Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 536 Mining Helium-3 on the Moon

In Shenzhen, in a building near the headquarters of Fairy Mountain Holdings, a property previously owned by a subsidiary of Fairy Mountain Holdings, the building has been vacated to serve as the temporary office space for the newly established Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

At the newly established Xinghai Energy subsidiary, Xu Shenxue made a special trip to attend the founding meeting and spoke with the company's executives.

However, although the company claims to be a technology company, it is actually more like a research institution. Therefore, the management team that Xu Shenxue met were mainly research personnel, with only a few administrative and financial staff, who were mainly engaged in logistical work.

After all, controlled nuclear fusion cannot be commercialized in the short term, and Xinghai Energy will also find it difficult to commercialize it in a short period of time.

For a long time to come, Xinghai Energy's mission will be to develop the 'Xinghai Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research and Experimental Reactor'. In the early stages, the focus will be on theoretical research and subsystem testing. It will take some time before the actual construction and building of the experimental reactor will take place.

At the very least, we need to come up with a design plan and develop the important subsystems before we can actually build the experimental reactor.

But this will take time!
However, Xinghai Energy has already reported to Xu Shenxue that the company is preparing to build its headquarters building and related research buildings in the suburbs.

The relevant design and construction preparations are expected to be completed next month, and construction will officially begin next month. The entire company is expected to be able to move into the new headquarters next year.

This office building is only being used temporarily for preliminary theoretical research. Many scientific research projects require extensive specialized spaces and equipment, which is not feasible in this location.

Xu Shenxue spent half a day at Xinghai Energy, mainly meeting people and boosting morale, while Professor Wang Binyao excitedly accompanied Xu Shenxue on the inspection.

Professor Wang Binyao had not expected that his controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor project would proceed so smoothly. He had just convinced Xu Shenxue and then, within a few days, convinced the higher-ups, which made his controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor project go smoothly all the way.

Now you can have money and people whenever you want!
Xu Shenxue has no shortage of money. A few hundred billion yuan in research funding may seem like a lot, but it's nothing if it can lead to the development of a controlled nuclear fusion experimental reactor. Not only Xu Shenxue contributed money, but the other shareholders of Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. also contributed money readily!

Talent has also received substantial support. In other fields such as materials science, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and superconductivity, it is supported by Fairy Mountain Holdings and Zhiyun Group, while in the nuclear industry and many other fields, talent support is provided by partner companies and research institutes.

Currently, Xinghai Energy's R&D team has initially finalized a list of more than 800 people... and this is only the team responsible for the overall design and development of the experimental reactor.

In fact, the research on many subsystems, materials and other key projects is not directly undertaken by Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd., but by the Materials Research Institute under its parent company, Fairy Mountain Holdings, as well as other subsidiaries, the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute under its sister company, Zhiyun Group, and research institutions under its subsidiaries.

Of course, a considerable number of research projects are undertaken by research institutions under the partner companies.

In addition, Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. has also collaborated with dozens of universities and other research institutions to develop some sub-projects.

The entire "Starry Sea Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor" project is actually very large, involving many disciplines and almost the entire industrial system.

Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is only responsible for the design and assembly of the whole machine... It does not have key technologies, such as the research and development of new materials.

Its nature is somewhat similar to that of Haiwan Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Fairy Mountain Holdings. Haiwan Technology Co., Ltd. deals with semiconductor equipment such as lithography machines, etching machines, and sample injection machines. In fact, they do not develop these subsystems themselves; they are just a semiconductor equipment integration design and manufacturer.

Therefore, the most critical R&D projects in the entire project are not in Xinghai Energy Technology, but in the three research institutions under Fairy Mountain Holdings: the Materials Research Institute, the Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute, and the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute under Zhiyun Group.

The Fairy Mountain Materials Research Institute is mainly responsible for the research and development of further improvements to TP85 materials, as well as the research and development of various other high-performance new materials to be used in projects.

