Chapter 119: Diamond Semiconductor
Young people live on hope for the future, while old people live on memories of the past.
When Yu Ji-ha brought up the situation of the Korean semiconductor industry in the 2020s, Chairman Shin had a lot to say.
“The US was not happy with us leaning towards China. They wanted to take over the foundry business by force.”
“They must have been anxious. They had to bring back the manufacturing jobs to their country.”
The attendees nodded at Yu Ji-ha’s remark.
It was a well-known fact that the US had started to care about their domestic jobs.
They began with the car manufacturing industry, and then moved on to the semiconductor sector, which had been traditionally handled by their allies.
The US also looked at Korea with unease, as it relied heavily on China.
If Korea switched sides completely, the semiconductor belt in East Asia could be shaken.
Chairman Shin clenched his eyes as if he remembered that time.
“I and other chairmen were summoned to the US as a group and faced all kinds of pressure. That was the first time I heard them say they would take away the foundry industry from us.”
“They said that openly?”
The old man shook his head bitterly.
“Who could stop them when they said they would do it… Anyway, I think it was not only because of the lack of processes that we lost our orders. It’s true that TSMC was half a step ahead of us, but we could have caught up.”
He still had some pride left, even though his company had gone bankrupt long ago.
Yu Ji-ha asked casually.
“Did the US government pressure their domestic companies? To reduce their orders?”
“There’s no evidence, but everyone knows it. We were also a bit disadvantageous in terms of price.”
TSMC was so busy that they couldn’t handle all the orders, so some Korean companies, including Hansung Foundation, took advantage of that gap.
But one by one, their orders started to decrease, and a few months later, most of their orders were cut off, except for the old processes.
“Next was memory. The US didn’t like us holding onto memory either, so they started to push their domestic and Japanese companies. That’s Micron and Elpida.”
“But you held on pretty well with the chicken game.”
“It was all temporary. What could we do when the US openly supported them? They even offered incentives if they built semiconductor fabs in their country… I remember running around the US to get equipment. I sent my son there, but he came back empty-handed, so I went there myself, but they said the same thing.”
“Most of the equipment was already allocated?”
“That’s right… The US government pressured them to give most of the equipment to their own and Japan.”
It must have been frustrating, but there was nothing a single company could do when the US government intervened.
It was also hard to ask for help from China, because they were more nationalist than the US.
The Korean companies that got in between had to watch out for China and try their best to get out of the US pressure.
“Despite all our efforts, we eventually gave up on foundry. Our memory market share also dropped below 10%… I’m ashamed to say this with my own mouth, but Hansung was the leader of Korean semiconductors. And that leader collapsed.”
One of the reasons why the Korean economy was gloomy at that time was the semiconductor slump.
It accounted for up to 18% of exports in its heyday, but it dropped to 3.5% in 2025.
Anyway, Korea’s semiconductor industry went downhill and now it barely maintained its presence in the memory field.
But if they had this…
Chairman Shin knew about diamond semiconductors because he had received a report on them.
Normally, diamond is an insulator, but it can be turned into a conductor by mixing various impurities such as nitrogen or boron.
Diamond semiconductors made this way can operate at temperatures above 600 degrees and have very fast electron speed, making them suitable for high-speed computation.
There was also an alternative to break the structure and insert particles to use them as operators for quantum computers.
Of course, all this never went beyond the laboratory level and was abandoned due to high costs and various difficulties involved in production.
The US and Japan also continued to publish papers on it, but they did not show any significant results.
But if the president suddenly mentioned it…
“May I ask where you developed it?”
“It’s Lucia’s research result. Lucia is constantly computing and analyzing data from various fields. Diamond semiconductors are one of them.”
“It must be like Antron. We don’t understand the principle…”
“Lucia’s computing power has already surpassed us. It’s the singularity. I don’t even know what she’s researching.”
He thought it was a good excuse.
But Lucia’s status as an artificial superintelligence had already been verified by many scholars.
Even now, some laboratories around the world were asking questions to Lucia with the permission of the Chairman Shin Group.
Chairman Shin decided to pass the ball to the experts at this point.
“Let’s put aside your curiosity for now and tell me if you can make it.”
The experts looked around and finally one of them took the lead and answered.
“If we can use the existing equipment as it is, there should be no problem, but it will take a considerable amount of time to restart the fab.”
“So, how long will it take?”
