Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 598 Zhiyun Group President's Meeting
December is generally the last month for major high-tech companies to release important products, especially for industries closely related to China, such as the smart terminal industry.

Because in January and February, the domestic supply chain will come to a standstill due to the Spring Festival holiday, and few companies will release important products during this period.

After December, it usually takes until late February or March, which is the period after the Spring Festival when work resumes.

This isn't just the case for domestic companies; many foreign companies are in a similar situation... because these days, the supply chains for most industries are located in China. If a new product is launched in January or February, it's very difficult to manage the domestic supply chain, and forcing it would be extremely costly.

Domestic holiday arrangements can directly affect the operation of many industries and serve as an economic barometer worldwide.

There's no way around it; China's manufacturing output accounts for more than 30 percent of the global total, and it holds a dominant or even monopolistic position in many industries.

The most typical examples are the emerging industries such as smart terminals, semiconductor computing chips, and smart electric vehicles, which are almost all in a monopolistic position... This includes not only finished products, but also a large number of core components.

This situation has led to December being a crucial period for many high-tech companies worldwide to launch new products, with January and February following December becoming a relatively quiet time.

Therefore, in December, major technology companies launched a large number of new products one after another.

Zhuyun Group launched a new generation of intelligent robots, a new generation of Weizhi CPU products, and shipped APO6000 on a large scale. At the same time, it also launched a new generation of lightweight computing terminal chip LC2.

In addition, the independently operated Xinyun brand also released a new generation of flagship models in December, targeting the 1500 yuan price range, striving to carve out a path in the low-end market.

Meanwhile, competitors such as Vcool Electronics, Huawei, OV, and Dami also launched new products in December.

The new generation of Little Blue M from Vcool Electronics has performed exceptionally well and has been extremely well received by the market.

Amidst this lively atmosphere, December came to an end.

In early January, after New Year's Day, Xu Shenxue convened a meeting of the presidents of Zhiyun Group. All senior vice presidents and vice presidents, regardless of whether they were based in Shenzhen, elsewhere, or even overseas, flew back to attend the meeting.

This meeting lasted for three days. In addition to listening to reports from various business units and regional subsidiaries, Xu Shenxue also further clarified the company's next strategic operational direction.

It was proposed to continue to firmly follow the basic business strategy of "technology research and development as the guide", and it was clearly required that the company's R&D investment should account for more than 20% of the company's revenue.

We must continue to promote and intensify our efforts in exploring some cutting-edge technologies with great application prospects and high strategic value, such as the research and development of non-invasive brain-computer interface technology and the research and development of next-generation artificial intelligence underlying core algorithms.

We will build a more comprehensive ecosystem around our two new core businesses: virtual business and robotics business, continuously drive technological progress, and further achieve greater global coverage.

We aim to bring robots into ordinary households within five years, making them an indispensable part of every ordinary family around the world.

We aim to complete the initial research and development of non-invasive brain-computer interfaces and the initial testing of the first-generation prototype within five years, thereby obtaining a feasible technical roadmap and promoting the comprehensive development of the virtual world.

Technological research and development is the core competitiveness of Zhiyun Group, and technological advantages are the core reason why Zhiyun Group's products sell well globally... Xu Shen has always attached great importance to this.

As long as the technology is good enough, even American conglomerates will not hesitate to purchase APO6000 graphics cards in large quantities!

Even the X-14 low-altitude multi-rotor drone, which is marketed as civilian but is actually used for military purposes, still requires the US to make indirect purchases of some of its components.

And Xiaojiang Technology's conventional drones are even better; the US threatens sanctions and bans every few days, yet they still sell very well...

Because they have no substitutes!
Regarding technological research and development, Xu Shenxue further emphasized that the company needs to further promote the development of various technologies centered on artificial intelligence.

To promote the development of core artificial intelligence technologies, Xu Shenxue demanded that at least three trillion yuan be cumulatively invested in computing infrastructure over the next three years to build computing centers.

