Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 41 Our Journey Is to the Sea of Stars

In the living room of the suite booked for the delegation, a group of people laughed freely.

The coffee table was piled with KFC fast food and drinks, people either sitting or standing casually around the room, munching on chicken legs and hamburgers while commenting on the taste.

At that moment, a knock came at the door—representatives from several other Chinese companies attending the exhibition came to congratulate Yuanxin.

The room was soon packed with over twenty people, forcing Su Yuanshan and Xi Xiaoding to stand up again and exchange pleasantries.

Finally, after politely seeing off the opportunistic visitors, Director Yu sat down next to Su Yuanshan, smiling warmly.

"So, what's your plan moving forward?"

Su Yuanshan tossed away his chicken wing bone and wiped his hands.

Smiling, he said, "Set up a branch office here, and start selling directly."

Director Yu hesitated a moment, then asked, "How much foreign exchange do you expect?"

"Hard to say exactly... maybe tens of millions of dollars?" Su Yuanshan replied casually.

The delegation members all gasped quietly.

At present, China's total foreign exchange reserves were less than $20 billion, and Yuanxin alone could potentially bring in several tens of millions.

Such an achievement would be worth writing into the history books.

"Keep it up! Strive to become a world-class company and show the foreigners what we're made of!"

Director Yu patted Su Yuanshan's shoulder with genuine enthusiasm.

**

After some more casual chatting, Su Yuanshan and the others returned to their own room.

Chen Haoming and Qin Si came along too.

Once the door was locked, Qin Si took out a folder densely filled with business cards and contacts—without even counting, just glancing at it showed there were easily over a hundred.

Su Yuanshan flipped through it briefly and smiled at Qin Si.

"Sister Qin Si, how about joining our company?"

Qin Si smiled back and glanced at her boyfriend.

"But my green card is EB-2. If I change jobs, your new company can't sponsor a green card right away—it would take at least a year."

"Then we'll start with a business visa, and later sponsor a green card for a senior executive," Su Yuanshan said, grinning.

"You've seen it yourself—we're standing at the peak of the industry, surely stronger than some tiny unknown investment firm?"

Qin Si laughed in exasperation.

"You can't call Morgan Stanley a tiny investment firm!"

"Haha, that's tactical belittling," Su Yuanshan teased, then turned serious.

"But really—you should think about it."

He looked at Xi Xiaoding, who showed a helpless expression.

Su Yuanshan knew Xi Xiaoding didn't really want to stay in the U.S. permanently—

he preferred to return to China to continue developing Yuanxin's next-generation EDA.

The truth was, only Xi Xiaoding could remain long-term overseas.

Su Yuanshan and Yang Yiwen were both on short-term business visas (one-month validity).

Xi Xiaoding, however, had secured a green card during his Ph.D.—and not just any green card, but an EB-1B, Outstanding Researcher/Professor green card.

And it wasn't tied to any specific company job offer, so even though he had declined IBM's offer, his green card remained valid.

"If I stay here long-term, what about the ongoing development of EDA?" Xi Xiaoding frowned.

"You better not tell me you want me doing version upgrades over here—that would waste my time just defending against industrial spies."

Su Yuanshan knew that wasn't feasible.

He smiled. "Just stay until next year. During this period, focus on basic services and training the new team.

If you have spare energy, you can work on side projects.

Next year, return to China—the new science park project will be waiting for you."

Mentioning the science park made Xi Xiaoding smile.

He thought about it and nodded.

"Fine. I'll finish the current EDA work here. As for the new development team... Jiang Wanchao should do well."

Jiang Wanchao, a Tsinghua master's graduate who joined Yuanxin around the same time as Li Mingliu, was more steady compared to the aggressive Li.

After Li Mingliu had been pulled into Su Yuanshan's team, Jiang had become Xi Xiaoding's top assistant.

"Alright then. I'll return with the delegation. Sister Yiwen will stay here until the paperwork is finalized to help you set everything up."

Then Su Yuanshan turned to Qin Si again.

"Sister Qin Si, are you sure you won't help us?"

Qin Si coughed lightly.

"I'll give you an answer tomorrow."

...

Later that night, after everyone had returned to their rooms, Su Yuanshan couldn't resist flipping through the contacts folder again.

To him, each contact wasn't just a phone number—it was a promissory note.

That afternoon, after he had gone to rest, Yuanxin's booth had been swarmed by engineers.

Once it became clear that Yuanxin planned to open a branch in Silicon Valley, almost every visiting company left a business card.

Roughly estimated, just the companies that left contacts could account for more than a thousand full license sales.

At a rate of $100,000 per full license per year, that afternoon alone represented potential revenues exceeding $100 million.

"We must expand the market aggressively," Su Yuanshan muttered, frowning.

Last year, the global semiconductor market was about $50 billion.

This year, it would reach about $60 billion.

Even using future proportions, the EDA market should already be worth around $1.2 billion.

One hundred million in revenue was great—but still far from enough to match Yuanxin EDA's true status.

However, the semiconductor industry had yet to mature into deep vertical segments.

EDA's profit potential was still relatively untapped.

In the future, EDA revenue would mainly come from service-based projects, not just license sales.

The next day, Su Yuanshan packed his luggage and handed it to Professor Li Gaoliang for safekeeping, slipping him $3,000 in cash quietly.

The delegation would remain in Las Vegas for another three days, both to deepen corporate relationships and simply to enjoy a rare overseas trip.

Then the five of them boarded a plane to Santa Clara Valley—better known as Silicon Valley.

On the flight, Qin Si gave her formal answer: she would join Yuanxin's U.S. branch.

"Are we keeping the name Yuanxin over here?" she asked.

"In English, it's hard to pronounce. In Chinese, it's fine."

Su Yuanshan looked at Xi Xiaoding.

"Senior Brother, any thoughts?"

"Whatever. Call it Su Yuanshan and Friends," Xi said, gazing lazily at the clouds outside the window.

"..."

After thinking for a moment, Su Yuanshan said:

"Our branch here will be a wholly owned subsidiary under Xinghai Technology."

"So, let's call it Our Conquest is the Sea of Stars—OCSS."

Xinghai Technology was an offshore company Su Yuanshan had registered through an agent in Hong Kong, based in the Cayman Islands.

His vision was that Xinghai would eventually have subsidiaries scattered all over the globe.

"I agree! I'm a Legend of the Galactic Heroes fan!" Yang Yiwen said, raising her hand excitedly.

"You're the boss, it's your call," Qin Si said with a smile.

"I'm an outsider, no opinion," Chen Haoming shrugged—he still had another year before graduation and was busy battling his thesis.

"Whatever," Xi Xiaoding muttered casually, before glancing at Chen Haoming.

"You better hurry up and graduate. Yuanxin's going to accelerate next year."

Su Yuanshan laughed heartily.

Xi Xiaoding was probably the one who understood his ambition best—better even than Qin Weimin.

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