The Northern District of Port City is close to Peng City, separated only by a river.

Going there from Peng City isn't any more troublesome than going from Big Wave Bay, and the time it takes is similar.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom had a Port City license plate attached beforehand, reading the letters "su888," and below that, "A99999." The back seats had a massage function, making the ride comfortable.

Just like when he went to the mainland, nobody suspected Su Yehao of smuggling. He wouldn't lower himself to earn that pittance. It was even less likely heading south.

Customs clearance was done by simply showing his face, quickly completing the process.

The Northern District in September.

The trees were lush and green, with small hills in the distance, and not many towering buildings could be seen.

At first glance, it had a bit of a Silicon Valley feel. The sky was low, with fluffy white clouds. The economic development might not be as good as the city center, but the environment looked much more comfortable than places like Kowloon and Yau Tsim Mong.

Originally, Su Yehao tried to establish a semiconductor industrial park, but due to various reasons, the plan almost didn't pass.

Yuen Long, the Northern District, and Tai Po all expressed support. In addition, it was more convenient to supply water and electricity from the north, so he invested some money in these three places.

Land was cheaper in these areas, and it was okay to build some employee dormitories. If it were other popular locations, a group of real estate developers would go to great lengths to reduce supply and maintain high housing prices, preferring not to care about industrial upgrading and development, and not wanting their interests to be harmed.

Su Yehao couldn't afford to provoke them, so he kept his distance, too lazy to get entangled with those short-sighted guys.

Looking back now, he didn't choose the wrong place.

The wafer foundry under the Port City Microelectronics Group had already started production in July of this year. The factories were located in Yuen Long and Tai Po, while the Northern District was mainly a research center.

If he wasn't short on cash for the time being, Su Yehao actually wanted to build a science and engineering university similar to Stanford.

Unfortunately, the landlord's family didn't have enough surplus grain for the time being, so he could only cooperate with other schools to open more computer science programs and cultivate talent specifically for the semiconductor industry.

Because Su Yehao's investment was large enough, a number of Singaporean and Japanese companies came here specifically to build supporting factories. It was only a few hundred meters from the Fanling Golf Course, which has a history of more than 100 years, and several construction sites were underway.

When he arrived at the unmarked research center office building, a receptionist ran over to greet him and said enthusiastically, "Young Master Su, Dr. Lin just told me to take you to the office to rest for a while."

"What's Mr. Lin busy with?" Su Yehao had been here several times before. Since it was his own business, he seemed very relaxed.

The receptionist, with her ponytail, wearing a shirt and skirt, shook her head and replied, "I don't know. It seems like people came from the United States, and they've been busy with meetings these past few days."

As soon as he heard this, Su Yehao immediately guessed that they were from AsmL's American R&D center.

From last year to this year, he successively acquired AsmL shares, and his shareholding ratio quickly exceeded other shareholders, for which he also received letters from Washington.

In the first half of the year, he took Nangong Tian and Jiang Yu to Washington for more than half a month, traveling and working, attending parties to meet many people. Later, taking over AsmL was not a big problem.

After all, not many people really cared about AsmL. Nikon and Canon in Japan also had its products, and they were doing better than AsmL, which made it less important. As long as he promised not to cut off supplies to American semiconductor companies, other problems were easy to solve.

This was probably the time Su Yehao spent the most money on travel. He burned more than 20 million US dollars in more than half a month. He also signed long-term cooperation agreements with several lobbying companies and consulting companies, and hired some consultants at high prices, and donated some money to charitable foundations.

Fortunately, the trouble of acquiring AsmL was settled, which he considered worthwhile.

As for AsmL, needless to say, nobody cared about them. The management team was busy laying off employees and cutting salaries, and couldn't wait to find a big financial backer to rely on.

Even if there were some minor objections, they were settled by purchase orders amounting to more than 280 million US dollars. About 22% of the shares were acquired from the market and shareholders, and the remaining 15% of AsmL shares came from increased share financing for it...

Lin Baojian finished the meeting with a group of foreigners and came to the office to find Su Yehao.

These foreigners all knew that AsmL had a new owner, and some people came specifically to say hello. Social skills were universal everywhere. After all, only a few people were single-mindedly engaged in scientific research and didn't want to be promoted, get a raise, and climb up the ladder.

At this moment.

Dr. Lin Baojian took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and said:

"There has been great progress in the theoretical part. The reason why I asked to meet with you, President Su, is to talk to you about the problem of the experimental prototype. The total cost is likely to be much higher than expected. Many parts can only be developed and customized. The cost is enormous, so you need to be mentally prepared."

Su Yehao knew about these things before. The research and demonstration of EUV lithography was more difficult than reaching the sky. After Lin Baojian cooperated with AsmL, he changed to re-researching adding a layer of water between the lens and the photoresist. After the refraction of the water, the wavelength of light was changed from 193nm to 132nm.

The progress of this project was easier than fully understanding EUV lithography. Through cooperation with Canon, some foundations had already been laid, and now some actual verification work was still needed.

The investment finally saw a glimmer of hope. Not seeking to reach the sky in one step, it would be good to make some progress.

More than 100 million US dollars had been burned in the past six months. Nearly a whole Jin Mao Building was burned away by Lin Baojian and his team, and even Su Yehao felt a little pressure.

At this time, Su Yehao asked nervously, "What is the probability of success for the immersion lithography machine that you and AsmL are working on? How much more money needs to be invested?"

"...It's hard to say for the time being. The theoretical part has basically been achieved. Since some things haven't been actually operated, I don't dare say it's 100%. After discussing it with AsmL, they agreed to purchase more than 55% of the parts and raw materials in the United States in order to join the euvLLC organization. Fortunately, this technology is mainly ours, so it's no problem to make a prototype here. It will probably cost about 80 million US dollars."

Hearing this number, Su Yehao breathed a sigh of relief and smiled:

"That's okay. Nikon and Canon have developed 157-nanometer lithography machines, and they've burned several times the money. We're already saving money here."

Lin Baojian was a little worried at first, but he instantly relaxed when he heard this, and said with a smile:

"The technology is in our hands. If it proves feasible and we produce a lithography machine that can be mass-produced, AsmL will have to pay us patent fees for every product it sells in the future. Besides, you are its major shareholder, so both sides will make money. It is estimated that it will be possible to get the money back quickly. I feel that there will be no problem this time. It is estimated that it will take four to five months to get the final result."

"No problem, I'm still young, I can wait."

"..."

Lin Baojian tapped the table with his finger, hesitated for a moment, and added, "President Su, I feel that we have been tricked. Immersion technology can work, but Canon has been guiding us towards extreme ultraviolet light sources. If we hadn't cooperated on the extreme ultraviolet project, we might have had results a year ago."

Su Yehao was stunned.

At first, he felt that it didn't make sense, and then he thought that the immersion technology patent had been in his hands from the beginning, while Canon had initially invested more than 700 million US dollars to improve their lithography machine.

Thinking of this, his face almost turned green. It was really possible that he had been tricked and deliberately led into a pit.