Samsung's demand for this batch of chips was also enormous. Firstly, Samsung's latest x-series phones needed these chips to achieve superior quality and compete in the market against mobile brands like Nokia and Motorola.
Secondly, Samsung was facing immense pressure domestically. Some individuals, either overly proud or extremely insecure, were vehemently criticizing Samsung. They claimed that despite receiving substantial funding from the country, Samsung was being surpassed by the Chinese in their core expertise of memory chips, which they deemed a disgrace to Koreans.
Concurrently, another narrative was being pushed: that China's chip technology was stolen from Samsung, and that the Chinese were shameful thieves. In essence, the entire nation of Korea was exerting pressure on Samsung from top to bottom, compelling them to produce more advanced memory chips within a short timeframe to decisively shut down the Chinese. This unrealistic demand caused Samsung considerable distress.
With no other recourse, ever since Samsung acquired the chips from Gangnam Group, almost all resources within their chip division had been dedicated to researching the technology within these chips. However, they still could not decipher its secrets. This led to the strategy of directly acquiring Gangnam Optoelectronics, a plan that ultimately failed due to mutual constraints.
However, their efforts were not entirely in vain. Samsung's representatives managed to purchase the personnel payroll and procurement lists from the chairman for a hefty sum of $1 million.
Following analysis by over a dozen elite members of Samsung, they unanimously concluded that Gangnam Group must have obtained some special material, and it was the advantage derived from this material that enabled them to produce such unimaginably advanced chips. This material was believed to be a compound that included诸 elements.
Why were they so certain?
Because researchers discovered that whenever Gangnam Group placed an order, the ratio of silicon wafers to pure 诸 was consistent. If they ordered a ton of wafers, they would invariably order 500 grams of 诸 elements.
Two tons would correspond to one kilogram. While there were minor fluctuations in the actual figures, this general proportion held true. This indicated that Gangnam Group procured materials based on a fixed ratio of these two substances.
Although their ordered materials also included a large quantity of carbon, its proportion was not fixed. Sometimes it was 1:100, other times 1:80, with no discernible pattern. It was clear that this was procured solely to obscure their true intentions.
It was precisely this meticulous observation that led Samsung Group to identify this new, mysterious material as something primarily based on 诸 elements – a monumental discovery.
Furthermore, through their investigation of the payroll, they made another significant finding: the individual responsible for researching this new material was likely a researcher named Li Dakang.
The timing of his various bonus awards aligned perfectly with the release dates of Gangnam Group's key research achievements. If Li Dakang was not the inventor of this miraculous material, they were willing to lose their heads.
Moreover, they had already found traces of Li Dakang, discovering that he was from the Guangming District of Jingzhou. While he hadn't participated in math Olympiads or physics competitions, his college entrance examination scores were exceptional, making him the top scorer in the region.
After graduating from university, he worked at the Chinese Physical Research Institute. His subsequent work history, however, remained obscure, with their investigation yielding very confusing results.
For instance, when they investigated Li Dakang's residential address, some individuals who had previously claimed to be his neighbors and had watched him grow up, later recanted when questioned days later, stating they were drunk and didn't know Li Dakang at all.
Simultaneously, places where Li Dakang's presence and records should have been found, such as his elementary, middle, and high schools, yielded no information about him. However, they unexpectedly discovered his name on a grade report from over a decade ago.
In summary, Li Dakang's profile was filled with perplexing details, as if the person existed, yet also seemed entirely absent, like an fabricated individual.
However, these discrepancies did not deceive Samsung's professionals. They expertly pointed out that these were undoubtedly efforts by the Chinese to conceal Li Dakang's existence, much like Yu Min, who remained unknown for over thirty years despite his crucial role in China.
Li Dakang was undoubtedly a similar figure, currently protected by the Gangnam Group and even the government.
Of course, this intelligence was of no value to Samsung, as they dared not engage in any clandestine activities within China. However, they could relay this important intelligence to their "American Daddy," leaving the rest to their American benefactors to handle.
While these two lists provided crucial intelligence, they did not equip Samsung with the capability to manufacture Gangnam's chips. Yet, Samsung continued to face immense domestic pressure. Thus, they decided to leverage a traditional Korean skill: as is well-known, Korea is a country that enjoys fabrication and claims others' creations as its own, a national characteristic that Samsung had naturally inherited.
