The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

It's been a while since the whole family has had a quiet meal together.

He's always been taken care of by a nanny, so why would he need to cook for himself?

It certainly didn't taste as good as what the two top chefs at home made, but the big-breasted Chen An'an ate it with great relish.

One bite of the dumpling is so delicious, and paired with a big chicken leg, you'd definitely want to eat two bowls of fried rice with egg.

"Dad, a lot of people online are asking if you'll hold another free concert this year?"

Chen Pingsheng said, "Let's do it. But this year it might be a bit bigger. I'll talk to Bai Xin later and ask her to arrange a New Year's Eve Tencent Film Festival concert in each of the four top-tier cities."

"Won't that cost a lot of money?"

"It's alright. This year, our family won't have to spend much money to hire celebrities from the entertainment industry. It's just some venue and facility fees."

Chen Pingsheng would patiently explain these things to Da Piwa every time, "Last year, your dad caused some dissatisfaction. This grand concert should be held as big as possible. After all, many people still like this kind of formalism. The news reports will also show a prosperous and peaceful scene. Isn't that good!"

Chen An'an is only nine years old and doesn't quite understand these things yet.

When it's time for domestic businesses to forge ahead, they must charge forward with all their might.

When it's time to curry favor, you also have to find ways to please certain people.

In short, one must have a reason for advancing or retreating.

"Honey, how much money do you want to spend?"

"Take out 200 million yuan and hold the event for three consecutive days in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen."

Chen Pingsheng easily decided on a super entertainment concert that would be of great significance to ordinary people.

In the past, they would have to negotiate all sorts of conditions to invite the Four Heavenly Kings, but now they have to make time for them even if they can't find a time when the Four Heavenly Kings are available.

Who can blame him when he's already the undisputed number one capitalist in the entertainment industry?

Even the long-established entertainment tycoons of Hong Kong, such as the Heung family, were just junior members compared to him.

This is the benefit of having influence; all celebrities will deliberately act like a good person in front of him.

Song Yanxi secretly transferred another 200 million yuan from her family's money.

By the time she put down her chopsticks, Chen Pingsheng had almost finished eating.

Besides the Huayi issue, there's another matter that needs to be addressed.

That means SnackRun is planning to go public, and he still holds a 42% stake in SnackRun.

The fact that they went from zero to 10,000 snack specialty stores in just one year fully demonstrates their absolute influence in the traditional business sector.

Especially for these retail franchise stores, as long as the business model is sound, they can grow very quickly.

As it turns out, a snack specialty store is a pretty good business.

The profit margin or market potential is much larger than that of bubble tea.

While others were just realizing what was happening and preparing to copy and imitate them, their company was already ready to apply for an IPO.

The only question is whether it will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange or applied for listing in mainland China.

He still needed to discuss it with Tong Zhelan and the others first. In the afternoon, Tong Zhelan came to his place.

Direct operation includes franchising, with 10,000 snack specialty stores.

This valuation should be at least tens of billions, so Tong Zhelan suggests going to Hong Kong stocks instead.

The main reason is that they have absolute access to securities resources there, and many people are willing to underwrite their shares.

IPO financing is naturally much easier.

When the IPO finally happens, it means that many people will be able to achieve financial freedom.

For Chen Pingsheng himself, this would also bring him a very high income.

It also depends on the multiplier drawn from the random amplification.

The current model of Snack Run is not just about retail stores. It has also invested 1.5 billion yuan in traditional snack factories, as well as mineral water, ice cream and other major snack sectors.

The company has invested in more than fifty snack factories in total.

Once Snack Run is further launched, it will expand its influence in offline channels once again.

With such a vast offline distribution network, it is bound to drive the rise of a large number of traditional snack factories.

Several more companies will definitely go public from this list.

Traditional retail businesses have been struggling day by day due to the impact of the internet in recent years.

Chen Pingsheng believes that as long as customers can have a good shopping experience and transparent pricing, it will be successful.

Traditional retail is not necessarily inferior to the internet.

Snack Run is considered the first internal super startup project incubated by him.

There will definitely be more in the future, let's wait and see.

The IPO process was handed over to Tong Zhelan, while Chen Pingsheng stayed home to contemplate the future direction of the company.

For now, their family's position in the entertainment industry remains secure.

The traditional business sector has also grown larger and larger.

Live-streaming e-commerce, influencer economy, short drama production, training, and talent investment have all formed a complete industrial chain.

He should also shift his investment focus to the new energy vehicle manufacturing sector.

Since 2016, he has personally invested over 50 billion yuan in new energy.

