Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

258: Chapter 258 The Coronation of the Chip Empire9:00 AM, Hall 1, Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center.

If yesterday’s military exhibition was iron-blooded and stern, today’s atmosphere in Hall 1 was a different kind of extreme—icy technological coldness.

There were no red carpets, no military flags, no honor guards. Instead, there was a pure white stage with minimalist lines.

On the stage, there was only a transparent podium with a built-in micro-projection device.

The audience seating was tiered, with each row equipped with foldable electronic screens and charging ports.

The air was filled with a faint smell of ozone—the mix of precision air conditioning and new electronic equipment.

The people present were also completely different from the previous days.

Sitting in the front VIP area were: Yu Dong, CEO of Huawei, fifty-two years old, wearing his signature dark blue jacket with a serious expression.

Lei Ming, Chairman of Xiaomi, forty-nine years old, in a black T-shirt and jeans, holding a notebook to record at any time.

Chen Mingyong, founder of OPPO, and Shen Wei, founder of VIVO, were talking in low voices.

Li Ke, President of BYD Semiconductor, was discussing something with Zhang Jianfeng, head of Alibaba’s Pingtouge Semiconductor.

Zhang Rujing, founder of SMIC, sixty-two years old, a titan of the industry, sat quietly in the corner with deep eyes.

In the middle and back rows were semiconductor practitioners from around the world:

Representatives from Intel and AMD in the United States, trying to remain calm but unable to hide the anxiety in their eyes.

Teams from Samsung and Hynix in South Korea, everyone frantically taking notes.

Material experts from Tokyo Electron and Shin-Etsu Chemical in Japan, brows furrowed.

Executives from TSMC and UMC, each looking worse than the last.

There were also tech media reporters from all over the world, with their cameras aimed at the stage.

Everyone knew that what they were about to witness might be more lethal than the weapons from the previous days—because the chip is the ”digital oil” of modern society, and whoever masters the most advanced chip technology masters the technological hegemony of the next decade.

And Xinghuo Chip, a company that was unknown three years ago, was today challenging the throne in this field.

The lights dimmed.

It wasn’t a gradual fade, but an instantaneous blackout, like a power cut.

Then, a beam of cold white light struck vertically from the ceiling, precisely illuminating the podium.

Li Wanqing walked out.

She was forty-one years old, 1.68 meters tall, wearing a perfectly tailored white suit, her hair tied in a simple bun, and wearing frameless glasses.

She had been the youngest chief architect at Intel, gave up a million-dollar salary at thirty-eight to return to the country, and was personally invited by Su Chen to join Xinghuo Chip.

”Good morning, everyone,” Li Wanqing began, her voice clear and calm, transmitted through bone conduction microphones to the entire venue, ”I am Li Wanqing, President of Xinghuo Chip. At least half of the people here are using mobile phones with TSMC’s 16nm process chips.”

The opening was a bombshell.

Two comparison charts instantly popped up on the big screen.

Left side: TSMC 1FET process (mass-produced in 2017). Typical power: 4.2 watts. Transistor density: 28.8 MTr/mm² (28.8 million transistors per square millimeter). Unit price (12-inch wafer): $6500. Typical customers: Apple A10, Huawei Kirin 960, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.

Right side: Xinghuo flint no. 2 16nm FD-SOI process. Typical power: 2.7 watts (35.7% reduction). Transistor density: 31.2 MTr/mm². Unit price: $4700 (27.7% reduction). Typical customers: Huaxing Mobile Phone S2, Xinghuo automotive chip.

Once the data was revealed, suppressed gasps erupted from the audience.

”This is impossible...” a senior engineer in the TSMC delegation muttered, ”The limit of the FD-SOI process is right here; how could it reach this density and power consumption at the 16nm node?”

His voice was drowned out by the noise of the venue.

Li Wanqing waited a few seconds to let the skepticism ferment, then tapped the remote.

