Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

When Musk mentioned his precious Falcon, he was filled with emotion, "Speaking of which, I really want to thank you for your $50 million support at such an important moment."

"Don't thank me, I have to confess to you." Ning Zimo scratched his head, "I originally agreed with Peter to go see you, but who would have thought that time was tight and I just missed your visit.

Crucial moment."

"Hey... they've already fallen down. Can we let you watch the fireworks during the day?"

Musk said it lightly, but in fact these three or two sentences were extremely dangerous.

July is a critical moment for Ning Zimo to be busy with the public relations of iPhone Zero ZZ. It is a market threshold that will be delayed for several years if he takes a step back. And Musk is also preparing for the third test launch of SpaceX's Falcon rocket.

Making final preparations.

But in the end, Ning Zimo succeeded in breaking through, but Musk's result was dismal.

"The Falcon failed to take off on August 2. It was the residual thrust of the first stage of the rocket thruster that caused the first and second stages to collide." When mentioning the failure last month, Musk became extremely melancholy.

Before Ning Zimo could reply, he shrugged. "Three consecutive failures are the limit of what I can bear. Fortunately, you just finished the public relations work for the launch of iPhone Zero. That night when you called, even your villa

The keys were sent over.

Don't tell me, hiding in your empty villa for two days was the only good way to relax at the time. I may not have noticed it at the time, but I want to ask about it now. You said that you asked someone to give me the key to the villa.

What do you think?"

Musk seems to be calm and relaxed, but in one sentence he has overcome the pain he experienced in early August.

Ning Zimo, who has read the biography of his previous life, knows that after the Falcon failed for the third time, Musk, who was extremely short of funds, even had a quarrel with his wife because of the mortgage of his real estate to continue to support the development of SpaceX.

In this life, I don’t know if these things have happened.

Ning Zimo returned casually, "At least I don't have to sell my house to make my wife nag me, and I can still have my own space. Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?"

"How do you know I want to sell my house???" Musk's eyes widened. He had had this idea.

"You have such a personality, I understand you." Ning Zimo smiled slightly.

Musk looked into Ning Zimo's eyes, finally feeling pleased and finally relieved.

"When I watched the Falcon explode in the sky that day, I was really heartbroken. At that time, my remaining funds could only support the Falcon's last test launch, so after the anxiety at that moment, I had no choice but to consider selling the house.

.”

"This is the difference between Western culture and Eastern culture," Ning Zimo raised his eyebrows. "According to our Chinese definition of friends, when one party is in trouble, there will always be support from all directions."

Musk was stunned again when he heard this. Although he accepted the money, he did not expect that his old friend would have such an analysis afterwards.

Ning Zimo knew that in Western concepts, especially in immigrant countries like the United States, there was almost no concept of borrowing money between friends. Not to mention that his help was an active financial support between friends.

"How about... you invest this money... into SpaceX..."

???

Now it was Ning Zimo's turn to be stunned. Because of SpaASA, he had never considered this matter, but he did not expect that Musk would make such an unexpected suggestion.

There is a lot of information about the past life on the Internet, at least Ning Zimo knows some of it and has the support of SpaASA.

Just after the successful launch of Falcon 1 on September 28, 2008 in the previous life, SpaceX still entered a stage of lack of funds. And at this critical moment, SpaASA received an order of up to 1.6 billion US dollars.

Ning Zimo doesn't believe that such an order does not include NASA's support for SpaceX.

Ning Zimo was stunned and silent, which made Musk choke up, "Actually... it's very abrupt for me to mention it like this... because after all, SpaceX's Falcon 1 has failed three times. Although..."

"No, no, no, it's not that I don't trust the future of your Falcon and SpaceX. I just didn't expect the opportunity to participate in investing in SpaceX." Ning Zimo quickly explained, "After all, I only lent you money as a friend.

The trust and friendship between us have never meant to take advantage of you."

"Taking advantage? Why?" Musk was moved but also a little curious.

"SpaceX has been your investment from the beginning to the end. This thing is about to succeed. If I count friendship as an investment at this time, isn't this taking advantage of me?"

Musk was a little embarrassed just now, but he immediately laughed after hearing Ning Zimo's explanation.

"Man, this is a business society. Investment opportunities are equal for everyone. SpaceX has not raised funds before because I know that it will be difficult for SpaceX to obtain funds before the Falcon is successfully launched."

Musk said sternly: "Ning, although my plea somewhat implies 'taking advantage'. But if you are willing, I really hope you can use this loan as a business investment for SpaceX. For this reason, I am willing to give

30% of the shares.”

!!!

???

Taking advantage?

30% shares?

Is there such a good thing?

