The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

Interestingly, in 2023, Microsoft actually invested in a company called Matrix. The full name of this company is D-Matrix, which makes AI chips.

Bill Gates thought to himself, is it really not possible? Originally he thought of spending money to buy a road.

In the past, Microsoft's mobile version of Windows has not had enough flagship phones to support it. Nokia has been in decline in the past two years, so they chose to fully cooperate with Microsoft.

But as a giant in the past, Nokia's smartphones are really unattractive. The advantages they accumulated in the era of feature phones have prevented them from making products that are attractive enough in the era of smartphones.

Previous high-end phones, the more similar they were to the Mphone2, the better the sales. The more products they developed using their own technological advantages, the worse the sales were.

Nokia is confused. If you copy it, your brand image will be seriously affected. Users will naturally think that you are just a copycat of Mphone. If you don't copy it, your sales will teach them a lesson.

In the past two years, Nokia has launched two so-called flagships every year. One is based on the Mphone2 and the other is its own design concept and style.

Users' evaluation of Nokia is that it is Mphone2 with Windows operating system.

That’s why Bill Gates has such an idea. If Matrix cooperates with Microsoft to create a true Mphone 3 equipped with a Windows operating system, will sales still not take off?

MOS is easy to use, but Bill Gates also has confidence in windows. He believes that MOS takes advantage of the closed loop of hardware and software.

The result disappointed him, so Zhou Xin changed the subject and said: "Bill, I really hope to cooperate with Microsoft, but we really have no chance to cooperate in the field of smartphones.

MOS and Windows have not yet decided the winner, and Microsoft is too powerful. If Microsoft is an aircraft carrier, Matrix is ​​a cruiser at best. There is still a big gap between us.

Matrix has no advantages in mobile operating systems. "

Bill Gates lamented: “It’s hard to imagine that Android is also a company owned by you. If Android is included, you account for nearly 70% of the mobile operating system.

If you merge MOS and Android in the future, Microsoft will have almost no chance of winning. "

Zhou Xin explained: "It is impossible for me to merge MOS and Android. You should also feel that technological progress is getting more and more difficult. In terms of hardware, the technology accumulation of the previous thirty years has almost been exhausted.

It will be difficult for subsequent Mphones to make major breakthroughs. If Matrix wants to sell it at such an expensive price and occupy the high-end market, it needs software services, including MOS.

The in-depth adaptation of MOS and Mphone will be the key point that distinguishes other brands of smartphones.

Rather than occupying the mobile operating system market, running Matrix well is more important. "

Zhou Xin is very aware of Microsoft's problem. Microsoft's problem is that they are still using their original thinking to operate smartphones.

After the mobile operating system is updated, the mobile phone cannot be directly upgraded to the new version. You need to spend money to purchase this service.

Compared with the free major versions of Android that are updated every year, this alone is enough to dissuade many users.

Microsoft also has reasons. We also operate in the same way on computer operating systems. Small versions can be updated for free, but large versions require additional charges.

This business strategy has brought a steady stream of cash flow to Microsoft and created its glory over the past two decades, but it has also created its current predicament.

Sometimes your strengths may become your weaknesses in new areas.

Bill Gates was a little embarrassed because Microsoft also acquired mobile phone manufacturers. Since the business was not doing well, it did not invest any more resources.

He changed the subject and said: "Newman, you just mentioned that Microsoft and Matrix can cooperate. In what aspects do you think they can cooperate?"

Bill Gates didn't expect there to be any cooperation between Matrix and Microsoft, other than what he just mentioned.

Zhou Xin said: "It seems that there is nothing to cooperate with, but we can cooperate with each other.

Now is a good time to buy the dip. "

“Newman, to be honest, I don’t think Neon has many assets that can be bought at the bottom. Neon people will not sell real high-quality assets.

As for Neon’s real estate, it has no investment value. “Bill Gates doesn’t understand what’s worth buying in neon.

He would rather buy land in Texas and doesn't think Neon has any assets that attract him.

"Mr. Gates is right. Land has been falling since the neon bubble economy burst in the 1990s. The decade-long downward trend has led to a decade-long downward trend that cannot be stopped even if the neon central bank has maintained zero interest rates and quantitative easing measures. .

Thanks to the efforts of the central bank, Neon has gradually made progress in the disposal of a large number of non-performing loans, but land prices are still falling. We cannot find any reference coordinates from the long-term trend of real estate fluctuations in European and American countries.

