I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 421 A 500-fold return on investment? Lei Yijun's ulterior motives!
May 28, 798 Art Center.

Before Chen Yansen even reached the entrance of the conference hall, Lei Yijun and Li Wanqiang quickly came to greet him.

"Mr. Chen, welcome. You must be tired from your journey."

Lei Yijun said with a beaming smile and his eyes full of joy.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that Xiaomi has offended too many competitors, very few rival companies were willing to attend Xiaomi's new product launch event; only Chen Yansen and Yu Chendong were present.

Meizu, OPPO, ZTE and other competitors didn't even send a representative, and naturally, 360, a company of dubious standing, wasn't even invited.

Given Chen Yansen's industry standing, his mere presence was a great honor for Lei Yijun, filling him with warmth and gratitude.

"Old Zhou is in trouble this time. Once the Redmi 1 is released, the sales of Qingcheng D2 will also be affected," Chen Yansen said sarcastically.

Lei Yijun will make money, but he will never lose money.

Make a profit from the OEM fee, another from the price difference of electronic components, and yet another from the humanitarian torch; you can win three times.

"360 has been dominating Xiaomi for a year, shouldn't they let me win once?" Lei Yijun said with a sneer.

Zhou Hongyi repeatedly blocked the door and cursed, and Lei Yijun had long wanted to fight back, but the sales of Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi 2 were not good, so he wanted to curse back but didn't have the confidence.

Chen Yansen found it amusing.

Zhou Hongyi's relentless criticism forced the Redmi 1 to be released three months ahead of schedule, demonstrating Lei Yijun's immense anger.

"At that time, we will put the Redmi 1 into the Pinduoduo 10 Billion Subsidy product pool. Since Mr. Lei wants to win, I will definitely give you a hand."

Chen Yansen readily agreed.

The Redmi 1 also runs the Aurora Future OS system, so it naturally deserves some extra support.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen, please." Lei Yijun grinned and gestured.

He thought to himself: I made the right bet!
As the world's second smartphone to fully utilize the Aurora Future OS system, the Redmi 1 holds immense strategic value for Orange Technology.

Chen Yansen not only came to Beijing in person, but also verbally promised to provide Xiaomi with sales resources.

Mr. Chen is reliable!
Lei Yijun smiled slightly and silently sighed in his heart.

Chen Yansen nodded and, accompanied by Lei Yijun and Li Wanqiang, took his seat in the first row.

“Mr. Chen, hello, I am Jeff Roger, Vice President of Qualcomm Greater China Region.”

The middle-aged white man standing nearby greeted them.

“Hello, Mr. Roger,” Chen Yansen replied.

He had only met Wang Xiang, the president of Qualcomm's Greater China region; Roger was a newcomer who had recently been transferred from the US headquarters.

Zuo Hongyu may have had contact with the other party, but Chen Yansen was not familiar with him.

“Mr. Chen, on behalf of Qualcomm, I would like to purchase the architecture license for the Orange Z1 instruction set from Orange Technology,” Roger said bluntly.

Half an hour ago, he received a call from headquarters with a simple task: to establish a partnership with Orange Technology.

Initially, he scoffed at headquarters' decision, but he was instantly shocked when he learned that Apple's A7 used the Orange Z1 instruction set and abandoned the ARM architecture.

Although he had heard of the Orange Z1 instruction set, he knew very little about its performance and thought it was just a basic product.

But by then he had realized that the instruction set patents that could attract Apple and Qualcomm must be quite good in terms of coding efficiency and performance.

Although Qualcomm currently relies primarily on the ARM architecture, adopting a completely new instruction set would require redesigning the chip, which would be extremely costly, and ARM's licensing fees are too high.

Therefore, purchasing the Orange Z1 instruction set provides another option and also puts pressure on ARM to reduce licensing fees.

Whether Qualcomm will design chips based on the Orange Z1 instruction set remains to be seen.

Maybe, maybe not.

“A one-time licensing fee of 300 million US dollars, plus a 1% royalty rate,” Chen Yansen said without hesitation.

“Mr. Chen, I have no objection to the standard one-time licensing fee, but the 1% royalty rate is too high. ARM only charges 0.5%.”

Roger frowned as he spoke.

"If Qualcomm's chips designed using the Orange Z1 instruction set can reach 5000 million units shipped throughout the year, I can return 0.5% of the royalties."

Chen Yansen added.

The implication is that if Qualcomm only uses the Orange Z1 instruction set as a negotiating tool with ARM, the price cannot be lowered.

"0.6%?" Roger habitually tried to bargain.

"I'm sorry, 0.5% is my bottom line." Chen Yansen smiled kindly, but his refusal was very decisive.

"Excuse me, I'll be back in a few minutes," Roger said after hesitating for about ten seconds.

"Please."

Chen Yansen said dismissively.

After all, there are several levels of superiors above Roger, so it's normal that he can't make the decision.

After Roger left, Chen Yansen looked around and found that there were very few business partners who had been invited; they were mostly media and fans.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted at the doorway.

The reporters were stopped by staff as they tried to approach.

Lei Yijun, accompanied by a white-haired man in a leather jacket, strode into the conference hall.

Huang Renxun?
Chen Yansen glanced at it, but didn't pay much attention.

In 2013, Nvidia was not doing well. Despite having worked hard for more than 20 years, Huang Renxun had to turn his attention to the mobile phone business as the PC business continued to decline.

However, the mobile phone industry is dominated by Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung, with Nvidia's Tegra processor holding only a 2% market share.

Huang Renxun's purpose in coming to China this time was very clear: he was here to sell!

Orange Technology was his primary target, while Xiaomi was a secondary target.

China's mobile phone shipments exceeded 2 million last year and are expected to surpass 3 million this year.

