person, do you know ice cores so well?"

"This..." Fang Zhuo really couldn't refute this.

"Besides, sometimes I don't know whether what you say is true or false." Qiu Di sighed, "Boss Fang, you have so many connections, how can you be stuck with such a question?"

"This is not a problem, it's just that it attracts more attention." Fang Zhuo said, "Look, now even Yike mobile phones are being criticized by people."

Judy frowned, and after a moment sighed, "When the storm comes, the sediment will rise up."

"It's not that bad. These are all expected problems. As for the short sellers, their methods remain the same. They are nothing more than a new group of vultures." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "As a mobile phone manufacturer, Yike has never been afraid of competition. I still believe in our brand power. After all, we have been one of the leaders in the development of smart phones from 07 to now, and we have relative pricing power."

He took a sip of tea and continued, "Other e-commerce and payment companies are just old rivals. It's not surprising that they have a temporary storm."

Judy let out a "tsk". This time when he met Mr. Fang again, he already had the demeanor of a master.

Seeing the look on his old leader's face, Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "Yi Ke didn't do much this time. We just focused on research and development and breakthroughs in key areas. Now that we have achieved results, most of the problems have been solved."

Like this short selling and counterattack, although there are differences in the final gains, Yike is not dependent on Washington's decision or DuPont's resumption of supply. If it has these, it will definitely reap a lot of money, but if it doesn't have these, as long as Yike makes a breakthrough in photoresist and the company's expected rebound in the future, the short sellers will naturally disperse.

Therefore, Fang Zhuo was not actually too concerned about the financial operations. Instead, the gasoline man was very excited and probably wanted to wipe the signboard.

Not only that, when he walked out of Luzhou and met different industrial links in different cities, he gradually changed from focusing on the problem to a more comprehensive consideration.

There is no doubt that Bingxin is important, and there is no doubt that photoresist is critical at the current stage, but Fang Zhuo is not only the chairman of Bingxin, but also the head of Yike.

What the ice core provides is an advanced manufacturing tool, and how to use this tool to generate greater value is what YiKe and even the YiKe Department need to explore.

The fact that there are problems with the former at this stage does not mean that there are no problems with the latter.

Fang Zhuo talked with his old leader about the semiconductor industry chain, and in the second half, to Qiu Di's surprise, they talked about the changes in the entire environment.

"Mr. Fang, do you think the Internet is entering an inventory era?" Judy was surprised.

"Different companies have different perceptions in different market environments, but for us at Yike, hey, we sell mobile phones. Although the situation of our own products is special this year, looking at the entire market, the growth rate should be slowing down." Fang Zhuo said the signals that Yike could feel.

According to IDC data, global smartphone shipments reached 14.3 billion units last year, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, but growth in Q4 has slowed to 5.7%.

The data for the first quarter of this year has not yet come out, but IDC has a general assessment, which can be used to measure the trend for the whole year. There is indeed a possibility of continued slowdown or even stagnation in growth.

Yike sells mobile phones, so naturally it uses the most personal data to make predictions, evaluate strategies, and look forward to development.

The change in hardware sales is an indicator, but it may bring about changes in the mobile Internet in the future, or even a certain reaction to the entire economic trend.

Yike cannot wait until the market truly turns into an inventory era to respond, and must make arrangements early.

This is what Fang Zhuo thought about after he came out of Luzhou. Increasing volume and making the pie bigger is what he has been doing in the past, but how to divide the pie in the future will be a test.

Moreover, it is also important to find new driving engines from technological research and development.

Yike is now conducting experiments, and the electric car of the "Kunpeng" project is one of the actions. However, Mr. Fang is still hesitant about it and is also observing and waiting for verification.

Relatively speaking, what he would like to see is simple but not simplistic business logic, for example, a computer CPU that is still based on advanced processes.

This is not easy, but one can see at a glance the opportunities that Yi Ke has in this area.

Yike's notebooks have sold well in the past two years, but Fang Zhuo believes that there is still room for Yike to compete in this relatively traditional field.

Fang Zhuo looked at the entire semiconductor industry chain, but his thoughts were more focused on products and technologies with higher added value in the semiconductor field.

After hearing these words, Judy seemed to see this old friend in front of him constantly looking through documents and making field visits.

He said sincerely: "Boss Fang, before I met you, I also felt that Yi Ke was facing a difficult crisis, but after meeting you, I suddenly felt that Yi Ke still has a long way to go."

Fang Zhuo laughed, "I'm actually still in a very tense mental state. I've been getting less sleep recently, but Yike is doing well internally. We've been withdrawing from the market, the stock price has fallen, and production capacity has been limited. There are a lot of things going on... But guess what the most popular post on our company's intranet is today?"

Judy made a quick guess: "News about photoresist production capacity? Wall Street's short selling?"

Seeing Mr. Fang shaking his head repeatedly, he decided not to continue guessing and waited to see the result.

Fang Zhuo opened his mobile phone with a smile and showed his old leader the hot posts on the intranet.

Judy took the phone, took a look at it, and looked up in surprise.

Fang Zhuo shrugged.

The most popular post on Yike intranet today: Canteen chef Liu is retiring, and I am already missing the taste of his cooking!
Hot post number two: Which canteen is better, Yike or Bingxin?
Judy truly felt the atmosphere within Yike. It seemed that it was not that tense, but also seemed to be too relaxed.

……

The information cited by a senior executive of the China Wafer Manufacturing Alliance does not seem to be confirmed.