The TP85 silicon carbide composite material is a key material in the entire Xinghai Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research and Experimental Reactor... Only with this new material can the first wall be made to meet the requirements of long-term operation and greatly improve the collection of plasma energy.

This first wall is actually the only layer in controlled nuclear fusion that comes into actual contact with ultra-high temperature plasma... This layer is used to protect the entire nuclear fusion facility from being burned by the high temperature plasma, and it is also used to collect the energy of the plasma.

Therefore, the performance of this first wall and its ability to be used for a long time directly affect whether controlled nuclear fusion technology can be put into practical use.

Professor Wang Binyao's unintentional discovery of the TP85 silicon carbide composite material is currently the only material discovered by mankind that can withstand high-temperature plasma bombardment for a long time and collect a large amount of energy in the process!
Other materials, while they can achieve similar results with some difficulty, have too short a lifespan and too low an energy harvesting efficiency, thus lacking practical value for long-term use.

However, TP85 silicon carbide composite material is different; it can be used for a long time and has a very high energy harvesting efficiency.

It was precisely because of the accidental discovery of this TP85 silicon carbide composite material that Professor Wang Binyao was inspired to pursue controlled nuclear fusion...

Of course, there are still many technical challenges to overcome in achieving controlled nuclear fusion, such as how to better use magnetic fields to confine high-temperature plasma... This requires two key technologies.

One is superconducting materials. Only with reliable room-temperature superconducting materials can we eventually create super magnets and withstand huge currents... Ordinary materials would burn out due to their resistance under such a large current impact.

In the field of superconducting materials, Zhiyun Group has extremely strong technological reserves. Among them, the MMK34 superconducting material, which is still under top secret but has begun to be produced in small quantities and used in the manufacturing of superconducting quantum computers, is very much in line with the needs of controlled nuclear fusion.

Besides superconducting materials, another core technical challenge is the development of a dedicated large-scale model for predicting and controlling plasma based on artificial intelligence technology.

This technical issue also needs to be addressed by Zhiyun Group!
After all, when it comes to artificial intelligence, Zhiyun Group is a professional!

Moreover, Zhiyun Group already has experience in developing similar artificial intelligence technologies... One of the core technical challenges of the superconducting quantum computer developed and manufactured by Zhiyun Group is how to control the qubits. Zhiyun Group's technicians used data model algorithms based on artificial intelligence technology to predict and control the qubits, thereby rapidly increasing the number of controllable qubits from dozens to hundreds, thousands, and then to ten thousand in the LC-51 superconducting quantum computer.

Furthermore, with continuous updates to the algorithm and an increase in training data, this quantum bit control model algorithm is constantly undergoing iterative optimization. The short-term goal of Zhiyun Group is to enable it to control 50,000 quantum bits!

This is also the core performance indicator of the next generation, namely the sixth generation of superconducting quantum computers, which are currently under development.

Therefore, the AI ​​Research Institute of Zhiyun Group has a wealth of technical expertise and experience in this type of AI model, and they are confident in mastering the prediction and control model of plasma used in controlled nuclear fusion.

In previous research and development, they had already achieved a prediction time of 300 milliseconds in advance. They will continue to conduct research and development to further improve the overall prediction time and control efficiency.

Therefore, in the entire Xinghai Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor project, the Materials Research Institute of Fairy Mountain Holdings, the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of Zhiyun Group, and the Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute are the core key research and development institutions, while the others are just supporting and assisting research and development.

Xu Shenxue was in a good mood after returning from Xinghai Energy Technology Co., Ltd. ... Even half a month ago, he did not expect to see the dawn of controlled nuclear fusion so soon.

After all, the idea of ​​controlled nuclear fusion has been around since the 1970s and 80s, and decade after decade has passed. As a result, many people say that the technological breakthrough in controlled nuclear fusion will always come in the next decade!
Meanwhile, his own company, which had been tinkering around without initially intending to pursue controlled nuclear fusion, inexplicably discovered, after numerous breakthroughs in materials technology and artificial intelligence, that some of the achievements developed by his company were already sufficient to meet the technical requirements of some key areas of controlled nuclear fusion.

