Today was the worst day in Swan’s Intel CEO position.
Actually it wasn’t just him, this was the worst day for Intel in the past century.
Back in the day, the VLSI Research Institute, jointly established by Japan’s top semiconductor companies, dominated the North American market with their cheap and reliable 64k chips. Pushing the price of chips from $26 to $5. Even back then, the Americans didn’t feel the despair they did now.
Back then, they still had the power to fight back.
And now, their proudest technology didn’t stand a chance against the carbon-based chips.
The greedy executives sitting around the conference table lost the color on their faces.
However, even though this was painful, when Swan walked out of the conference room, he felt like a mountain had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt totally relaxed.
At least this meant they wouldn’t have to apply for bankruptcy protection.
Mayberry saw Swan walk out of the conference room and immediately asked, “So, how did it go?”
Mayberry was in a difficult position.
After all, this would impact on whether or not he could remain as CTO.
There was no doubt he was an expert in the integrated circuit field since he became CTO by virtue of his own abilities.
However, silicon integrated circuits were facing elimination, and he was standing on thin ice…
“… I don’t want to talk about this.”
Swan looked at Mayberry blankly and spoke.
“I just want to go somewhere alone.
“Then maybe have a drink.”
As Mayberry looked at Swan walking down the corridor, he was a little stunned.
This was the first time he saw Mr. Swan, who always remained calm and collected, look so tired and defeated…
…
There was no point in forcing Intel to close their doors.
Aside from the political risks and the fact that it would make the free trade environment more difficult, it was not a good idea in terms of market development.
As long as there was a demand in the United States for integrated circuits, even if Intel falls, another semiconductor company would take its place.
Even though Huawei had won this battle, they knew that the American semiconductor industry still stood strong.
Rather than letting another company take Intel’s base, which would create new competition, it was in their interest to keep Intel around.
After all, if Intel really went bankrupt, if a company with hundreds of millions of capital, backed by MIT and Wall Street, took over Intel’s laboratories, the situation would become troublesome.
An old, disease-ridden elephant was far safer than a pack of young, hungry wolves. Having the elephant in the ecosystem could prevent new animals from intruding.
Of course, if the elephant couldn’t survive on its own, it would eventually be eaten by hungry wolves…
Riverside Hotel.
There was a banquet going on in this century-old five-star hotel.
Precisely speaking, a celebration party.
In order to celebrate the success of the product launch conference, Huawei booked out the entire hotel for three days. It seemed like they were planning on combining the banquet with their mid-year report meeting.
Wang Zhengfei and Lu Zhou were sitting at a table. With Asian flush appearing on his face, Wang Zhengfei spoke.
“You plan on going back to Jinling tomorrow?”
Lu Zhou said, “Probably the day after, there’s a meeting at ILHCRC tomorrow I should go to.”
Even though Luo Wenxuan was in charge of ILHCRC, Lu Zhou was still the chairman. Other participants would ask questions if he didn’t attend a high-level meeting like this.
When the ILHCRC was first established, there were some complaints about the chairman of the board being elected without a vote.
If China wasn’t the only country in the world to have the ability to construct a lunar collider, the other countries might have left ILHCRC by now.
“The Lunar Hadron Collider?”
“Yeah.”
Wang Zhengfei said, “You young people have so much energy, I can’t imagine how much work you have.”
Lu Zhou was the chief designer of the Lunar Orbit Committee, the chairman of the ILHCRC.
Not to mention his job at the Jin Ling University and the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
If it was anyone else in Lu Zhou’s position, they wouldn’t even have time to eat.
“It’s actually not that bad, I don’t have to do much outside of research. I don’t feel tired when doing the things I love.” Lu Zhou drank some champagne and suddenly remembered something. He asked, “Speaking of which, have you talked to Intel?”
“I did,” Wang Zhengfei said. “After the product launch, their CEO came running toward me.”
Actually it wasn’t just the CEO, he had been contacted by five American semiconductor companies, including Qualcomm.
Obviously, this industry alliance wasn’t as “allied” as they claimed.
Lu Zhou said, “Can you tell me what you talked about?”
Wang Zhengfei smiled and raised three fingers.
“Two guarantees, one agreement.”
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows; he was intrigued.
After the carbon-based chips came out, the stepper machine, which was used to manufacture silicon-based chips, had become useless metal.
The cooperation between Intel and Huawei was presumably due to the fact that Intel still had cards up their sleeves.
Even though Lu Zhou wasn’t interested in business, he was curious about what kind of cards Intel had.
“In exchange for what?”
“For the North American market!”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled.
“Looks like we won big this time.”
Wang Zhengfei smiled and spoke.
“Won big? I’d say so!”
He raised his glass toward Lu Zhou.
“This is all thanks to your Dragon chips! Cheers!”
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.
“Cheers to our Dragon Chips.”
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