Since last year, more and more people have believed that the long-term downward trend of neon land has basically ended, and that land should rise. JREITs and funds have been buying real estate at high prices. As a result, they encountered an unprecedented financial crisis this year, which led to an improvement. land prices have begun to fall again.

To be honest, Neon's land situation is very rare and may remain low for a long time in the future. "Yoshino Naoyuki said.

The Neon Tokyo area is home to more than half of Neon's population, but the housing prices in the Tokyo area are not as good as those in Yanjing, Shenhai and Pengcheng. Historical inertia is a very important reason.

When something keeps falling, you wouldn’t want to buy it if it were you.

Naoyuki Yoshino is the president of NewPay Neon Branch. This time he is responsible for receiving the two big guys. Before joining NewPay, he was a professor at the Department of Economics of Keio University.

Zhou Xin said: "We can see what Internet companies or semiconductor companies Neon has."

Bill Gates smiled and said: "Neon is okay in the semiconductor field, but isn't it a desert in the Internet field? In my impression, Yahoo is particularly popular here."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Yoshino, who replied: "Yes, Mr. Gates knows Neon very well. Neon's current largest Internet company is Yahoo, and Yahoo almost monopolizes Neon's Internet ecology except electronic payment.

Microsoft's MSN was once able to compete with Yahoo, but with the opportunity of in-depth cooperation with Matrix, Yahoo has squeezed MSN's market share extremely hard in the past three years. "

Zhou Xin didn't know this clearly. He had the impression that Yahoo was doing very well in Neon. In later generations, Yahoo didn't even exist, but it still had a presence in Neon.

"Yahoo and Matrix cooperate in depth? I remember that I suggested to Jerry to transform and focus on mobile Internet. Mphone's app store gave Yahoo some traffic support."

Naoyuki Yoshino replied: "The boss is right. Baidu has expanded rapidly globally in the past five years, and Baidu has far more heavy users than Yahoo globally.

The only exception is Neon. In Neon, Yahoo's market share is about 1.5 times that of Baidu and ten times that of MSN.

MSN later used portals and a large amount of advertising and marketing to catch up to half of Yahoo's market share. Soon Yahoo took advantage of the mobile terminal to further widen the gap with its competitors.

From games, news, finance, forums, portals to search engines, Yahoo is an absolute leader in these fields. "

Bill Gates did not expect that Yahoo could maintain an absolute lead in Neon.

"Besides Yahoo, are there any other Internet companies worth mentioning in Neon?"

When Zhou Xin and Bill Gates landed in Neon, all the Neon media were reporting on the matter.

"The special planes of Zhou Xin and Bill Gates, leaders of the world economy, landed in Tokyo today."

"The real reason why Zhou Xin and Bill Gates came to Tokyo"

"Zhou Xin was interviewed by reporters at the airport and expressed his optimism that Neon would be the first to emerge from the financial crisis."

In fact, a reporter asked Zhou Xin how he viewed the current situation. Zhou Xin's answer was that the current situation is not good. He came to Neon to learn more about the survival of Neon companies in the financial crisis.

As soon as the media translated it, it turned out that Zhou Xin was optimistic about the neon economic situation.

This is the magic of the media, which can modify the appearance of things to an absurd degree.

Neon attaches great importance to the arrival of Zhou Xin and Bill Gates. If Zhou Xin wants to short the Japanese economy, a large number of financial institutions around the world will swarm in and cooperate with Zhou Xin's crazy short selling.

"Yoshino, I mentioned before that I came to Neon this time to acquire some semiconductor companies that are in trouble. Do you have any recommendations?" Zhou Xin asked.

Zhou Xin informed Yoshino about this matter before going to America and asked him to do research in advance.

Zhou Xin had thought about it when he went there, and he just happened to come to Neon for a visit. Many semiconductor companies in Neon would not be able to survive this winter.

For Xinxin, isn’t this the best time to divide the cake? As for Neon not wanting to sell, they have no choice at this time.

The financial crisis does not mean that it will stop when it ends in 2007. The financial crisis has just begun now and will intensify in the future. Even if the Neon government does not agree to sell it now, when the situation is stronger next year, you will have no choice but to sell it.

Yoshino took out his notebook from his briefcase and said:

"After I talked with Fujitsu Electronics Co., Ltd. Representative Director Okada Haruki, NEC Electronics Co., Ltd. President Nakajima Toshio, Toshiba Senior Executive Officer and Semiconductor Company President Saito Sho, these gentlemen combined with NewPay industry research and analysis Finally, it is concluded that the following companies have value and are most likely to be sold.

