Chapter 19. “Bring Him In.” I Gave Advice to a Semiconductor Giant, and Now the Center Director Is Obsessed With Me
Chapter 19. “Bring Him In.” I Gave Advice to a Semiconductor Giant, and Now the Center Director Is Obsessed With Me
Several days had passed since Kang Chiwoo, Director of the Agency for Defense Development, reviewed Ryu Hyesung’s design drawings for the HPM drone mass-production equipment.
“You are saying we should support him unconditionally?”
At the President’s question, Director Kang Chiwoo nodded gravely.
“In the end, the weapons industry is the pinnacle of advanced industry.”
“I am well aware of that.”
“Do you know how much these weapons actually cost to manufacture?”
“The manufacturing cost?”
“Not much. The elements used to make them are iron, copper, lithium… None of them are particularly expensive. Then why do you think the finished weapons cost so much?”
“Because most of the cost comes from development, does it not?”
“Exactly. It is almost entirely development cost. But with Ryu Hyesung, that development cost approaches zero. That is why he is a monster. It is also why the entire world wants him.”
“I see…”
The President was so shocked that he could not close his mouth.
“What do you think would happen if the world’s largest company by market capitalization emerged in South Korea?”
The memory of that day refused to leave his mind.
The Presidential Office.
The Minister of Economy and Finance was protesting with his face flushed red.
“Mr. President, this is an unverified company! You are saying we should secure a budget to pre-purchase one hundred units of this… what was it, the HPM drone? Development is not even complete! That is ten billion won. Ten billion!”
“…”
The verification was already complete.
Information had already arrived that the United Kingdom had tested the drones, been highly satisfied, and intended to purchase three hundred units.
However, everything was classified.
“Mr. President, please say something. We should at least verify whether the product specifications meet our standards…”
The Minister of Economy and Finance glared at the first-quarter budget expenditure report in agitation.
“Minister.”
The President spoke in a low voice.
“I understand what you are saying.”
The President fully understood the minister’s concerns.
However, the Ministry of Economy and Finance had no way of knowing the assessments of Ryu Hyesung jointly provided by the National Intelligence Service and the Director of the Agency for Defense Development.
They were completely classified.
“Trust me and approve it.”
“Mr. President!”
The President was equally frustrated.
He could not explain everything openly, but he was certain that if the minister knew the truth, he would agree with him.
After all, you could only see as much as you knew.
“I am truly grateful that Ryu Hyesung did not use that extraordinary mind to enter medical school just to become a doctor.”
“What? Why are you suddenly saying that…”
“Heaven helped us. Minister, from now on, approve every budget related to Ryu Hyesung exactly as the Ministry of National Defense requests.”
“Mr. President!”
The President said nothing more.
It was a silent signal telling him to leave.
The Minister of Economy and Finance clearly misunderstood the situation, apparently convinced that the President was granting extraordinary favoritism to one particular individual.
LK Hynix Research Building No. 1, Core Lab.
“Does the cleanroom suit fit?”
It was tight against my body, but it did not significantly restrict my movement.
“It is fine. But am I really allowed to look around a place like this?”
This research facility was called the heart of South Korean industry.
I was standing in the center of a top-security facility where even a single leaked secret could immediately cause national repercussions.
“It was a special order from the Vice President. He said to show you everything.”
I tilted my head at the Center Director’s explanation.
“I have never even met the Vice President…”
The semiconductor process control system spread before me was located inside a national security facility with access so tightly controlled that even employees of the same company could not enter freely.
Why had they brought me here?
“They want you to… No, never mind. Just look at whatever you want.”
The Center Director trailed off with an uncomfortable expression.
“Then I will take a look around.”
I had always been deeply interested in semiconductor processes, so the structure of every piece of equipment I saw naturally seemed to flow into my head.
As I carefully examined the area, one enormous cylindrical machine caught my attention.
“So this is an etching chamber…”
Purple plasma flashed fiercely beyond a small quartz glass window.
