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Chapter 252 Different Decisions
"Qiao Yu, the money has arrived."

"So fast? No way? Last time my bonus didn't go out this fast!"

“It was transferred directly to an overseas account.”

"Uncle Zheng, you actually have overseas accounts?"

“It’s not my account.”

"Oh...Is that so? Then you have to keep an eye on it too. When the money comes in, pay the taxes that are due. After paying the taxes, share it all with your brothers.

Oh, by the way, this money is not for you to give to those companies. It should be directly distributed to people. I will ask about it when the time comes. I added Zhang Gong and Cheng Gong’s WeChat.

If they don't get the money then it will be your fault. I don't care if someone else interfered, I will just ask you for it directly!"

"Don't worry. But how do we divide it?"

"Just divide it equally... Each person should get 170,000 or 180,000, right?"

"About the same. It depends on how much tax is deducted. I'll give you the account later."

Zheng Xiwen nodded and said.

Three million US dollars is equivalent to 21 million RMB at the current exchange rate.

However, the team of engineers responsible for helping tonight is about fifty to sixty people, and he has more than thirty brothers under him, which adds up to nearly a hundred people.

If you divide it all equally, it would be about 100,000 per person, which is a huge sum of money.

All I can say is that Qiao Yu is indeed generous in winning people's hearts.

However, we cannot say that Qiao Yu is generous. After all, the money was not taken out by Qiao Yu, and it seems a bit like he is being generous to others.

That's not right. If it weren't for Qiao Yu, it would be impossible to make this money...

Well, Zheng Xiwen felt confused, but fortunately Qiao Yu was no longer entangled in the bonus issue. Instead, he focused on the next action.

"It's almost five o'clock. Since these trading platforms are so willing to pay, we should revise this statement and write that we are invited by three cryptocurrency platforms to help them conduct security tests at ten o'clock this morning. Since they are all future sponsors, we should still give them the face they deserve. Don't you agree, Uncle Zheng?"

Zheng Xiwen nodded quickly.

As a man who cares about his reputation, he was the one who had been in charge of contacting the other party, and he had thought of many ways just to prove his identity.

If Qiao Yu accepted the money, he would really feel that he was too presumptuous.

"That's it. Hey, Uncle Zheng, you're good in everything except that you're too proud. Let me tell you, in business, it costs money to save face!" Qiao Yu said in a condescending tone.

Zheng Xiwen pretended not to hear.

"Let's go to bed. But set an alarm and get up at nine tomorrow morning to start getting ready. I've already received the money, so I can't stand them up."

"You're going to bed now? Are you sure?"

"Why don't you sleep? Are you going to stay with them until nine in the morning? Trust me, Uncle Zheng, everything technical is ready, there won't be any problem. Oh, by the way, you really can't sleep yet. You have to help me apply for a live broadcast account first! It will be convenient for me to do a live broadcast tomorrow morning!"

Zheng Xiwen: “…”

……

Microsoft headquarters building in Washington, DC, USA.

After the latest quantum chip was released in the morning, the top management has been trying to determine when to restart negotiations with Qiao Yu.

There is no way. If quantum hardware represents the future, then quantum simulation computing represents the present.

The key is to master quantum simulation computing so that we can develop relevant quantum-resistant algorithms in a targeted manner. This is crucial for Microsoft's cloud services and Windows systems.

Or it is extremely important to all high-tech companies that rely on the Internet for survival.

After all, the reason for doing this is just to increase some bargaining chips for one's side, not to just break up.

Qiao Yu learned negotiation skills by studying game theory, but for the managers of large companies who have been working in the high-end business world for decades, this is a compulsory course for them.

Not to mention that they focus on large-scale operations. Negotiations are never independent, but rather elite troops are drawn from countless departments to come up with ideas together.

For example, legal affairs, finance, marketing, R&D, strategic planning...

For this kind of remote conversation, although only a senior vice president may be present, these people will prepare all the materials in advance.