Faced with a blue ocean market of over a billion people, how could Huang Renxun possibly miss it? So, when he learned that Chen Yansen would be attending Xiaomi's new product launch, he rushed to Yanjing immediately.

"Mr. Chen, let me introduce you to a new friend. This is Huang Renxun, the founder of Nvidia."

Lei Yijun led Huang Renxun slowly over and then introduced him.

"Hello Mr. Chen, to be honest, I am also a loyal user of Orange phones. It is a great product."

As Huang Renxun spoke, he pulled out a Yao Cheng X1.

Chen Yansen chuckled. The Yao Cheng X1 hadn't even entered the overseas market yet, and the application software hadn't been fully adapted. Huang Renxun's words were no different from blatant lying.

Lei Yijun was slightly taken aback, and spat inwardly: This fake foreigner is really bad.

Yesterday she called herself a "rice noodle fan," and today she's become an "orange noodle fan."

"Thank you, Mr. Huang, for your support of Orange Mobile."

Chen Yansen replied indifferently.

At that time, Huang Renxun's Chinese was very poor, and his tone of voice was extremely awkward. It was obviously the result of a last-minute cram session in order to enter the Chinese market.

This is quite different from how he spoke eloquently more than a decade later.

For Chen Yansen, CPUs and GPUs are the main focus of Tiangong Technology, and one day they will have to face off against Nvidia.

Therefore, his attitude was hardly enthusiastic.

Upon seeing this, Huang Renxun's heart skipped a beat. Compared to Xiaomi, Orange Technology was the most perfect customer in his mind.

Judging from the other party's behavior, Chen Yansen doesn't seem to have much interest in Nvidia.

Chen Yansen looked up at Lei Yijun, then at Huang Renxun, and realized: it seems that Lei Yijun thinks Orange Technology is making too much money and still wants to build its own supplier system.

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Huang, please take your time to talk."

After finishing his speech, Lei Yijun turned and walked out, preparing to continue receiving important attendees.

“Mr. Chen, actually, NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor is in no way inferior to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800. Why don’t you give the Yaocheng X1 a try with the Tegra 4?” Huang Renxun tentatively suggested.

"As far as I know, the Tegra 4's baseband is external, which is inferior to Qualcomm's integrated version."

Chen Yansen was bored, so he teased Huang Renxun.

Chen Yansen has no plans for long-term cooperation with either Qualcomm or Nvidia. Once the Tiangong A100 chip is completed, Orange phones will gradually transition to self-developed processors.

"Tegra 4 has a greater advantage in graphics processing and performs better in some complex 3D games or video editing tasks, while Snapdragon 800 is just low power consumption."

Huang Renxun straightened his back and began to praise his own products.

Low power consumption means longer battery life and less heat generation, thus supporting thinner and lighter device designs.

Chen Yansen couldn't be bothered to talk to Huang Renxun.

But the other party was exceptionally enthusiastic, pulling Chen Yansen into a conversation that ranged from mobile phone chips to smart speakers, and finally casually mentioned that "Amazon's Echo smart speaker is about to be launched."

"How did Mr. Huang know?" Chen Yansen pressed.

Realizing he had misspoke, Huang Renxun chuckled dryly and said, "Amazon commissioned me to customize an AI-specific chip, Mr. Chen. I can't disclose any other information."

Chen Yansen nodded, indicating his understanding.

After a year of hype, Amazon is finally bringing its Echo smart speaker to market.

In other words, the golden age of Alexa smart speakers is over.

Going forward, regardless of the performance of the Echo smart speaker, the sales of the Alexa smart speaker will be affected to some extent.

"Mr. Huang wants to sell Tegra 4 to Orange Technology?" Chen Yansen asked immediately.

"The Orange phone deserves a better processor," Huang Renxun said with a smile.

That's some serious bragging!
Chen Yansen cursed inwardly.

After a moment's thought, he casually asked, "Does Nvidia accept investment?"

In 2013, Nvidia's market capitalization was just over $8 billion, less than a third of Orange Technology's valuation, with a share price of $13.8. According to its normal development trajectory, it will carry out two stock splits in the future, namely a 1-for-4 split and a 1-for-10 split.

The price has increased more than 500 times!
Although Nvidia's market share will definitely be affected after Tiangong Technology enters the GPU and AI chip fields in the future, and its market value will be difficult to replicate its previous peak, it is still not a problem for its market value to break through several hundred billion US dollars.

Because the world is not black and white, even if Tiangong Technology becomes stronger in the future, it will not be able to swallow up the entire market.

Firstly, it is not permitted; every country and region has its own policies to protect its domestic businesses, and the United States is no exception.
Secondly, NVIDIA also has strong R&D capabilities in graphics processors and artificial intelligence computing.

"Is this an additional condition for Orange Technology's purchase of Nvidia chips?" Huang Renxun frowned slightly and asked subconsciously.

"You can think of it that way," Chen Yansen said with a shrug, neither confirming nor denying.

"How much does Mr. Chen want?" Huang Renxun asked again.

"How much can Mr. Huang offer?" Chen Yansen countered.

I only have 4.5% in my hands, how much can I give you?

Nvidia's true major shareholders are Vanguard and BlackRock. If a private equity or strategic investment is to be made, a consensus must first be reached with the major shareholders.

To gain access to the Chinese market, we have to sacrifice a portion of our equity?

"At most 0.3%," Huang Renxun replied after thinking for a moment.

If Orange Technology and Nvidia could be linked together, they could sell at least 100 million more chips a year.

0.3%?

To send a beggar away?
Chen Yansen sneered, then stared blankly ahead, looking as if he didn't want to talk.

No, if you're not satisfied, you can always try to negotiate the price.

Huang Renxun was taken aback.

(End of this chapter)