489: Chapter 489 The Three Sangs Who Cut Their Own Flesh! The Regretful CMA

"The entire process will take at least six months, and if the damage is severe, it might take even longer.

And all of this depends on... whether ASML has enough spare parts? If not, we might have to halt production."

Just as Lee Jae-yong was silent, Liu Deyin on the other end of the phone delivered another piece of bad news.

"Six months!"

Upon hearing this, Lee Jae-yong was so angry that he threw his phone aside.

"Although those three lines aren't our main production lines, halting them for six months... what will we do about our clients? What about our orders?!"

Meanwhile, the person in charge of the wafer factory standing nearby was sweating profusely.

It wasn't three lines!

A couple of days ago, because of the good profitability, they had retrofitted two more 22nm production lines... and these weren't old, clunky machines, but brand-new lines.

There was even one line that was brand new and just about to go into production!

"The only solution now is to arrest Zhou Mingyuan."

Liu Deyin's voice came over the phone once again...

But Lee Jae-yong let out a long sigh! Arrest him? With what grounds?

The other party never left the country, and the technology transfer agreement included an indemnity clause stating that there was no guarantee it would be compatible with all production lines.

They couldn't even find a reason to file a lawsuit; it was a case of 'biting the bullet'—suffering in silence.

But just as Lee Jae-yong was trying to find a way to keep the news under wraps, rumors began to leak out.

After all, with five production lines halted at each company, totaling ten lines, this was no small matter.

Soon, the global semiconductor industry knew that Samsung's Suwon factory, and even TSMC, were having problems; advanced 22nm capacity had been significantly reduced, and delivery schedules were indefinitely delayed.

Clients who had placed orders with Samsung panicked instantly, especially major clients like Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Broadcom. Their yield rates were already poor, and now with production cuts... to say they had no complaints would be a lie!

Just then, the Transsion wafer factory released an official announcement.

The announcement stated that, to give back to global clients, and because the third line of the second phase of the wafer factory had officially entered mass production and construction of the third factory had begun, they were offering a major reward to global clients.

For the 14-28nm full-process foundry business, quotes were being reduced by 15%, capacity was doubling, and delivery cycles were shortened by 30%. They welcomed new and old clients from around the world to discuss cooperation!!

The price cuts and capacity expansion happened exactly at the moment the other two companies had their production disasters; if there were no inside information involved, that would be impossible.

However, although Samsung and TSMC suffered, they did manage to drive down China Star's prices! That was still worth acknowledging!

Qualcomm, which had been gradually becoming a bit of a sycophant, immediately sent a team to negotiate with Transsion, transferring 35% of their capacity directly. MediaTek also transferred a small portion to test the waters...

Guangzhou Transsion Headquarters.

"Boss, how was my acting?"

"You acted very well!"

Shen Fei, Factory Manager Yuan Guoqing, Professor Li Jiahui, Zhou Mingyuan, and Huang Tianya were actually in the office reviewing the situation.

As for why Huang Tianya was here... naturally, it was because he had harvested another small batch of leeks!

"Now those two companies have each lost at least ten billion USD. With the six-month capacity expansion period and client attrition, they won't be able to recover for at least a year."

"Who told them to be so greedy? They deserve this outcome!"

"Now the price gap between us and TSMC is only 5%. I heard that old guy Morris Chang is preparing to make a trip to the mainland! He's currently wrangling with the authorities in the capital."

"I estimate that the higher-ups won't give them a very warm welcome. Back when we didn't have the technology, they all acted like big shots. Now that we do... they're all coming back."

"What do you call this? ...This is called 'late-arriving affection'!"

"I didn't expect you to be so poetic, Professor Li. But it's not affection; he just knows he's dying."

Shen Fei nodded, suddenly recalling the pie in the sky that Morris Chang had painted in his previous life:

Moving all of TSMC's advanced capacity to the mainland; after all, they were one family, and he, Morris Chang, also had a red heart.

But it was a pity that even by 2040, he never got to eat that pie.

"Mingyuan has performed a great service this time, a special meritorious service! I'll award you a bonus of 5 million first, and the rest will be paid out with your year-end bonus."

"It's all thanks to your planning, Mr. Shen. I just executed the plan. Besides, they were just too greedy!"

Zhou Mingyuan quickly waved his hand.

Just then, Li Qing knocked on the door and walked in, handing over the latest investigation report.

"Boss, there's movement on Xiaomi's drone project. I heard Lei Jun personally went to visit DJI, but the founding team of DJI unanimously decided to refuse the meeting!"

"Haha!"

"Haha, it looks like they don't want to be the second Huang Zhang! Back then, Lei Jun went around and directly poached their entire R&D team. Now he wants to try the same thing... but it didn't work."

Shen Fei also laughed. One could only say that history is always astonishingly similar; even though the Xiaomi drone project was advanced by some time, Wang Tao made the same decision.

"However, Mr. Shen... although Lei Jun failed, Department Head Liu De's progress is going quite smoothly. They have currently prototyped a drone, poached R&D teams from a few small companies, combined them, and are now desperately pushing the algorithms. They've already started building hype regarding the price: 'Affordable drones, breaking DJI's monopoly.'"

"Lei Jun is the same as ever, always thinking about taking the shortcut of cost-effectiveness..."

"It's fine. The water in the drone industry is much deeper than he imagines!"

Meanwhile, on the other side, news of Samsung and TSMC being targeted reached the meeting room of the England CMA headquarters.

Edward, the supervisor in charge of the antitrust investigation into Transsion phones, was already panicking. He didn't know why, despite having the support of the United States and a bunch of pawns, he couldn't beat Transsion.

Especially with Samsung and TSMC—neither of the two plans succeeded, and instead, they had quite a bit of flesh cut off by the other side!

This was essentially a joint operation by everyone... to put it bluntly, the CMA was just the blade charging at the front.

Now that the person holding the blade had suffered a severe wound themselves, how could the blade continue to strike?

It was likely that the so-called "Hawk-Eye Alliance" would become a joke once again.

What made his scalp tingle even more was the trouble in England itself.

Ever since the Transsion England subsidiary was sealed off, the Korean-English side hadn't engaged in any lobbying other than normal communication with lawyers.

They simply transferred a batch of security personnel from other branches!

This group of security personnel was entirely drawn from Transsion's Africa base; each one was tall and strong, wearing black uniforms, and they walked around the CMA building promptly every day.

And for the past half-month, the range of their "walks" had been continuously expanding.

Moreover, the previous single squad had grown into five squads. They still insisted on not blocking the doors or making noise; they just walked back and forth along the sidewalk, trip after trip!

The nearby residents and office workers had never seen such a spectacle before?