Zhang Rujing, "Godfather of Chinese Chips": I want to bring advanced chip manufacturing to the mainland in my life
This issue focuses on the legendary resume of Zhang Rujing, the "Godfather of Chips", in China's chip industry.
Text | Pecan rust-free bowl
As the godfather of China's semiconductor industry, Zhang Rujing's appearance will almost cause heated discussions in the semiconductor circle.
On November 28, Zhang Rujing, who appeared in Haikou, is the founder and general consultant of the Hainan Aviation Core High-tech Industrial Park project. In a manuscript entitled "Hainan: Laying Out the "Core" Industry and Cultivating the "Core" Kinetic Energy", Zhang Rujing's sentence was quoted: "Almost all automotive chips and aviation chips are produced in large machine factories, but there are very few in China, so we put forward the concept of CIDM." ”
The "CIDM" in Zhang's mouth, or Commune IDM (CIDM), is not only an operating model of the semiconductor industry, but also a model that Zhang Rujing himself believes is "the most suitable for China".
In the past, Fabless only did R&D and design, outsourcing production to foundries such as SMIC and TSMC. IDM is aimed at vertical integration, with a high threshold, both design and production, and the profit is therefore higher than that of only doing a single link, Samsung and Texas Instruments are this model.
On the one hand, the CIDM model in Zhang Rujing's mouth can share resources such as talents through the way of a large number of chip design companies taking shares. On the other hand, since the CIDM model is customer-oriented, it can reasonably plan its own production capacity according to the actual needs of the design company, which is more flexible and less risky. In Zhang Rujing's own words: "The advantages of CIDM are shared by everyone, resources are shared, risks are shared, and the ability to collaborate is greatly increased, and there are many benefits." ”
The initial time to put this idea into practice was in 2018, when Zhang Rujing resigned from his position at Xinsheng Semiconductor Technology in Shanghai to found China's first CIDM company, Xinen.
But he didn't stop there. Four years later, 74-year-old Zhang Rujing chose to leave Xinen and subsequently joined Jita Semiconductor. Founded in 2017, this semiconductor company just received a huge financing of 13.5 billion yuan three months ago, and its valuation had reached 30 billion yuan at that time.
As the executive director and dean of the Jita Academy, Zhang Rujing, like every time he started his own business in the past, openly stood up for the company, talked about the challenges faced by China's semiconductor industry, tirelessly explained "what is CIDM", and shouted "integrity, innovation, excellence" and other values internally. This is what he left behind, and the training that came all the way from Texas Instruments is also an indelible imprint on an idealist.
If you give up everything to build a factory in the north in 2000 and found SMIC, the 52-year-old Zhang Rujing's future life is destined to be intertwined with the history of core acid in China's semiconductor industry.
He needs to come out resolutely at every critical moment of industrial development - whether it is the establishment of SMIC, or the end of the history of zero large silicon wafers in mainland China by Xinsheng Semiconductor, the CIDM practice of Xinen, or the Jita Semiconductor focusing on the manufacturing of integrated circuit chips with special processes.
It is always unexpected at the most critical moment of enterprise development, waving goodbye. From SMIC, Xinsheng Semiconductor, Xinen to Jita Semiconductor, from Taiwan to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Qingdao, and then from Qingdao back to Shanghai, 75-year-old Zhang Rujing returned to the place where he started his business - at that time, SMIC, which was chosen by the times, under the leadership of Zhang Rujing, began a long road of catching up and groping its place in the global industrial chain.
If you turn the time forward, counting from the time of birth, Zhang Rujing came to Taiwan, China with his parents as an infant, and grew up, walking on an invisible tightrope all his life - he needs to use his Chinese-American status in Taiwan to seek the "greatest common divisor" of the fastest growth of China's semiconductor industry, but also inevitably needs to endure criticism, helplessness and contradictions.
"Patriotism comes at a price. ”
It was 2019, and Zhang Rujing, who was still in Xinen at the time, repeatedly emphasized to The Paper reporters in Mandarin with a slight Taiwanese accent.
From this point of view, if SMIC is the company chosen by the times, how is Zhang Rujing not the "chosen person"? The origin of his life, his identity, his experience, or the era in which he lives doomed him to not be able to stay out of the situation like others.
