Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

190: Chapter 190 Cultural Exchange of the Spark Expeditionary ForceMunich Airport · February 19

10:00 AM German time, Munich Airport, Terminal 2.

Infineon sent three buses to pick them up, with the HR Director personally leading the team.

But when he saw the crowd walking out, he was stunned.

Two hundred Chinese engineers, wearing uniform dark blue Spark work uniforms, carried backpacks and dragged suitcases.

Their eyes were bloodshot (after a 12-hour flight), but they were energetic and lined up neatly.

The team leader was a young woman with a ponytail and black-rimmed glasses, looking under thirty.

She walked up to the HR Director and said in fluent German, ”Hello, I am Chen Xin, team leader of the Spark Electronic Design Automation tool development group and leader of this support team.”

The director shook her hand: ”Welcome. Do you... need to rest first?”

”No need,” Chen Xin shook her head. ”We’ll go straight to the design center. From now on, we will teach you one-on-one. In seven days, we will make you fall in love with Shennong.”

She turned around and said to the team in Chinese, ”Split into groups according to the plan: Group A to Infineon, Group B to Bosch, and Group C to BMW. Move out!”

Two hundred people responded in unison: ”Yes!”

The buses headed toward the city center. On the bus, the European colleagues curiously sized up these Chinese people.

A German engineer whispered to a colleague, ”They look so young.”

”But there’s a light in their eyes,” the colleague said. ”Look at that young woman leading them; she speaks like a general.”

Munich Design Center · Teaching Site

At 1:00 PM, the design center turned into a large tutoring class.

At every workstation, a Chinese engineer sat next to a European colleague.

Chen Xin stood in front of the whiteboard and spoke in German, ”Lesson one: The logic of the Chinese interface—it’s actually simpler than English.”

She wrote on the whiteboard: Bu = Arrange, Ju = Structure, Bu + Ju = Layout, Bu + Xian = Routing.

”Chinese is a pictographic language; every character has meaning,” Chen Xin explained. ”’Buju’ (Layout) means arranging the structure, and ’Buxian’ (Routing) means arranging the circuits. It’s more intuitive than the English ’Layout & Routing’.”

Below, the German engineers took notes seriously.

Hans sat at his workstation, next to a 25-year-old Chinese young man named Xiao Wang.

”Mr. Hans, let’s begin,” Xiao Wang said in English. ”Please open yesterday’s design file.”

Hans opened the file, and a complex transistor array appeared on the screen.

”First, we’ll use smart optimization.” Xiao Wang tapped a few shortcut keys on the keyboard. ”Look, the system automatically adjusted the transistor arrangement, reducing power consumption by 12% and shrinking the area by 8%.”

Hans’s eyes widened: ”This... this would take at least three days to adjust manually!”

”That’s the benefit of AI assistance,” Xiao Wang smiled. ”Shennong’s AI has been trained on five million design cases and knows how to optimize most effectively.”

He continued the demonstration: ”Next is timing analysis... Look, there’s a critical path delay here that exceeds the limit. The system suggests adding a buffer here or adjusting the clock tree.”

Hans followed the operations, becoming more shocked with each step.

This tool was not only powerful, but its level of intelligence far exceeded America software.

”How... did you achieve this?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Xiao Wang thought for a moment: ”Because we designed it from scratch, we have no historical baggage. America software is afraid to add many new features because they need to be compatible with code from thirty years ago. We can.”

In one afternoon, Hans learned the basic operations of Shennong.

When work ended, he shook Xiao Wang’s hand: ”Thank you. You taught very well.”

Xiao Wang scratched his head: ”It’s my job. By the way, Mr. Hans, do you know where there’s a Chinese restaurant nearby? I want to eat hot pot.”

Hans laughed: ”I know one; I’ll take you there after work.”

February 22, STMicroelectronics headquarters in Paris.

Chinese engineer Xiao Zhang was teaching his French colleague, Isabella.