“Considering the processing of raw materials, at least five years or more…”
Chairman Shin glanced at Yu Ji-ha and he opened his mouth.
“We will handle the processing of raw materials, so you only need to produce.”
You have no experience in semiconductors and you want to make it up to the wafer?
You have money, but you don’t have any know-how. How can you handle that?
He wanted to ask that, but no one actually did.
Because it was Yu Ji-ha who said that.
The only problem was the cost.
It was inevitable that the price would be high to make seeds with artificial diamonds.
If they made wafers with that, it would be several times more expensive than silicon.
No matter how great Lucia’s computing power was, it was impossible from the source.
Yu Ji-ha offered a solution.
“The price is a problem, but Russia Alrosa agreed to supply us cheaply.”
Of course, it was a lie.
It was true that Russia had a global diamond company, but they couldn’t match the quantity and price for making seeds.
It was a state-owned company, so it might be possible if Putin approved it, but there was a high chance that the supply would be unstable.
They would use the Aether fusion reactor of Settler here.
When the fusion reactor output exceeded a certain level, the internal pressure and temperature rose tremendously, almost comparable to Jupiter’s interior.
That meant they could make superconducting and artificial diamonds inside the spaceship.
In the long run, they would have to bring in production equipment to Korea, but for now, it was enough to shock the market.
“Arma will officially inform you of the roadmap later. You just need to prepare for production accordingly. Any questions?”
Then one of the experts fiddled with his glasses, feeling the eyes of others.
“Mr. President, do you know how powerful those semiconductors are…?”
“Let me give you an easy example. A CPU for personal computers. Even with old processes, it easily surpasses the existing 1nm ones. The clock speed can easily reach 7GHz if there is no problem with mass production.”
“That’s… that’s amazing…”
The people were astonished by that number, but Yu Ji-ha calmly said.
“And this is just an old process. It’s 180nm equipment we’re talking about. The performance will increase much more as the process becomes finer and more technologies are added.”
“What was the CPU made with 180nm process?”
“You can think of it as Coppermine generation. So, before 2000…”
“So with such an old process, they can overpower current CPUs with clock speed…”
“Just for your information, the structure and instruction set are completely different, so direct comparison with current CPUs is difficult. But it’s clear that we can easily increase performance. We can use variable clock and variable core.”
He said he didn’t know much about it because it wasn’t his field?
Yu Ji-ha ignored their doubts and continued.
“And because of the nature of diamond as a raw material, electrons move very fast and without interference within the circuit. It’s also very resistant to high temperatures, so it’s easy to increase clock speed. It should be easy to go up to tens of GHz.”
“So basically we’re starting over from before 2000 with a different raw material.”
Chairman Shin said that and Yu Ji-ha nodded.
“I heard Hansung also tried to make server CPUs at one point.”
“There are no employees who worked at that time, but I can call them back anytime. It’s not hard to make this if I can make that.”
“This diamond semiconductor.”
Yu Ji-ha raised his voice and the people tensed up.
“This is definitely something that can overwhelm any existing semiconductor. It’s very easy to implement quantum computers with its characteristics, and it can also be used for quantum communication. So just trust me and prepare for mass production. I will control everything from here.”
For a moment, Chairman Shin, the chairman, wanted to say something, but he didn’t dare to do so.
If he did, he would be a mere follower, but he couldn’t afford to be picky in the current situation where he was being squeezed by the US, Japan, and China.
Hansung Electronics needed a future source of income besides smartphones that adopted Black Metal batteries.
He just couldn’t hide the anxiety that rose in his heart.
This was Yu Ji-ha’s pattern of raising and eating after all.
‘He has already absorbed many companies into Silla Group…’
If it had been like before, he would have faced a crackdown from the government, but since Yu Ji-ha was the actual owner, he was expanding at an astoniChairman Shing rate.
It didn’t show up because it was a private company, but if it had been a listed company, it would have surpassed the world’s leading companies in terms of market capitalization.
The only unusual thing was that he absorbed competitive small and medium-sized enterprises.
If he had used subcontractors, he wouldn’t have wanted to increase the burden, which was a common trait of CEOs, right?
‘I don’t know what his goal is…’
One thing was certain.
If he didn’t accept his proposal, there would be no future for Hansung Electronics, or even the entire group.
He could have ordered him anyway as a dictator who didn’t care about the company’s will.
As the chairman of Chairman Shin, he hoped this decision would be his last.
“Then I’ll prepare carefully.”
