Homo Sapiens

Taiwan Island.

Hsinchu Science Park, TSMC Headquarters.

Even in retirement, Zhang Zhongmou still wielded immense influence at TSMC.

He was currently attending a management meeting in his capacity as a special advisor.

As he listened to the executives’ discussion, Zhang Zhongmou remained silent. He could see TSMC’s current predicament all too clearly.

North American capital forces had taken advantage of the stock market crash to acquire a massive number of TSMC shares at low prices. The Wall Street Financial Consortium’s stake had now risen to 67%, giving them an absolute controlling interest.

The Wall Street Financial Consortium’s demand that TSMC open chip factories in North America was now a foregone conclusion.

After all, the Wall Street Financial Consortium now had absolute control of TSMC. Despite management repeatedly explaining the difficulties of relocating to North America, Wall Street refused to budge.

Now, the executives were at their wit’s end, hoping Zhang Zhongmou could step in and persuade Wall Street.

But who was Zhang Zhongmou? He was the crafty old veteran who had single-handedly broken the back of SMIC International. Wall Street’s intentions were plain as day. Opposing them now was completely useless.

’Globalization is dead,’ he sighed inwardly.

He glanced at another document in his hands, a news report about the partnership between Glory Company and Homo Sapiens Company.

To counter the blockade that Europe and America had imposed on Huawei in the chip industry, Huawei had previously sold off its Glory mobile phone division.

This so-called partnership was Glory Company’s attempt to use another’s strength to its own advantage—to force Europe and America to lift the semiconductor blockade so it could introduce optoelectronic chips as a replacement for some traditional electronic ones.

According to the partnership agreement announced by both parties, Glory Company planned to outsource the production of at least 33% of its phone chips to Nanyang Electronics, including the most crucial components: the mobile CPUs and memory.

Zhang Zhongmou could already see the immense crisis looming. Knowing Homo Sapiens Company’s style, they were undoubtedly planning how to strike at North America’s chip ecosystem.

Although he was retired, he hadn’t cut himself off from the world.

Homo Sapiens Company’s recent aggressive moves in the iron ore-steel and grain-feed-edible oil industries had been exceptionally ruthless. They had launched an all-out assault against ABCD, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Vale.

Their ferocious style was a far cry from the old ”needle hidden in cotton” type of commercial warfare. This was more like a wild-swinging butcher’s cleaver.

And now, the semiconductor industry happened to be one of Homo Sapiens Company’s strengths. Ever since they launched their optoelectronic chips, he had been closely monitoring the related technology.

They had disassembled the optoelectronic chips from a ”Pineapple” phone they’d acquired and conducted a comprehensive analysis.

Through this research, Zhang Zhongmou discovered that while Homo Sapiens Company’s optoelectronic chip technology only had a process node of 100-120 nanometers, its hexadecimal switching mechanism, combined with the speed of photons, low energy consumption, and single-channel mixed-light technology, resulted in a qualitative leap for optoelectronic chips.

Although Homo Sapiens Company’s optoelectronic semiconductors were not currently compatible with traditional electronic ones, this incompatibility was relative.

For example, Nanyang Electronics could design a special compatibility converter for Glory Company’s phone chips.

Of course, Google Company could also use its Android system to corner Glory Company.

However, Zhang Zhongmou knew that Google wouldn’t dare do that right now, because Glory Company had two backup plans.

One was to turn to its old parent company, Huawei, and use their HarmonyOS.

The other was to approach Ye Mei Company, a subsidiary of Homo Sapiens Company, and use their Fuxi System.

In fact, Glory was already using the Fuxi System. The 33% of its phones planned to use Nanyang Electronics’ chips would be equipped with it.

Thus, if Google pushed Glory Company too far, Glory could simply switch over completely, and Google would be left crying over spilled milk.

This was why Zhang Zhongmou felt so helpless and bitter.

North America was now caught in a dilemma. On one hand, they were scheming to bring manufacturing back to their shores to revitalize their domestic industry.