”This feature is an Easter egg,” Xiao Zhang said mysteriously. ”Type ’Happy Chinese New Year’ in the command line.”

Isabella typed: chunjie kuaile.

The interface suddenly burst into fireworks animation, accompanied by the sound of firecrackers.

”Oh là là!” Isabella exclaimed, ”C’est magnifique! (It’s beautiful!)”

The surrounding French colleagues all gathered around to watch.

”Can you type anything else?” someone asked.

Xiao Zhang thought for a moment: ”Try ’Wishing you prosperity’.”

After typing it, a rain of gold coins fell on the interface.

The French colleagues laughed heartily and tried it one by one.

For a while, the design center was filled with fireworks, gold coins, and the sounds of firecrackers.

The serious technical work suddenly had an extra festive atmosphere.

The 500-person support team had a large group chat named ”European Expeditionary Force.”

Messages in the group were constant every day:

[February 20] Xiao Wang: ”Today I taught the German guy how to use ’smart optimization,’ and he praised me, saying I was ’as rigorous as Bach.’ I asked who Bach was. He said he was a German musician. I went back and looked him up; Bach really is very rigorous.”

Sister Li: ”The French girl invited me to her place for snails, but I said I wanted to eat hot pot more. She said she would take me to eat French-style hot pot tomorrow, but I said that’s not the same...”

Zhang Wei: ”An Italian colleague asked me: ’Is that year-end bonus of yours real?’ I said: ’Real. I won a drone.’ He asked how much it was worth, and I said six thousand. He converted it to Euros and screamed: ’Eight hundred Euros! Is your company still hiring?’”

[February 23] Chen Xin: ”Important notice: Teaching assessment this week. European colleagues must complete a small design independently. Those who pass the assessment will receive a reward—I brought Lao Gan Ma from home, and the top three will each get a bottle.”

In the group: ”Sister Chen is mighty!” ”For Lao Gan Ma, I’ll go all out!”

[February 25] Xiao Wang: ”Today Hans treated me to beer, and we talked for a long time. He said his father was from East Germany, and he was ten years old the year the Berlin Wall fell. He said: ’Technology shouldn’t have walls.’”

Sister Li: ”My daughter video-called me today and said she missed Mom. I showed her the Eiffel Tower, and she said, ’Mom is amazing.’ It was worth it.”

[February 27] Chen Xin: ”Assessment results: 92% of European colleagues passed. Infineon internal anonymous survey: ’Shennong EDA vs. America tools, which do you choose?’ Result: 68% chose Shennong. Brothers, we won the first battle.”

The group chat was flooded with: ”Awesome!” ”Spark is mighty!” ”Keep going!”

February 28, Munich, Infineon Board of Directors. Hans attended as the technical representative.

”Over the past two weeks, Spark sent two hundred engineers for one-on-one teaching,” Hans reported. ”The result is: our design efficiency has increased by 40%, and three delayed projects have all caught up to schedule.”

He played a video: In the design center, German engineers and Chinese engineers worked side-by-side, discussing enthusiastically.

”More importantly,” Hans said, ”the Shennong platform is open source. Spark has agreed to let us establish a branch R&D center in Europe to jointly develop the next generation of tools. This means we are no longer just users; we are participants.”

The board was silent.

”So, what is your recommendation?” the chairman asked.

”Switch completely to Shennong and decouple from America EDA,” Hans said decisively. ”There will be short-term pain, but in the long run, Europe will possess completely autonomous chip design capabilities. This is a century-long plan.”

Vote: Unanimously passed.

That afternoon, seven European companies, including Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and NXP, issued a joint statement:

”Based on technical evaluation and cooperation experience, we have decided to fully adopt the Spark Shennong EDA platform and launch the construction of a European R&D center.”

When the news reached China, Luo Qinghe smiled in his office.

He sent a message to Su Chen: ”European battlefield, secured.”

Su Chen replied: ”Thank you for your hard work. Let the brothers of the Expeditionary Force eat well; if they need more money, tell me.”