“The pressure from the US will increase in the future, so report every word you say to the secretariat.”
Did he mean to record his words and pay him back all at once?
The US, which had a strong pride, wouldn’t just sit still and take more harsh measures.
Various boycotts as well as military pressure and even war at worst…
‘No way, that won’t happen.’
A war with the US was something that should never happen.
No matter how reckless Yu Ji-ha was, he hoped he wouldn’t cross the final line.
***
The US was in political turmoil after the presidential candidate died.
Nevertheless, the economic pressure on Korea continued steadily.
First, they reduced the equipment supply for producing next-generation GDDR7 memory.
ASML, which produces lithography equipment worth over 150 billion won each, notified that they couldn’t supply to domestic companies such as Hansung.
Also, the supply of automotive wiring harnesses and autonomous driving chipsets made in China began to slow down.
Silla Auto currently relied on Chinese companies for most of its wiring harnesses and chipsets.
This was because most of the Chinese factories of first-tier vendors closed during China’s chaos.
Silla Auto’s feet were on fire after launching Windrunner.
They had enough stock for now, but production problems would arise in a few months.
That was obvious.
Silla Auto received great praise for installing autonomous driving algorithms suitable for each country’s situation on most of its electric vehicles after launching Windrunner.
As a result, they were able to build a solid position comparable to Future Auto’s heyday by expanding their lineup.
Although they were only ranked 8th or 9th in terms of scale in the world, they were all electric vehicles and their algorithms were so excellent that they were rated higher than that in reality.
But that status would fade if they didn’t get proper parts supply.
The executives of Silla Auto flew to China themselves and Arma contacted them, but they only got words of helplessness.
“We really don’t have any stock.”
“You mean someone pressured you when you say you don’t have any stock while maintaining production?”
“That’s speculation.”
The executive’s tone was cut off sharply.
If there were really production problems, they would have tried their best to reassure them somehow.
But instead of doing that, they only answered in short sentences. That meant they were pressured from above.
“I don’t know who’s above you, but you should be prepared. You know who’s above us, right?”
The Chinese executive was momentarily flustered but soon regained his composure.
Yu Ji-ha was famous enough, but he couldn’t handle China and the US alone.
It might have been different if it was a war, but this kind of nerve-wracking sanction was probably the first time for him.
The Chinese executive didn’t give any explanation and hung up the phone.
The data collected by Arma didn’t contain any information about the problems in the global supply chain.
The fact that this only happened in Korea meant that someone blocked it, and the US government would be at the top of that.
There was a lot of speculation in the world that the US pressure had begun.
—Isn’t it natural to put a leash and a muzzle on a mad dog? The US was too lenient until now.
—They won’t just watch Russia’s southward movement either, and they plan to raise tariffs as well. Yu Ji-ha doesn’t give in to this much? The US sanctions are just beginning.
—However, the US also needs Yu Ji-ha’s technology, so it will be done very secretly. He won’t miss the intention, but.
—Even though Bryant, the candidate, died, the Democratic Party’s policy won’t change.
That secret pressure began to affect various parts of the Korean economy.
The items were mainly semiconductors, and Korea didn’t have the power to overcome this.
Hansung Electronics had lost its leadership long ago, and Silla Group had no foundation in that area.
But having no foundation didn’t mean having no technology.
Arma established another corporation within the group and secured a factory site.
“This corporation will be in charge of Silla Group’s semiconductors. From material processing to wafer production, memory and foundry business, and even computing chipsets, we will pursue a total package.”
The name was Quantum Solution.
It was a name that openly aimed for quantum technology, which made many people tilt their heads.
—Does Yu Ji-ha have any quantum technology? I don’t remember him having any.
—Maybe he developed something with his artificial intelligence. We don’t know what kind of research is going on in the metaverse server room.
—Even with artificial intelligence, you need basic infrastructure to do semiconductor business.
—Doesn’t Hansung Group have it? They must have a lot of old equipment left.
—What can you produce with those old equipment? It’s the era of 1nm now.
They were mistaken about one thing.
The new diamond semiconductor design was enough with the old process.
It used 2D patterning instead of 3D patterning commonly used by the United Human Federation, so the photo process was simple.
Some of the materials used here were produced in Korea under Yu Ji-ha’s instructions, so there was no big problem.
Korea had been supplying most of the raw materials like this since it broke off relations with Japan, and some Japanese companies even set up separate companies overseas to supply to Korea.
