Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 644 Tripartite Consortium Negotiations and Agreements

Late November, a European country!

A private Airbus plane painted with the logo of Zhiyun Aviation arrived at the local airport. However, the people on board were not from Zhiyun Group, but from Liuhe Investment Co., Ltd. The leader of the plane was Qian Zhaoli, the director of the board office of Liuhe Investment Co., Ltd.

Qian Zhaoli previously served as Executive Vice President of Zhiyun Group, Senior Executive Vice President of Fairy Mountain Holdings, Director of Fairy Mountain Holdings, Minister of Administration Department of Liuhe Investment, and Deputy Director of the Board of Directors' Office!
A year ago, he was promoted to Director of the Board Office of Liuhe Investment Co., Ltd. ... This person's reputation is not very well-known, and not many people in China even know him.

However, this does not mean that this person is simple... As the head of the Dong Jing Office, he actually acts on behalf of Xu Shenxue in many situations.

He is a core senior manager in the Xu Group, and his power ranking, to some extent, surpasses that of senior managers familiar to outsiders, such as Bai Qiwen, president of Weiku Electronics Group, Ji Chenghe, senior vice president of Zhiyun Group, and Huang Jianian, CEO of Yihai Technology Group.

The reason why Qian Zhaoli led his team to Europe in a low-key manner this time is very simple: he wants to negotiate with representatives of several American consortia on superconducting quantum computing and many other business matters!
After arriving at the airport, Qian Zhaoli's negotiation team of more than 30 people left the airport under the escort of Galaxy security personnel and then went to stay at a manor in the suburbs of the city.

On the same day, several special planes from the United States also arrived in the area, and the representatives of these conglomerates subsequently checked into their respective accommodations under the escort of their security personnel.

Both sides' manors were heavily guarded... both were on guard against the other side or any third-party forces causing trouble.

After all... this time, the people from both sides weren't just company executives, but powerful senior managers from their respective conglomerates, so security was still very important.

The local European conglomerates also attached great importance to this negotiation... Of course, they were actually reluctant to let people from both sides come to negotiate, because if something went wrong, they, as the hosts, would not be able to explain themselves.

After all, conglomerates don't care about evidence or the impact on public opinion... They'll take action as soon as there's suspicion!

In the past, Galaxy Security and the American security forces were always clashing in Europe, sometimes even bringing out heavy weapons. European conglomerates had a lot of trouble cleaning up their messes... but they couldn't just ignore it, because you can't let ordinary people know about these dirty dealings between conglomerates.

So, in principle, they didn't want Xu Shenxue's people and the American conglomerate to come here to negotiate... The world is so big, you can go wherever you want to negotiate, why do you have to come to my house!
However, in this round of negotiations on superconducting quantum computers, the European consortium is also a major participant!
It's not just American conglomerates that want to buy superconducting quantum computers; European conglomerates are also interested... In the current artificial intelligence industry, although China dominates and the United States follows, Europe is also striving to catch up.

The number of APO graphics cards purchased by Europe each year is not small!
Now they also want to acquire a superconducting quantum computer and are negotiating with Xu Shenxue for this purpose.

So this was actually a tripartite meeting... plus the fact that the Xu Group refused to go to the United States... fearing they wouldn't be able to come back if they did.

The American conglomerates also distrusted Xu Shenxue and dared not come to China!

So in the end, they chose to negotiate in Europe... The local European conglomerates weren't too keen on the idea, afraid of taking responsibility, but considering their interests, they ultimately said: "Boss, welcome..."

These negotiations between conglomerates are naturally different from the high-profile international negotiations that are public knowledge... The outside world is unaware of the relevant information throughout the process, and there are certainly no media reporters involved.

Even European conglomerates, for security reasons and to prevent Xu Shenxue or American conglomerates from blaming them, completely sealed off the area where the meeting was being held.

The normal negotiations lasted for three days. During these three days, Qian Zhaoli and his team negotiated with several American conglomerates as well as European conglomerates.

At the same time, he also needs to constantly communicate with Xu Shenxue in China, as he cannot make decisions on many things and needs Xu Shenxue's approval.

The other side is pretty much the same... Although they are all core executives from their respective conglomerates, none of them are the helmsmen. They have a certain amount of say, but the real core issues still need to be decided by the helmsmen behind the scenes.

After three days of continuous communication and negotiation, the three parties finally reached a verbal agreement. As for why it was only a verbal agreement...

Do you really think you can trust a written agreement between conglomerates?
These agreements rely on the self-discipline, credit, and power of the parties involved; a single document cannot bind these conglomerates.

After a verbal agreement is reached, everyone goes home and takes steps to implement it... This is when various contracts and agreements will come into play.

