Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 61 The Once King

"Young Su General Manager, sorry to keep you waiting."

"Not at all, President Chen, please," Su Yuanshan said with a warm smile, shaking hands with Chen Daohua. His gaze then shifted to the young woman standing behind Chen Daohua. "And this is?"

"My name is Chen Jing," the girl said, wearing a purple trench coat over a white turtleneck sweater. Her face was serene and beautiful. Seeing Su Yuanshan hesitate slightly, she gave a polite smile and extended her hand openly: "Young Su General Manager, you are truly outstanding at such a young age."

Su Yuanshan shook her hand lightly and noticed that her hand was cold. He smiled and shook his head: "You flatter me. Please, come in."

After a round of polite greetings, Chen Daohua glanced first at Lin Yonggu before turning his bright and burning gaze toward Su Yuanshan.

Su Yuanshan understood.

This man, who had built SOYO (Mei Jie) from scratch six years ago, was now harboring grand ambitions.

Thanks to his past experience at Intel, Su Yuanshan had interacted with several motherboard manufacturers and knew quite a bit about their histories.

Especially about SOYO — a company Chen Daohua had founded, which, by the year 2000, stubbornly abandoned the domestic Chinese market and attempted to shift fully toward the West.

The result?

They failed miserably, losing out not only to other rivals from the same island like ASUS and MSI, but also facing intense competition from Western brands like ELSA and EVGA — which, compared to the local giants, could only be considered small players.

By 2003, Chen Daohua had tried to return to the Chinese mainland, only to find the landscape had completely changed.

ASUS had become the prestigious "Asustek," with Gigabyte, MSI, Zotac, and Pine (Palit) closely following behind.

Even the OEM market was completely dominated by ECS — back then, even the fantasy company Su Yuanshan had worked with used only ECS motherboards.

Thus, this company — once one of the earliest professional motherboard brands from the island — quietly faded into history, even selling off its trademark a few years later.

But now…

SOYO was still at its peak, the pioneering brand that had introduced the DIY concept to the region.

What strange wind had blown to make Mr. Chen Daohua suddenly want to build a factory in the mainland at this time?

...

"I don't know much about motherboards," Su Yuanshan said, holding a cup of tea with both hands, a faint smile on his slightly thin face.

"But I have certainly heard of SOYO.

It's currently the largest and most influential motherboard manufacturer on the island.

The fact that you dared to print your own logo on motherboards and stand up to giants like Compaq and IBM — President Chen, you are a hero in the eyes of us technical folks."

"Haha! Compared to you, the legendary genius who stunned Las Vegas, I'm nothing," Chen Daohua laughed heartily.

After using Yuanchip's EDA tools, Chen Daohua had realized just how much power stood behind this boyish-looking young man.

Moreover, he knew that this young man had shaken Las Vegas last year and had been hailed by foreigners as the "magic boy."

Receiving praise from someone like Su Yuanshan made Chen Daohua very happy.

But very quickly, he grew serious:

"Young Su General Manager, we're all technical people here. Let's not waste time with mutual flattery."

Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded:

"Agreed.

Then, please, President Chen, share your thoughts.

I'm very happy to see talented people like you coming to invest in the mainland.

The local government will be thrilled too.

But based on current domestic consumption levels...

the market still lags far behind the West."

"True," Chen Daohua nodded naturally.

"Right now, the PC market is concentrated mainly in Europe, America, Japan, and the Four Asian Tigers."

"But precisely because of the Four Tigers' economic boom, labor costs on the island have become ridiculously high."

Upon hearing this, Su Yuanshan immediately understood.

Even though he had always been deeply involved in technical fields in his past life, he had heard stories of how wages on the island had stagnated for thirty years.

Currently, the island was experiencing its most rapid period of economic development.

Even an old security guard earned about 20,000 New Taiwan dollars a month — about 5,000 RMB.

And a technician working in a motherboard factory could easily expect a starting salary of 40,000 New Taiwan dollars.

Meanwhile, back in the mainland...

well, without counting project bonuses, the basic salary of a Yuanchip technician was just over 1,000 RMB.

And yet, Yuanchip was already offering the highest salaries in the entire country.

"That's why I plan to first set up a motherboard factory here to test the waters,"

Chen Daohua said, pausing slightly before looking straight at Su Yuanshan.

"If things go well, we'll gradually move our entire production line here."

"But right now, we know very little about the mainland's policies or environment..."

"I see." Su Yuanshan nodded thoughtfully.

"President Chen, it's like this:

The mainland is pushing reforms very aggressively.

There will be plenty of preferential policies."

"As for the environment, just come with me tomorrow and take a look yourself."

"Shenzhen is a Special Economic Zone.

And during the Spring Festival—"

"We heard about that," Chen Daohua interrupted quickly.

Su Yuanshan laughed:

"Seems like your side's intelligence network is pretty good."

"Pfft..."

Standing by quietly all this time, Chen Jing couldn't help but laugh, quickly covering her mouth and casting an apologetic glance at Su Yuanshan.

Su Yuanshan smiled at her, then continued:

"So, if you want to build a factory, I highly recommend Shenzhen."

"If you're still worried, you can partner with Yuanchip.

After all, we already have a branch in Shenzhen and have established good relationships with the local electronics factories."

Chen Daohua kept nodding, his eyes gradually lighting up.

This was exactly why he had dragged Lin Yonggu to meet Su Yuanshan —

there was no other company that could match Yuanchip's dominance in the EDA field and its deep connections with electronics factories.

And a motherboard factory would require huge quantities of components.

Even though domestic components weren't yet on par with Japan's, this actually fit perfectly into Chen Daohua's long-term strategy —

split the motherboard market into high-end and low-end.

Sell high-end boards to Europe, America, and Japan.

Sell mid-to-low-end boards to the Four Tigers and developing countries.

Finishing his tea, Su Yuanshan finally looked Chen Daohua directly in the eye and said:

"Besides, there's a famous economist named James who once said,

'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.'

And Yuanchip, well...

we also have some chip design capabilities."

"In the future, we could form a complementary design relationship with your island factories."

Chen Daohua hadn't expected Su Yuanshan to be so straightforward.

He immediately said, with great earnestness:

"Good!

Then it's decided!

When shall we inspect the site?"

"Anytime," Su Yuanshan said casually.

"I'll be staying around here for about a week."

"How about tomorrow?"

Seeing the urgency in Chen Daohua's eyes, Su Yuanshan chuckled:

"Sure.

You're the guest — whatever works for you."

Everyone laughed together.

"But President Chen," Su Yuanshan said more seriously,

"Yuanchip is currently building an electronics factory and a technology park.

So... the main investment for the new plant will have to come from your side."

Chen Daohua immediately suppressed his smile and frowned:

"Can't we get a loan?"

"If foreign investors ask for loans the moment they land,

it'll leave a very bad impression on the local government," Su Yuanshan said, spreading his hands.

"You have to understand —

the country is still very poor.

They're desperate for investors like you."

"Compared to Yuanchip, we're nothing but beggars,"

Chen Daohua joked self-deprecatingly.

"President Chen, you're being too modest."

Chen Daohua smiled, then glanced at his younger sister:

"Alright, let's not rush.

Let's inspect the environment first."

(End of Chapter 61)

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