This includes a super factory with an investment of 12 billion yuan and the Tengfei New Energy Ecological Industrial Park with an investment of 5 billion yuan.

There's also the lithium iron phosphate battery plant that Tengde Times acquired for over 5 billion yuan.

Later, another 8 billion yuan was invested in the battery factory, mainly to increase research on core battery technologies and make further breakthroughs in the core battery range problem as soon as possible.

In addition to these, he has invested nearly 10 billion yuan in AI-powered intelligent driving and jointly established eight research institutes in the motor and electronic control sector.

Currently, Tengfei New Energy's core R&D team has more than 10,000 members.

Everything is still progressing steadily.

To be honest, achieving full electrification in the new energy vehicle manufacturing sector is only the first half; the second half will most likely involve competition in cost and intelligent driving.

Chen Pingsheng visited each of his new energy vehicle manufacturing plants.

The super factory will be completed in six to eight months, at which time it will be the largest and most fully functional integrated new energy production workshop in China.

All construction standards are benchmarked against those of Tesla's production workshop, a leading international new energy giant.

It's just that the investment scale is larger and the production capacity is higher.

Once this is completed, they can then truly begin producing new energy vehicles.

In addition to the super factory, the AI ​​intelligent driving team has spent more than 4 billion yuan to acquire three AI technology R&D teams at home and abroad, as well as a series of basic patent technologies in the field of AI.

Because of the high costs and expenses involved in technology, progress is naturally rapid.

It's no exaggeration to say they burn through money.

The core of future competition in new energy lies in intelligent driving and the battery sector.

Chen Pingsheng allocated another 5 billion yuan to the AI ​​team for research and development.

As for the research and development of electric motors and electronic controls, the main focus is on increasing the rotational speed to make the car accelerate faster and more smoothly.

This has the same function as the transmission in a traditional gasoline-powered car.

He has also allocated more than 5 billion yuan to the team, most of which has been used to acquire some basic patent technologies from abroad.

Only by building upon these fundamental technologies can upgrades and improvements be completed more quickly.

Building something from scratch takes too long, so they directly acquire companies for their basic patent portfolio.

We still have some funds for the motor and electronic control system, so it shouldn't be a problem to use it for another three months.

As for battery manufacturers, it's a different story. The predecessor of Tengde Times was the largest lithium iron phosphate battery manufacturer in China.

After a series of reforms, all unnecessary departments were eliminated.

In the research and development of core battery life, key technologies have also been broken through.

Currently, the maximum range is 500 kilometers on a full charge, and after accounting for some losses, it can travel approximately 400 kilometers on a full charge.

Zhang Zhiyao, the current president of Tengde Times, may not be very good at operations, but he is a real expert in technology.

After listening to his report for an hour, Zhang Zhiyao surprisingly proposed developing solid-state batteries.

Solid-state batteries are currently mainly used in mobile phones.

How many benefits does it offer?

Firstly, in the field of electric vehicle spontaneous combustion, solid-state batteries can withstand temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius without catching fire. This is significantly different from current liquid batteries.

In addition, solid-state batteries can achieve zero loss even at zero-degree low temperatures.

In terms of range, exceeding 2,000 kilometers is no problem.

In terms of charging, it can achieve super-fast charging, and can be fully charged to 80% in the time it takes to eat a meal.

These are the benefits of revolutionary technology.

The only drawback is that the cost is too high, making it impossible to commercialize at all.

For example, if an electric vehicle were to be equipped with solid-state batteries, the cost of those batteries alone would be as high as four million.

Who can afford this?
Zhang Zhiyao's idea of ​​developing solid-state batteries mainly signifies the future.

It is no exaggeration to say that whoever in China is the first to develop solid-state batteries and completely drive down their cost will be the one to succeed.

Whoever does so will become the undisputed number one leader in this industry.

This is no exaggeration at all.

The development of solid-state batteries is exactly the same as the birth of the iPhone 4 for new energy vehicles.

It will directly change the entire industry; that's how big its impact is.

Chen Pingsheng was very moved by what he heard, but after that, he calmed down.

Every breakthrough in a revolutionary technology is accompanied by huge R&D funding and at least five to ten years of R&D time.

Zhang Zhiyao's proposal of this research and development direction was naturally simple, but making it a reality was another matter.

It is undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Conservative estimates suggest that it will cost between 8 and 10 billion yuan in R&D funding each year.

Developing solid-state batteries is one aspect, but we cannot abandon lithium iron phosphate batteries either.

Adding both sides together, it is conservatively estimated that he will invest 150 billion yuan in R&D funds for the battery project every year.

Lithium iron phosphate is fine; you can see results quickly after investing in it.

