Rebirth of Hong Kong Island, leading the technology war

Chapter 295 Malak is also short of money at this time
Smith sat on the sofa.

Compared to Smith's office, the boss Malak's office seems a lot simpler.

The door of Malak's office is open for a long time. Outside the door is the employee work area, and the working status of the employees can be clearly seen in the office.

This is also the effect that Malak wants, to integrate with ordinary employees in the company in this way.

If any employee does not work hard and often slacks off, Malak can fire him at any time.

As mentioned before, Malak rarely comes to SpaceX recently unless there is something special, so it is not surprising that the office is in such a mess.

At this time, Malak said, "Dear Smith, there is another hamburger here, do you want to eat it?"

Smith waved his hand quickly: "No, Mr. Malak, I'm not hungry."

"Oh."

Malak responded and took a bite of the burger casually, with sauce all over the corners of his mouth, looking completely unkempt.

Smith is no stranger to being a top executive at SpaceX.

And it’s hard to describe Aaron Malak as a person.

You may say that Malak doesn't know how to enjoy himself, but he enjoys more than anyone else in his private life. He has countless girlfriends and countless children.

Private yachts and private jets are no problem, we have everything.

How many properties does Malak have? He may not even be able to count them himself, but if you say that he likes to enjoy himself, then that's not true. At least at work, Malak is a madman.

Malak always behaves so simply in the company, and as long as he arrives at the company and the office, all he eats except junk food is work.

Smith couldn't help asking, "Mr. Malak, what did you ask me to do?"

Malak put the half-eaten burger on the table, wiped the sauce off his hands with a tissue, and asked, "Smith, what are you busy with recently?"

Malak replied: "We are still busy with the space launch site. You should remember that we previously applied to build a rocket launch site in China, which can facilitate the launch orders from private Chinese aerospace companies."

"Yes, that's still my idea. Then I have to ask, how is the project going now?"

Smith frowned when he heard this question: "Mr. Malak, we are still communicating with the China Space Administration, but their requirements are very high and require detailed data parameters and functional descriptions. I don't know whether we should continue."

Malak asked, "Why not continue? Tell me why you think so."

Smith sorted out his thoughts and replied, "Our data is very valuable. If we give it to them, will it cause unnecessary trouble, such as technology leakage?"

Malak thought for a moment and said, "That shouldn't be the case. It's just data parameters. They won't send the real core technology to the other party. The Chinese Space Agency is also very powerful. They don't care about ordinary technology."

Although Malak is a financial genius, he also has a technical background. He graduated from a prestigious university and his level is quite good. Technical problems can neither stump him nor fool him.

Smith added: "But even if the technology is not leaked, it will cause dissatisfaction among others. We may be targeted by those people. It should be very troublesome, right?"

The problem Smith mentioned does exist.

Especially now that the atmosphere in the Beacon Country is becoming more and more delicate, as long as it involves China, both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be very sensitive and becoming more and more sensitive. Who knows what those congressmen will do if they go crazy.

Malak had obviously thought about this, and said calmly: "It doesn't matter, I can handle these things, you don't have to think about it, I'll just think about it."

"Mr. Malak, I understand."

"Do you have any other questions?"

"Boss, there is one more thing. If the China Space Administration approves the launch site, do we really have to start construction immediately?"

"Of course, there are already many private aerospace companies in China. I believe they will have a lot of rocket launch needs in the next few years. We must seize these opportunities and build a usable launch site as soon as possible."

After Malak's words reached this point, Smith had to nod his head quickly even if he was not very sensible, but he still had many questions in his mind.

Malak comes here rarely, so he has to ask all the questions clearly.

"Mr. Malak, how do we solve the funding problem? I mean, do we need to negotiate with China about subsidies next?"

"Yes, of course we have to talk."

"Will they agree? How much money can they subsidize us? Boss, the amount of money required to build a space launch site is too much."

Malak thought about it. This was indeed a problem.

The space launch site itself is an asset-heavy investment project. Even for the launch site with the worst specifications, several billion yuan is necessary. What's more, the plan submitted by SpaceX to the China National Space Administration is quite good, and the construction cost will be higher.

It's difficult to raise the money anyway.

The reason why Malak believes that China will definitely provide financial subsidies is entirely because of Tesla’s previous experience.

Now Tesla's super factory in Shanghai has been basically completed, and the production line is being adjusted, and Tesla electric vehicles can be produced soon.

The construction of a super factory requires a huge amount of funds. China has provided massive subsidies and preferential policies, and even the factory land is provided almost free of charge.

Of course, China cannot say that these preferential policies are given for free. Tesla has signed a bet agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Government.

If Tesla fails to achieve its performance goals or meet the requirements, all of these factory investments will be returned to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

So the question is, since China has given such great preferential policies to Tesla's Gigafactory, will it also give the same to the space launch site?
It is indeed a huge question mark.

Even if China is equally generous and provides financial subsidies, the discount may not be that big.

It won't be that easy for Malak to get something for nothing. Spacex may need to provide some funds, which will cost him some money.

So, where does this money come from?

Aaron Malak is indeed rich.

At this time, he can be ranked on the list of richest people. Although he is far from being the richest man, it does not mean that he has enough cash to pay for the construction costs.

In fact, the wealthy pay great attention to financial management, and most of their assets are not kept in banks. For example, Malak's assets are basically the stock market value of Tesla.

As for SpaceX, it is not listed now because it is a company in the aerospace industry and it is impossible for it to be listed at present.

Therefore, Tesla's market value is directly related to Malak's net worth.

Now Malak really can't afford to spend too much money to support SpaceX in launching a new rocket. You know, Tesla's super factory has just been built and has not yet been officially put into production. Tesla is still losing money.

Malak said: "This problem is not difficult to solve. We can also find a partner."