Has Yike solved the problem of photoresist?
There was no movement from Yike, no movement from Bingxin, no movement from the administrative level, no movement from the employees, the only movement was from the short sellers who were in a panic.

Here it comes, a ferocious $71.9 billion!
Gone, a feeble $36.7 billion…

When the institutions that shorted YiKe were ridiculed, Russell of RC Hedge Fund felt truly embarrassed. He was one of the open short sellers, but when he saw the unconfirmed news from Hua Xia, he could not help but immediately reduced his position by nearly half.

What's more, he knew that some of his colleagues simply walked away.

However, Russell waited for a week and saw neither official or informal statements from Yike and Bingxin, nor any changes in the supply of Yike phones.

Looking back, such unproven news doesn't seem to be worth such a big reaction...

Russell considered carefully and not only adopted the observations of some institutions on Yike's shipments, but also asked for the opinions of BIS. The latter believed that the semiconductor industry in mainland China could not solve the problem of photoresist in the short term.

"Hey, Russell, this time may be two years, or maybe three years. You have to know that this is an extremely sudden measure for them, and it is impossible to solve it quickly."

"If ice core production capacity can be restored within two years, we all think it is a great thing."

"Russell, this is a perfect raid, trust us."

Russell respected the opinions of professionals, but he also communicated with his peers before making a decision, such as Bridgewater Fund, which had participated in shorting Yike but suffered losses.

Bridgewater Fund is more decisive than RC Fund. It withdrew decisively after hearing the unfavorable news, and re-entered the market decisively after seeing no movement.

"Russell, this is fake news. Everyone is overreacting. Besides, expectations for Yike are bound to go down. It's just a matter of how low we look at it. We are firmly bearish on Yike."

Russell asked the other party: "Why did Bridgewater leave before?"

"I am afraid." Edson, the fund manager of Bridgewater Fund who is responsible for this operation, was very frank and asked in return, "Aren't you afraid?"

Russell: “…”

Really scared.

As soon as the news came out from China, Yike’s stock price was directly pulled up, and coupled with the concerted actions of its peers, it has suffered a lot of losses this time.

No matter how the US media described the wrong decisions made by Yike’s boss in recent months, no matter how BIS restricted Yike and Bingxin, but...

But, that’s Mr. Fang!

Russell responded to his peers’ questions: “No, I’m not scared.”

Edson was surprised: "Really?"

"Yes." Russell said strictly, "I just do it out of respect for the other party."

Edson laughed. "Very good. If you have the chance to meet Mr. Fang, you should tell him this in person."

Russell had already made a decision, and continued, "But now also out of the overall respect of the other party, RC Fund has decided to contribute to Yi Ke's defeat."

"I like what you said. This time is different." Edson said, "This time it's not business, not finance, but politics. Mr. Fang has already received a lot of things, and now it's time for him to pay the bill."

Russell also liked Edson's description.

He ended the call with his colleague, thought about and sorted out the relevant data, and updated a post on Twitter: #BuyTime#.

To some extent, Yi Ke and the White House had eaten and free meals the previous two times, but this time was different. Now Mr. Fang had to pay for the bill together.

On the last day of March, Nasdaq once again announced its short positions.

In just two weeks, short positions in YiKe returned to $70 billion and have exceeded the end of last month, approaching the next full mark at $78.7 billion.

The short sellers rushed in even more violently than last time, becoming another fodder for news reports.

……

Huaxia, Luzhou, Xinyang Laboratory.

Yike's product quantity is running out, Bingxin's photoresist is dwindling, Wall Street is shorting aggressively, and the media are scrambling to report and predict the decline of Oriental Enterprises, but these seem to have nothing to do with the laboratory in Luzhou.

As one of the R&D leaders, Chai Qingliang knew that the work at hand was of great significance. However, he himself was a dull person and just calmly did his work and thought about the problems.

On April 4st, April Fool's Day, Xinyang employees like to eat in Bingxin's cafeteria at noon, or in other words, if they have a choice, everyone would like to eat here.

The food in Bingxin Canteen is of very high quality. It is said that one year Mr. Fang specially invited chefs from all over the country.

Because of the release of yesterday's Nasdaq data, the topic in the cafeteria today is still somewhat related to the short selling of Yike.

Chai Qingliang ate in silence while listening to his friends talking about the short squeeze that once shocked the world at YiKe.

Okay, that seems impressive, but how does it relate to the job at hand?

Well, if ArF argon fluorine laser photoresist is used for 16nm, if it is to have good transparency and photosensitivity to deep ultraviolet light, it is still necessary to pursue cyclic polymers with higher transparency, etching resistance and chemical stability, and to establish a new resin system. In the past, poly(p-hydroxystyrene) and its deuterated or chemically modified derivatives were used, but now it is necessary to...

"Hello, hello, Lao Chai, are you listening?" Tong Yongjian, who was narrating the glorious financial history of Yike on the other side, found that his friend seemed to be distracted.

"Oh." Chai Qingliang looked up blankly, then lowered his head and wrote a chemical formula on the table with his fingers. He said thoughtfully, "I thought of a new polyester cyclic acrylate. Well, I need to try a new ring structure."

"Really? Will it work?" Tong Yongjian suddenly felt a little discouraged.

Chai Qingliang shrugged and said slowly, "Let's try it. Hmm, polyester cyclic acrylate."

(End of this chapter)