The big screen switched to the covers of four reports:

Germany Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Research (Fraunhofer) chip energy efficiency test report, No. FH-IC-2018-047.

Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) semiconductor process evaluation report, No. J-18-SC-0093.

Switzerland SGS mass production yield audit report, No. SGS-CN-SC-0428.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, Electronic Standard Institute technical appraisal certificate, No. CESI-2018-038.

Each report was dated: April 15 to April 30, 2018, exactly during the Geneva Motor Show.

”All reports can be downloaded from the Xinghuo Chip official website, including raw test data, test conditions, and instrument models,” Li Wanqing said calmly, ”Now, let’s skip the theory and look at the actual tests.”

Live test: 16nm vs 10nm.

Two transparent dust-proof glass boxes rose on both sides of the stage.

Inside each box was a mobile phone.

Left side: Samsung Galaxy S9. Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Process: TSMC 10nm FinFET. Release date: March 2018.

Right side: Unreleased engineering machine (no logo on the body). Processor: Xinghuo flint no. 2 (16nm FD-SOI). Process: Xinghuo 16nm. Other configurations: Exactly the same as the S9 (screen, memory, storage, battery).

”We will run ’Genshin Impact’ at the highest graphics, 60fps mode, for a 10-minute test,” Li Wanqing said. ”We will monitor temperature, frame rate, and power consumption in real-time.”

The big screen was divided into six areas: Top left: S9 game screen. Top right: Engineering machine game screen. Bottom left: Temperature curve (dual-line comparison). Bottom right: Frame rate curve. Bottom: Real-time power consumption data.

”Start.”

Two staff members clicked to start the game simultaneously.

For the first 30 seconds, the performance of the two phones was close: both were at a full 60fps, and the temperature was around 35 degrees.

But after one minute, the differences began to appear.

Temperature curve: S9: 36°C → 40°C → 44°C → 48°C (at 5 minutes). Engineering machine: 35°C → 37°C → 39°C → 41°C (at 5 minutes).

Frame rate curve: S9: 60fps → 58fps → 55fps → 48fps (significant fluctuation). Engineering machine: Stable 60fps, almost no fluctuation.

Power consumption data: S9: Initial 3.8 watts, rose to 4.8 watts at 5 minutes. Engineering machine: Initial 2.9 watts, 3.1 watts at 5 minutes.

When the ten-minute test ended, the data was locked: S9: Maximum temperature 52°C, average frame rate 53fps, average power consumption 4.6 watts. Engineering machine: Maximum temperature 43°C, stable 60fps, average power consumption 3.2 watts.

The venue was silent.

Then, unbelievable gasps erupted.

”16nm beating 10nm... and it won?”

”35% lower power consumption, 9 degrees lower temperature, and the frame rate is stable...”

”What the hell kind of black technology is this?”

Li Wanqing waited for the scene to quiet down slightly and began to explain: ”This is the advantage of the FD-SOI process—adding an insulating layer on the silicon substrate, which significantly reduces parasitic capacitance and leakage current. In the mobile sector, energy efficiency is more important than pure process numbers.”

She pulled up the technical schematic: ”Traditional FinFET processes encounter problems like short-channel effects and quantum tunneling below 10nm, leading to increased leakage. FD-SOI, however, effectively suppresses these effects through the insulating layer.”

”More importantly, it’s the cost,” Li Wanqing emphasized. ”Our 16nm FD-SOI process has 15% fewer lithography layers than TSMC’s 1FET, and 20% fewer process steps. Therefore, our unit price is only $4700 per wafer, while TSMC’s 16nm cost is about $5200, and 10nm is as high as $8000.”

In the audience, Yu Dong of Huawei was already quickly calculating on his tablet: if Huawei phones switched entirely to Xinghuo 16nm chips, battery life could be improved by 40% for the same performance, cooling costs could be reduced by 30%, and the total cost of the device could be reduced by 15%.

For mobile phone manufacturers, this was a lethal temptation.