Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 307 Consortium Agreement and Delisting Initiation

Boston Dynamics has a variety of robots in its testing grounds, many of which have given people an amazing experience and earned them a reputation that exceeds that of other companies in the industry.

However, all the robot experiments that were once in full swing have been stopped, making the test site look extremely deserted.

The robot dog man that once appeared in many media and shocked the whole world was placed in a corner, but no one even looked at it.

If it had consciousness, it would probably lament that this world is too cruel...

Even just half a month ago, it was still the most dazzling star in the field of robotics, but just half a month later, no one cared about it anymore.

Even the developers at Boston Dynamics, which manufactured it, were dismissive of this former work and almost threw it into the trash.

In the technical conference room upstairs, a group of technicians were having an extremely heated discussion.

"Electric drive is not a big problem. We can also use lithium batteries or electric motors for driving. Various data sensing devices, cameras, infrared cameras, etc. are not a problem. We can find suppliers for them!"

“The question is, how do we control it!”

"You know, the core of Zhiyun's intelligent robot is not the body. Although their body has not released various technical details, we can still judge that there is no insurmountable technical threshold for their body. If they can do it, we can do it too!"

"The core of Zhiyun's robots is the intelligent control system, which is AI!"

"We lack the technical accumulation in this area. Not only us, but even our parent company Google is far behind Zhiyun in the field of AI. It is impossible for us to develop corresponding AI in a short period of time."

"A robot without AI is just a shell, without a soul!"

“AI is the soul of robots, and right now, we don’t have this soul!”

"That's the truth. Even though I don't want to say it, it's all over!"

Although some people are pessimistic, others are unwilling to give up: "I know AI technology is difficult, but as long as it is an existing technology and Zhiyun's engineers can make AI, then we can do it too. Although it will take some time, I believe we can do it!"

"Time? Who will give us time?"

"We have heard that the parent company is completely disappointed with us and is preparing to set up a new intelligent robot R&D department. They said that the new intelligent robots belong to the field of artificial intelligence and have been assigned to the artificial intelligence R&D department. The robots of the future will be different from the traditional robots we have developed, and they do not intend to let us take over!"

"We have been abandoned. It will probably not be long before we receive layoff emails."

A group of technicians became more and more pessimistic as they talked, and finally they dispersed with sighs!

The same situation also occurs in other robot startups that follow the traditional robot model.

Not long ago, they were the darlings of the robotics field. The capital market was very enthusiastic about them, and large companies rushed to invest and acquire them with checks.

But now, they have become synonymous with backwardness in the field of robotics.

The robot track became popular overnight after Zhiyun released the robot field. Various videos of Zhiyun robots frequently appeared on the Internet, and robots became the hottest technology term since the beginning of this year.

A large number of robot startups that use artificial intelligence and electric drive have been sought after by capital. Any small team in this field can easily get hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in angel round investment.

Some entrepreneurial teams that have achieved some success can receive tens of millions of dollars in strategic investment.

But all this has nothing to do with them!
Because the robots they make are out of date!

Just when these traditional robot companies have become unpopular, some large companies have announced their intelligent robot research and development plans in a high-profile manner.

It’s not a ‘robot’, but an ‘intelligent robot’, or an AI robot.

Foreign companies are naturally dominated by large technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.

Google has announced that they have established an AI-based 'Advanced Intelligent Robot Project' and are recruiting top talents from around the world. No matter in the fields of AI, electronic control, motors, or batteries, as long as they are senior talents related to intelligent robots, they will be recruited with high salaries!
Judging from the project plans they have announced to the public, Google announced that its AI program has made considerable technological progress. Their latest AI model can already communicate smoothly with humans. It won’t be long before people will be able to see Google’s AI robot come to the market!
Microsoft acquired a robotics startup at a super high premium, then injected some of its AI projects into the team, established a new intelligent robotics subsidiary, and officially entered the field of intelligent robotics.

As for the fruit company, it also announced its intelligent robot plan.

Even Sixing was not willing to lag behind and also announced its own intelligent robot research and development plan.

Large foreign companies have announced their entry into the field of intelligent robots, and high-tech companies within the China Development Bank are no exception. The three major Internet companies, BTA, have also announced their own intelligent robot plans.

Even another company under Xu Shenxue, Yihai Technology, has also started its own intelligent robot project.

However, it is worth noting that the intelligent robot projects carried out by the above-mentioned companies do not specifically refer to "bipedal humanoid robots". The robots they develop are of various shapes and sizes.

In fact, anthropomorphic robots are just a branch of intelligent robots.

At the robot launch conference, Zhiyun Group released more than a dozen robot products. Although they have different shapes, they can all be classified as intelligent robots.

Zhiyun defines intelligent robots as mobile devices controlled by AI.

Bipedal robots are, quadrupedal robots are also, wheeled robots are also, tracked robots are also!

It’s just that the bipedal anthropomorphic robot among the Zhiyun robots is the most shocking and is used more often for demonstrations, so it gives ordinary people the impression that the robot is a bipedal anthropomorphic robot!

For the intelligent robot released by Zhiyun, the walking mode is not the focus, and even whether it is electric or hydraulic drive is not important. What is important is AI control!

