515: Chapter 515 All in AMD

Steve Mollenkopf's words instantly piqued Shen Fei's interest.

The other party was truly heading down the right path!

Since that was the case, they could have a proper discussion.

"President Shen, we would like to cooperate with your side."

"Before we cooperate, I want to put our sincerity on the table."

"For every GPU sold in the future, we will pay Transsion a 14% technical service fee."

"We only hope that when we design our GPUs, we can obtain technical licenses from some smaller companies."

"But rest assured, externally we will claim it is Qualcomm's self-developed technology; there will absolutely be no flaws revealed."

The 14% rate was a figure Steve Mollenkopf had discussed with other researchers.

After all, if it were any higher, it would be impossible to hide from R&D, and it would easily… lead to problems.

As for why he was doing this, he knew very well that Qualcomm's own foundation in mobile GPUs made it impossible to catch up with AMD.

Rather than waiting for AMD to produce results and then get kicked out, it was better to give this money to Transsion and, incidentally, harvest some leeks.

As for failure, Qualcomm hadn't spent much money anyway, so it was all worth it.

But if he succeeded, he could secure his position as CEO and make a fortune.

Most importantly, if this path succeeded, he could comfortably act as a white glove in the future.

While he was frantically imagining things in his mind, the other side of the phone seemed to be weighing the pros and cons.

Just as he was about to ask, Shen Fei's voice came through again, with a tone that held a bit more approval:

"You are quite open-minded."

"14% is acceptable."

"We can provide you with an optimization plan for an open-source architecture."

"Some of the underlying code for Maxwell can also be opened up to you."

"Remember, you need to play the part completely. Hire people where you need to, build the labs you need to, and externally, you must put on a stance of being at odds with NVIDIA until the bitter end."

"Rest assured, I understand."

Steve Mollenkopf agreed, as he was quite familiar with this sort of thing.

"Externally, we will show an attitude of investing all our resources, going all in to push the schedule, and producing a product within a year."

"As for performance… we will manage to surpass AMD, but there will still be a certain gap with NVIDIA."

"Hmm."

Regarding this guarantee, Shen Fei only responded indifferently and didn't take it seriously.

After all, he knew that Qualcomm's subsequent desktop chips… could only be described as usable, but they were still a long way from being good.

"No need for big talk, just get it done."

"Also, remember that you are from the United States; you are expected to be the benchmark for countering Chinese tech companies."

"You must maintain this identity."

Steve Mollenkopf nodded again: "Chairman Shen, I have taken your teachings to heart."

After finishing the call, Steve jumped up immediately, because Qualcomm was finally going to have graphics card technology, and it wouldn't be long before they surpassed AMD.

After all… what did having strength matter if they still couldn't beat NVIDIA?

But now…

Those people in the White House still thought that betting on AMD would lead to the future, but in reality, they were nothing but a mob.

After all, Transsion's technological blockade was too strong; how could anyone possibly surpass them in graphics cards?

It was better to honestly pay patent fees like they were doing and develop their own technology.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side in Sunnyvale, California, AMD chose a different path: to be a good pawn.

The newly appointed CEO, Lisa Su, looked at the support agreement that had just been signed.

Of course, this included an exclusive support agreement.

The contract not only had no traps, but it even provided a direct subsidy of 1 billion USD, and the first installment of 200 million had already been transferred.

So this wasn't just a report; it was a plan.

"Everyone, is the situation clear now?"

Lisa Su tapped the table, and everyone woke up from their excitement.

"The federal government has given us a total of 2.5 billion USD in special subsidies, plus the group has allocated 2.5 billion USD, totaling 5 billion USD."

"This money will all be poured into the GPU business."

"We have only one goal: to produce a new architecture that benchmarks against NVIDIA within a year, and to reclaim 30% of the desktop graphics card market share within two years."

A low murmur of discussion immediately broke out in the conference room, and the technical staff were even more excited.

"We've finally waited for this day. With money, we can finally let go and work."

"Isn't NVIDIA just finding a good master who keeps burning money for them?"

"Damn it, their annual R&D funding equals five years of ours; how are we supposed to play?"

"That's right, that so-called new architecture is useless! I think it's purely because their manufacturing process has improved. If our new graphics cards use the 14nm process, our performance can catch up to them too."

"Transsion's foundry services are open. As long as we can design top-tier graphics cards, manufacturing won't be a problem."

"But will they protect NVIDIA and block our foundry channels?"

"Hahahaha, don't panic! Those are two separate business units with their own operations; why would they refuse us? As long as our order volume is large, they wouldn't dare."

By now, everyone in the conference room was excited; after all, with money, what couldn't they do?

Furthermore, during their conversation, they had attributed all the reasons for their past failures to a lack of funds…

Lisa Su felt something was off; after all, their previous failures were purely due to poor technology, but now everyone was in high spirits…

She couldn't dampen everyone's morale.

As long as they could work, that was fine.

"First, suppress your excitement. Our task this time is very heavy…"

"So, the R&D department will now be divided into two groups."

"Group One will continue to optimize the GCN architecture, tapping into the potential of the existing architecture, and release an upgraded flagship version after it's launched to stabilize the market."

"Then, Group Two will immediately start pre-research for a brand-new architecture, focusing on high-performance computing and ray tracing technology to build up next-generation technical reserves."

The engineers on-site immediately frowned; no one wanted to join Group One.

Lisa Su keenly noticed this, but fortunately, she was well prepared.

"The HR department will immediately launch a talent recruitment plan."

"All employee salaries will increase by 30%."

"Any engineers from NVIDIA or Intel who are willing to come, their compensation is fully negotiable."

She looked at the head of the M&A department again: "Also, that company LumenRay that I asked you to secure, how are the negotiations going?"

The M&A director immediately replied: "We have already contacted their company twice. Their final prototype technology is very forward-looking."

"There are several core engineers from SIGGRAPH in the team, but they are asking for a huge sum, demanding 120 million USD directly."

"However, we have evaluated it. If we were to develop this technology from scratch ourselves, it would take three years, whereas an acquisition would save us at least two years."

"It can narrow the gap between us and NVIDIA."

"Buy it!"

Hearing the name NVIDIA, Lisa Su did not hesitate at all.

"Acquire them for 120 million USD in cash. Sign the agreement within three days. Tell them that after the team joins AMD, their R&D budget will double, their staff will double, and I want their ray tracing technology to be implemented in the next-generation products."

"But isn't 120 million too high?"

The CFO couldn't help but advise: "Although our budget is sufficient, we must control costs."

"If we fall into one of Transsion's traps, that would be bad."