We must achieve the strategic goal of reaching 2,000 EFLPOS of AI computing power within three years, and make preliminary preparations for reaching 5,000 EFLPOS of computing power within five years.

In order to obtain sufficient computing power, especially sufficient computing power under limited power supply, Xu Shenxue required all business units and subsidiaries to take technological progress as the main solution, rather than simply increasing the number of computing centers to obtain more computing power... The power supply cannot hold up!

In a small, closed-door meeting with some of the senior vice presidents and vice presidents, Xu Shenxue demanded that the fields of superconducting quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, and the integrated computing center plan must be advanced at a high speed without any delays.

To ensure the manufacturing of superconducting quantum chips, Xu Shenxue has demanded a cumulative investment of 500 billion yuan over the next three years to build the next generation of quantum chip industry chain!
We strive for a major breakthrough in the annual production capacity of high-performance quantum chips.

It also promotes the technological research and development of next-generation quantum chip manufacturing and requires that the initial results of the next-generation, namely the seventh-generation quantum chip manufacturing industry chain be seen within three years.

In the field of neuromorphic computing, the manufacturing part is not a big problem because it follows the semiconductor electronic chip manufacturing technology route. However, in the three-in-one integrated computing center plan that uses neuromorphic computers, further investment is needed.

Once the initial technical route exploration is completed and the first comprehensive computing center is built, the subsequent step is to accelerate its full-scale application.

In addition to the closed-door meeting, Xu Shenxue emphasized in subsequent public meetings that in the semiconductor manufacturing field, it is necessary to maintain a high level of operation to gain a technological competitive advantage.

Over the next three years, a total investment of 1.5 trillion yuan will be made to build the production capacity of the next-generation 3-nanometer advanced process and expand the production capacity of the 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer advanced main processes, striving to be the first in the world to launch an equivalent 3-nanometer process and supply it on a large scale!

At the same time, we need to expand 3D packaging capacity on a large scale and accelerate the research and development of next-generation advanced packaging processes.

During the three-day Zhiyun Group President's Meeting, Xu Shenxue basically clarified the main business direction of Zhiyun Group for the next three years... Although he said a lot, it can be summarized as continuing to maintain high investment and high pace of R&D; expanding the production capacity of core cutting-edge technologies such as advanced semiconductors; exploring more cutting-edge technologies and finding the next core business.

In addition, regarding the market, Xu Shenxue also pointed out that while further consolidating the domestic and major core markets such as Europe, the focus should be on developing emerging markets such as ASEAN and Central and South America...

And after many years, he once again brought up the idea of ​​steadily expanding into the US market...

This mainly refers to the business of robots, virtual equipment, and computing chips.

The computing chip business alone represents a huge market in the United States, contributing tens of billions of dollars in revenue to Zhiyun Group every year. In fact, because Zhiyun Group has opened up its supply of computing chips, the other party has turned a blind eye to Zhiyun Group's sale of robots and virtual equipment in the US market through a lease-to-own arrangement!

They are also worried that banning Zhiyun robots and Zhiyun virtual devices would overly provoke Xu Shenxue, who might then resort to a disgusting tactic of blocking computing power chips... You know, a large number of American companies are eagerly waiting for Zhiyun Group's APO graphics cards.

This stuff is in high demand right now, and it's being snapped up globally. If you want unlimited priority supply, you always have to pay a price!

Of course, the main reason is that Zhiyun Robotics and Zhiyun Virtual Equipment currently have no competitors, so they won't have any impact on local companies in the short term... Their robots haven't been successfully developed yet, and their omnidirectional treadmill virtual equipment hasn't been successfully developed either.

As for the VR virtual reality devices developed by companies like Apple, these are too different from the virtual reality devices of Zhiyun Group. There are some minor conflicts, but not significant ones... Even if there are conflicts, it's useless. Apple's VR virtual reality devices still need to use Zhiyun Group's supply chain and be provided with core components such as APO graphics cards and monitors.

Furthermore, with Zhiyun Group's virtual equipment leading the way, it is possible to encourage more American consumers to purchase VR virtual equipment and for more people to enter the virtual world.