AI is the soul of everything!
The intelligent robot released by Zhiyun has not only caused a wave of robots, but also once again sparked a large-scale discussion on AI technology.

More and more companies, even some companies in other high-tech industries, have crossed over to engage in AI, and there are more and more AI-related startups.

More and more companies are starting to work on AI, so what effect does this bring?

As for the group's APO graphics cards and NVIDIA graphics cards, their high-end models are out of stock again.

The APO1500 graphics card, which is currently widely used by major companies as a computing power card for AI training, is once again out of stock, and its price continues to rise.

Today's APO1500 graphics card is priced at more than yuan by Zhiyun Semiconductor, and is not available to ordinary customers.

Many customers were forced to settle for second best products and purchase slightly inferior APO1000 graphics cards or Nvidia's high-end graphics cards.

Against this backdrop, Zhiyun Semiconductor once again held a special press conference, at which it released the latest model of the APO2000 graphics card.

This graphics card uses an 18-nanometer process, and has undergone new architecture upgrades and reduced power consumption. What does this bring?
This results in a 1500 percent reduction in overall computing power cost compared to the APO graphics card.

The computing power cost is the biggest cost for major companies to train AI... The AI ​​models used by major companies are not something that small companies or individual enthusiasts can run with a few graphics cards.

Take Google's artificial intelligence research team as an example. The server array they use to train AI is composed of tens of thousands of high-end APO1500 graphics cards. Moreover, there is not just one such AI training server array, but many.

The daily electricity bill for this large-scale AI training server array is extremely expensive.

The costs of training AI are very high.

Using ordinary graphics cards to train AI is naturally very expensive...

Therefore, for other conventional civilian graphics cards, computing power cost is not a key indicator. Gamers only want the top performance, and they don’t care whether the graphics card is 200 watts or 500 watts.

However, it is different for enterprises to train AI. Power consumption directly means cost, so it is necessary to measure the comprehensive computing power cost.

So this year, taking advantage of the popularity of robots and the wave of artificial intelligence, Zhiyun Semiconductor also released the APO2000 graphics card.

The overall computing power cost was reduced by more than 30 percent. At the same time, the computing power of a single graphics card was greatly improved, and the service was improved by more than two times.

In terms of hardware performance, this graphics card has already reached the limit of what current consumer-grade graphics cards can achieve. It can even be said that no expense has been spared to achieve this level.

Its GPU core is very large... and the area of ​​the chip core is equal to its cost!

The area of ​​a twelve-inch wafer is limited. When used to manufacture mobile phone SOC chips, a twelve-inch wafer can produce about 500 chips. However, if used to manufacture computer CPU chips or independent graphics card GPU chips, because the area of ​​this type of chip is larger, the number that can be produced is even smaller.

When a wafer fab is used to manufacture chips, the price is calculated based on the wafer. For example, how much does a 12-inch wafer using an 18-nanometer process cost? As for what kind of chip to make and how many chips to make on this wafer, that is the business of your chip design company.

This is also why, under the same process, the price of computer CPU and graphics card GPU core exceeds that of mobile phone SOC... There is no special reason, it is just because the chip area used in computers is larger and the cost is higher.

The GPU core in APO2000 is also very large and its manufacturing cost is quite high.

In addition, this time, Zhiyun Semiconductor also used its self-developed GDDR2000Y high-speed memory in the APO5 graphics card for the first time.

It replaces the GDDR5 high-speed memory used in previous graphics cards, thereby achieving higher memory bandwidth and reducing latency, making APO2000 more suitable for use as a computing power card than the previous APO1000 and APO2000 graphics cards.

Of course... In fact, this graphics card is better for playing games, because the APO graphics card now also supports some of NVIDIA's patented technologies and software ecosystems. While supporting these technologies and software ecosystems, the APO2000 graphics card has powerful hardware performance.

It is also the best one for playing games.

After Zhiyun acquired NVIDIA, it highly integrated NVIDIA and its own APO graphics card department, and made certain divisions in the positioning of the two brands, APO and NVIDIA.

NVIDIA still focuses on the gaming market, launching various gaming graphics cards for gamers, as well as some conventional computing power cards, with prices ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of yuan. What they sell are not graphics cards, but GPU cores...So the NVIDIA graphics cards bought on the market are actually graphics cards from major graphics card companies.

APO focuses on the field of high-end gaming graphics cards and computing power cards, so the three models of APO graphics cards available on the market are all very expensive... Because not many people buy APO graphics cards to play games, the sales of APO graphics cards are basically monopolized by various companies, or at least purchased by those who mine.

At the same time, APO graphics cards do not supply GPU cores to the outside world, but only provide finished graphics cards. Therefore, you will not see APO graphics cards from third-party graphics card manufacturers on the market. There is only one finished graphics card, 'Zhiyun APO'.

The APO2000 graphics card has more powerful performance and lower overall computing cost, so its price is naturally extremely high.

The initial launch price reached 19999 yuan, there is no discount, take it or leave it!