Solid-state batteries will require at least five years of intensive research and development.

This means that the initial investment would be 40 billion yuan.

It's not that he hesitated for a moment; anyone would have done the same.

Because no one can guarantee success.

Even a tenth of that is not guaranteed; why gamble over 40 billion yuan on such a tiny chance?

This doesn't seem like a suitable business investment at all.

After much deliberation, Chen Pingsheng decided to do it anyway.

If he hadn't invested this money, becoming one of the top three new energy companies in China would have been a very achievable goal.

After all, his current investment is already the highest in the country.

Once everything is built, those internet car manufacturers will have a hard time competing with him.

Investing this money is essentially betting on a world-class opportunity.

If Tengfei Auto doesn't even have a single revolutionary technology, how can it establish itself globally?

Simply dominating within the domestic market isn't enough to demonstrate true value.

It doesn't mean much to him anyway, since he's already so rich, it's just a matter of becoming a little richer.

He simply cannot achieve the global influence he desires.

This puts a lot of pressure on his finances, given all the projects he's invested in.

There are already too many. Whether it's Tengnong Livestock or New Energy, they are all big money-makers.

The hard work and investment in the early stages will bring rewards in the later stages.

Even if it means holding on for three years, he will make Tengfei New Energy Vehicles a success.

It's important to know that automobiles have been the world's largest industry since ancient times.

In the smaller world, the automobile industry accounts for 40% of the country's total industrial output.

In Germany, the automotive industry accounts for 50%.

Both of these places have designated automobiles as their primary economic pillar industry.

This percentage also fully demonstrates the importance of the automotive industry to these two countries.

Gasoline-powered cars are already in their era; new energy vehicles are just starting out.

If he can firmly establish himself in the future new energy vehicle market, his global influence will be far beyond that of ordinary wealthy families.

What's a little hard work in the early stages to achieve this goal?

During his trip here, Chen Pingsheng allocated another 10 billion yuan to Tengde Times. As Zhang Zhiyao watched him leave, he repeatedly exclaimed, "We've really found the best boss for the battery factory!"

Silent support is the best outcome for technological research and development.

He himself is not good at technology, but he can hire a large number of highly skilled technical personnel to serve him.

As long as there's enough money, that's fine.

The new investment of 10 billion yuan means that Tengde Times will establish a larger solid-state battery research institute on the basis of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

This research institute needs to recruit at least 3,000 new R&D personnel.

Starting from the basics, we will gradually overcome the challenges of commercializing solid-state batteries for automobiles step by step.

This is destined to be an epic challenge, which means it will take at least three to five years.

No one knows exactly how long it will take, and they won't release any technical news until the results are in.

Because that would be meaningless.

After inspecting Tengfei New Energy, he actually invested another 15 billion yuan into it.

To date, he has invested 65 billion yuan in new energy vehicle manufacturing.

China's investment in the new energy industry is far ahead of any other country.

This is also the most core strategic project for Tengying Group in the future.

After finally making nearly 20 billion yuan through a 20% stake in Tencent Entertainment, they spent almost all of it on the car manufacturing sector.

Also no one.

When he returned to Shanghai, it was already the ninth day of the Lunar New Year.

People at the group headquarters have gradually returned to work.

Shanghai is beginning to regain its former popularity, with the city bustling with activity again after the Lunar New Year.

Those who want to shop, go shopping; those who want to cruise the Huangpu River, cruise the Huangpu River.

Every year, many tourists from other places come here to admire the prosperity of Shanghai and marvel countless times at the fact that they can own a house in such a city.

How wonderful that would be.

Unfortunately, the starting price for apartments in the city center of Shanghai is already over 12 yuan per square meter.

Those who are born without having to buy a house can naturally afford to live there.

And what you weren't born with, you can't simply live in through effort.

Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, until the moment when our hair turns white.

All they could do was stand outside the city, filled with sorrow.

On the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, Tencent Entertainment released its news on its official website.

The 2017 Tencent Music Grand Concert will be held simultaneously in four major first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

The trip lasts three days and is completely free of charge.

The registration requirements are very simple: either go to Deer Antlers Coffee and buy a cup of New Year's milk coffee.

Either go to Bobo Milk Tea to enjoy your first cup of milk tea of ​​spring.

Tencent Entertainment, having launched such a large-scale performance, naturally wouldn't miss such a good advertising opportunity.

Especially the antler coffee shop, which became the most eye-catching place in the room.

Why hasn't Chen Pingsheng cashed out his shares yet?
Taking advantage of the concert's popularity, they planned to go abroad to cash out a large sum of money from Deer Antler Coffee.

(End of this chapter)