Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

167: Chapter 167 The Moment of Breaking the Stalemate”This plan is extreme, but it shows the sincerity of the Europeans.”

However, Su Chen shook his head: ”Not enough.”

He brought up an equity proposal:

”Euro-Star Semiconductor Joint Venture”

Equity structure: Spark Technology 40%, Infineon 25%, STMicroelectronics 25%, European Strategic Investment Fund 10%.

Headquarters: Dresden, Germany (near Infineon’s existing wafer fab).

First-phase investment: 5 billion euros, to build a 14nm FD-SOI wafer production line with a monthly capacity of 30,000 wafers.

Second-phase plan: Build a 7nm R&D center in Grenoble, France.

Key terms: Spark contributes the full set of FD-SOI technology as equity, but retains ownership of the ”infrastructure patents”; all chips produced by the joint venture must use core IP provided by Spark (such as CPU architecture, memory controllers, high-speed interfaces, etc.).

Isabella Moreau’s expression changed after reading it: ”Mr. Su, this is equivalent to turning us into your foundry. The core IP is controlled by you, and we can only do manufacturing and edge design.”

”No,” Su Chen corrected, ”You can acquire manufacturing capabilities and the right to secondary development based on our IP. More importantly, you can achieve technological autonomy—no longer relying on America’s design tools, no longer looking at America’s face, and no longer worrying about being cut off overnight.”

He paused: ”Ms. Moreau, think about it. If Intel or Qualcomm were sitting here today, what would they give you? It might be technology licensing, but it would definitely come with political conditions, definitely include backdoors, and definitely strangle you at critical moments. We, on the other hand, only ask for reasonable commercial returns.”

Berger and Moreau whispered quickly in German. Renault remained silent, but her fingers were recording something quickly on her tablet.

The negotiations reached a stalemate. Outside the window, the sky turned from morning to afternoon, and cargo ships moved back and forth on Shencheng Bay.

2:00 AM on January 18th, the negotiations had been going on for 18 hours.

The conference room was filled with the smell of coffee and exhaustion. Although the European representatives were forcing themselves to stay alert, the bloodshot eyes told the whole story. On Su Chen’s side, Li Wanqing had already taken a twenty-minute nap on the sofa, and Wu Yi was still checking the details of the technical clauses.

Suddenly, Su Chen’s encrypted phone vibrated. Only seven people knew the number for this phone.

He took a look and stood up: ”Sorry, I need to take a call.”

Su Chen walked out of the conference room and went to the encrypted communication room next door. Five minutes later, he returned, his expression unchanged, but there was a hint of determination deep in his eyes.

”Everyone,” he sat back down, ”let’s change our approach.”

Everyone looked up.

”Three collaborations, one window period.” Su Chen brought up a new plan:

”First, market for jobs.”

Spark will establish three joint venture factories in the European Union:

Gdańsk, Poland: Automotive battery factory, 1.5 billion euro investment, creating 2,000 jobs.

Budapest, Hungary: Consumer electronics assembly plant, 800 million euro investment, creating 1,500 jobs.

Porto, Portugal: chip packaging and testing plant, 1.2 billion euro investment, creating 1,500 jobs.

A total of 5,000 direct jobs created, estimated to drive 20,000 indirect jobs upstream and downstream.

”Second, technology ladder transfer.”

FD-SOI technology transfer in three stages:

Stage 1 (1 month after signing): 14nm process package, corresponding to opening the European Union consumer electronics market.

Stage 2 (6-12 months): 10nm process package + design tools, corresponding to opening the industrial machine tool and chip market.

Stage 3 (12-18 months): 7nm process package + advanced packaging, corresponding to opening the automotive and limited defense markets.

After each stage is completed, the European Union must fulfill its market opening commitments within 30 days, otherwise, subsequent stages will be automatically terminated.

”Third, joint R&D fund.”

Both sides will invest 2 billion euros each to establish the ”Europe-China Advanced Materials and chip Fund.”

Fund focus: Next-generation semiconductor materials (such as gallium nitride, silicon carbide), quantum computing chips, neuromorphic computing.

Research results intellectual property shared, commercial profits distributed according to investment proportion.

”Finally, the window period: 12 months.”

From the date of signing the agreement, within 12 months:

All three joint venture factories must be in production.

The first stage of technology transfer must be completed.