Three days later, Qian Zhaoli, carrying the verbal agreement, returned to Shenzhen by private jet to report to Xu Shenxue!
"According to the agreement we reached with several consortia in the United States, they will promote the legal sale of our non-smart terminal hardware products in the US market within half a month. The product categories include two major categories of equipment: consumer-grade smart robots and virtual omnidirectional treadmills, but do not include industrial robots, special robots, or VR virtual devices!"

"According to the agreement, some previous restrictions on our company's semiconductor component products will be lifted, such as restrictions on other manufacturers using our company's various semiconductor chips... This part will have a significant positive impact, after all, many smart home appliances and smart terminal products use our semiconductor chip products."

"According to the agreement, they will guarantee the free entry of our Mit brand electric vehicles, owned by our Mexican subsidiary of Hyland Motors, into the US market, push for the withdrawal of the safety hazard investigation against Mit Motors at the end of last year, and ensure that similar situations will not occur again in the future!"

"The electric vehicle clause only applies to mid-to-high-end pure electric vehicles, excluding low-end pure electric or hybrid vehicles! So our Ella brand cannot enter the US market. They also face great resistance in this regard. Even if they wanted to help us push it through on their own, they couldn't. After all, other conglomerates, especially those in the oil industry, have always been very resistant to it. In addition, local auto workers are also a big problem."

"At the same time, they hope that we will not sell the MITT model with optional Level 4 capability in the US market within five years, so that Tesla can have room to survive!"

"According to the agreement, we will provide the core products needed for the second-generation integrated computing center, including the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer, the APO6000 graphics card, and the APO7000 graphics card expected to be released next year. We will also allow them to use their own Intel or AMD server CPUs, Micron or Samsung Electronics server memory, flash memory and other semiconductor chips to build their servers!"

"Our initial negotiation results in this regard are that for the second-generation computing centers we sell to the United States, we will first purchase relevant components from Intel, AMD, Micron, and Samsung Electronics to assemble and produce finished GPU server products. Then, we will combine them with superconducting quantum computers and other sub-component systems and ship them directly for sale. They are willing to bear the additional semiconductor product premium for this!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Shenxue chuckled: "It seems they still don't want to give up their semiconductors. But since they're willing to use their own products, let them be!"
Qian Zhaoli continued, "There are more than ten other clauses, Mr. Xu, you can review them one by one!"

Xu Shenxue took it and looked at it carefully. These terms were basically market-for-market or market-for-technology terms... Negotiations between conglomerates are actually quite simple; they are nothing more than exchanges of interests!

In addition, there are clauses regarding a shared interest group, such as continuing to increase cooperation and further promoting in-depth cooperation in the electric vehicle industry, especially in the fields of power batteries and driver assistance technologies... and continuing to cooperate to further suppress the gasoline vehicle industry in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and even the United States!
They're also in the electric vehicle business... They own Tesla and a bunch of other emerging electric vehicle manufacturers, and they wish GM and Ford would just go out of business.

At the same time, it was agreed that semiconductor technology could not be leaked. The competition between the two companies is already fierce enough, and there is no need for a third competitor.

Of course, this refers to semiconductor design and manufacturing!

Building a data center in a third country doesn't count... The purpose of such investment is mainly to utilize the power resources of the third country, and simply building a data center will not lead to technology leakage or transfer.

These days, companies under these American conglomerates are all going to places like West Asia to build computing centers... Solar power is very cheap.

Even the Xu Group itself, in order to provide data service support for its global business, companies such as Zhiyun Group and Yihai Technology will choose to build a large number of traditional data centers overseas... After all, if the distance is too far, the network speed will not be good, the latency will be too high, and the packet loss rate will be too high if data services are provided nearby.

There are many terms and conditions, covering a wide range of areas... but they are mostly in the high-tech field.

"The agreements with those European consortia were less detailed, and the negotiations went relatively smoothly. They mainly involved the mutual opening of the automotive market and in-depth cooperation in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, such as in-depth cooperation in the automotive parts business!"

"In addition, we have reached certain agreements in the areas of investment and sales channels. In the future, we will open up some of our subsidiaries to issue additional shares to these European consortia. For example, we are cooperating with our European car dealerships and sharing the benefits of the European market with them!"

Xu Shenxue said, "Profit sharing is very necessary, especially since the European market is our second largest market. At the same time, there are no competitors of ours in Europe. Appropriately sharing the profits and continuing to firmly control the market is the right choice!"

Profit sharing is Xu Shenxue's main strategy when targeting the European market... This was the case when he first started selling mobile phones, and it continued to be the case when he sold electric vehicles, robots, and virtual devices.

There are many ways to share benefits, such as binding each other in the supply chain... Many parts of Hailan cars are purchased from European companies, and of course, many European companies also set up factories in China for production.

As long as the other party invests in and builds factories in China for production, Xu Shenxue is happy to cooperate with them... This is also beneficial for their European companies, namely, a more complete supply chain, more talent, lower costs, and higher profits.