Without the virtual ecosystem created by Zhiyun Group, what would be the point of Apple playing with VR virtual devices? And what would be the point of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft creating virtual worlds?
The virtual era has arrived, and this is not just the virtual era for Zhiyun Group, but also the virtual era for major high-tech companies around the world!
Therefore, there are no obstacles for Zhiyun Group's virtual equipment in the US market. It's just that they adopted a perpetual lease-and-sell model to avoid suspicion. To date, theoretically, US consumers cannot purchase Zhiyun equipment in the US market, but US companies can. US companies can purchase and then lease the equipment to consumers, and the lease can be permanent.

This was a loophole deliberately left when the Zhuyun Group was sanctioned, to ensure that American companies could still purchase Zhuyun Group's semiconductor chips and enterprise services.

Now, this vulnerability has been extended to the fields of virtual devices and robotics.

However... the VR virtual reality devices developed by Vcool Electronics and Huawei could not enter the US market because their products would directly compete with Apple's VR virtual reality devices!
The US is currently taking very strong measures to protect Apple's position as the sole player in the smart device market, keeping all competitors out.

Therefore, the current US market is quite complicated for Zhiyun Group. Some products can enter the market, some cannot, and some products even require Zhiyun to enter!

It cannot be generalized!

Ultimately, technology is king. If a company's technology is advanced enough that it has no competitors, it becomes easier to manipulate them. If the product they create is exactly what the company desperately needs, then they can be controlled.

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.

As a large company like Zhiyun Group, the small-scale high-level meetings it holds on a regular basis naturally don't attract much media attention, and some people might not even know about them.

However, news of such a rare group president meeting, attended by all senior executives at the president level, could not be kept secret, as a large number of industry insiders and media were watching closely.

Xu Shenxue had just convened a group president meeting, and many of the vice presidents working outside the company hadn't even returned yet, but well-informed media personnel already knew about it. Of course, at this point, the news hadn't spread very widely.

When Zhiyun Group comes up with some cutting-edge technology, it naturally attracts a lot of attention and becomes breaking news, which is loved by major media outlets.

However, high-level meetings are not something that ordinary people care about, so they receive less media attention.

However, as the meeting officially began, and photos of the half-day open session were taken and made public, some non-confidential information was also published on the Zhiyun Group's official website.

These seemingly non-confidential information have attracted a lot of attention... In particular, at the Zhiyun Group President's Meeting, Xu Shenxue proposed to invest 3 trillion yuan in the field of artificial intelligence to build computing power infrastructure within three years, and to invest 1.5 trillion yuan in the field of semiconductor manufacturing to build semiconductor factories within three years.

Setting up a computing center is nothing special, nor is setting up a semiconductor factory. The problem lies in the enormous sums of money involved.

That's in the trillions!

The investment of three trillion yuan in the construction of computing power centers in the field of artificial intelligence over three years, which averages out to one trillion yuan per year, will have a huge impact on the industry!
No sooner had the news been announced than the stock prices of some companies in the related industrial chain of the computing center soared instantly!

One of the key suppliers for Zhiyun Data Center, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, and a leading domestic server cooling equipment company that provides at least 70% of the server cooling equipment for Zhiyun Group, saw its stock price hit the daily limit on the day of its launch, with shares becoming extremely scarce. Judging from the current situation, it is highly likely that the stock will continue to hit the daily limit for several more days.

But this wasn't the only company to hit the daily limit; there were many other companies as well!

The computing center of Zhiyun Group needs more than just APO graphics cards, CPUs, and memory; it also requires a large number of other devices. Zhiyun Group does not develop and produce these components or subsystems itself, but instead purchases them from external suppliers... which leads to a whole host of component or subsystem suppliers.

And behind these suppliers are a bunch of material and component suppliers.

Zhuyun Group has invested a massive 3 trillion yuan in computing power centers, and the scale of the industrial chain it has leveraged is far more than 3 trillion yuan.

In addition to the surge in server stock prices, some listed companies in the semiconductor equipment and consumables supply chain also saw significant stock price increases.