It is this sense of mission of "must participate" that makes Zhang Rujing decide to start a business again and again, taking the twists and turns and regrets in the eyes of outsiders as something outside his body, he feels that these regrets are just "small splashes" or "a ripple", "which can be ignored in eternity".
To a certain extent, from a difficult start to the dilemma of breaking through the bottleneck in the industrial chain, Zhang Rujing's personal fate and the fate of Chinese semiconductors are written and interdependent. The so-called "chip war" is essentially a broader level of "interdependence", which not only relies on the open support of the government, capital, enterprises and ecology, but also relies on the beliefs and choices of chip leaders.
01、被时代选中的「Richard Chang」
Similar to the former "old leader" Zhang Zhongmou, in addition to SMIC, Zhang Rujing's most frequently mentioned experience was his time at Texas Instruments.
When Zhang Rujing came to Texas Instruments in 1977, he probably didn't know that he would become one of the two most outstanding Chinese in the company's history. Another person who came to prominence before him was Chang Zhongmou, who had been promoted to vice president of Texas Instruments in 1972 and became the company's "No. 3 man."
As fate often strikes us at a time when U.S.-China relations are fully normalized, the two key figures who will lead the vigorous "tech war" between the two sides in the future will work for a young company in the southwestern United States at the same time.
Zhang Rujing (left) and Zhang Zhongmou (right) both worked at Texas Instruments, Zhang Zhongmou is good at iron-fisted management, and Zhang Rujing is known as the "master of factory construction"
Fortunately, the gears of time have not yet turned rapidly, at that time, there was not much intersection between the 29-year-old Zhang Rujing and the 46-year-old Zhang Zhongmou, who was "prosperous in official fortune", and it was still a quarter of a century before the two of them really fought - that is, in 2000, TSMC announced the acquisition of Shida Semiconductor (hereinafter referred to as "Shida").
For Zhang Rujing at that time, in the twenty years of Texas Instruments, there were two events that profoundly rewrote his fate.
First, he entered the core department of Texas Instruments and became one of the "inventors of integrated circuits" Jack Kilby's DRAM team, which not only allowed Zhang Rujing to come into contact with the top semiconductor technology at that time, but also laid the foundation for the later construction of the factory, and at the same time, Kilby's own enthusiasm and execution of technology left a deep impression on him.
According to Zhang Rujing's later recollection: "The working environment of Texas Instruments is very good, and many people are willing to teach me, which is really beneficial. Kilby not only does things, but he also has a really good temper. He still treasures his photo with Kilby.
Jack Kilby is one of the two inventors of integrated circuits, and he is both a leader and a like-minded friend of Zhang Rujing
The second is the precipitation of factory construction experience. After a few years in the R&D department, Zhang Rujing transformed into operations, and participated in the construction and management of more than 10 wafer factories in the United States, Japan, Singapore, Italy and other places with Dr. Shao Zifan, the world's top chip factory construction master at that time.
"Building a factory" seems to be a grassroots job, but it has its own philosophy. On the one hand, participants need to have a deep understanding of technology, and the design of production lines, capacity planning, and the introduction and arrangement of equipment require the cooperation of a large number of engineers. On the other hand, it is necessary to understand localized operations, understand the needs of local workers, and calculate the cost account.
Zhang Rujing is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate. On the one hand, thanks to its technology and operational precipitation under Kirbi and Shao Zifan, on the other hand, it is the "factory building gene" engraved in Zhang Rujing's bones. According to public information, Zhang Rujing's parents both have experience working in factories.
Before joining Texas Instruments, Zhang Rujing's first job was as an engineer in a chemical company that made dyes, and during the "foreman" stage, Zhang Rujing had in-depth contact with the factory and workers.
Zhang Rujing's glory in Texas Instruments' "factory building master" is just a bright line on the table, and the other dark line is that Richard Chang (Zhang Rujing's English name) has always wanted to open the factory to Chinese mainland.
Zhang Rujing later recalled that his father, Zhang Xilun, would ask himself a question from time to time: When will you be able to build a factory in the mainland?
While Zhang Rujing was thinking about how to build a factory on the mainland, the domestic electronics industry, including semiconductors, was experiencing the most radical and anxious moment.
