The Growth of the Richest Man

Chapter 49: A Trip To Asml

“Welcome, what do you two want to know about our company?” The front desk staff of ASML Company asked politely when Zhang Yong and Du Xiaoyu walked in.

During their three days in the Dutch capital, the two have visited the local canals, museums, windmill villages, tulip seas, fairy tale towns, and even visited the red light district by accident. Finally, Zhang Yong remembered that the main thing to do is to go to ASML to negotiate the purchase of a lithography machine for making chips. But when they went to the ASML office in Amsterdam, they found that it was only an after-sales service, promotion and marketing office. To discuss formal business, they had to go to the company headquarters in the south of the Netherlands.

It took 3 hours by taxi to arrive at the headquarters of Asmar, Eindhoven, a small town in the south of the Netherlands, a small town with a population of only 200,000. The high-tech company that monopolized the world actually grew up in this place, which made Zhang Yong sigh.

Zhang Yong took out the letter of introduction from Hammer Technology Company. The front desk of ASML briefly read it, made a registration, and asked Zhang Yong and Du Xiaoyu to drink coffee in the rest area of the front desk. When they started talking, they were no longer in English, but in Dutch, so neither Zhang Yong nor Du Xiaoyu could understand.

“Brother Yong, did we come to the wrong company? We’ve been waiting for more than ten minutes. Except for the two of us, their company has no customers.” In Du Xiaoyu’s seriousness, a powerful company should be full of traffic and people. There is no end to it, but the feeling of this ASML company is so cluttered, it makes people feel that they are too busy, right?

“That’s not true. Their company produces the most high-end precision equipment in the world. Only ten machines are sold a year, and sometimes twenty machines are sold. Therefore, I can’t see a single customer for ten days and a half months. , is also normal.” Zhang Yong said.

“It’s really strange to have such a company,” said Du Xiaoyu, “but with such low sales, can they make money?”

“The price of a piece of equipment is in the hundreds of millions. You can’t make money.” Monopoly is good, and the price can be called out by yourself. Anyway, no matter how high the price is, someone will still want it.

“Brother Yong, can you afford it?” Du Xiaoyu asked, the price is really scary.

“Of course I can’t afford it, but if I can’t afford it, you can take a look first. In case an agreement is signed, it is still possible to pay a deposit first. Anyway, their company’s delivery cycle is generally about a year.” Zhang Yong tears It was only at this time that his own poverty was revealed.

After chatting and chatting, a middle-aged man with great temperament finally walked out of ASML. He said in Chinese: “Welcome to two friends from China. I am Wen Ningke, the assistant to the president of ASML. , you can call me Wen.”

“Ah, hello Mr. Wen, you speak Chinese very well, are you Chinese?” Zhang Yong rarely sees a fellow villager, and he has a feeling of tears when a fellow villager sees a fellow villager.

“My great-grandfather came from China, but that was nearly a hundred years ago,” Wenning said. “There are still quite a few Chinese in the Netherlands, accounting for about 2% of the total population here. Among the Chinese circles, they can speak Chinese. There are quite a few.”

“Haha, it’s rare to see a fellow, this is my girlfriend Du Xiaoyu, do you want the three of us to have a drink now?”

“I’m sorry, it’s still working hours, so I can’t go out.” Wen Ningke said, “Do you want to come to our company to buy lithography equipment for CPU manufacturing? Actually, our company wanted to open the Chinese market a long time ago, but Because some of our patents belong to the United States, and the United States requires these high-end products to be banned from China, it has not been sold.”

“That’s such a pity, I still want to buy one to go back.” Zhang Yong said a little regretfully.

“Mr. Wen, isn’t there any way to be more accommodating?” Du Xiaoyu also saw Zhang Yong’s helplessness.

“Originally, the senior management of our company saw your letter of introduction just now and wanted to reject you directly, but I rarely see friends from China, so I came to meet you in person.” Wen Ningke said, “There is a way. , I’ll take you to visit our company first.”

“This room is our company’s high vacuum laboratory. Although our company’s high vacuum laboratory cannot produce the highest degree of vacuum in the world, we have the highest degree of vacuum in lithography equipment. If a little bit of air enters the lithography equipment, it may cause errors in the cutting of silicon wafers due to the refraction of light. Such a CPU, even if it is manufactured, is also inferior.” Wen Ningke passed by the first office. time, introduced.

“This room is our company’s robotic arm laboratory. The robotic arm produced by our company can perform micron-level fine movements on silicon wafers to ensure that the silicon wafers are accurately placed at the light spot to be cut.” Wen Ning When he passed the second office, he continued to introduce.

“This third laboratory is the most important and core laboratory of our company. It is the laboratory used to produce extreme ultraviolet rays. In order to engrave more circuit maps on the chip, extreme ultraviolet rays with extreme wavelengths need to be used. It is necessary to describe it. Although the extreme ultraviolet light of 365 nanometers that our company can excite is not the shortest in the world, its stability is very good and it is very suitable for commercial production.” Wenning said, “But the patent of this technology is In America.”

For Wen Ningke’s introduction, Du Xiaoyu felt completely confused. But Zhang Yong understood.

Commercial high-vacuum manufacturing is a prerequisite for manufacturing CPUs, and this technology should be introduced. Robotic arm technology is necessary for precise cutting, but it seems that ASML is not very advanced in this technology. As for the extreme ultraviolet technology most admired by Wenningke, in 2018, it has been changed to 22-nanometer extreme ultraviolet, and the 365-nanometer extreme ultraviolet used by ASML has been eliminated in which era. UUkanshu www.uukanshu.com Zhang Yong fully knows the details of this technology, so he can develop it himself, and he does not need to buy it from ASML.

“Because the United States requires a ban on sales in China, our company cannot directly sell goods to you. But you can open a subsidiary in the Netherlands, produce here, and then ship the finished products back to China for use, so that you can avoid The U.S. ban on sales has been lifted.” Wen Ningke said, “But after all, our company still has to take a lot of risks, so the price will increase. The original price is 150 million US dollars for each instrument and equipment. The result of the negotiation can be sold to you, but this price is 450 million US dollars, after all, if we sell it to you, we also have the risk of being implicated in sanctions.”

The price is really high! It’s equivalent to more than 3 billion yuan! Forget it, don’t buy it, can’t afford it, or just buy a part of it.

“So, can we just buy some of your equipment? We won’t buy the extreme ultraviolet exciter.” Zhang Yong asked tentatively.

“…Mr. Zhang, you remind me of a Chinese idiom.” Wen Ningke said with a speechless expression, “Buy 椟 Return Pearls! You don’t need the most important part of this product, only some Important equipment, are you really sure you want this?”

“Anyway, you won’t buy it together. Why don’t you just buy a shell and show it off at home!” Zhang Yong said indifferently.

“…, rich and self-willed!” Wen Ningke remembered another Chinese catchphrase.

(During the recommendation period last week, I could add 50~100 favorites every day. There are no recommendations this week, and I only increased by less than 20 favorites in one day. I burst into tears. But think about a week ago, an average of 2 to 5 favorites a day. , it seems that the current data is very good. Thank you for your support!)