“Oh, you know something about semiconductors? This is etching equipment used to drill holes in the latest 3D NAND. As far as plasma control technology is concerned, we are among the best in the world…”
(Translator’s Note: 3D NAND — A type of NAND flash memory in which memory cells are stacked vertically in multiple layers rather than arranged solely across a two-dimensional plane. Commercial 3D NAND development accelerated during the 2010s as manufacturers sought higher storage density beyond the practical limits of planar NAND scaling.)
The Center Director proudly began explaining, but I was not listening.
I was too busy analyzing the process data in front of me.
“The gas ratio is probably C4F8 to oxygen at five to one… No, closer to four to one. Ah, there is a small amount of argon gas too. Around fifteen sccm? And… the lower RF power is probably pulsed at around four hundred kilohertz?”
The Center Director jumped at my muttering.
“How did you know that?”
His voice burst out like thunder.
“The gas-mixing recipe and RF frequency are Level 1 state secrets.”
They were core technologies so confidential that they were not even listed on the internal intranet.
They absolutely could not be leaked outside.
“I can see it right in front of me.”
The slight changes in the rotational motor’s load noise when the chamber drew in heavy and light gases.
The temperature settings attached to the exterior of the equipment.
Even the white frost frozen onto the outside of the gas pipes.
To me, every one of them looked like an obvious clue.
With a little inference from the scattered pieces of evidence, the answer came quickly.
After all, you could only see as much as you knew.
“The purple wavelength is in the four-hundred-nanometer range. Also, judging from the frost on the pipes and the motor noise, you are using a heavy gas. If the oxygen concentration were not around that ratio, you would never get that color.”
The Center Director’s complexion turned pale.
He stared at me blankly, then hurriedly waved his hand.
“Wait. Could you go back into that laboratory over there for a moment?”
The instant he turned away, I heard him urgently calling someone.
“No, I am telling you, he figured out almost the entire recipe just by looking! Who the hell is this person? Are you sure it is really okay to leave him like this?”
The Center Director argued with someone for a long time in disbelief.
“What? What do you mean it is fine… Ah, understood. I will do what you asked. I do not know anything about this. You take responsibility!”
After ending the call and returning, the Center Director was still breathing heavily with frustration.
“Student, just look at everything.”
“Ah, if this is inconvenient for you, I can just go home.”
This system had been built by pouring in the full capabilities of the nation and astronomical amounts of capital.
If I put myself in their position, I would be sick to my stomach.
I already felt somewhat uncomfortable, as though I were stealing a look at someone else’s precious technology.
“…”
At my words, the Center Director hesitated.
A deeply conflicted expression appeared on his face.
Then he abruptly changed his attitude.
“…No. Go ahead and look.”
“What?”
“Take a look.”
For some reason, his feelings had suddenly changed, and he firmly stopped me from leaving.
At that moment, a man came running over, breathing heavily.
Sweat was streaming down inside his cleanroom suit.
“Huff… Huff… Center Director, this is Kim Sangtae! I apologize for being late.”
It was Chief Researcher Kim Sangtae from LK Hynix, who was helping with my equipment design.
“Ah, Chief Researcher. You arrived at a good time. I was just about to go home.”
“What? Why?”
“No! Why would he leave?”
The Center Director and Chief Researcher Kim both immediately blocked my path.
“What? The Center Director seemed a little uncomfortable…”
“What? Center Director, have you still not heard? I thought everything had already been agreed upon.”
When Chief Researcher Kim asked in confusion, the Center Director hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, I heard. I just briefly thought it might not be acceptable. Chief Researcher Kim, you will understand once you hear what I have to say later. Anyway, it was a misunderstanding, so do not leave, student.”
They looked like people desperately stopping a friend who had stood up to leave after staying too late.
What was going on with this atmosphere?
“Yes… Then I will continue the tour.”
I still wondered internally whether this was truly all right, but I continued examining every corner of the facility for a long time afterward.
I felt somewhat guilty, but the technology was attractive enough to make me want to establish my own semiconductor factory immediately.
“This is the new HBM semiconductor process we are currently researching.”