After the reform and opening up, the Chinese who have opened their eyes to the world are aware of the gap in the semiconductor industry, and in order to obtain benefits in the short term, a large number of factories have introduced foreign technologies and production lines, and the ideas of independent research and development have gradually been replaced by the purchase and introduction of technologies eliminated by others. Due to the lack of unified planning, the mainland chip industry has fallen into a vicious circle of "more introduction-more backward", and has fallen behind Japan and South Korea in an all-round way.
In order to solve this problem, the national ministries and commissions organized the "three major projects" (531 project, 908 project, 909 project), hoping to achieve miracles through "concentrated investment in tackling key problems". In 1996, when the Ministry of Electronics Industry visited Texas Instruments, Zhang Rujing, who was in charge of the reception, made a deep impression on Chinese officials. When the "909 Project" was launched, the Ministry of Electronics Industry also called Zhang Rujing and invited him to be the general manager, but at that time, Zhang Rujing was building a Thai factory for Texas Instruments.
Until a year later, when Zhang Rujing retired early from Texas Instruments, he did not forget the invitation of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, and he worked with Chen Zhengyu, a Taiwanese who was also looking for opportunities to enter the Chinese mainland market, to transform Wuxi Huajing, which undertook the "908 Project". At that time, Zhang Rujing came to Wuxi with the money of Zhonghua Development and a team, and it took only half a year to complete the task and think about the plan to build a factory in Wuxi. (Editor's note: Founded in 1959 as the China Development Industrial Bank, Chunghwa Development has a leading position in Taiwan's investment community, and led the establishment of the World University.) ）
But the good times did not last long, and one night in February 1998, a phone call changed Zhang Rujing's plan to build a factory. "Richard, you're going to come back right away, you're going to punish China Development. Zhang Rujing later recalled. At that time, there were too many uncertainties in the rash construction of a factory in Chinese mainland, so Zhang Rujing could only choose to return to Taiwan and serve as the general manager of Shida Semiconductor at that time.
Once again, with his own courage, it took three years for the "Factory Master" to make the world profitable. At that time, Zhang Rujing had also put forward a clear plan to invest in Chinese mainland, planning that the first and second factories would be built in Taiwan, and the third to tenth factories would be invested and built in the mainland.
But where exactly is the factory built? This is a big question for Zhang Rujing. Zhang Rujing has visited many places in Chinese mainland in the past, but because he does not have much money himself, and is even suspected of being a "liar" by people in some places, his initial idea was to be in Hong Kong, for which he also met with officials of the Hong Kong SAR government.
At this critical moment, an official named Jiang Shangzhou chose Zhang Rujing.
At that time, Jiang Shangzhou, who was transferred from Hainan to Shanghai and served as deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission, warmly invited Zhang Rujing to visit Shanghai when he learned that Zhang Rujing was preparing to build a factory. In January 2000, when Zhang Rujing came to Shanghai, all four sets of teams in Shanghai were dispatched, so Zhang Rujing decided to move his factory construction plan from Hong Kong to Shanghai.
On August 24, 2000, SMIC laid the first ground pile in Zhangjiang, Pudong
"If it weren't for the boat, I would have run away. Zhang Rujing later recalled. But it is not so much that Jiang Shangzhou chose Zhang Rujing, but that the times chose Zhang Rujing, and it is mentioned in Yu Sheng's version of "Chip War" that Jiang Shangzhou once praised Zhang Rujing as a "knowledgeable family", and there are three deep meanings behind it.
First, Zhang Rujing is a person who understands the "foundation of technology". From Texas Instruments to World University, Zhang Rujing has experienced a complete semiconductor industry cycle, and is well aware of the weaknesses of China's semiconductor industry technology. As a "master of factory construction", he also knows that semiconductor factories are also typical technology and knowledge-intensive factories, which also means that if there are not enough technicians, no matter how much money can be built, the factory cannot be built. Therefore, Zhang Rujing knew the importance of building talents for a long time. At that time, Texas Instruments went to Singapore to build a factory, and Zhang Rujing recruited about 300 people in Chinese mainland, of which dozens later followed Zhang Rujing to Shanghai to start a business.
Second, Zhang Rujing is a person who understands "capital preference". Only by knowing the foundation of technology can we attract capital. At the same time, in order to avoid the ban on China's advanced technology under the Wassenaar Agreement, SMIC also put a lot of effort into the original equity structure, forming a structure dominated by foreign shareholders such as H&Q Asia Pacific, Goldman Sachs, Walden International, and Vertex Investment, but it also ensured that these foreign shareholders did not affect Zhang Rujing's actual right to speak due to their relatively dispersed shareholdings.