Developing a large-scale commercial controlled nuclear fusion reactor is not feasible at the moment, but it's not a big problem for building a research experimental reactor.

In Xu Shenxue's view, if the scientific research experimental reactor can be developed, proving the correctness of the technical route and the future potential of the experimental reactor, then large-scale application will not be far away.

I am very likely to see controlled nuclear fusion power generation within the next ten years... Of course, this does not mean that electricity prices will become cheaper after controlled nuclear fusion power generation is achieved.

There is not much direct connection between the two.

The cost of electricity consists of two parts: power generation and power transmission. The cost of power generation is actually very low. For example, the price of electricity from hydroelectric power plants that is fed into the grid is also very cheap, ranging from a few cents to as little as a few cents.

The bulk of the cost of electricity is actually in the transmission sector... The construction and maintenance of the transmission network is quite expensive, and the transmission requirements of sparsely populated remote areas must also be taken into account.

We can't just provide electricity to profitable cities and industrial areas while ignoring the electricity needs of residents in remote and underdeveloped rural areas.

The cost of electricity is the sum of these two costs, plus some taxes and profits.

Considering the cost of power transmission, even if the cost of generating electricity at the power generation end is zero, there will still be a cost of several cents when transmitting this zero-cost electricity to the power consumption end... Therefore, free electricity is impossible in the era of controlled nuclear fusion.

Furthermore, controlled nuclear fusion is actually quite expensive nowadays, not cheap at all... Xu Shenxue plans to invest hundreds of billions in a research experimental reactor.

If we're going to build commercial power plants in the future, a single nuclear fusion power plant would cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars... that's all for the cost of generating electricity.

Finally, the daily operation and power generation costs of controlled nuclear fusion are not low, mainly due to the high cost of fuel. The current technology uses a mixture of deuterium and tritium. Deuterium is cheap and plentiful on Earth, but tritium is very scarce and difficult to extract.

This has led to tritium being extremely expensive, currently costing around $30,000 per gram!
Note that the unit of weight used here is 'gram'!
The cost of each kilogram of deuterium-tritium mixture is more than 100 million yuan. Previously, domestic and foreign nuclear fusion devices could generate tens of millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity using this one kilogram of fuel. If sold at one yuan per kilowatt-hour, they would still have to pay a loss!

Therefore, even without considering the construction and operation costs of nuclear fusion facilities, previous nuclear fusion technology solutions were unreliable because the cost of power generation was too high. Xinghai Energy Technology's controlled nuclear fusion plan, on the other hand, intends to use the more advanced TP85 material as the first wall material, which can significantly improve energy collection and generate more electricity.

Even so, the cost of Xinghai Energy Technology's controlled nuclear fusion power generation will not be low... let alone free.

Xu Shenxue proposed a new solution to this problem for scientists: Since tritium, a fuel used in nuclear fusion, is expensive, why not switch to another fuel, such as helium-3!
Although there isn't much helium-3 on Earth, there's plenty on the moon, which we use to generate electricity!
As for how to mine resources from the moon and bring them back, you don't need to worry about that.

Although the technology is still a bit lacking, if there is a real need for helium-3 and a huge demand, then driven by huge commercial interests, Nanmen Aerospace would be very willing to raise a lot of funds to start the lunar factory project and build a helium-3 mining plant on the moon.

Meanwhile, Zhiyun Group and Weiku Industry can also provide various highly intelligent mining equipment such as space robots.

Once you've mastered the technology of using Helium-3 and there's a demand for it, these problems won't be problems at all!
The key lies in business needs!
After hearing this, the group of people thought about it carefully and found that it was actually quite reliable. Helium-3 as the main combustion nuclear fusion experimental reactor was not technically a problem.

Mining helium-3 from the moon sounds incredibly far-fetched, but it's actually a possibility... after all, Nanmen Aerospace's technology is quite impressive.

