novelones Chapter 238 Magwel's Success
Chapter 238 Magwel's Success
July 9th, 9:21 AM. Pudong Airport.
The reporter, wearing a sun hat and carrying a long lens, squatted down again on the side where the plane had appeared. He had rushed over from Minhang at six o'clock this morning. Before he arrived at six o'clock, he had received another call from a fire dealer: "Nine o'clock this morning, Pudong Airport. Leuven Magwel."
He'd heard the name Magwel in He Zhaoming's segment twenty-eight hours earlier. Of the six companies mentioned in He Zhaoming's segment, Magwel was the only one still relevant today. Magwel obtained a Sentaurus compatibility license in 1999, was sued by Kentech in 2007, and has remained a shell company ever since. A shell company isn't dead. It's just that the 1999 license is still registered under the company's name.
At 9:23, the exit gate door opened.
Three people in a row.
The man in the middle, sixty-two years old, tall and thin, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, is Mathieu Bellata, the current president of Magwel in Leuven. Beside him is his wife, who is also the only other member of Magwel's board of directors. The couple flew from Leuven, transited in Frankfurt, landed in Shanghai, and then took a train to Suzhou in the afternoon. Behind them is Magwel's technical director.
三个人。Magwel现在总共走动人员8位,董事会2位、技术1位、法务1位、后勤4位。今天上午九点,Magwel董事会与技术总监同时出现在浦东机场出限机口。
With these three appearing at the same time, Magwel now only has four logistics staff and one legal counsel left at the company.
The reporter took that picture.
The three people's backs were visible, along with their three suitcases. The airport LED sign behind them showed the previous flight number: the one that departed Leuven at 5:53 AM and landed at Pudong Airport at 8:56 AM. The exit sign behind them read "Leuven (BRU)".
After filming, he posted on the CBN (China Business Network) backstage.
9:29.
The post was titled: "The President and Mrs. Magwel, along with their Chief Technology Officer, arrived in Shanghai and then traveled to Suzhou by private car."
The post was forwarded 200,000 times within 30 minutes.
Among the 200,000 reposts, one comment received 120,000 likes.
"Qifeng Academy received a guest at nine o'clock this morning who had been waiting for twenty-five years to arrive."
At 3 PM that same afternoon. Site selection site for the Weilan Materials Calibration Center, Suzhou Industrial Park.
Mathieu Bellata and her husband, along with their technical director, met with Su Chen, Lin Wei, XCMG, and Tao Bingwen as negotiators for an existing main cooperation project of the AVIC MEMS joint project.
They talked for sixty-six minutes.
Sixty-six minutes later, Su Chen took out a three-page document. At the top of the document was a line of text: "Weilan-Magwel Joint Use Framework Agreement (Intent)".
Bellata looked at it.
He saw the sixth item on the second page. The sixth item stated: "The Sentaurus-compatible license held by Magwel in 1999, the sole and permanent right to use within mainland China, has been permanently and exclusively transferred to Vilan. Magwel retains all rights."
He looked up.
His wife was worried about him.
Before taking off from Leuven this morning, the couple landed with a letter of consent from both directors of the Magwel board: today's negotiations would be based on the opinions of the couple. The board would be composed of two directors. Their trip this morning was a gesture of agreement from all the shareholders at the board table behind them.
Before takeoff this morning, they had another document in their hands. This other document was a sentence. It was sent to them at 5 a.m. by their company's only legal counsel: "After Magwel takes off at 9 a.m. this morning, the only thing that matters for the company's 1999 asset that might be liquidated is this trip."
Bellata reached into her vest pocket and took out a pen.
He signed his name in the Magwel section of the 3D illustration on the third page.
His wife took the pen and moved on to the next column.
At 5:21 PM, in a makeshift negotiation room in Suzhou Industrial Park, a framework agreement (letter of intent) for joint use between Magwel and Vilan was signed.
The agreement is primarily an expression of intent; the formal legal text still needs to be completed by the legal departments of Vilan and Magwel before the 15th of this month. However, once the expression of intent is signed, Vilan will obtain the sole right to use the 1999 Sentaurus compatibility license within mainland China.
In 1999, this license could only read 150 nanometers.
150纳米跟不上7纳米、5纳米。但是启明项目不一定需要150纳米这一份许可能读出什幺节点库。启明项目需要的是这份许可能读出来的那一套Sentaurus节点库语法结构。语法结构,从150纳米到7纳米、5纳米,不会变。变的是节点库背后那一堆参数。参数,薇澜驻厂工程师那几台机背后那一堆原始文件里,能补。
This isn't reading. This is not being able to read. It's not being able to read at all. It's spelling behind not being able to read.
Behind the seemingly simple assembly, the Qiming project doesn't require the Sentaurus node library. This isn't because Qiming can't read it; from the very beginning, the Qiming project didn't rely on reading, but on assembling.
It was 5:31. Tao Bingwen looked up.
He arrived in Suzhou with Su Chen, Lin Wei, and Xu Gong, as the leader of the third-ranked group on quantum correction and above nonlinear extension. He didn't sit at the table during his 3 PM presentation this afternoon; he was the one behind him. But now he's raised his head.
He understands.
The Qiming Project wasn't about reading from the beginning; it was about piecing things together. And the underlying framework wasn't a node library. It was the first of the five directions that Qifeng Institute released this morning at 10 AM: "Multiphysics Coupled Algebraic Layer." Behind the Multiphysics Coupled Algebraic Layer, that initial "beginning" could assemble a syntactic structure for a Sentaurus node library. Once that syntactic structure was assembled, the parameters from the 150nm license could be filled in. After filling them in, the Qiming Project could then produce 7nm and 5nm technologies.