Under intense domestic public opinion, Samsung's management felt compelled to act. However, replicating the technology was unrealistic. Therefore, they decided to feign possession of such technology.
This might sound utterly unbelievable, but it was not difficult to achieve. They discovered that while Gangnam Group's custom wafer material was excellent, their chip design technology was extremely poor.
Consequently, all they needed to do was to carefully polish off the various components etched onto the surface of Gangnam Group's custom wafers using photolithography equipment. Then, on these newly prepared wafers, they would etch Samsung's own memory chip architecture, thereby producing memory chips manufactured by Samsung itself.
Furthermore, because Samsung's chip design capabilities surpassed those of Gangnam Group, the resulting memory chips appeared to possess slightly superior performance, perfectly demonstrating Samsung's technological prowess.
Naturally, this approach brought numerous problems. Gangnam's wafers were already very thin, and further thinning significantly increased the probability of defects during etching, resulting in an extremely high scrap rate, with, on average, only one qualified wafer produced for every five.
Secondly, because the wafers' thinness exceeded industry standards, chips manufactured this way were highly prone to malfunctions during use, leading to data loss or even outright chip burnout, severely compromising product quality.
If memory chips like these were released, they would undoubtedly cause significant trouble for numerous companies.
However, Samsung was largely unconcerned about these issues, as they had no intention of mass-producing these memory chips in the first place. Their primary goal was merely to demonstrate to the international community and their own citizens that Samsung possessed more advanced technology, allowing them to regain face. As for mass production,
That was laughable. With a yield rate of only 1/5, coupled with the costs of various post-processing steps, the cost of a single memory chip would initially be more than eight times that of Gangnam Group's. If sales channel profits were factored in, the final selling price would likely be more than ten times that of Gangnam Group's chips, making them unmarketable.
However, this suited Samsung Group's intentions perfectly. They would be delighted if no one purchased these cutting-edge chips, as the high failure rate would likely tarnish Samsung's reputation beyond repair.
Of course, Samsung could not completely forgo mass production, as that would make them appear as merely laboratory experiments. Therefore, Samsung planned to purchase a large quantity of Gangnam's memory chips and then process all of them into their own proprietary chips.
This would allow Samsung Group to claim the mass production of hundreds of thousands of high-end chips. They would then sell these chips to their loyal partners and discreetly buy them back later.
This way, the chips would be sold, yet Samsung Group's reputation would remain unharmed – a perfect plan.
Consequently, Park Kang-hee was tasked with the business of importing a large batch of memory chips from Gangnam Group, with the requirement from above being at least one million units.
In conclusion, due to the immense demand for Gangnam chips from both sides, Samsung and Sony decided to join forces. They planned to collaboratively secure the majority of the supply the following day, leaving no opportunity for others.
And so, after an all-night endeavor, Gangnam Group's order conference finally commenced, held within the main auditorium of Gangnam Group's headquarters.
Naturally, Hwang Ho and Leng Zhiruo did not personally attend; a subordinate executive was responsible for presiding over the order conference.
At the outset, the executive concisely introduced, "The total order volume for our first batch of memory chips is 12 million units, which is the maximum production capacity currently achievable by Gangnam Optoelectronics."
"Four million units will be sold in the domestic market, and the remaining 8 million units will be sold in the international market. Shipping will commence from September of this year to March of next year. The second batch of chip order conference will be held at the end of March 2004!"
"An astonishing 12 million units!" Everyone present nodded in agreement, a smile appearing on their faces. The quantity was greater than they had anticipated. They had initially expected Gangnam Group to supply at most a few million units, but now there were 12 million units, far exceeding their expectations.
"Gangnam Group must have quite a few lithography machines to achieve such a production volume!" Park Kang-hee muttered to himself. This would require at least twenty or more lithography machines working simultaneously to attain such output.
Considering that Gangnam Group also needed to cater to its own internal use of memory chips, this production capacity was truly remarkable, posing them as a formidable competitor in the future.
"Minister Xu, why are there only 4 million units for the domestic market? What is Gangnam Group's intention?" a domestic distributor questioned indignantly, standing up.
"We believe the domestic market cannot absorb such a large volume!" Minister Xu replied with a smile. "However, our Chairman Hwang has stated that if the domestic market can truly absorb this quantity, he will fulfill everyone's requirements by allocating shipments directly from Gangnam Group's own demand."
"That's good then!" the distributor said with a pleased grin, immediately lightening the atmosphere.