In the field of robotics, Zhiyun Group is also quite impressive. There are space robots under Zhiyun Group currently in service on the space station for various tasks such as daily maintenance. Since these space robots can be used on the space station, there is naturally no problem using them on the moon.

Since the overall technical direction is not a major problem, it seems that using helium-3 as nuclear fusion fuel is also not a big issue.

Xu Shenxue then instructed Nanmen Aerospace to accelerate the development of super-heavy rockets and spacecraft, and to prepare for the construction of a lunar experimental base... in preparation for the future mining of helium-3.

At the same time, it also prompted Zhiyun Group and Weiku Industry to accelerate the research and development of various space robots, especially to develop an unmanned mining equipment that can automatically mine helium-3 in the lunar environment!
If you were to go to the moon to conduct mining operations, you couldn't possibly use conventional mining methods. You'd need to deploy large-scale, specialized robots, and these robots would also need to be radiation-proof and highly intelligent.

After giving instructions on the relevant plans, Xu Shenxue also looked forward to the possibility of using helium-3 from the moon as the main fuel after controlled nuclear fusion was developed in the next few years, so that controlled nuclear fusion could be applied on a large scale.

Looking further ahead, we can expect controlled nuclear fusion to be miniaturized and then carried onto spacecraft, thus enabling true interstellar travel to be realized in its initial stages... allowing humanity to take its first step towards the stars!
Although the first step may be insignificant at the beginning, it is still a start. Once you get started, things will be much easier later on.

The hardest part is getting started!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

While Xu Shenxue was busy with the controlled nuclear fusion project, the outside world was unaware of this news and was instead focused on Zhuyun Group's plan to list on the domestic stock exchange.

The controlled nuclear fusion project is currently under secrecy and has not been publicly announced, so the outside world is unaware of it at this time.

However, the news that Zhiyun Group was going to be listed in China was announced several months ago.

As time passed and September arrived, just as the autumn smartphone battle was in full swing both domestically and globally, Zhuyun Group officially listed on the domestic stock market.

When Zhiyun Group went public in China on its first day of listing, its total market value, calculated based on the offering price, was a little over 3.1 trillion US dollars.

However, within just one hour of its listing, the company's total market capitalization, calculated based on its domestic A-share price, had already reached 3.3 trillion US dollars... and by the afternoon closing, Zhuyun Group's total market capitalization, calculated based on its domestic stock price, had reached over 3.4 trillion US dollars.

Benefiting from the rise in domestic stock prices, the Hong Kong stock price also rose slightly. Based on the Hong Kong stock price, the market value of Zhuyun Group has reached US$3.25 trillion.

This has led to a difference between the domestic and Hong Kong stock prices of Zhuyun Group... However, this is a normal phenomenon for companies listed in both A-shares and H-shares, with most companies listed in both markets having a higher domestic stock price than a Hong Kong stock price.

There are many factors at play here. One of the more obvious reasons is that Zhuyun Group's stock in China has been highly sought after by a large number of retail investors. Many retail investors, and even many people who have never entered the stock market before, have regarded buying Zhuyun Group's stock as a long-term investment.

Meanwhile, many domestic investment institutions have also used Zhuyun Group's stock as a ballast, purchasing and holding large quantities of it.

This has led to a higher stock price for Zhuyun Group in China, resulting in a higher total market capitalization.

The listing of Zhiyun Group in China brought the company more than 2 trillion yuan in cash flow. These funds will be used for investment in semiconductor construction, to promote the development of robotics and virtual business, and to continuously carry out research and development on various new technologies.

This massive injection of funds will accelerate the business development and technological research and development of Zhuyun Group in its core areas and future high-tech fields.

The listing of Zhuyun Group in China has also brought several additional effects... one of which is that it has led to a cooling down of the domestic real estate market!

Because of Zhuyun Group's domestic listing, it absorbed too much capital... more than two trillion!

