Reborn: Billionaire in College

The semi-annual Sunward Holdings Strategic Committee meeting.

As soon as Chen Pingjiang arrived at the company in the morning, he saw Luo Wentao walking towards him quickly.

"Boss Chen, have Elder Liang and Elder Meng arrived?"

"Huh?" Chen Pingjiang was stunned. "Didn't they say to send the vice president over? Why did these two elders come here in person?"

Luo Wentao shook his head: "I don't know either. Maybe the two elders want to come over in person to discuss something?"

Chen Pingjiang handed the briefcase to the secretary and said, "Go make me a cup of tea first. I'll go meet the two elders."

It is quite unusual that these two elders can come to Dongjiang together.

After arriving at the reception room, I saw Lin Bin and others discussing something with Mr. Liang and Mr. Meng.

"Boss Chen is here!"

"Mr. Chen!"

Chen Pingjiang nodded to everyone, then walked over quickly, "What brings you two here today? Haha."

Mr. Liang smiled and pointed to the side, "Meng has a new idea recently, and I plan to come over and mention it to you in person. I also agree with this idea."

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows, showing interest.

Ordinary ideas only need to be communicated privately and there is no need to exchange them at meetings.

But now that it's here, it's enough to show the importance of the matter.

Thinking about it, he turned his head to look at Zhang Yiming and asked, "Is it done?"

"It's done. The other party didn't hesitate at all."

Chen Pingjiang nodded, "Then let him go to ByteDance to adapt to the work first, and then transfer there at the right time."

"Okay, Mr. Chen."

Chen Pingjiang was not surprised or surprised by Zhou Shouzi's joining.

Some people can only produce different results when used in specific positions.

……

……

After the meeting started, each company reported on the progress and implementation results of various tasks in the first half of the year.

After all the agenda items were discussed, Chen Pingjiang looked to Mr. Meng on his left.

"What do you want to say?"

Mr. Meng nodded with a smile, "Okay!"

As he said this, he took out the manuscript that he had prepared long ago from his arms.

"Everyone, I have a request. I want to use the strength of our Shanhe Holdings Committee to build a small and beautiful research university in China, a high-level, innovative, international new research university that is committed to basic research, strengthening engineering technology, and highlighting cutting-edge interdisciplinary subjects. It can solve the talent dilemma of some industries in China." Mr. Meng spoke slowly, but his words were clear. "I hope this university can directly focus on a series of bottleneck disciplines such as chips, and at the same time cultivate a large number of top talents in the chip manufacturing field and AI field."

When this topic came out, some people looked puzzled, while others found it quite interesting.

Chen Pingjiang is the latter.

Mr. Meng's voice continued: "Everyone knows that our country's manufacturing technology lags behind the international advanced level by about 2-3 generations. The most advanced process of SMIC and our Huaxin is only 28 nanometers, while Samsung and TSMC have already progressed to 14 nanometers. In this regard, we are extremely short of core process and material research and development talents."

"There are many reasons for this. For example, domestic semiconductor companies are small in scale and lack experience in mass production of advanced processes. Companies such as TSMC and Samsung dominate the world, making it difficult for us to attract or retain top process engineers. But more importantly, higher education lags behind! Integrated circuits have not yet been listed as a first-level discipline. I have personally visited relevant universities and found that their courses focus on theory and lack practical training combined with industry. Even universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University have limited faculty and laboratory resources."

"The year before last, although the country took the lead in establishing a large chip fund, it did not take talent cultivation seriously. We wanted to recruit talents from overseas, but there were many difficulties. Not only were the prices high, but there were also a lot of contracts."

"I was thinking some time ago that since Sunward Holdings has so many industries and they all need talent, and since every company has to invest a large sum of money in research and development every year, can we set aside a portion of it to build this university? This will form a deep synergy between industry, academia and research."

At this point, Mr. Meng paused and said, "I also specifically studied the talent and scientific research status in the field of AI, which Mr. Chen particularly values. In recent years, China's AI companies have begun to take off, but on a small scale. Algorithm engineers are mostly concentrated in application fields such as computer vision and speech recognition. Basic theories such as deep learning frameworks and core algorithms still rely on foreign achievements."

