Recently, Mr. Song Shiqiang, General Manager of SLKOR, was interviewed by "HUA XUAN YANG Electronic Brother Guang" in a short video segment. In a question-and-answer format, he reviewed his journey of cross-border investment into the electronics industry and looked forward to a bright future of development. Under the leadership of Mr. Song Shiqiang, SLKOR semiconductor (www.slkoric.com) and Kinghelm electronic (www.kinghelm.net) have achieved continuous 100% growth in recent years, attracting widespread attention from peers. Brother Guang, whose real name is Lai Zhuguang, is the General Manager of HUA XUAN YANG Electronic in Shenzhen and a young entrepreneur who made his mark in Huaqiangbei. His planned series of short videos titled "Conversations with 100 Electronics Industry Bosses" has gained great popularity in the Huaqiangbei electronics community! HHUA XUAN YANG Electronic focuses on providing high-performance power device solutions for digital products, 5G communication, consumer electronics, new energy vehicles, medical equipment, and other fields. Their product range includes MOSFETs, ESD protection devices, LDO regulators, diodes, transistors, IGBTs, and power management ICs. Their silicon carbide MOSFETs and diodes, known for their outstanding performance and reliability, are suitable for various applications in multiple industries.

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang and SLKOR Song Shiqiang

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: Mr. Song, was it smooth sailing when you first entered the electronics industry?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: At first, I was lost and directionless for one or two years, and I was ready to quit. But I had already invested millions of dollars, and leaving would mean losing everything. I couldn't bear the thought!

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: You were not willing to give up! What were you doing before entering the electronics industry?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: I used to be the CEO of a Hong Kong-funded real estate listed company, responsible for the business in the Greater China region. I started as a technician and worked my way up to become an engineering director, vice president of operations, and then vice president of the group company. It was a step-by-step process of improvement and development, from technical to management to business positions, accumulating strength bit by bit.

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: Then why did you switch to the electronics industry later?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: We used to be real estate developers, and we had managed many famous projects. However, ten years ago, China's real estate industry had already passed its period of rapid development, and many macroeconomic indicators had reached their peak. It would be difficult to continue to make money sustainably. As entrepreneurs or professional managers, we need to plan for the future of our companies. You need to plan for five or even ten years ahead so that you won't be left behind by social development. Time can also help you build a firewall! If we continued to work in real estate for another five years, we would be 45 years old. Time waits for no one. So at that time, I invested in Kinghelm and SLKOR, registering the "Kinghelm" and "SLKOR" brands.

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: You have now invested your entire fortune into this industry. What gave you such determination?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: At first, I didn't want to invest everything. We were successful in real estate, so I thought the electronics industry would be easy. But later, when I entered this industry, I realized that the electronics industry was not as simple as I thought. We had been working in real estate for more than ten years, and it was easy. Moreover, with the vigorous development of China's economy, we were able to catch a high-speed train. However, when we entered the electronics industry, we encountered a problem. We had stepped into the end of the industry chain, where there were no channels, no brands, and no technical content. Our understanding of the upstream and downstream was insufficient, and we did not have enough chips to play in the supply chain. So we suffered losses over the years. It was a process of gradually moving from the bottom to the top, from the end of the value chain to the core of the value chain. We took at least five years of detours and paid millions of dollars in tuition fees!

Therefore, investing everything was necessary. If we didn't continue to invest, our previous investments would be lost, and we couldn't bear to let that happen. So step by step, we came to where we are today! After several years of hard work and exploration, we finally saw returns in 2019, and now our company has entered the fast lane of rapid development! The semiconductor market is very large, and currently, SLKOR is doing very well in the "domestic substitution" aspect. We are gradually making efforts towards the overseas market, striving for the internationalization of the "Kinghelm" and "SLKOR" brands, but we still need to work hard! Foreign semiconductor manufacturers have been developing for decades, with deep roots and strong capabilities. We need to compete with them on the same level, which requires a lot of effort and time!

SLKOR Song Shiqiang's Speech Materials (1)

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: SLKOR and Kinghelm are currently developing well, and the Kinghelm and SLKOR brands are being accepted by more people. What is the reason for reaching this stage?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: Long-term planning and scientific development. I think that if you want to run a good enterprise, after establishing a top-level design, you need to have a long-term plan. I entered this industry in 2012, and for the first few years, I didn't really understand it. Later, I studied the industry, the overall layout of the value chain, and the direction of technological development that our current resources can support. This includes industry business models, learning from domestic and foreign literature and materials, and conducting an overall review. I drew many mind maps and mathematical models to analyze it, and concluded that this industry can still be successful.

Due to Moore's Law, this industry requires constant iteration, although it means a continuous investment of money. The advantage is that it can provide us with work for the rest of our lives, and we don't have to worry about running out of things to do after completing a project!