While there is a lot of idle capital in China, it is not unlimited... After a portion of this capital was absorbed by the Zhuyun Group, it naturally led to a decrease in the amount of new capital flowing into the real estate market, resulting in a cooling down of the real estate market.

Because many people have put their money into buying shares of Zhuyun Group instead of speculating on real estate!

In the past, many wealthy people in China had no choice. Money in the bank couldn't keep up with inflation, and they couldn't make other investments. They dared not touch stocks and funds, so they used their money to buy houses as investments.

It's not just speculators doing this; many families with relatively high incomes are doing the same. They have spare cash and choose to buy several properties to preserve and increase its value. After all, these days, many people believe that housing prices will keep rising indefinitely, confidently stating that prices will never fall and will continue to rise because the government won't allow them to drop.

In reality, the authorities have been trying every means to control housing prices and strive for a soft landing for the real estate market... and as time goes by and the timing becomes more mature, they are gradually accelerating the pace of a soft landing for the real estate market!

Previously, the reason for the lack of sufficient, large-scale, and highly competitive high-tech core industries in China was the fear that a soft landing would turn into a hard landing. However, with the development over the past decade, China has established a sufficiently large high-tech economic system in many new industries such as mobile internet, semiconductors, smart terminals, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, robots, and virtual industries.

In the electric vehicle sector, Hailan Auto alone has a production and sales volume approaching three million vehicles, nearly half of which are exported as complete vehicles or core components. In addition to Hailan Auto, a large number of other domestic automakers are also rapidly emerging.

The electric vehicle industry has rapidly become one of the pillar industries in China, and its economic share continues to rise. It is expected to reach the level of tens of millions of vehicles in a short period of time, and may even reach a production capacity of 30 million vehicles in the next few years.

The robotics industry is also aiming for a production volume of millions of units, which translates to a very large output value.

The virtual industry has an even greater economic driving effect than the robotics industry because, in addition to the hardware industry chain, the virtual industry also has a huge software industry chain. A large number of domestic Internet companies have successively announced their entry into the virtual content industry, which has generated enormous employment and tax revenue.

Another aspect is the smart terminal industry chain. Currently, the domestic smart terminal industry chain is centered around Zhiyun Group, which operates on a full industry chain model. From chip design and manufacturing to screens, batteries, and other components, the entire industry chain is located in China.

Its economic output is staggering, and the jobs and tax revenue it generates are also extremely impressive.

The emergence of numerous new industrial chains with significant advantages and strong competitiveness has already made the domestic economic system more resilient to the economic impact of a gradual soft landing of the inefficient real estate market…

There will definitely be some impact, but it's manageable!
These are all relatively macro-level economic adjustments. In fact, if you analyze them carefully, ordinary people can see them, but many people choose not to believe them!

However, big investors are shrewd, and in the past two years, many have been gradually withdrawing from the real estate market...

Even Liuhe Asset Management Fund, under Xu Shenxue's Liuhe Investment, a massive asset management fund managing over $800 billion in assets, has gradually withdrawn from the real estate market and related industries.

The real estate companies under Fairy Mountain Holdings no longer get involved in actual real estate development. They resell the subsidized land directly after acquiring it, without developing it themselves... Developing real estate themselves has become increasingly risky.

Only some real estate companies that can't see the situation clearly, or who want to go against the trend, are still foolishly taking over large-scale projects and creating a bunch of new ones!

As for ordinary people, the debate over whether real estate prices will rise or fall has been going on for over a decade, so many still believe that housing prices will continue to rise... so those who want to buy will continue to buy.

The domestic listing of Zhuyun Group has provided a new investment direction for a large amount of domestic funds that lack investment channels, and it has also played the role of absorbing the flow of domestic funds.

Capital always needs to find new investment opportunities, and stocks of a series of high-tech companies are a very good investment choice!

Stocks of companies under Xu Shenxue's control, or related companies such as the Zhiyun Group that have strategic partnerships with Xu Shenxue's companies, are considered high-quality investment targets.

Zhuyun Group is an excellent investment choice!

(End of this chapter)