"Moreover, AI has not yet become an independent discipline, and related courses are scattered across majors such as computer science and automation, lacking a systematic training system. Graduates are also more inclined to choose Internet companies rather than scientific research positions. In other words, there are many applied talents, but few basic theoretical research."

He looked at Chen Pingjiang, looking him straight in the eye, "So, I want us to invest in such a university, a cutting-edge scientific research university with science and engineering, information science, mathematics and statistics, and other interdisciplinary disciplines.

It was not until ten seconds after the old man finished his speech that Chen Pingjiang led the applause.

"Mr. Meng, this is a good idea. I have always overlooked it." Chen Pingjiang said with emotion: "We always leave the training of talents to the country, but many universities in China now, except for the top few, have old-fashioned courses, which makes it difficult to train the talents we need. If we run a university ourselves, good talents can be diverted to new energy vehicle manufacturing, mobile phone research and development, AI, chip field, and aerospace industry."

Li Xi took the lead and said, "We at Renren are willing to invest 50 billion yuan every year into the fund, and let senior technical personnel in the company give free courses at universities. We are also willing to provide internships for universities, and exempt outstanding graduates from interviews. The salary is comparable to that of domestic C9 universities."

Lin Bin laughed and said, "We at Orange Technology can't let Renren.com take the cake. We also make 50 billion yuan a year. But we should be the first to select graduates every year."

As soon as this was said, other companies such as AutoNavi, Pangu AI, and Galaxy Aerospace all opened their mouths and scrambled to invest.

These companies themselves need a lot of funds for research and development. Now they are taking out a small portion of it to set up a university with their own shares. That would be great.

This means that these college students can start cultivating them in school and cultivate them according to the shape they like without spending any money.

This is far more cost-effective than hiring a fresh college graduate and training him for two or three years before he can get the hang of it.

And it is obvious that with so many companies working together, this private university is destined to be quite extraordinary.

If you can go a step further and develop it into your own private territory, that would be great.

Seeing that the voices of the people present were getting louder and louder, Chen Pingjiang had to raise his hand to stop them. "Since everyone has this intention, then let's do it this way. Now we will prepare a fund for university construction and set up a committee to coordinate related matters."

He smiled and said, "If one day this university can develop into the best in the country, I will award the title of honorary professor to everyone present here."

Even if he didn't think from his own perspective, Chen Pingjiang was particularly willing to invest in establishing such a university.

His current goal is to help our mother grow bigger and stronger and create greater glory.

……

...After the meeting, Chen Pingjiang quickly made a phone call to beg for alms.

"Hey, Xiao Ma, long time no see. I have good news for you. I plan to invest in establishing a private university."

"Ah? Standards? Of course we'll follow the best ones. The goal is to cultivate outstanding high-end talents in the field of AI and other science and engineering."

“What? Let me count you in? That’s not going to work, because all my companies have been divided up. How about this, you can go through social donations or corporate funding channels, and if there are any good talents in the future, you can always consider Tencent first!”

"Only 500 million? That's the only amount you, Mr. Ma, can pay? I think we should go for 10 billion. Don't worry, you won't lose anything."

"What are you talking about? How can you consider money when it comes to academic matters? This is a non-profit university."

Chen Pingjiang never expected that he would burst out with unparalleled passion and enthusiasm for preparing for the university.

But a university cannot be established just like that, nor is it enough just to have money. Not only does it need approval from the relevant departments, it also needs to attract top faculty, and in addition, it also needs excellent students.

These points are indispensable!

And every step was not easy for him.

The academic circle is another circle and is unfamiliar to him.

But it doesn't matter, he has money!

Early the next morning.

Chen Pingjiang took the relevant documents and went directly to the Municipal Party Committee.

When Bai Zhiqiang, the top leader of the municipal party committee, heard Chen Pingjiang's intention, his eyebrows twitched, as if a big cake had fallen from the sky and hit him on the head.

Can happiness come so suddenly?
"Oh, Mr. Chen, you really... serve the country and the people. To be honest, our municipal party committee has learned from the past and reflected on the fact that the Super Factory, Huaxin Technology and Aerospace Technology were not able to stay. Don't worry, I will absolutely support the establishment of a university. We can discuss any resources you need. If you don't have enough money, I can find a bank for you, and our Dongjiang City can also invest."