This isn't Qiming walking towards Qiming. This is Qifeng Academy walking towards Qiming.
This isn't Qiming going up to grab something from behind Qifeng Academy. It's Qifeng Academy grabbing Qiming from behind.
This is "anti-calcium".
Tao Bingwen lowered his head.
He is sixty-one years old this year. He jumped from the Institute of Microelectronics, thinking that he was doing it for Qiming. At 5:31 p.m. this afternoon, he realized that he was not jumping for Qiming. He was jumping for Qifeng Institute.
Qifengyuan is "thousand". Qiming is "matter".
-
That same night. In Mountain View, California, in the CEO's office on the sixth floor of Synaptics' headquarters.
Outside the glass facade of Synopsys headquarters, the California afternoon sun shone brightly on July 9th. Harvey Lindbergh had landed twenty-five minutes earlier. He had taken off from Pudong Airport at 1:36 this morning. He hadn't slept during the five-hour flight. During those five hours, he had reviewed the patent numbers on the 172-item list in the stack of documents behind him three times.
He was now sitting behind the desk in the CEO's office. He held his phone in his hand. A notification from the Shanghai branch of NewThink was displayed in front of him: "At 5:21 PM, Magwel's Bellata and his wife, with the dual consent of the Magwel board of directors, signed a framework agreement (letter of intent) for the joint use of Vilan and Magwel."
He looked at his phone for fifty-two seconds.
He raised his other hand.
He thought that by taking out those three fingers at 10:33 AM yesterday, he could suppress Qiming. He thought that by going viral for his face at 8 PM last night, he could take down that piece of flesh behind Qifeng Academy.
He was wrong.
He didn't chop off three fingers. He chopped off the flesh behind those three fingers. That flesh wasn't Qifeng Academy. That flesh was the piece of flesh that Qiming could walk up from behind, the piece that led to the Sentaurus node library syntax structure. Magwel's 150-nanometer license could fill in the parameters. He superficially thought Magwel was an empty shell. He was wrong. Behind Magwel wasn't a company. Behind Magwel was a license held in his name from 1999. Wei Lan obtained that license after 5:21 PM this afternoon.
He couldn't lift it.
It wasn't that he couldn't lift it up because he didn't take action. It was because, starting in 2007, he personally pushed Kenten into that lawsuit, personally crushing Magwel into an empty shell. After crushing it into an empty shell, he thought he had permanently suppressed the 1999 license behind Magwel.
Pressing it down doesn't mean taking it away. Pressing it down means keeping it suspended.
It's still hanging there; the license is still registered under Magwel's name.
It is still under their name. At 5:21 pm this afternoon, Bellata and her husband, as board members of Magwel, agreed to exclusively transfer the sole right to use the product within mainland China to Weilan.
He held onto that lawsuit since 2007, but that was holding onto the company, not the license.
He understands now.
He shifted his body slightly to the side.
He picked up the internal telephone on the table. This phone could only make outgoing calls to three numbers.
He wiped his forehead.
He dialed the first number.
The number that connected was: Antonio Valentine, CEO of Kenteng. Antonio Valentine is currently at the East Coast of the United States, near the Foxconn Hospital, at 5:36 PM this afternoon. Harvey said to him: "The Magwel license from 1999."
Antonio paused for twenty-five seconds on his end.
Twenty-five seconds later, Antonio said, "Harvey."
"explain."
"You pushed that lawsuit in 2007 away."
"Yes."
"Keng Teng has listened to advice," Antonio said, "but this time, Keng Teng won't back down."
Harveyton lived there.
Why?
"Back in 2007," Antonio said, "Clinton left because Synaptics held something from the cross-licensing deal that Clinton currently has. You took it, and Clinton had no choice but to leave. This afternoon, Synaptics still holds that thing. But this afternoon is different. This afternoon, the Qiming Project isn't going through Sentaurus. The Qiming Project is fighting from behind. They're fighting from behind, and once Clinton gets in, Clinton can't get out."
He paused for a moment.
"Harvey," Antonio said, "that 30 billion from Qiming on June 6th this year didn't go through Qiming's products. That 30 billion went through Qifeng Institute's products this morning at 10:00. Qifeng Institute went behind, while Kengteng didn't."
He paused for a moment.
"You walk alone."
""
Harvey held the microphone. He gently grasped it with his hand.
He dialed a second number.
The number that connected was to Raymond Skaggs, Chairman of the Boston Global IP Council. Raymond was in his office in Boston's slums at 5:40 p.m. Harvey told him: "The Magwel license from 1999."
Raymond paused for thirty-six seconds on his end.
Thirty-six seconds later, Raymond said, "Harvey."
"explain."
"After you took those three fingers from Qifeng Academy this morning," Raymond said, "at 5:30 last night... the five committee members on the committee table behind the three chairmen in Boston all made a move simultaneously."
"Five?"
"Harvey," Raymond said, "that guy at the boardroom behind you, after 2024, which one of them couldn't resist making a move against you? You called him this afternoon, and he didn't answer. It's not that he didn't want to answer; it's that he agreed."
Harvey lowered his head.
He understands.
After 2024, the five committee members on the table behind him made a simultaneous sound, meaning that if he couldn't get his hands on the piece behind Wei Lan this afternoon, he might not be able to keep his seat on the conference table behind him next year or the year after.
He was holding a microphone.
Outside the glass window in front of him, the California afternoon sun was still shining on July 9th. The sunlight was still there, but he couldn't lift it.
He gently put down the microphone.
He dialed a third number.
The number that was answered was his assistant.