The European Union must fulfill the first stage of market opening.

If any item is not achieved, the cooperation will automatically terminate. The technology already transferred by Spark does not need to be returned, but the European Union market will be closed again.

The plan was displayed, and the conference room was dead silent.

This plan was too ruthless—it converted political promises into quantifiable, verifiable, time-limited commercial terms. More importantly, it kicked the ball to the Europeans: Do you dare to complete all this within 12 months under the pressure of America?

Madeleine Renault spoke for the first time in the negotiations: ”Mr. Su, you are betting on Europe’s determination.”

Her English had an elegant French accent, and every word seemed precisely polished.

Su Chen looked straight at her: ”No, Ms. Renault, I am betting on whether Europe’s desire for strategic autonomy is greater than its fear of America.”

He brought up another set of data: ”In the past decade, the European semiconductor industry has lost 120,000 highly skilled jobs, R&D investment as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 2.1% to 1.4%, and its share of the global semiconductor market has dropped from 24% to 9%. In the same period, the profits of America’s semiconductor companies have grown by 300%, and Asia’s by 280%.”

”Europe is standing at a crossroads.” Su Chen’s voice was calm but powerful, ”If you continue to rely on America, you will become a technological colony. Cooperating with us, you might achieve rebirth—but it could also trigger fierce retaliation from America. This is a difficult choice, but time waits for no one.”

Berger, Moreau, Schneider, and Müller all looked at Renault. The final decision-making power rested with this woman disguised as a ”private consultant.”

Renault closed her eyes. She thought of that early morning in Brussels, thought of what Schmidt said about ”no way back,” and thought of those industrial lights going out on the map of Europe.

Thirty seconds later, she opened her eyes: ”I need to talk to Berlin, Paris, and Brussels. Give me two hours.”

”Okay.” Su Chen looked at his watch, ”4:00 AM, we continue.”

At 3:50 AM, the European representatives returned to the conference room. They clearly hadn’t rested, their eyes were redder, but there was a kind of desperate determination in their expressions.

Renault sat down and took a document out of her briefcase—it was a handwritten authorization letter from the President of the European Commission, authorizing her to ”sign cooperation agreements of strategic significance when necessary.”

”Mr. Su,” Renault’s voice was a bit hoarse, ”We accept your plan. But there are three supplementary conditions.”

”Please speak.”

”First, more than 80% of the joint venture’s European employees must be European Union citizens.”

”Second, all technology transfers must undergo the European Union’s ’dual-use review,’ but we promise the review time will not exceed 30 days.”

”Third, if America imposes sanctions on Europe because of this, Spark needs to provide a ’compensation mechanism’—for example, prioritizing chip supply to Europe, or increasing investment in other fields.”

Su Chen thought for a minute: ”The first two are fine. As for the third... if America’s sanctions are because of our cooperation, Spark is willing to share the burden with Europe. The specific mechanism can be written into an additional agreement.”

In the darkest moment before dawn, the skyline across the water in Hong Kong began to turn white.

Madeleine Renault represented Europe, and Su Chen represented Spark, signing their names on the draft agreement. This was not the final agreement, as it still required approval from their respective parliaments and boards of directors, but this draft had already locked in the framework.

After the signing, it was dawn outside.

Su Chen shook hands with Renault. This 58-year-old European politician whispered: ”Mr. Su, I hope neither of us has bet wrong.”

”History will prove it,” Su Chen replied.

At 7:00 AM, the European delegation secretly left the Spark headquarters and took the arranged vehicles to the airport. They would return to Europe within 24 hours to start pushing for this agreement that could change the fate of European semiconductors.

After seeing the guests off, Su Chen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at Shenzhen in the morning light.

Li Wanqing walked over: ”Mr. Su, do you really believe the Europeans will withstand America’s pressure?”

”I don’t,” Su Chen said, ”That’s why I set a 12-month window period. 12 months is enough for us to complete the first stage of technology transfer, and enough for us to see clearly whether Europe really wants autonomy or just wants to bargain.”

”Then if they break the contract...”

”Then we will take the technology we have already obtained and find the next partner.” Su Chen turned around, ”Russia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia... the world is big, and Europe is not the only choice. But this test, at least, let us know that there are already cracks in America’s alliance system.”

Outside the window, a new day had begun.

And this technological game spanning Eurasia had just begun.