Besides supply chain cooperation, there are also benefits in sales and marketing... As a large company like Zhiyun Group, it's impossible for them to sell all kinds of products in every place themselves. In fact, the sales channels for a large number of products still rely on various channel partners.

Some of these distributors are operated by Zhiyun Group itself, but most are various trading companies... A typical example is Weiku Trading, which is one of Zhiyun Group's main distributors. Weiku Trading has first-level channel agency agreements in multiple provinces in China, as well as agency agreements in ASEAN and South American countries.

Weiku Trading is just one of the distributors of Zhiyun Group. There are many similar distributors, some of which are joint ventures between Zhiyun Group and other companies, some are other companies, and some are even operators and e-commerce companies!

Zhiyun Group has more than 300 first-tier distributors worldwide.

In Europe, these conglomerates control a number of distributors and are able to reap considerable profits from them.

Then there are also equity financing collaborations with some large enterprises. Among the shareholders of many of Xu Shenxue's companies are investment institutions under European consortia.

The combined holdings of several European consortia amount to approximately 12 percent of the shares in Zhuyun Group, which is not a small percentage.

Interestingly, Xu Shenxue and the American consortium were locked in a fierce battle, even going so far as to delist Zhuyun Group from the US stock market, during which he bought back shares from the American consortium… However, over the past few years, some of their investment institutions have consistently increased their holdings of Zhuyun Group shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange, eventually acquiring a stake of seven or eight percent. Similar situations have occurred with companies like Yihai Technology Group, Hailan Automotive Group, and Weiku Electronics Group, all of which are listed in both mainland China and Hong Kong, allowing foreign investors to directly trade their shares in Hong Kong.

Exchange of interests and binding of interests are the main strategies that Xu Shenxue has formulated for his various companies to target the global market... After all, if you want to do global market, you can't just keep it all to yourself.

If you try to eat alone, they'll stop you from coming in...

Of course, the above only applies to consumer products, such as smart terminals, smart electric vehicles, robots, and virtual devices... while many enterprise products are not included!

For example, APO graphics cards are unique in the world and have no competitors at all... European or American companies that want to purchase them have to wait in line.

The same applies to modern superconducting quantum computers... These are not things you can just buy whenever you want.

In this field, let alone sharing profits, you have to exchange for additional benefits!
Xu Shenxue negotiated with the overseas conglomerates for a long time before reaching an agreement!

Now that the agreement has been reached, we can officially launch the superconducting quantum computer!

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There has been a lot of hype surrounding superconducting quantum computers for quite some time. If it were just baseless speculation, the major media outlets and ordinary people wouldn't have paid any attention. The key point is that Zhiyun Group has officially acknowledged the existence of superconducting quantum computers.

Since the thing really exists, its impact is huge.

Recently, a large number of tech bloggers, regardless of whether they understand quantum computers or not, have been talking about quantum computers and making all sorts of speculations.

Some unscrupulous self-media bloggers even go so far as to claim that quantum computers will completely replace electronic computers... which is quite exaggerated.

Some ordinary people who don't understand technology, after reading these reports, thought that the quantum computer developed by Zhiyun Group would completely replace traditional electronic computers, and that even personal computers would be able to use quantum computers.

This is clearly nonsense!
The most advanced sixth-generation superconducting quantum computer developed by Zhiyun Group has reached 50,000 controllable qubits... but it still cannot be used for general computing, and can only be used for computing in specific fields. Its main application is for training and operating artificial intelligence technology.

This is also the core application of Zhiyun Group's superconducting quantum computer at present... As for quantum computers replacing electronic computers and becoming the main force of general computing, it is conservatively estimated that they need to be developed to the level of millions of qubits.

If we want to miniaturize it and make a personal computer, that would take even longer... Current quantum computers are huge machines with enormous power consumption, and have nothing to do with personal computers.

However, the news that quantum computers are entering every household and becoming personal computers attracts attention and can generate more traffic... so many self-media bloggers deliberately say this.

Companies engaged in the research and development or application of artificial intelligence technology are also paying close attention. They are more concerned about key data such as the increase in total computing power and the reduction in computing power costs. After all, some scattered information released by Zhiyun Group has clearly stated that superconducting quantum computers can be applied to the field of artificial intelligence, and Zhiyun Group itself is doing just that.

Therefore, many companies are paying attention... not just large internet companies and high-tech companies, but also many companies in traditional industries!
Many companies in traditional industries, including some manufacturing companies, are now gradually applying artificial intelligence technology to optimize processes and improve production efficiency.

Large-scale generative AI is not the only form of artificial intelligence... In fact, big data models in many fields belong to artificial intelligence technology.

It has been gradually applied in many industries, including traditional manufacturing, medical, and materials research and development.