(Translator’s Note: HBM — An abbreviation for High Bandwidth Memory, a stacked-memory architecture designed to provide very high data-transfer bandwidth while reducing physical footprint and power consumption relative to many conventional memory configurations. HBM became particularly important for GPUs, AI accelerators, and high-performance computing systems.)
Complex equations and real-time HBM process data cascaded like a waterfall across a massive display.
“It is a hyperscale AI-based process control system. The AI analyzes one hundred thousand variables generated inside the chamber at the central data center, then sends the optimal recipe to the machines.”
The Center Director proudly explained.
Put simply, it was like a machine that adjusted the ideal cooking temperature in real time to make meat taste as good as possible.
“The yield loss seems rather high.”
It looked like quite a lot of the meat was getting burned.
With my arms folded, I gestured toward one corner of the monitor with my chin.
The defect rate was high enough to raise doubts about commercial viability.
“It is still under development. Minimizing defects is part of our work.”
“How many AI parameters are there?”
“Around one hundred seventy billion. It has one of the highest computational scales in the world.”
“I think you can reduce the defect rate.”
“What?”
“The AI’s decisions are slightly slow. It is like there is lag.”
It was like a person with a good brain but slow hands.
They knew exactly when to replace the grill plate and flip the meat, but their body reacted half a beat too late.
“Optimize it further. Apply weight quantization and compress the model size to around one hundredth of its current scale. Instead of routing everything through server communication, use edge inference and send the decisions directly to the machines. Like… a neural reflex.”
Knowing theory perfectly did not make someone good at sports.
Only after countless repetitions trained the muscles to remember could the body react properly in real combat.
What if this enormous AI also bypassed the central brain and reflected signals directly through the machines on-site?
“…What exactly are you?”
The Center Director once again looked at me as though he had seen a ghost.
“Uh, I am sorry. I am just a student.”
“No, that is not what I meant…”
“It seems to still be in the experimental stage anyway. Since you are already testing it, try running it once under the conditions I just described.”
Maybe I had overstepped.
However, what was I supposed to do when the flaw was so obvious?
Besides, were they not the ones who invited me here in the first place?
The Center Director and Chief Researcher Kim exchanged glances.
Their expressions seemed to ask each other, You understand what I mean now, right?
LK Hynix Research Building No. 1.
Long after Ryu Hyesung had left the fab, something miraculous happened.
“Wafer yield has reached fifty-five… No, fifty-eight percent.”
“It was struggling at nineteen percent, and it suddenly rose this high?”
“It is barely there, but it has reached a level suitable for mass production.”
Even more astonishing was the fact that the method could be applied to all the other processes as well.
“We spend trillions of won just to improve yield by ten percent…”
The Center Director’s instincts had been correct.
The being who had just passed through the chamber area was unquestionably an anomaly outside all normal standards.
Suddenly, a possibility flashed through his mind.
What if that kid personally improved the AI algorithm itself?
He could not even imagine how far the system might evolve.
The Center Director ran out of the laboratory like a madman.
He tore off the cumbersome cleanroom suit as though he intended to rip it apart.
“My phone! Quickly!”
Ring, ring, ring—
“Yes, this is Kim Sangtae.”
“Hey. That kid you brought earlier. What exactly is he?”
“What? I told you before. The government said to do whatever he asked, and…”
“No, I mean why did he come here? Is he joining our company? Right? That is what this is about, isn’t it?”
“What? No, that will depend on the report you make to the Vice President after hearing the results…”
The desperate Center Director cut Chief Researcher Kim off.
His thoughts had already raced far ahead.
“What do you mean, what do I say? What do I have to say to make that kid join us?”
“That is up to you, Center Director…”
Click.
The Center Director hung up before hearing the answer.
Ring, ring—
“Vice President, this is me.”
“Yes, Center Director. How was that young man?”
“Did you already know everything before sending him?”
“What? No. Chief Researcher Kim said he was some impossible, inhuman nightmare, so…”
“That was an extremely accurate description. Anyway, when is he joining us?”
“Nothing has been decided about employment yet.”
“We need to bring him in immediately! Right now!”