"Partner? Mr. Malak, who would be interested in the spaceport project?"

"There are many people, but not many are truly reliable. Now I have a candidate."

Smith couldn't help but ask, "Who is it?" Malak didn't hide it and said lightly, "Bill Gates."

Smith was stunned. He didn't expect that Bill Gates, the former richest man in the world, would be involved.

However, Smith also knew his limits and he would not ask about the specific circumstances. What kind of transactions were behind the scenes was not something that someone like him, a former veteran, could know.

Malak asked Smith to sort out the things needed by the China Space Agency as soon as possible. As for other matters, Smith didn't need to worry about them.

The next day, Hong Kong Island, Victoria Harbour Apartments.

Hu Jiangshan got up from the bed and looked at the time. It was almost nine o'clock.

My goodness, Hu Jiangshan has been getting up later and later recently, and he is even a little embarrassed.

But it's normal. Hu Jiangshan has been a bit busy these two days. He has been either going to Tenglong Island or to Jiangjun Island.

Hu Jiangshan is busy with the affairs of the space launch site.

Although the space launch site has been built and is equipped with necessary functional equipment and scientific instruments, it is empty and other equipment and instruments need to be added.

For example, a battery commuter vehicle.

There are currently about ten electric commuter vehicles on Tenglong Island, which is basically enough. However, if this space launch site is put into operation, it will be stretched, so it is necessary to add a few more electric commuter vehicles.

In addition, cleaning robots are also important.

The space launch site is very large, and cleaning robots are needed for cleaning and maintenance both indoors and outdoors.

These days, Hu Jiangshan spends most of his time designing new and more useful cleaning robots.

This cleaning robot can adapt to indoor and outdoor environments. It is universal and multifunctional, and much more powerful and easier to use than before.

Hu Jiangshan worked overtime and finally completed the design yesterday and passed the functional verification.

It is already in production, and it is expected that about ten new cleaning robots will be manufactured today.

Hu Jiangshan needs to transport these robots from General Island to Tenglong Island.

By the way, there are three battery commuter vehicles that also need to be transported over.

Hu Jiangshan decided to build another special tool design and manufacturing center on Tenglong Island to avoid the hassle of going back and forth.

Moreover, General Island has been developed quite maturely and has become a garden-like island with green trees.

Hu Jiangshan felt that there was no need to add new facilities at least for the time being. Hu Jiangshan’s base camp should still be located on Tenglong Island, which was larger and had more room for development.

Transporting these things is actually very cumbersome. Hu Jiangshan and Zhang Rui can't handle it because they don't have enough manpower, so Hu Jiangshan called the captain of the ship he often cooperated with and found more boatmen.

If that is not enough, Hu Jiangshan’s Jiangshan Fishery can also provide a few people.

After Hu Jiangshan washed up and ate something, he drove out.

When we arrived at General Island and entered the special tool facility, we saw rows of new cleaning robots.

These robots are about the same size as previous indoor cleaning robots, but they have many more functions and are more powerful.

In simple terms, these new cleaning robots can change their forms and switch freely between indoors and outdoors.

In order to appear less ostentatious, Hu Jiangshan specially redesigned the appearance to make it more similar to the automatic cleaning vehicles used by modern times.

Hu Jiangshan was busy with the captain and others on General Island throughout the morning. Hu Jiangshan did not need to do any hands-on work, but he had to direct them on what to do to prevent these new equipment from failing before they were even started or being accidentally destroyed, which would be a waste of time.

Fortunately, commuter boats are now available. When Hu Jiangshan designed the winter wear, he took into account the loading and unloading of medium and large machinery, so it is much more convenient.

However, this batch of machinery cannot be transported to Tenglong Island, but must be directly transported to the space launch site, which is a bit more troublesome and takes longer.

Everyone worked busily for three or four hours and finally transported all the things to the space launch site.

The captain and others were stunned when they entered the space launch site.

"Boss Hu, my goodness, what on earth are you building?"

Hu Jiangshan did not hide anything and explained the matter clearly to the captain, saying that this was a launch site where rockets could be launched and that there would be no problem flying into space.

The captain was stunned and dumbfounded. He was a native of Hong Kong Island and he had never imagined that there would be such a large-scale facility as a rocket launch site in Hong Kong Island.

The captain couldn't help but ask, "Boss Hu, this means that rockets may be launched here in the future, right?"

Hu Jiangshan nodded: "That's right, if we launch a rocket in the future, everyone is welcome to come and watch."

The captain was delighted, showing his two rows of white teeth: "Oh, of course, I will bring some grandchildren here to let them open their eyes and see what it's like to launch a rocket."

At this moment, a boatman suddenly pointed to the sky and said, "Look, what is that?"

Everyone looked in the direction of the boatman's finger, and indeed they found a black dot, which was still moving.

A faint buzzing sound can be heard.

Others might be a little confused, but Hu Jiangshan could tell at a glance that it was a drone.

It was 2018, and drones were not as popular as they would be in the following years, but Xinjiang’s drones were already selling well and had formed a large group of enthusiasts.

The black dots flying in the sky are most likely drones from a small company called Xinjiang.

This drone probably flew up from the yachts in Tenglong Bay, most likely wanting to see what the situation was on the island.

Of course, the spaceport is the main target.

Hu Jiangshan frowned.

This is not a good situation.

Hu Jiangshan was so busy that he ignored this matter.

A place as sensitive as an air launch site requires a certain level of defense capability.

Other threats are easier to deal with, but drones are quite difficult to defend against.

But this is not a problem for Hu Jiangshan. As a top scientific researcher, it is easy for him to make something to prevent drones.

After the captain left, Hu Jiangshan returned to General Island and began to design a special tool - a signal jammer.

(End of this chapter)