Although Fairy Mountain Holdings directly supplies most of the core semiconductor equipment and consumables, it is a group company with many listed subsidiaries.

In addition, many conventional equipment items are also directly purchased from other domestic suppliers, and there are even more subsystems.

The semiconductor equipment and consumables industry is also greatly affected, followed by a large number of companies, including many listed companies.

Xu Shenxue plans to invest 1.5 trillion yuan in an advanced semiconductor factory... Putting everything else aside, the stock price of a construction company that has long cooperated with Zhiyun Microelectronics and built more than half of the semiconductor factory buildings for Zhiyun Microelectronics has already skyrocketed.

Even if the construction of the factory is just a fraction of the investment cost of a semiconductor factory... it is still a fraction of a huge investment of 1.5 trillion... this fraction is still in the tens of billions.

For many construction companies, even an increase of several billion in revenue represents a significant boost in performance. Moreover, this revenue is high-quality revenue with substantial and stable profits.

The construction of the semiconductor factory by Zhiyun Group was extremely demanding in terms of project schedule, technical requirements, construction environment, and worker treatment.

In other aspects, they are very easy to talk to. They pay according to high standards, leave a certain profit margin for their partners, and are very firm about payment terms. They pay on the contractually agreed-upon date and do not impose long payment periods.

For many years, Zhiyun Group has been a highly sought-after partner for domestic enterprises, and countless companies want to join Zhiyun Supply Chain.

Even in the construction industry, it's no exception... a whole bunch of construction companies are scrambling to get into the semiconductor factory construction business of Zhiyun Group!

However, many times they can't get in... and it doesn't even have much to do with the price. Zhiyun Group doesn't require you to bid with the lowest price. What they require are other things, such as construction progress, construction technology, construction environment, and worker treatment.

As a top global high-tech company, Zhiyun Group values ​​its corporate reputation highly and mandates that its partner companies meet its established standards.

Otherwise, if news breaks about partner companies mistreating workers or damaging the environment, it would be a huge blow to the Zhiyun Group...

Many things, such as worker benefits, are things that ordinary companies may not care about, and might even be eager for partner factories to reduce dust and increase efficiency to further lower the cost of spare parts. But companies like Zhiyun Group must care about these things...

There's no way around it; people all over the world, including many competitors and those with ill intentions, are watching, just waiting for Zhiyun Group to make a mistake and release some terrible negative news.

Imagine if one day a news story broke that the Zhiyun S series phones were manufactured in a slave factory, and a large group of competitors fanned the flames and tried to obstruct them, which could ignite public opinion overseas in no time... How disgusted would overseas consumers be at that moment!

If even a few out of a hundred potential consumers choose another brand for this reason, it would be a huge loss of tens or even hundreds of billions for Zhiyun Group!
The bigger the tree, the more the wind will blow against it—that's a perfect description of Zhuyun Group!

Of course, the various bidding requirements of Zhiyun Group are quite demanding and even bizarre compared to the current social atmosphere and market environment!

Few companies, when looking for a supplier, also have numerous requirements regarding whether the supplier pays social insurance for employees, whether the employee accommodation environment meets standards, whether the employee meals meet standards, whether the employee salaries meet standards, whether there are safety hazards in the production environment, and whether environmental protection standards are met.

But that's exactly what Zhiyun Group did!

These seemingly ordinary requirements are actually something that most conventional companies cannot meet!

Therefore, suppliers also have their own methods... It is impossible for the entire company to meet the requirements, because the market environment is such that not all companies' orders can be as large in quantity and high in profit as those of Zhiyun Group.

Most of the companies' orders are only marginally profitable. If they were to follow the standards of Zhiyun Group, they would go bankrupt first.

Therefore, many suppliers usually separate their own business, especially their production bases.

The production base that provides products to Zhiyun Group will be built entirely according to Zhiyun Group's standards, ensuring that no one from Zhiyun Group can find fault with it. In fact, to avoid trouble, a separate subsidiary will be established to operate the facilities.