Just as Bai Zhiqiang said, setting up such a top university is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, and it is even more significant for the local area.

Although Dongjiang already has two 985 universities, the strong disciplines of these two 985 universities do not include information science and chip manufacturing.

This is only possible in a science and education city like Dongjiang. Try it in another province with scarce educational resources.

The neighboring Jiangnan Province is doing a lot of things with the University of Science and Technology of China, treating it like their own father and giving it whatever it wants.

Why?

Because of USTC, Hefei has become an important center for global quantum technology.

Even relying on USTC, Heshi has built a number of national key laboratories and research centers. These platforms have not only attracted a large number of high-end talents, but also promoted the development of local science and technology industries.

The existence of USTC is a booster for local urban economic development and can also enhance the city's image.

If there were no USTC, Heshi might still be just an ordinary provincial capital city; and it is precisely because of the existence of USTC that Heshi has been able to achieve leapfrog development in scientific and technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and talent attraction, becoming a modern city full of vitality and potential.

The strong disciplines of Dongjiang’s two 985 universities are humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. If Chen Pingjiang’s university is successfully established, information science will also be directly developed.

That really has no shortcomings.

What a huge political achievement!

"Funding is not a problem. We have already received 200 billion RMB in funding for our establishment fund, and will receive no less than billion RMB in funding each year going forward."

Bai Zhiqiang took a deep breath after hearing this.

What a grand gesture!
Ordinary people may have no idea about how much money this is, but Bai Zhiqiang knows it clearly.

If this economic strength were put on the table and all used to set up a university, the funding would be among the top in the world, and would even directly surpass that of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University.

Even a strong university like Tsinghua University has an annual budget of only 300 billion RMB.

Of this, fiscal appropriations account for only 20%, and the rest includes tuition fees, national scientific research, corporate commissions, business income, social donations and transformation of scientific research results.

Now that Chen Pingjiang has given 200 billion yuan every year right from the start, it means that if other categories are taken into account, the annual funding budget of this future university will surely exceed that of Tsinghua University.

Bai Zhiqiang had no doubt about Chen Pingjiang's financial strength.

"Mr. Chen, I've read your application report and it's totally fine. I think you don't need to submit it to the education department through normal channels. I'll send someone here and you can send someone there, and we'll get this done right away. I'm very familiar with Mr. Zhang from the Education Department, so just say hello." Bai Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Sit down first, I'll make another call. Such a great thing needs to be reported."

The so-called application report is nothing more than the purpose of running the school, subject setting, funding sources, campus planning, etc.

These are all very easy to do. Now that Bai Zhiqiang is willing to say hello, it’s just a matter of a few words.

Of course, even if he didn't make this call, the people in the education department would not dare to neglect it.

As expected, after hearing Bai Zhiqiang's report, the government immediately decided to convene a standing committee meeting to discuss the matter specifically.

At the meeting, all departments were required to give special treatment to the preparation of the university, give the green light and dare to take risks and fight hard.

Since Chen Pingjiang is not short of money, he should be given a good piece of land that can fully meet the needs of teaching.

In addition, we must find ways to help with teaching staff, and at least take the lead in attracting a few well-known academicians to participate.

This also shows the attitude and support for Chen Pingjiang's plan to establish a university.

During the work lunch that evening, the boss asked, "Mr. Chen, what do you plan to name this university?"

Chen Pingjiang thought for a moment and said, "Huaxia University?"

"Uh!" The boss looked back at the head of education, "Is this name suitable for a school?"

The head of the education department thought for a long time and said, "It seems that there really is no such thing. It's just that the name is too big. Whether it can be used or not needs to be approved."

He hesitated for a moment, and continued to say to Chen Pingjiang: "According to the regulations, the naming of schools must be consistent with the actual situation, accurate and standardized, reflect the school's philosophy, highlight the connotation and characteristics, and avoid being too big and comprehensive. In principle, it is not allowed to be named with prefixes such as Zhonghua, East China, or South China."

Chen Pingjiang nodded. "Does that mean it might be rejected? Then what if I like this name?"

The boss patted his chest upon hearing this and said, "Leave this matter to me. I will go there myself and make sure it is done for you." (End of this chapter)