It's like a new quantum chip has been released. How powerful is this quantum chip? It has brand new technology, breakthroughs in materials science, and the formulation of future standards...

What I want to express is that we are so strong in this research direction, and the cooperation between the two sides is a strong alliance, not a one-sided charity, so there is no need to be so strong...

Even if we work together, you will make money. Our hardware, combined with the software provided by Huaxia, will definitely define the future of quantum computing. It is a win-win situation.

As for Google, that kind of chicken and dog should not be on the table. So their cooperation is meaningless.

You definitely can't say this when you're negotiating, but this is probably what Microsoft wants to express.

Cooperation is necessary, but we cannot just follow your instructions. We need to discuss it and take into account the interests of both parties.

The cards have been played, and Microsoft will certainly not rush to find Qiao Yu to continue discussing cooperation. It needs time to observe the other party's reaction before formulating an appropriate negotiation strategy.

But obviously no one expected the other side to react so quickly!
We arrived at around three o'clock in the afternoon.

Yes, after Zheng Xiwen found a way to contact those exchanges, Microsoft received the message in less than five minutes.

The speed at which information flows among the top capitalists is staggering. But it actually makes sense.

To put it bluntly, for big American capital, the long-term stable high profits of high-tech companies are indeed very popular, and the huge profits brought by cryptocurrency exchanges are also their favorite.

What's more, cryptocurrency is also a product of technological development and is dependent on the development of the Internet.

Therefore, the capital attached to high-tech companies and the capital attracted from cryptocurrency exchanges are highly overlapping.

So when Jesse Powell just received the news, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the same message almost at the same time.

What Jesse Powell can think of, Satya Nadella can naturally think of as well.

Is this a direct declaration of war?
To be honest, when Satya Nadella first got the news, he was confused. From his perspective, he couldn't figure out how that young man from China could be so ambitious...

Before making a series of decisions, they also went through various analyses and even made a detailed character portrait for Qiao Yu.

According to professionals' analysis, Qiao Yu tends to be a profit-driven person.

People with this kind of personality should be extremely rational and will maximize their benefits in a very rational way when making decisions.

They conducted research and analysis and concluded that launching new technologies would definitely attract Qiao Yu's attention. If both parties could cooperate on an equal footing and jointly develop quantum computing standards in the future, it would be in line with the principle of maximizing the interests of both parties.

They were even prepared to take a step back if Qiao Yu softened his attitude.

As a result, the opponent chose a strategy of not retreating even a step, and even had a fierce attitude of fighting back. Even the time was arranged exactly.

The meaning is too obvious. The other party has no intention of negotiating with Microsoft. They must force Microsoft to accept the conditions, even forcing them to accept the conditions.

This is really too much.

Satya Nadella couldn't figure out where Qiao Yu's confidence came from and chose to wait and see.

Then he saw that at four o'clock in the afternoon, the three major cryptocurrency exchanges simultaneously issued an announcement, inviting Qiao Yu's team to test the exchange's trading system at ten o'clock tonight.

An hour later, the official website of Yanbei University responded and agreed to the request of the three major cryptocurrency exchanges. Everything was designed to be like the real thing.

It's as if it was originally arranged this way.

Therefore, the executives who had hardly slept all night were also called together to start a new round of emergency consultations!
……

"There is only one question for this meeting: How far can Qiao Yu's team's quantum simulation algorithm go?"

Satya Nadella, who was sitting at the C-suite, looked sullenly at the scientists at Microsoft Research.

“I remember very clearly in the last meeting, you told me that the factorization problem is a completely different mathematical problem from the Mersenne prime verification.

So being able to quickly calculate Mersenne primes does not mean that related research and algorithms can pose a big threat to existing encryption systems such as blockchain technology, right? "

The conference room was silent for a while, and then Shen Zhe, a senior scientist at Microsoft Research and executive vice president of Microsoft's artificial intelligence department, spoke.