In actual work, we steadily follow these ideas, establish the concept of "growth relies on positive labor accumulation," strive to do our best at every point in our work, and ultimately focus on achieving excellence in a specific area, and then promote the overall systematization of the company, and achieve a spiral development, gradually paving the way forward.

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: Where do you think the future of Chinese brands lies?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: To promote Chinese brands, I think the first step is to produce good products. The reason why Chinese brands have not been able to succeed in the past is due to the quality difference between imported products and locally produced ones. In terms of development, promoting Chinese brands is a matter of the overall ecosystem, not a single breakthrough point. It needs time to develop. Just like when we started preparing to do semiconductors in 2015, it wasn't until 2019 that we made a little bit of money. In 2020, we earned some money from the shortage of electronic MOS tubes, but now we have invested all that money back into the company and continue to invest more. However, we have now basically reached a break-even point. If we want to continue to grow and become stronger, we need to keep investing.

On the one hand, we need to focus on the domestic market, stabilizing our position there. On the other hand, we also need to explore overseas markets, learning from and competing with peers who are leading in those markets, and ultimately growing alongside them. Our vision for SLKOR is to "become a leading semiconductor enterprise." Our international plans for the Kinghelm and SLKOR brands this year have been implemented very well.

SLKOR has been advertising in overseas media such as Italy

Huaqiangbei Brother Guang: So where will you lead the team next?

SLKOR Song Shiqiang: Our short-term goal at SLKOR (www.slkoric.com) is to go public and become a competitive company internationally. Going public is not about cashing out and getting rich, but rather, it is a characteristic of the semiconductor industry that requires large investments and long-term returns. We need to access the stock market as a platform to attract funds and gather resources. Additionally, it provides some financial compensation for our old colleagues and agents who have been working with us. We also need to invest a huge amount of capital to compete head-on with our foreign counterparts. All successful companies need a solid foundation, and in this case, it is the fact that the semiconductor industry is of a massive scale. This is why both Kinghelm and SLKOR are willing to invest everything we have.

The global semiconductor consumption amounts to approximately 600 billion US dollars annually, and its impact on the upstream and downstream industries can reach up to ten times that figure. In terms of quantity, it has a tremendous impact on the national economy.

Furthermore, there is a comprehensive 10-year gap between domestic semiconductor companies and their foreign counterparts. Due to Moore's Law, semiconductor products and the industry itself continue to evolve. This provides us with learning opportunities and room for development, allowing us to become stronger over time. We can support our company and even surpass some less formidable companies.

New products and technologies will gradually emerge, bringing more application scenarios. For example, the solar photovoltaic market and the popularity of AI chips were driven by products like ChatGPT from OpenAI and Huawei's PanGu language model. When ChatGPT was first released, our colleagues at Kinghelm and SLKOR used it to generate materials, improving work efficiency. Ultimately, competition in the company boils down to efficiency. Only by improving efficiency can we reduce costs and prices, and ultimately contribute to social progress. We are also utilizing iFlytek's "Xunfei Xinghuo" language model, which is based on our domestically developed Huawei PanGu large model. We should fully support this endeavor.

SLKOR Song Shiqiang's Speech Materials (2)

According to the top-level design we implemented in 2015, we can definitely become a competitive semiconductor company on the international stage within 30 years. The continuous revenue growth of over 100% for two consecutive years at both Kinghelm Electronics and SLKOR Semiconductor is a strong testament to our success!

Introduction of Song Shiqiang:

Mr. Song Shiqiang is the General Manager of both SLKOR Semiconductor and Kinghelm Electronics, two high-tech companies. He is a member of the Expert Database of the China Electronics Society and a columnist specializing in popular science. He is also a research expert on the business model of Shenzhen Huaqiangbei. He was the one who first extracted the essence of the Huaqiangbei spirit and culture. Starting from a grassroots engineering technician, Mr. Song has gained extensive experience in technical management and corporate operations, eventually becoming the CEO of an internationally listed real estate company. He skillfully integrates theories of macroeconomics with practical business management, leading the company to rapid development in recent years!

Mr. Song Shiqiang

SLKOR Semiconductor and Kinghelm Electronics, both invested by Song Shiqiang, are headquartered in Shenzhen, China. They are both national high-tech enterprises and have gained international recognition and reputation for their brands: SLKOR Semiconductor (www.slkoric.com) and Kinghelm Electronics (www.kinghelm.net). Their market share is gradually expanding.

SLKOR Micro Semicon Co., Ltd., located in Shenzhen, focuses on the research and development of new materials, new processes, and new products. Its technical team consists of experts from Yonsei University in South Korea and Tsinghua University in China, and they possess internationally leading silicon carbide MOSFET technology. SLKOR Semiconductor has evolved from a FABLESS design company to a comprehensive company that integrates design and development, manufacturing, product sales, and technical services.