The first ASPLA was established in 2001 under the leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, led by NEC, and jointly established by 11 semiconductor manufacturers. When this company was founded, it hoped to create the concept of a joint wafer factory and focus on chip manufacturing. , competing with TSMC in the Wanwan region and Chartered Semiconductor in the Lion City.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Neon injected 31.5 billion yen into ASPLA in fiscal year 2001, and another 30 billion yen in fiscal year 2002.

According to the information I received from insiders, ASPLA has accumulated a lot of experience and unique technology in the 90nm process and 65nm process.

However, due to NEC's poor management in the semiconductor manufacturing field and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's suspension of financial capital injection into ASPLA, ASPLA is on the verge of crisis.

It is the first company that I think can be fully acquired at the right price and has a lot of value to Xinxin Technology. "

Yoshino gave a very detailed report on the work assigned to him by Zhou Xin, which could almost be described as meticulous.

Almost all of the industry insiders he mentioned have been working in the semiconductor field for more than 20 years.

Zhou Xin believes that ASPLA is valuable because he has vaguely heard of this company.

When he was interning at Intel, there was a Neon person who came to work at Intel from this company. Zhou Xin still remembers that Neon person proudly mentioned ASPLA, saying that ASPLA was Neon’s last effort in the field of semiconductor manufacturing. .

Zhou Xin was very curious and asked: "What happened next?"

"The effort was dashed. Neon has no future in semiconductor manufacturing. It's all over."

The more Bill Gates hears, the more wrong he becomes. You have Xinxin Technology, you can pick up the corpses of Neon Semiconductor companies, eat them, and grow on their corpses.

The problem is that I don’t invest in semiconductor companies, and I’m not interested in semiconductor companies either.

After Yoshino finished his report, Zhou Xin asked: "Bill, I know you are not interested in semiconductor companies. Neon also has a large number of agriculture-related companies, you can go and find out about it.

Neon also has many consumer electronics-related companies, and Neon people’s aesthetics in industrial design are still online.

Maybe you can find a way to bring Microsoft's Windowsphone back to its glory days.

After the launch of Matrix keyboards, only Neon Studio resonated with me in terms of the aesthetics of customized keyboards.

I have always felt that Neon's industrial design level is very high. In addition to semiconductor companies, I also want to know about Neon industrial design-related companies. "

The news about Zhou Xin and Bill Gates' visit to Neon was less than a day old. It was not only reported by Neon media, but also by global media.

What on earth do they want to do in Neon? This is the most curious question in the global media.

Someone directly @Bill Gates and Zhou Xin on Weibo.

Zhou Xin's answer was: "It's rare to go out for a run and take a look around Tokyo."

Bill Gates really couldn't stand Zhou Xin's hypocritical face. He said: "Newman said that Neon has many good companies, and he wants to come to Neon to acquire some companies like shopping."

Chinese netizens who were initially confused or even dissatisfied with Zhou Xin's decision to go to Neon suddenly understood.

"Buy more. If the money is not enough, Xinxin Lithography Machine will issue additional shares for financing."

"What are you talking about? The new president is short of money? He gritted his teeth and bought Tokyo Tower."

"There is no need to grit your teeth to buy Tokyo Tower."

"President Xin still has money. When everyone is crying about poverty and saying they have no money, President Xin can still go to Neon to acquire companies."

"Think about Toyota or Honda, this is the lifeblood of your life."

"Compared to these, why do I feel that the new president is most interested in Neon's semiconductor company?"

"You said that President Xin went to Neon to buy Nikon's photolithography machine business, right? Then Xinxin Semiconductor is still not allowed to take off?"

It was a word from an Oasis Shanghua netizen that caused the Xinxin lithography machine to hit the daily limit the next day. The reason was that investors believed that Zhou Xin went to Tokyo to discuss the acquisition of Nikon.

From acquiring companies to acquiring Nikon lithography machines and then acquiring Nikon, the principal's transition has not been so fast.

So much so that Zhou Xin specifically posted to Oasis to refute the rumors: “It’s true to go to Neon to see if there are any companies that can be acquired, but it’s false to acquire Nikon.

I want to acquire Nikon's semiconductor business. Regardless of whether Nikon agrees or not, the Neon government will not agree either, so don't even think about it. "