Chapter 1400: The Mentor and the Protégé, the Semiconductor Giant

Before Xia Yu had been seated in the meeting room for even ten minutes, the heads of the various laboratories arrived one after the other.

The heads of the 34 laboratories were all men.

Among them were Chinese, islanders, Americans, and Britons.

In any case, Tiangong Technology Laboratory adheres to the concept of making use of global talent and recruits people from all over the world.

Lu Chao is in charge of the entire Tiangong Technology Laboratory and also the department's largest Tiangong Electronics Laboratory.

Tiangong Electronics Laboratory is also the laboratory on which the company was founded.

'Chairman, everyone is here,'

'Okay, let's start the meeting,'

Xia Yu cleared his throat, looked around the room, and said loudly, 'I'm here today for two reasons: one is to help you solve your problems, and the other is to make use of the patent resources we already have.'

The various department heads, who had originally come to the meeting confused, all smiled.

'Let's start with the Optoelectronics Lab, in counterclockwise order.'

Xia Yu looked at the department head nearest to him, who had a sign in front of him that said 'Optoelectronics Lab - Duke Byron.'

As Xia Yu finished speaking, Duke Byron, the elderly white man, nodded at Xia Yu and began his report.

'The Optoelectronics Laboratory currently has 64 researchers, and its main research areas include optical information, optoelectronic components and equipment, optoelectronic materials, optical input, optical storage, optical fibre communication, lasers and other optoelectronic applications.'

'Since its establishment, the Optoelectronics Laboratory has developed a total of 112 patents, and 47 patents were developed last year.'

'In terms of R&D investment and output, last year's R&D investment capital was 212 million Hong Kong dollars, 28 patents were converted, patent conversion revenue was 48 million Hong Kong dollars, and the loss was 164 million Hong Kong dollars.'

'The current dilemma of the Optoelectronics Laboratory is a lack of R&D talent, and it is also relatively weak in patent conversion...'

Duke Byron finished his introduction in just over two minutes, and Xia Yu also used this short time to record some key information.

After writing down the information, he looked at the next person.

Li Yingwei, head of the communications laboratory, was a scientist recruited from the mainland.

Although he had been in Hong Kong for several years, Xia Yu could still see his simple and unadorned style from the way he dressed, which Xia Yu admired very much.

'Chairman, the communications laboratory has 71 research staff, and its main research areas include communication principles, signal processing, information exchange, wireless communications, digital microwave, and satellite communications.'

'Last year, 53 patented technologies were developed, and our laboratory already has 131 patented technologies.'

'Last year's investment in research and development was 191 million Hong Kong dollars. Insufficient work has been done in terms of technology transfer. Currently, only 24 patents have undergone preliminary transformation, and the income from patent transformation is 34 million Hong Kong dollars. Last year's loss was 157 million Hong Kong dollars.'

Xia Yu nodded in secret, and looked at the next one, Dr. Lu Chao.

'Chairman, the Electronic Laboratory has 122 research staff. Last year, it applied for 82 technology patents, and now has a total of 217 technology patents, 147 of which have already been put into use. Last year, it generated a total revenue of 182 million Hong Kong dollars.'

'However, last year's R&D investment reached 247 million Hong Kong dollars, and there was still a loss of 65 million Hong Kong dollars.'

As the strongest laboratory, Tiangong Electronic Laboratory is still suffering from a serious loss.

Then there is the Power Laboratory, which has the second largest number of people, and has made a significant contribution to the Tiangong Automobile Group, Tiangong Machinery Group and Tiangong Electrical Appliance Manufacturing Group. It is headed by Daigo Kitamura.

According to his report, the Power Laboratory currently has 107 research personnel, and last year developed 61 patents. The laboratory also has a total of 139 patents, and has generated 85 pieces of valuable technology.

In terms of R&D investment, last year it reached 222 million Hong Kong dollars, and the income from technology was 161 million Hong Kong dollars, still a loss of 61 million Hong Kong dollars.

After that, there are the Walkman Laboratory, Acoustics Laboratory, Optics Laboratory, Electromagnetic Engineering Laboratory, New Materials Laboratory, Computer Laboratory, Semiconductor Laboratory, Mechanical Transmission Laboratory, Solar Energy Laboratory, etc.

Most of the laboratories have only a few dozen people, and some have as few as just a dozen people.

Most of these laboratories invest a lot in research and development, and have developed a number of patented technologies in the process, but the number of successful transfers is zero.

Xia Yu is very calm about this.

Although he doesn't understand the technology in all fields, he understands the basic research and development procedures and logic.