The third is that Zhang Rujing is a person who "knows the origin". Needless to say, Zhang Rujing himself once said that between 1980 and 1990, he had a strong calling, that is, "to go to Chinese mainland to contribute to integrated circuit technology and industry".
At the same time, this agitation is also spreading in more Chinese circles. According to the memories of an employee who followed Zhang Rujing back to China to start a business, Chinese colleagues began to discuss returning to China at some gatherings or work, but many people were trapped in their own weakness and hesitated, so they only needed one person to raise their arms.
Zhang Rujing appeared at this moment.
At the beginning of 2000, Zhang Rujing, who returned to the United States as a semiconductor talent, went to the lecture hall and was crowded with two or three hundred people. He used his own personal experience to ask the people in the audience: "As a Chinese who grew up in Taiwan, I am willing to give up the preferential treatment of the United States and Taiwan and return to the mainland to serve.
After listening to Zhang Rujing's speech, a doctor finally said to his wife in tears: "Let's go back to China." In 2000, the Ph.D. chose to leave the United States and joined SMIC with Rujing Zhang, where he later served the semiconductor foundry industry for 15 years. It can be said that Zhang Rujing led the trend of Taiwanese semiconductor engineers to work in the mainland, and at that time, one-third of SMIC's engineering staff were hired from Taiwan and abroad, many of whom were his former divisions at Texas Instruments and World University.
China's semiconductor industry needs such a "knowledgeable" person. As Chris Miller mentioned in his book "Chip Wars": "If anyone can build a chip industry in China, it is Zhang Rujing." He will not rely on nepotism or foreign aid, all the knowledge needed for a world-class fab is already in his head. ”
02. A "serial entrepreneur" who walks a tightrope all his life
In China's semiconductor industry, when it comes to the label of Zhang Rujing, in addition to "the godfather of China's semiconductors", "serial entrepreneur" is another label that cannot be avoided.
Many people regard his continuous entrepreneurship as a belief and pursuit, because if you follow his entrepreneurial map, you will be surprised to find that similar to SMIC's entrepreneurial journey, Zhang Rujing has aimed the spear of battle at almost every key link in the industrial chain every time he starts a business.
In 2014, at the age of 66, Zhang Rujing founded Xinsheng Semiconductor, choosing to conquer the upstream of the industrial chain - silicon wafer self-sufficiency. In 2016, Shanghai Xinsheng successfully pulled out the first 300mm monocrystalline silicon rod, opening the industrialization process of 300mm semiconductor silicon wafers in China.
In 2018, 70-year-old Zhang Rujing came to Qingdao and established the first CIDM model enterprise in China. In August 2021, the 8-inch factory project of Xinen Semiconductor was successfully put into production.
In 2022, 74-year-old Zhang Rujing will be transferred to the executive director of Shanghai Jita Semiconductor Co., Ltd., one of the earliest manufacturing companies engaged in automotive electronic chips and IGBT chips in China.
Zhang Rujing did not explain much about these entrepreneurial experiences, whether they left or stayed, and most of them attributed their departure to "personal interests".
For example, when talking about why he left Sunsun Semiconductor in 2017, Zhang Rujing responded: "300mm silicon wafers were originally made for the country, and in contrast, I am more interested in the IDM model." But at that time, another voice from the outside world was the pressure from the management side to mass production. According to the report of "Semiconductor Industry Watch", this is inconsistent with Dr. Zhang Rujing's own idea of improving yield, which led to the passive departure of the founder.
In fact, this is not the first time Zhang Rujing has "passively escaped". Whether it was acquired by TSMC after founding the World University, leaving SMIC because of a patent lawsuit with TSMC, or leaving Sunrise Semiconductor in 2017, these "forced departures" were summarized by the outside world as Zhang Rujing's "three falls". But in an interview, Mr. Zhang did not admit any of this. The only thing he admits is the patent dispute between SMIC and TSMC.
It was a departure that Zhang Rujing still feels painful and regretful when he recalls it. In August 2003, at the critical moment when SMIC was about to go public in Hong Kong, TSMC launched a "blitzkrieg" against SMIC in California, suing SMIC for improper acquisition of trade secrets and infringement of its patents, demanding $1 billion in damages from SMIC, but SMIC's revenue in this year was less than $600 million, and it was not yet profitable.