Yu Ji-ha appreciated their efforts.
However, there were many other processes to go through before shipping semiconductors, and a lot of know-how was needed, so it was not an easy field to enter.
But the designer in charge was Arma, the artificial intelligence of the United Human Federation.
She finished the design in no time and adjusted the roadmap as well.
Originally, he planned to attack Manchuria in 2030, but there was no need to bother if China’s position was like that.
Yu Ji-ha looked at the roadmap and asked.
“Will there be any problem with building a megacity in Manchuria?”
“It’s only a year anyway. The overall roadmap hasn’t changed.”
“Then that’s fine. Let’s focus on building our foundation until early next year.”
That foundation building meant rebuilding the semiconductor industry from scratch all over the world.
Of course, even if diamond semiconductors appeared, not all companies could adopt them.
There were many fields where existing semiconductors were enough.
But in advanced industries, such as astronomy, medicine, chemistry, supercomputing, cloud systems, etc., computing power was more important than anything else.
The difference in computing power was more than 10 times even with the old process. It would be stupid not to choose this side.
Anyway, the smart factory for Quantum Solution finished all administrative procedures in no time and started construction.
The construction involved a tremendous know-how of shortening construction time that the United Human Federation had developed to counter Plague.
They didn’t know when Plague would launch an air raid, so they couldn’t afford to build factories leisurely.
So the United Human Federation developed a system that mimicked Plague’s internal structure to decompose and combine Black Metal.
That system was used to build megacities and settlers for space ships.
There was no need to hide it anymore, so smart factories were built in an instant.
Other companies would have just started forming committees for site selection at this point, but this side was already installing equipment.
It was literally insane speed.
However, the intelligence agencies and leaders of various countries were not surprised by this progress because they had already experienced megacities and such.
—It’s not that I’m used to seeing it a lot, but this speed is definitely not normal.
—If you shorten construction time like that, there will be side effects galore, but there seems to be none of that either.
—However, Hansung Electronics, which is supposed to cooperate with them, is no different from other companies. It seems like it will take years to restart production equipment.
Hansung Electronics was normal because they were so used to Yu Ji-ha.
Silla Group seemed dissatisfied with that speed and sent androids directly to adjust the equipment.
And the US, who watched all this, concluded that Yu Ji-ha had something to turn the situation around.
“He flew to Russia himself recently… It seems like Alrosa.”
“What does he have to do with diamond companies? Don’t tell me semiconductors?”
“That’s impossible. Diamond semiconductors are theoretically possible, but growing seeds is a bottleneck. You have to apply high pressure and high temperature and grow them slowly, but the cost doesn’t match because it’s hard to make pressure vessels.”
“Wait, can’t you make pressure vessels easily with Black Metal?”
Black Metal was used as a variety of tools at this point.
Black Metal itself was a trademark filed by Silla Group, and it was used in various tools where wear resistance was important.
Now, Black Metal-made screwdrivers, drills, etc. were treated as the best luxury items in the market.
It also had a significant market share in the pressure vessel market, but there was no alternative for laboratories that needed high pressure and high temperature.
If they used those pressure vessels to grow diamond seeds?
The electricity that goes into it is a problem, but isn’t Korea already operating a nuclear fusion plant?
Several plants were under construction now, and the existing nuclear power plants were changing their uses.
According to the IAEA’s audit report, Korea planned to supply all electricity with nuclear fusion within five years at most.
In that case, the price of electricity would be extremely cheap.
It was the optimal condition for making diamond semiconductors.
When a report containing this content was published in the US, Democratic senators wanted to visit Korea to find out the situation.
But Yu Ji-ha refused.
“Supply semiconductors properly first. Don’t tell me you didn’t pressure us.”
The Democratic Party in the US didn’t have much reaction to this blunt remark.
It was evidence of tacit admission.
And Arma’s design was finished.
“The process uses 130nm and the TDP, thermal design power, is 25W. It has a variable clock that can go up to 7.6GHz and the core can be divided into up to 16. The IPC is 11 times higher than the existing high-end personal processors.”
Performance being 11 times doesn’t mean actual speed is also 11 times.
There are various devices that affect computation besides processors in hardware.
It would be convenient if he could cram everything into one chip like Arma’s computing unit, but he couldn’t show such technology now.
He had to take steps, right?
Yu Ji-ha nodded his head as he watched the processor’s operation simulation.
“Not bad for the first release. Prepare for sample production.”
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