Patents are also divided into multiple categories such as invention, utility and design.

The heads of the various laboratories present gave a description of the number of patents in their respective laboratories, which included these various types. Some patents are easy to transform, while others are difficult to transform, and some may even have no transformational value for the time being.

It is not that each laboratory deliberately develops this type of patent that cannot be transformed or even has very low value.

After all, scientific research itself is a constant process of trial and error. Very often, a technology is discovered by accident, and the technology that is being developed has not yet been figured out.

After more than an hour, the heads of the 34 laboratories had finally finished their reports.

Considering that it was already noon, Xia Yu simply announced a temporary adjournment and went to the canteen with everyone else to eat.

At 1 pm, everyone returned to the meeting room.

'I have an understanding of the situation in each laboratory. Regarding the conversion of technology patents, don't feel pressured. It's not your responsibility.'

'The reason why the electronic laboratory, the power laboratory, the portable laboratory and other laboratories have many technology patent conversions is that the group itself has corresponding companies to commercialise them.'

'An even bigger reason is that these technologies were purposefully developed under the commission of these companies, and they can be put into the commercialisation process immediately after being developed.'

'However, more laboratories are still in the stage of boundless scientific research, lacking pertinence, because there are no corresponding companies in the group.'

'Obviously, the cause and effect relationship is reversed.'

Xia Yu noticed that many of the heads of laboratories present nodded, obviously saying what was on their minds.

'But I'm not blaming anyone. Any technology is valuable. If it's not being used, it's just because the time isn't right.'

'But research requires huge financial support. Last year, 3.758 billion Hong Kong dollars were invested in research and development, and maybe one day in the future it will reach 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, or even 10 billion U.S. dollars!

'At that time, it is unrealistic to simply rely on the current investment of Tiangong Group.'

'Therefore, from now on, we must change and embark on the path of integrating production and research, develop technologies that are more likely to generate value, and then allow the technology to generate huge value, which will feed back into the laboratory, forming a virtuous cycle.'

'Papatapa...'

After Xia Yu finished speaking, a burst of warm applause suddenly sounded in the conference room.

Ten seconds later, Xia Yu's palm pressed down in mid-air, and the applause quickly died down.

'You are all engaged in scientific research, so just throw yourself into it. I will set up a series of companies to connect the various laboratories, and you can all forget about the pressure of technology transfer.'

'Apart from this difficulty, what other difficulties do you have? Feel free to speak your mind today, and I will do my best to solve them.'

As soon as Xia Yu finished speaking, a white man immediately stood up. This was Zachary Norton, the head of the optics laboratory.

'Chairman, the biggest problem we are currently facing is still the personnel problem. There are too few researchers of sufficient calibre.'

As soon as he finished speaking, another person stood up and agreed.

...

Over the next period of time, Xia Yu took down everyone's feedback.

In fact, there weren't many problems, just a lack of people, a lack of top-notch laboratory equipment, and so on.

In response, Xia Yu promised on the spot that he would apply to the Hong Kong government for a generous talent immigration policy, and also encourage everyone to bring in the elites they knew.

As for top-notch laboratory equipment, Xia Yu also promised to get everyone to make a list and would do his best to arrange for someone to get it back.

The meeting finally ended at 3:30 pm.

But after the meeting was announced to be over, Xia Yu suddenly stopped someone.

It was none other than Hu Zhengming, the head of the semiconductor laboratory!

This scientist, who was originally a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, is a famous figure in later years.

Not only is he a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he is also the inventor of the FinFET, and he is also the person behind TSMC's success.

Later, Liang Mong Song, the 'chip maniac' of TSMC, was also his disciple.

While at TSMC, Liang Mong Song came up with more than 500 semiconductor patents and was able to beat IBM in the development of a 130-nanometer copper process.

He then led TSMC to complete the mass production of 28nm, 14nm, 12nm and n+1 technologies, and even developed 7nm technology, making TSMC the world's top chip manufacturer.

It is worth mentioning that Liang Mengsong was forced to leave TSMC for a time after failing in a workplace struggle and went to South Korea to teach, teaching students from Samsung Semiconductor instead. He led Samsung Semiconductor to surpass TSMC in the 16nm and 14nm chip manufacturing processes, and as a result, won large orders from Apple and Qualcomm and continued to soar.

Of course, Liang Mengsong, his disciple, has also followed him to Hong Kong and joined Tiangong Semiconductor Laboratory.

With these two future technology giants as his disciples, Xia Yu is full of expectations for research and development.

It is just because of the current international situation that Xia Yu hopes to help them grow and also quickly establish his own semiconductor field.