In 2005, SMIC and TSMC finally reached a settlement, and SMIC agreed to pay TSMC $175 million over six years. At that time, SMIC's sales revenue further increased to US$1.17 billion, and its output value had surpassed that of Singapore's licensed semiconductors and became the world's third largest wafer foundry.
However, in the "settlement agreement", TSMC required SMIC that "all technologies must be freely inspected by TSMC", which led to SMIC facing a very passive situation in the subsequent confrontation with TSMC.
Sure enough, more than a year later, in August 2006, TSMC sued SMIC again in California, accusing it of violating the settlement agreement reached by the two companies the previous year and infringing TSMC's technology patents on the latest 0.13-micron process, and SMIC was forced to respond again.
However, at that time, SMIC was in the midst of internal and external troubles. The impact of the external global financial turmoil and the compensation paid to TSMC internally have made SMIC's funds tight. During this period, five international private equity funds including Blackstone approached Zhang Rujing and were willing to buy SMIC at a good price, but Zhang Rujing rejected the private placement considering the future development of China's chips. At the same time, JPMorgan Chase also proposed to buy more than 51% of SMIC for $4.8 per share, but Zhang Rujing also rejected it.
In the end, Zhang Rujing only accepted the equity acquisition proposal of Datang Telecom, a state-owned enterprise, but at that time, due to the complicated approval process of state-owned enterprises, SMIC's stock price fell from $1.4 to $0.36, and 16.6% of the shares were exchanged for $1.76 of Datang Telecom's funds, but it could not completely solve the problem of capital shortage.
Mr. Zhang's frequent rejection of foreign investment has sparked discontent internally. In response to TSMC's lawsuit, SMIC and Zhang Rujing chose to countersue TSMC in the Beijing High Court, accusing it of unfair competition and commercial defamation. The idea of Chinese mainland lawyers is that the Beijing court will hear the case earlier than the California court, and if TSMC chooses to respond to the lawsuit, it will have to produce the evidence at its disposal, which gives SMIC time to respond to and refute the evidence in the California court.
In the unlikely event that the Beijing court and the California court disagree, SMIC will have more room for maneuver when it is on its home turf. But the reality is that in June 2009, the Beijing High Court rejected all of SMIC's claims, and the lawsuit did not even go to trial.
There are only two options left for SMIC: either continue to settle or actively respond to the lawsuit. According to Zeng Fancheng, the vice chairman of TSMC who was in charge of negotiating a settlement with SMIC at the time, in September 2009, the two sides actually reached a mild condition, and the amount of compensation was said to be only $35 million.
But when Mr. Zhang returned to Shanghai, he was not supported by the board of directors or lawyers. Zeng Fancheng later believed, "SMIC has its own internal problems, and it has not reached a settlement agreement in a timely manner as said at the time, and it must insist on fighting to the end." ”
In November, news came from California that TSMC won the case again, but the weight of the verdict exceeded Zhang Rujing's imagination. On the basis of the previous $175 million, SMIC needs to pay TSMC another $200 million in four years, plus 10% of the shares, Zhang Rujing cried loudly the moment he heard the news.
Because in 2009, due to the decline in the industry's prosperity and the bankruptcy of its major customer Qimonda, SMIC's revenue fell sharply, resulting in a huge loss of 960 million US dollars. In such a situation, TSMC's two lawsuits undoubtedly plunged SMIC into the darkest moment.
According to the statistics of Founder Securities, since 2005, SMIC's annual compensation of US$30 million in the first five years has accounted for more than 30% of SMIC's R&D expenditure, which has greatly weakened the company's R&D investment capacity, and the losses caused by the second lawsuit settlement in 2009 accounted for about 30% of the operating income and profit of the year, which was about twice the R&D expenditure investment of the year. At the same time, the settlement clause also restricts SMIC's use of advanced technical materials.
For SMIC at that time, it meant that it completely lost its ability to invest in R&D and continue to expand, and Zhang Rujing also resigned.
This parting with SMIC has almost become the epitome of the outcome of his future ventures. In the dark, similar to waving his hand to make other scenes, as if fate, was destined to echo in his body repeatedly.