On the other hand, they knew that if they pulled the semiconductor industry out of the Far East Region, the market there would fall completely under Homo Sapiens Company’s control.

Zhang Zhongmou could sense North America’s indecisiveness. They wanted to reclaim their manufacturing sector without losing the Far East Region’s market. ’How could there be such a perfect solution in this world?’

The industrial war had now entered a completely new phase.

Homo Sapiens Company, America, the Far East Region, the European Union, and Lucia were all battling it out in this conflict.

He looked at the assembled executives and sighed. ”I’ll talk to Citigroup. We’ll do our best and leave the rest to fate.”

”Chairman! You have to save the company! If we move to North America, the company is finished,” the head of the marketing department said with a miserable expression.

Zhang Zhongmou calmly instructed, ”I will do what I can. For now, you all need to calm down the company’s technicians.”

But the head of the HR department gave a bitter smile. ”Chairman, many of our rank-and-file employees are already upset about the rumors that the company is moving to North America.”

Then he brought up an even more troublesome matter. ”Nanyang Electronics, Xingdao Semiconductor, and Manila Optoelectronics have all been poaching our technicians recently. This month alone, 372 technicians have resigned and left for Southeast Asia.”

Hearing this number, everyone gasped.

The HR head’s next words poured a bucket of cold water on them.

”Now that the news of the move to North America is out, the scale of resignations will likely expand further. These technicians are the lifeblood of the company. It will be incredibly difficult for us to train so many new semiconductor technicians in a short period.”

As for recruiting semiconductor technicians in North America, everyone present knew the current state of the industry there.

Since the deindustrialization of the 1990s, a large portion of North America’s semiconductor industry had flowed to the Far East Region.

Companies like Texas Instruments and Intel had also moved their North American manufacturing divisions to the Far East Region and Southeast Asia.

After more than thirty years of continuous deindustrialization, North America’s semiconductor manufacturing sector could no longer find a large pool of supporting industrial workers and technicians.

This relocation plan for TSMC required bringing several thousand technicians along. Otherwise, if they had to rely solely on North American workers and technicians, there would be no point in moving at all.

But now they faced another problem.

Many technicians had no desire to go to North America, especially the more discerning ones. They could see at a glance that North America was a paper tiger—strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

The global electronic semiconductor industry was shrinking, while Homo Sapiens Company’s optoelectronics and their massive wave of refurbished phones were relentlessly penetrating the emerging markets of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

What could North America possibly use to feed all these semiconductor companies?

Could they rely on the North American and European markets alone? Those markets were already saturated. Would North American semiconductor giants like Intel, Apple, and Texas Instruments agree to share their market with Samsung, TSMC, MediaTek, and LG?

Most likely, the moment those domestic North American semiconductor companies saw their performance decline sharply, they would probably go after Samsung and TSMC, squeezing them out of the North American and European markets.

They were timid and hesitant when it came to fighting Homo Sapiens Company.

But against TSMC and Samsung, those guys wouldn’t show any mercy.

Therefore, many technicians who saw the writing on the wall were packing their bags and leaving. They had no intention of accompanying TSMC to North America just to become cannon fodder.

Wasn’t Homo Sapiens Company, right next door, a much more appealing option?

Even just coasting by at Homo Sapiens Company would be a thousand times better than going to North America.

After all, North America was the world of capitalism. If the factory went bankrupt, they would definitely be laid off. And since these technicians had spent most of their lives toiling in the semiconductor industry, it would be quite difficult for them to find other work.

Besides, when the nest is overturned, how can any eggs remain intact?

If the semiconductor industry faltered, they didn’t believe North America’s other industries would be in much better shape.

The thought of starting over in an unfamiliar place was simply unacceptable to many technicians. They also felt pessimistic about North America’s future.

Before, with no other choice, they might have compromised just to make a living.

But now, with Homo Sapiens Company—a place that promised they’d never be unemployed—the technicians would vote with their feet.