"Technically, this is true. Simply put, Mersenne prime verification is usually done through a specific algorithm, such as the Lucas-Lehmer test. We believe that the advantage of quantum simulation computing lies in the efficiency of simulating and optimizing such algorithms.

But factoring large numbers depends on Shor's algorithm. The calculation ideas and processing methods of the two are completely different. You can understand it this way, the processing of Mersenne primes is more of an optimization problem in quantum simulation computing. "

Shen Zhe's explanation was very professional, but this obviously did not satisfy the decision makers.

"Then I would like to ask you, Shen, why are they so confident in doing transaction security testing for the cryptocurrency trading market? Do you think they have made another breakthrough in technology in such a short period of time?"

Shen Zhe just felt like he was screwed.

To be honest, he is becoming more and more dissatisfied with this self-willed Indian CEO.

Setting the question in this way is obviously an attempt to pass the buck.

He is just a scientist, so of course he can only judge and analyze problems based on what the other party has already published. But he is not a commercial or academic spy.

The whole world knows that Qiao Yu's research team conducts scientific research at an extremely fast speed, especially in mathematics, which can even be said to be unreasonable.

The Riemann hypothesis was solved, and the specific research content was not shared with him. How could he know the research results that had not been announced before?

So Shen Zhe simply pushed the question back with a cold face.

"Mr. Nadella, I cannot answer your question. No research result of any unit can be fully disclosed to the public. Just like our Microsoft Research cannot disclose all of its research to the outside world. This is basic common sense."

However, Satya Nadella did not seem to sense the unhappiness in Shen Zhe's tone, and continued to ask: "So you are not sure whether the other party has mastered the technology that can threaten the existing encryption system? You just need to tell me yes or no!"

Shen Zhe was silent for two seconds, then nodded and simply replied, "Yes."

However, he couldn't help but add: "But no one knows the answer to this question except themselves."

Satya Nadella ignored this and looked at the others and asked: "Everyone has heard it, so I believe everyone understands the problem we are facing now.

What we need to discuss is what options to take if Qiao Yu’s team has mastered the technology that can threaten the existing encryption system. ”

After an awkward silence in the conference room, someone spoke up: “With all due respect, Mr. Nadella, if this happens, we have no choice.

Quantum supremacy is not a fabrication, but a real thing. Before actually facing a quantum attack, all previous adversarial research cannot guarantee that it can 100% defend against attacks launched through quantum technology.

So all of these require time to research after the technology emerges. And our real problem is that from a macro perspective, what we lack most is time.”

Well, the general environment...

To be honest, Satya Nadella likes this statement.

It's not Microsoft that's lagging behind, it's the overall environment.

There are many things that can be discussed following this topic.

For example, why can't China be as obedient as old Europe and honestly play the role it should play in the world supply chain?

There is no doubt that this is the fundamental reason why the current environment is not friendly to them. Satya Nadella even feels that this is the fundamental reason why the world is becoming increasingly chaotic.

"But this is only the worst possible scenario! It is also possible that, as Shen said, they do not have this technology and are just bluffing..."

"Let me correct you, Mr. Nadella. I have never said that the other party is bluffing. What I have always expressed is that based on the academic content he talked about at the report and the release of new Mersenne primes, it cannot prove that they have mastered the technology that threatens the current encryption system."

Every meeting is recorded and archived, and his speech cannot be tampered with. This is a matter of principle. And he is not confident about Satya Nadella's character.

It is not uncommon for senior engineers at Microsoft Research to take the blame for wrong decisions made by senior management. But he does not want to take the blame for anyone.

Regardless of whether Satya Nadella was setting a trap for him by saying this, he would never accept any remarks that distorted his meaning.

Satya Nadella glared at Shen Zhe who interrupted him, and suddenly realized that the Chinese were indeed trouble!
"Okay, so if the other party is just bluffing, although it seems unlikely... we still have to formulate two negotiation plans. The only principle that needs to be determined is that we can not be ahead, but we must not fall behind!"

"

(End of this chapter)