From an outsider's point of view, Zhang Rujing's departure can be seen as the result of a game-seeking to some extent. His identity, cognition and experience have determined that Zhang Rujing will drift all his life on this tightrope mediated by the government, capital, technology and cultural forces, and he is like the balance beam in the hands of the performer, always trying his best to maintain the balance of the whole system until the performer reaches the end and quietly slides.
The most direct fluctuation in these games around equilibrium comes from politics.
The chip industry has never been free competition, and SMIC's political censorship and technological blockade since its inception has been almost throughout the Zhang Rujing era, and he has always had to find ways to circumvent the U.S. government's blockade.
In 2001, SMIC purchased a dual-electron beam system from Applied Materials of the United States, but the Bush administration froze the export license and could only buy it from Sweden. In order to obtain an export license to import equipment from the United States, Zhang Rujing, a Christian, went to the United States to lobby everywhere, and also found the five major churches in the United States to endorse his personality, and promised that SMIC's products would only be used for commercial purposes, not military use, and finally the United States issued an export license.
With a similar experience, after that, when IBM agreed to cooperate with SMIC in the field of 45nm, Zhang Rujing ordered someone to send more than one person's information on the same day, just to avoid the other party's regret.
On the other side is the obstruction of China's Taiwan. When SMIC was expanding rapidly, the Taiwanese authorities fined it three times, totaling NT$15 million, and later even put Zhang Rujing's name on the wanted list, forcing him to announce that he could only give up his "passport" in Taiwan.
The second game is capital.
As mentioned above, in order to circumvent the technology ban at the beginning of its establishment, SMIC adopted a structure of overseas capital in its equity design, but with diversified equity. Among SMIC's first batch of investors are Goldman Sachs, Walden International and Vertex Investment from overseas, H&Q Asia Pacific from Taiwan, and Shanghai Industrial and Peking University Jade Bird with state-owned backgrounds.
Therefore, the interior is also divided into three camps. Major shareholders with state-owned backgrounds want to use SMIC to support the local industrial chain, Taiwanese executives want Zhang Rujing to go global like TSMC, and overseas capital is more concerned about when to make a profit to achieve a better exit.
In Zhang's original vision, the design of decentralized equity to ensure operational independence, he was confident that with his own ability, with the rapid development of SMIC, he could achieve "both, want, and", but in fact, this is a fundamentally unsolvable problem.
Taking overseas capital as an example, what they are thinking about is finding a better time to exit for arbitrage. But from the standpoint of Zhang Rujing's industry to serve the country, he has a natural suspicion of foreign investment. At that time, when a private equity fund proposed an acquisition, Zhang Rujing commented: "Private equity has a very flexible operation method, and the price given is also very favorable. Once they control the dominance, most of them will be spun off and sold. ”
On the other hand, executives from Taiwan and state-owned assets with government backgrounds have two more obvious sets of interests.
The former wants to "become stronger first, then bigger", and the premise of expansion is to be profitable, and must first find its own differentiated advantages in the industrial chain. The latter wants to "become bigger first, then stronger", and first take advantage of the preferential policies and industrial advantages of local governments to support the rapid rise of China's local industrial chain.
Zhang Rujing chose to become big first. On the one hand, he led SMIC's diamond-shaped layout, building new production lines in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu and Wuhan, but at the cost of too large a stall and no profit in the short term. At the same time, in order to quickly keep up with the industrial upgrading of the entire international semiconductor market, Zhang Rujing chose to break the production rhythm, and invested heavily in the 12-inch production line before the depreciation of the 8-inch production line. And the cost of building an ordinary 12-inch line was as high as $1.5 billion, which was enough for the construction of half an aircraft carrier at that time.
Zhang Rujing later believed that if it did not invest in the 12-inch production line, SMIC would be one of the most profitable of all semiconductor companies in Chinese mainland. But the laws of the market tell him that countercyclical investing is a brave man's game. "But is there a future for SMIC if it doesn't make a 12-inch SMIC?"
We can't evaluate the pros and cons of the two models from the perspective of the time with the rearview mirror, but at that time, for the capital that prioritized profitability and mass production, they obviously couldn't empathize with Zhang Rujing's situation.
The third game comes from talent.
To understand this, we have to mention Zhang Zhongmou, who has a deep relationship with Zhang Rujing, another person who is also known as the "godfather of semiconductors".
