Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 478: Chips and Lithography Machines

Chen Yiyang was simultaneously finding some intermediaries who specialized in entertainment, asking them to take good care of Gena.

Meanwhile, he began gathering relevant information.

Since the war began, it has become increasingly difficult for Russia to obtain chips from outside sources.

The entire last year, they only acquired 37,000 chips, all of which were indirectly imported through various channels, a 93% reduction compared to pre-war levels.

With such a small quantity of chips, not only is there a high premium, but it’s also quite unsafe.

Because with such a small quantity, it’s easy for chips with backdoors to be mixed in and then used by important institutions.

So, Russia hopes to obtain more secure chips.

In this aspect, Mengxin’s advantage is quite obvious. Because Mengxin does not contain Western technology, its performance is sufficient for handling general tasks.

Moreover, Mengxin is designed with its own CPU instruction set architecture, its own CPU microarchitecture, and is compatible with the Windows system and x86 architecture application software through binary translation technology.

The computer companies in Russia are not unfamiliar with this model because they have historically had experience with non-x86 structure CPU design software and hardware products.

Looking at it this way,

Mengxin and the Russian side are well matched and can perfectly meet each other’s needs.

But wait a moment.

As Chen Yiyang read to this point in the materials, he suddenly realized.

Though the world is big, there are really not many companies that can design CPUs.

Russia would certainly have noticed Mengxin.

Chen Yiyang reviewed the information on Mengxin that the assistant had sent over earlier.

Mengxin actually always had the habit of publicly sharing detailed reference materials about its chip products; with these materials, individuals could purchase some of Mengxin’s civilian products and start adapting them to design and produce based on Mengxin.

So, Russia has actually already done the adaptation based on Mengxin and found that Mengxin indeed meets their requirements.

That’s why they sent someone over, hoping to obtain Mengxin’s products on a large scale through normal channels, or even reach a cooperation with Mengxin.

Because cooperative companies for chip products can actually obtain most of the parameters and performance of the chip a year before it goes on public sale, allowing them to start research and development based on the chip.

If such cooperation cannot be reached, they can only wait for the chips to be released and then purchase them for adaptation and development.

In which case, their products would lag about a year behind other companies.

Understood.

Russia has an urgent need for Mengxin. As such, negotiation becomes easier, and some benefits can be derived from it.

So, Chen Yiyang first arranged a meeting with the people from Mengxin.

"What we need right now is not just the market, but a large number of customers."

The people at Mengxin were pretty straightforward in their demands.

The main issue is that their product competitiveness is too weak at present, so they don’t have many options.

"To put it more bluntly," the Mengxin people candidly told Chen Yiyang.

"Market is secondary; the most important thing is the users. Without a market, we still have subsidies, and we can scrape by.

But without users, there’s no one to give us feedback on what needs improvement in our chips, making it even harder to make advancements.

And there’s no one to design software and hardware based on our products. That’s actually the biggest damage to us."

The issue Mengxin raised is also a problem for many late-entry companies.

Whether a product can be made well doesn’t depend only on the company’s capabilities but also on the help of users and collaborators.

A prime example of this is Apple.

Apple’s technical advantage nowadays is no longer prominent, but the software and hardware ecosystem derived from the iPhone has become Apple’s biggest moat.

Even Android catching up with Apple later was due to the initial open-source nature, gaining many collaborators.

Mengxin wants to chart a unique path, which is inseparable from the help of collaborators.

"The development of the domestic chip industry is a long and arduous journey," Chen Yiyang couldn’t help but sigh upon hearing this.

"Actually, our chip industry is doing okay; we’re making strides to catch up. Finding investment isn’t that difficult for us, but the same isn’t true for the lithography machine manufacturing, which is still quite challenging at the moment."

"Where are the difficulties?" Chen Yiyang asked curiously.

"One is that the existing lithography machine manufacturers have already formed technological barriers. To catch up, we not only need to overcome technical challenges but also patent barriers.

Of course, more importantly, while lithography machines are crucial as the source of the chip industry, they don’t actually make much money."

"Lithography machines aren’t profitable?" Chen Yiyang was astounded.

Because currently, over 90% of the lithography machine market is monopolized by one company.

Chen Yiyang originally thought this company must be earning a lot.

"It’s not that they’re unprofitable either."

The person explained, "The company that monopolizes the lithography machine market made a net profit of about 1.1 billion Euros last year, equivalent to over 8 billion RMB.

It seems like a lot, but our leading distilleries have net profits reaching 10 billion a year.

In comparison, it seems less profitable. Additionally, lithography machines are an industry that requires a lot of research and development investment.

And it’s quite awkward that sometimes when the most advanced technology is developed, customers are reluctant to use it.

Because with proper tuning, old equipment can actually meet current market needs.

Even if you develop new technology, customers will have to redevelop their setups and adjust, and they also have to improve their processes, which actually requires more investment.

Moreover, the yield rate of the products manufactured is lower than before, and costs are higher than they used to be.

So the current lithography machine market is in a state of high investment with low return rates. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Latecomers trying to catch up find it even more challenging. You might invest billions, yet there’s no guarantee of production; even if you manage to put out products, there’s no certain market, and profits are meager.

Even if you managed to get a share of the market and split it evenly, you would only make about 4 billion a year."

For large enterprises, 4 billion is indeed quite small.

The gaming companies under Chen Yiyang’s control could probably earn over 4 billion in a year as well.

But currently, Chen Yiyang isn’t focused on money.

The hunt against him had never stopped, but the mastermind A Li had yet to make a full move.

The few minor attackers sent early on had been taken down by Chen Yiyang one by one, and now he wasn’t sure what the other side was thinking or planning against him.

For future considerations, Chen Yiyang desperately needed an industry that could protect him.

Lithography machines seemed quite suitable.

"If one wants to enter the lithography machine market now, is there an opportunity?" Chen Yiyang asked, inquiring despite the list of challenges laid out by the other person.