"I'm afraid your current total capital investment is less than 200 million. If you give me 30% of Space shares, I'm afraid it has exceeded the total proportion of this capital." Ning Zimo realized, "Moreover, you still have

Not counting your technical accumulation and early time investment..."

"No, no, no. Although my total investment is less than 200 million, your investment solves an urgent need and cannot be calculated in terms of capital ratio."

"puff……"

Dong Qianqian in the front row couldn't help laughing out loud at this moment, and the two people who were talking in the back row immediately looked at her blankly.

"This is the first time I've seen such a strange investment negotiation," Dong Qianqian looked at the two people in the back row and laughed. "This is the first time I've seen investors complain about the large proportion of funds to shares, while the founders complain about the investors' shareholding ratio.

Few cases."

Dong Qianqian's insertion was very abrupt, but her words made the two people in the back row feel funny.

After a long time, Ning Zimo finally said seriously, "I won't take advantage of this. If you are really willing to give me 30% of the shares, then I will top up your SpaceX investment by US$100 million. I will invest this money in my own name."

.”

Musk immediately wanted to refute, but Ning Zimo stole the opportunity:

"Actually, this time I came to the United States, in addition to cheering for your fourth Falcon launch, I really wanted to discuss an investment with you. But I didn't expect that SpaceX would give me the opportunity to get there first."

"Besides SpaceX, what other investments do you want to talk to me about?" Musk was very curious.

"Tesla." Ning Zimo said seriously, "And I also want to have an in-depth chat with you about this project."

???

This time, Musk was even more curious.

…

When the motorcade parked outside the residence in the Mountain View Villa area, it was already two hours after arriving in San Francisco.

As soon as he walked in and took a seat, Musk naturally continued to be curious.

"How did you come up with the idea of ​​investing in Tesla?"

Putting aside the investment in SpaceX, Musk was very curious about the purpose of Ning Zimo’s in-depth chat this time.

Tesla, headquartered in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, California, was first co-founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning.

In 2004, while working on SpaceX, Elon Musk entered Tesla and led the Series A financing.

Because the public was obviously more interested in “rockets” than cars, few people knew about Tesla at that time.

But for Ning Zimo, Tesla, which is still relatively unknown in this life, means an era and even more so the entire electric vehicle industry.

As early as when he was left by Beijing, he specifically discussed a topic with FGW's Han Wei. This time, he approached Musk precisely for this matter.

"It's a long story, and I have to start with the 'New Energy Technology' I acquired at the beginning of this year."

In early 2008, after three years of silence, Ning Zimo finally found the right time before the iPhone was launched.

Fuyao Glass,

BOE,

Dongguan New Energy.

These three companies either invest in technology, start joint ventures, or make acquisitions. The successive operations are all to prepare for the smartphone era that has not yet begun.

Among the three companies, the acquired Dongguan New Energy is a company focusing on batteries, and its main product is lithium-ion polymer batteries.

And when investing in this company, Ning Zimo suddenly remembered the era of domestic electric vehicles with many factions and uneven levels.

In the past life of 2013, China launched a policy of subsidizing new energy vehicles to cultivate enterprises. In order to cultivate strategic emerging industries and strengthen the deployment and requirements of energy conservation and emission reduction, the central government allocated special funds to support the launch of pilot subsidies for private purchases of new energy vehicles.

It was also from this time that the domestic new energy vehicle industry, which was full of chaos, began to develop wantonly.

It was an era when electric vans with a market price of 5W could be sold for 70W, which gave rise to all kinds of chaos.

Considering this situation, Ning Zimo decided to introduce a "catfish" to the domestic market in advance as a reborn person.

“The new energy technology I acquired was a technology reserve that was intended to be used in smartphones, but at the same time as I acquired this company, I became interested in relatively environmentally friendly new energy vehicles.

Before coming here, I carefully studied Tesla, which you led, and found that your positioning is in the field of electric vehicles.

So, one thing I want to talk to you about is new energy vehicles. Specifically, there are two things that need to be implemented."

Musk was very curious, "Why are they two different things?"

Ning Zi silently signaled Dong Qianqian to take out the documents from his bag. After he took it, he said, "One thing is related to Tesla, and the other thing is that I am planning to acquire this company."

"Maxwell Technologies, Inc.? The company's main business is energy technology. Are you optimistic about this company's future development in the new energy field?"

"Not only am I optimistic about its development in the new energy field, but more importantly, I want to introduce Maxwell and Tesla to China."

???

What kind of operation is this?

Musk didn’t quite understand.

"As a traditional heavy industry, the automobile industry is still the most complex industry among mass-produced civilian products. The structure of tens of thousands of parts often means that the entire supply chain of a vehicle manufacturing enterprise can affect hundreds or thousands of companies.

Joint development of enterprises.