The two lawsuits with TSMC essentially reflect not the personal contradiction between the "two zhang", but the "talent competition" in the chip industry. Zhang Zhongmou's only complaint about Zhang Rujing may be that Zhang Rujing took away a group of old subordinates from the World University and poached more than 100 engineers from TSMC. Zhang Zhongmou once publicly complained: "The people in Taiwan are almost finished. ”
Their experiences at Texas Instruments have taught them the importance of a rigorous American approach and corporate values. For example, Zhang Zhongmou binds TSMC with the four core values of integrity, commitment, innovation, and customer trust, while SMIC's values are "integrity, customer service, quality, execution, innovation, and teamwork".
When he brought outstanding engineers from all over the world to Shanghai, he put forward the slogan "Every master should teach two students", which led to the improvement of local engineers' capabilities. Zhang Rujing later recalled: "Many of the people who make semiconductors in China are trained by SMIC. ”
The story of the ups and downs of the founding patriarch "Fairchild Semiconductor" has clearly shown everyone that in the semiconductor industry, how the retention of cutting-edge talents will determine the competitiveness of enterprises, and Zhang Zhongmou's fear may come from this. Although Zhang Rujing did not have too much evaluation of the public examination, a detail shows the old man's understanding of talents.
He once publicly commented on his other key player in the semiconductor industry, Liang Mengsong, who joined SMIC in 2017 and is a veteran of TSMC: "I have always had a good impression of Liang Mengsong, and the only reason why his favor is discounted is that he seems to be running around." This reminiscent evaluation seems to convey a certain attitude of Zhang Zhongmou without a trace.
However, for Zhang Rujing, the game with TSMC seems to have gone away after he left SMIC, and this problem has been left to domestic chip manufacturers, including SMIC.
Many years later, Zhang Rujing would often recall his first days in Shanghai. He remembers that one of the leaders said to him, "Dr. Zhang, no one has done this project before, and when you go forward, there are landmines everywhere, don't you stop? It's okay, let's go around." ”
In 2000, Zhang Rujing finally realized his desire to build a factory in the north, and SMIC and Shanghai Zhangjiang became the origin of his business
This passage brought a great inspiration to Zhang Rujing, and in the days that followed, whenever he faced challenges and difficulties, he always tried his best to overcome them, but he couldn't overcome them, so he bypassed them and continued to move forward. "Game" is the proposition of Zhang Rujing's life, he always needs to seek a balance between the forces of all parties, if he can't, he chooses to sacrifice his own personal interests, so "giving up" and "leaving" for Zhang Rujing is not an escape, but a kind of helpless fulfillment, and the fulfillment is to move forward better.
03, idealist "Dr. Zhang Rujing"
When he was still at SMIC, Zhang Rujing's office had no luxurious furnishings, only one of his most precious "treasures" - a frame with chips on display. People who come here to interview Zhang Rujing will always be pulled by him to tell the story of these chips. At that time, a reporter from the Pudong Times wrote: "To the uninitiated, it seems that it is just a product produced by some enterprises, but in Zhang Rujing's view, every piece is his brainchild." ”
Zhang Rujing wears Xinen's work clothes, showing off his "babies"
Now, people mostly refer to him as Dr. Zhang Rujing. As a Christian, Zhang Rujing also likes to respond with sentences from the Bible in interviews.
When asked about his faith, he responded, "As your days are, so will your strength (Deuteronomy 33:25)." What kind of strength we need in life, God will give us enough power to overcome these difficulties and live a worthwhile life. ”
When asked, "How not to be angry," he replied, "Be angry, but do not sin, and do not hold your anger until the sun goes down (Ephesians 4:26). ”
When asked "why is he in his 70s and still starting a business", Zhang Rujing's answer is "because of God's call and the call of the motherland." 」
In contrast, the walls of Zhang's office in Taipei are covered with awards and photos with world leaders, whose name has been used by the Global Semiconductor Alliance to set up awards and has represented six APEC summits — many local media outlets have even called him "Leader Zhang" in their reporting articles, and his first subordinates summed up his hobbies: "wearing suits, drinking red wine, smoking cigars".
Correspondingly, in many later articles describing Zhang Rujing's personal life and entrepreneurial experience, some people who have only heard his name but are not familiar with him will find that this industry tycoon who has already achieved fame lives a life of "not liking to be lively", "simple rules" and "restraining himself".