As for the production bases supplying companies like Vcool Electronics, their prices fluctuate with market conditions...

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.

The massive investments disclosed in Zhiyun Group's public announcements have attracted the attention of a large number of industry insiders, investors, media, and ordinary people.

Because the publicly disclosed investment plans alone have already reached 4.5 trillion yuan... and that doesn't even include the unannounced plans. If you include the undisclosed details behind the scenes, it would definitely be even more.
The massive capital expenditure of Zhiyun Group has a huge impact on the industrial chain, affecting a large number of companies and jobs; otherwise, it wouldn't be attracting so much attention.

Following the conclusion of the three-day president's meeting, in response to numerous media interview requests, the spokesperson for Zhuyun Group officially announced some basic information about the meeting at a routine press conference... Of course, what was discussed were all public and non-confidential matters.

He also answered many questions from reporters!

After all, Zhuyun Group is a listed company, and such major events need to be disclosed to the public. It is impossible for them to invest trillions of yuan without telling investors.

While the limited information released by Zhiyun Group caused a great stir in the industry and financial sectors, Xu Shenxue had already ended the meeting and begun the next phase of work: to practically promote the business plan for the next three years!

In order to better promote the plan, and because Xu Shenxue originally wanted to adjust some senior executives at the vice president level and above, he made a series of adjustments to the appointments of vice presidents and even senior vice presidents in the following days.

However, many people see this as another power reshuffle among the senior management of Zhiyun Group... well, that's actually true.

For Xu Shenxue, this was simply a necessary personnel adjustment for the next three to five years of operation: to put the right people in the right positions.

But for some of the executives who were reassigned... it's like the difference between heaven and hell!
For example, a vice president in a core department, who just the day before held great power and whose decisions could even affect the rise and fall of an industry, also dreams of going further to become a senior vice president and one of the group's decision-makers.

However, upon waking up, they found themselves transferred to a peripheral business unit or even demoted to an ordinary subsidiary... This felt like the sky had fallen.

There were also a few people who were originally just group executive presidents, barely considered senior executives in a top-tier company like Zhiyun Group.

But when he woke up, he found himself promoted to vice president of the group, and the vice president in charge of the core department, with great power in his hands!
I'd be laughing in my sleep!

The reshuffling of high-level personnel also affected the reshuffling of some mid-to-high-level personnel. The impact was far more than just the twenty-odd people personally relocated by Xu Shenxue; it spread down layer by layer, affecting hundreds of people.

This round of intensive personnel reshuffles is destined to bring joy to some and sorrow to others!

Wang Hua was lucky, because he was the one who laughed!
Wang Hua had heard about the turmoil among the group's senior management, but he felt it had little to do with him. After all, he was only an M7 level official, far removed from the top management, and the financial department he worked for was actually a marginal department within the Zhiyun Group, so he wouldn't be greatly affected.

However, unexpectedly, the personnel turmoil at the top level directly led to the resignation of a group vice president in charge of the financial investment business unit of Zhiyun Group. After the vice president position became vacant, the head of the strategic investment department was successfully promoted.

After the head of the Strategic Investment Department took office, he took several of his subordinates to work in the Financial Investment Division. As a result, an M8-level director position became available in the third business division of the Strategic Investment Department where Wang Hua worked.

Qian Anlin, who had previously been quite optimistic about him and was now promoted to Director of the Strategic Investment Department, nominated him to serve as Director of the Third Business Division.

Upon receiving the official notification, Wang Hua suppressed his joy and calmly accepted the congratulations from his subordinates and colleagues. He then went to the office of Qian Anlin, the new head of the Strategic Investment Department, to express his gratitude and convey his heartfelt thanks.

He knew very well that having a mentor who appreciated him was more important than simply working hard!

After dealing with all these matters, Wang Hua ran alone to an empty stairwell and shouted several times with all his might...

After years of hard work, I finally climbed from an ordinary analyst to a director, and from then on, I was in charge of an entire business unit!
At that moment, he didn't want anything else but to shout!
(End of this chapter)