After China joined the WTO, the market has become more and more open, and the requirements for this high-tech industry have become higher and higher. I hope to have a chat with you, and we will acquire Maxwell Technology together, and then bring Tesla together.

, package and put the production line in China.”

"Are you looking at the impact of new energy vehicles on the entire Chinese automobile industry?" Musk thought quickly, and immediately laughed, "Are you trying to throw a 'catfish' into your country's automobile industry?"

"Hey, you guessed it right?" Ning Zi rubbed his chin silently, "Why didn't you say that I value this industry and it is also a profitable industry."

Musk stretched out his finger and shook Ning Zimo, "Ning, although you have always claimed that you are a businessman, in my heart, you are not as simple as a businessman."

"Just think of me as a noble businessman," Ning Zimo smiled, then turned serious and said, "After entering the 21st century, the overall structure of American enterprises is stripping away from the six links of the supply chain.

Among the six major links, the parts related to branding and R&D have always been in hand, while other links such as production, logistics, warehousing and other links are being transferred overseas.

Although these parts often only account for 20% of product profits, for developing countries like us, it means the improvement of an entire industry and market."

"The important thing is that it can also create a lot of jobs." Musk understood.

"Yes," Ning Zimo smiled, "So, what do you think of my suggestion?"

"I think your idea of ​​benefiting both sides is very good, but we still need to discuss the specific method in detail," Musk nodded. "As the Falcon takes off recently, I haven't had time to think about it in detail.

thing."

"Don't worry, I have to stay in the United States for some time this time, and we have plenty of time to discuss."

"No matter what, I want to thank you for coming here this time."

"Hey, why are friends so polite to each other? How much help you helped me during Blizzard's acquisition in 2004, I didn't even formally say thank you to you, so old friends shouldn't support each other.

Yes."

Looking at Musk who responded with a shrug, Ning Zimo was relieved, "You always say that my eyes are aimed at far away places, but in fact I have always known it. Unlike me, who is in the Internet industry, your eyes are

Really aim at the distance of human progress."

The team that Ning Zimo admired most in his previous life was not the famous Google, but the PayPal gang, which was also born in Silicon Valley.

Although there are rumors that Elon Musk does not like the term "PayPal Mafia". But such a group of guys who came out of PayPal are all a group of entrepreneurial geniuses.

Not to mention the two CEOs Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Chen Shijun, Pan Yu, Sachs, Hoffman, Lovchin and others alone have created successful companies such as YouTube, LinkedIn, and Slide.

Not to mention, Yelp, Yammer and other companies are also created by others in their PayPal.

But compared with many members of the "PayPal Mafia", Elon Musk is indeed the anomaly among them.

Zip2,

Retiring on Mars seems to be a joke on his part, but it also shows his "childishness" in constantly looking into the distance.

Especially in the direct dialogue with Ma Yun in the previous life, the two people with very different styles also represent the collision of ideas between human elites on different development directions for the future.

Ma Yun is pragmatic,

Musk retreats.

But for human beings as a whole, being pragmatic and pragmatic is just a certain part of human society.

Some things always have to be done,

There are always things people have to think about.

There is actually no end point on the way forward. Before the results are presented one by one, it is difficult to say who is right and who is wrong. You can only choose and keep moving forward.

The flow of thoughts made Ning Zimo feel a little melancholy: "Although many people will not understand your actions, when the results show up in a few years, people will definitely understand your good intentions.

Whether it’s SpaceX, which you’re currently investing your main energy in, or Tesla, which you’re investing in. Rockets, cars, even airplanes and sonic vacuum rail vehicles, or something else.

We have actually talked about it for a long time. Everyone can find their own position. Because as long as values ​​exist, every level of the pyramid will have its needs.

After all, life is not just about the things in front of you, but also about poetry and distant fields. You came to this world with bare hands and risked everything to find that sea."

Emmmmm,

It feels like you can sing it even with the syllables.

While Ning Zimo giggled to himself, Musk was also silently chewing on his words.

This is what he admires about Ning Zimo. Although he has been working hard for the career in front of him, he still maintains his childlike innocence.

Rockets, cars, airplanes, new energy, sonic vacuum rail cars!

These things were thoughts that often ran through his mind, but he didn't expect that his young and old friend who admired them also often had these thoughts.

No wonder we can talk on the Internet till the end of time.

To put it bluntly, birds of a feather flock together after all...

Dong Dong Dong,

The knock on the door rang at this moment.

Dong Qianqian walked over and opened the door. Standing outside the door was Zhang Miaoying.

Just as Ning Zimo waved in response to her, Musk, who was sitting opposite him, had a teasing look on his face.

"Hey, this beautiful girl gave me the key to your villa, and you still said you have nothing to do with her?"

"When a man gossips, it turns out that women have nothing to do with him!"