A significant portion of Zhiyun Group's APO graphics cards are purchased by these traditional enterprises to deploy their own big data models... It doesn't matter if they don't have artificial intelligence technology themselves, as Zhiyun Group has made a large number of various artificial intelligence algorithm models publicly available for free.

Customers simply need to bring the algorithm and feed it in their accumulated data for training.

If this superconducting quantum computer performs well and has a lower overall computing cost, companies in these traditional industries will also purchase and use it.

Just as the outside world was paying close attention, December arrived!
Zhiyun Group officially announced the launch event for its superconducting quantum computer!
For a time, the eyes of a large number of people around the world were focused on the Qianshan International Conference Center... This place was acquired by the Zhiyun Group many years ago and has become the official venue for Zhiyun Group to release various technologies or products. On weekdays, it is also provided to its sister companies or simply rented out to other companies for various events.

On the day of the press conference, a large number of media outlets gathered, and many executives from major companies attended. The scale and prestige of the event were unparalleled in the world.

Zhuyun Group already has a strong influence, and its major product launches are also extremely influential, attracting global attention!
Not to mention that today's announcement is of a groundbreaking superconducting quantum computer... Basically, all the major media outlets that could get involved have participated.

After all, this is a superconducting quantum computer, a product that previously only existed in science fiction novels—a top-tier cutting-edge technology!

This thing is more important than the solid-state batteries that were released a couple of years ago... and in fact, it's even more important.

Therefore, in the afternoon, the Qianshan International Conference Center was packed with reporters from all walks of life. According to incomplete statistics, the number of reporters from regular news media alone exceeded one thousand. In addition to various media from China, mainstream media from almost all major countries in the world participated.

The square was filled with television broadcast vehicles from various media outlets!
At the same time, because this press conference was of a very high standard and had a large number of media outlets present, including all major mainstream media, many companies took the opportunity to make an appearance and advertise.

In addition, there are many senior executives and managers from medium and large enterprises, making it a very important platform for entrepreneurs to communicate... At other times and in other places, you can't find so many senior executives from high-tech companies who can communicate so easily.

In such situations, you might just find some opportunities for cooperation.

Due to various factors, after the venue officially opened for entry at around 1 p.m., many corporate executives or leaders who were invited to attend the press conference had already arrived. Some of them chatted with each other to see if there were any opportunities for cooperation, while others accepted various media interviews and advertised.

Of course, representatives from some large companies don't arrive this early; they arrive at the venue around 3 p.m.

The domestic representatives are heads of several large high-tech companies, including some of Xu Shenxue's key companies, such as Huang Jianian, CEO of Yihai Technology Group, Bao Yongyan of Hailan Automobile Group, and Bai Qiwen of Weiku Electronics Group. They are also frequent guests in domestic and international media.

In addition to these domestic high-tech companies, many heads or senior executives of large overseas companies also arrived at this time.

Representatives from companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Samsung, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm all arrived one after another.

In addition, representatives from some European and Japanese companies also came one after another.

Even business leaders from India, ASEAN, and South America came to attend the press conference. Although these places may not have many powerful high-tech companies, being less powerful does not mean they don't have any... There are still some companies that are related to high technology.

These companies are also the main customers of Zhiyun Group's computing chip business.

At this press conference, the main representatives invited by Zhiyun Group were major customers of computing hardware, as well as other strategic partners. The companies covered all over the world, with a total of more than 300 companies invited.

To put it bluntly, any one of these 300-plus companies would be a top-tier, renowned enterprise in their local area, with over a hundred of them being large multinational corporations.

More than ten of them are top multinational high-tech giants!

Its influence is enormous!
The arrival of these representatives from large enterprises made the reporters at the scene wish they had two fewer legs and one less mouth... There were hundreds of heads or executives from top companies gathered at the scene, and they were talking to each other in the hall and also accepting interviews from reporters.

This kind of interview opportunity is extremely rare!
Therefore, the busiest people right now are the media reporters, who want to seize the limited time before the press conference officially begins and the company representatives enter the venue to get as much interview content as possible.

If you're lucky, you might just get some juicy news from the CEO of a big company, and a promotion and raise will be just around the corner.

While media reporters and representatives from various companies were busy in the lobby at the front.

Xu Shenxue's motorcade also entered the underground parking lot inside the conference center from the passage behind the center. Xu Shenxue will personally host the launch event for this superconducting quantum computer!
As the time approached four o'clock, the entrance to the press conference venue opened, and representatives from various companies and media personnel entered one after another.

Thirty minutes later, at 4:30, Xu Shenxue appeared on time at the press conference!

In preparation for introducing to the world a scaled-down version of YCL-51, the first superconducting quantum computer in human history capable of large-scale practical application... YCL-52!

(End of this chapter)