When I was at SMIC, a friend from Taiwan came to visit Zhang Rujing in Shanghai, and when he returned, he commented to the local media: "Richard didn't even wear a suit, just a work shirt, an old gray sweater, like a missionary, and his desk was a bargain made up of three plywoods." ”
Later, in Xinen, Zhang Rujing's daily schedule in Qingdao can be accurate to half an hour, a reporter went to interview him, and when they met at half past nine in the morning, he had already finished two meetings, and after the interview was over at twelve o'clock, he only left half an hour for himself to eat. Later, his assistant recalled that Zhang Rujing had no pursuit of material life: "I took economy class on a business trip, the hotel was clean, and lunch was often a bowl of vegetables and a bowl of rice."
During the Xinen era, Zhang Rujing worked in Qingdao, which was the first company in China to operate in a CIDM model
This kind of frugality is a Xi left by him when he was in Texas Instruments, and Zhang Rujing left the impression of "saving money" early on on others.
In July 1998, when Zhang Rujing and several senior overseas microelectronics experts visited Shanghai, when the experts checked into the hotel, everyone else added 10 Hong Kong dollars to a room with a view of the Huangpu River, but Zhang Rujing was the only one who did not change.
When he was at SMIC, he also took "saving money" to the extreme. With an understanding of the cycle of the semiconductor industry, he boldly made a "counter-cyclical investment", taking advantage of the low tide of the industry to purchase cost-effective equipment, and then through the master to take the apprentice to repair, so as to increase the familiarity of employees with the equipment, killing multiple birds with one stone. When the main building of SMIC No. 1 was put on the beam, Zhang Rujing only spent 20 yuan to set off 1,000 firecrackers to celebrate.
Many people who started their own business with Zhang Rujing admit that those money-saving days seemed very hard at the time, but they were a rare and very idealistic time. It is this idealism that drives many people to surround Zhang Rujing to this day, and every time he starts a business project, he has old friends who come to support him without hesitation, these people come from Texas Instruments, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Infineon, TSMC, UMC, Fujitsu and a series of well-known brands in the industry.
This is the personality charm of an idealist, regardless of personal gains and losses, driven by a strong sense of mission. An employee who followed Zhang Rujing to Xinen after SMIC commented when he met Zhang Rujing for the first time: "In the first conversation, I felt that he did not see this job as a tool to make money, but as a part of his heart and his mission. ”
After knowing Zhang Rujing for more than 20 years, Ji Minghua, who also joined Xinen as an executive at that time, commented that Zhang Rujing was a person who "never discouraged". "No matter what difficulties or failures he encounters, as long as he wants to do something, he will do it again and again until he succeeds. ”
Zhang Rujing is full of confidence in the future of China's semiconductor industry. In an exclusive interview with Finance Eleven in 2021, he said that the development of Chinese mainland's semiconductor industry has many advantages, one is that Chinese mainland is the world's largest semiconductor market, the second is that China has abundant manpower, and the third is the gradual increase in financial support from private capital and the government. At the same time, he mentioned that private enterprises and state-owned enterprises should be encouraged to go hand in hand and jointly contribute to China's semiconductors.
His faith was justified. China is not only the world's largest buyer of chips, but also has the potential to become the largest producer of chips. Since the birth of the global semiconductor industry in Bell Labs in the United States in the 50s of the last century, it has experienced three major migrations, from the United States to Japan, from Japan to South Korea and Taiwan, and now Chinese mainland has undertaken a new round of industrial migration.
According to data from SEMI (International Semiconductor Industry Association), the localization rate of semiconductor equipment of Chinese wafer manufacturers will reach 35% in 2022, a significant increase from 21% in 2021, but the dependence on imports is still serious.
This may be the reason why Zhang Rujing still does not play the table. When asked which model Xi should learn from Chinese mainland, he said: "I think we all have to learn because China is very big, and we have to learn the advantages of several places." ”
On more and more occasions, grievances, controversies and helplessness have nothing to do with Zhang Rujing, and on more occasions he mentions "God", but there is no content about semiconductors in the Bible, but Zhang Rujing has missionary enthusiasm, and he has only one wish in his life, which is to bring the most advanced chip manufacturing technology to Chinese mainland.