This price would make a lot of ordinary people who claim to be high-end gamers curse... It's just a graphics card, but it's sold for 19,000, no, 20,000, Zhiyun, you are crazy!
Four or five thousand is considered a high-end graphics card, and six or seven thousand is considered the best graphics card.

And you come with 20,000...are you crazy?
Even 3A big names would be deterred by such expensive graphics cards!

But they still have expectations... I can't afford an APO, but I can at least buy a high-end card from Nvidia!
Not long after, NVIDIA, also owned by Zhiyun Semiconductor, released a high-end gaming graphics card: Titan X.

At the press conference, NVIDIA people also boasted that their graphics cards are of high quality and low price. We make graphics cards for the majority of game players. We make truly civilian graphics cards so that everyone can afford high-end graphics cards. Unlike the group of people next door, who spend 20,000 yuan to make a graphics card, they are simply crazy about money.

But our Titan X is different. Ours only costs over 7,000... cheap enough, right? Cheers!
When a group of people saw the price and then looked at the very conspicuous 28-nanometer process, they all fell silent!
Unexpectedly, Nvidia also became "high-end" after being acquired by Zhiyun...

You're selling me a graphics card made with an outdated 28-nanometer process for more than 7,000 yuan... Do you really take me for a fool?

However, ordinary gamers don’t actually have any good choices. These days, NVIDIA’s gaming graphics cards are the best in the world, especially since it no longer makes computing power cards and focuses its main energy on gaming cards. The performance of the gaming cards produced is quite good.

The ATI graphics cards under AMD next door can’t even catch up.

As for the APO graphics cards, which also belong to Zhiyun Semiconductor, they don't play in the consumer market... They don't even look at the money that gamers have, and they go directly to purchase large-scale computing power cards from major companies.

Therefore, after the acquisition by Zhiyun, Nvidia is still the leading company in the consumer market...it just doesn't make much money.

In the computing power card market, APO is currently the undisputed leader. Any company that can purchase APO graphics cards will give priority to purchasing this graphics card. Although it is expensive, it is actually very cost-effective and the comprehensive computing power cost is very good.

The second option is to purchase high-end graphics cards from NVIDIA. Although the price/performance ratio is a bit worse, it is better than nothing.

As for AMD's ATI graphics cards... sorry, they have no share, and their graphics cards cannot use Zhiyun's AI development software ecosystem.

In the field of AI training, you must first use a large number of AI development software released for free by Zhiyun for development, and then use Zhiyun's APO graphics card or NVIDIA graphics card for training.

Otherwise, having a powerful graphics card is actually useless... You don’t even have AI development software, so what’s the point?

Do you think Zhiyun sells graphics cards?

No, actually Zhiyun sells the AI ​​ecosystem!
At present, almost all companies' AI projects use the AI ​​development software released by Zhiyun for free.

As the absolute leader in the field of AI, Zhiyun directly releases all its own AI development software for free, allowing everyone to download and use it freely, without any charge, and provides various free updates on a regular basis... It is a purely free model.

As a R&D employee in an AI startup or a newly established AI R&D department in a large enterprise, do you need it?
Of course you have to use it. After all, there is no other choice on the market. You can’t develop a whole new set of AI development software by yourself... That’s crazy!
Then, you used Zhiyun's AI development software and quickly came up with a preliminary algorithm framework. Then you applied to use the server to run the algorithm and conduct training.

However, if you use Zhiyun AI to develop software and create algorithm models, you can naturally only use Zhiyun's APO graphics cards or NVIDIA graphics cards in the future.

As for ATI graphics cards, I'm sorry... Zhiyun AI development software does not support the ATI graphics card ecosystem, the two are completely incompatible.

Therefore, as a R&D employee, your best choice is to apply to purchase a large number of APO graphics cards, preferably a batch of APO2000 graphics cards, which have explosive performance and high cost performance, and are the best choice for training AI.

If your company is not strong enough and does not have enough money, and you cannot get APO2000, then get a batch of older APO1500 graphics cards.

The current APO1500 graphics card performance is also pretty good, and its production capacity has been greatly improved. The supply is already sufficient and the price is relatively cheap, and it can be purchased for around yuan.

At the very least you'll need an APO1000 or NVIDIA high-end graphics card.

As for ATI graphics cards, they are not within the scope of consideration because they are not compatible and cannot be used...

After the application report is submitted, the people in charge will only have two choices: either bite the bullet and buy Zhiyun's graphics card, or reject the entire AI project!

Why does Zhiyun release its AI development software for free, so that everyone or organization in the world can use it forever for free, and is kind enough to provide regular updates!

Isn't it just to sell a graphics card?

The software is free, but the hardware is not free!
However, other companies or individuals have no choice unless they create a completely new AI ecosystem of their own, but this is too difficult.

Once an ecosystem is formed and widespread usage habits are formed, it will be very difficult for latecomers to change it...

This requires more than the efforts of one or two companies, because you need tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of enterprises around the world, and millions or even tens of millions of employees to abandon the mature existing ecosystem, and then start a new ecosystem with you from scratch, and then pay huge amounts of money and manpower costs.

There is no such good thing as dreaming in broad daylight!
In the world's technology circle in January, robots first dominated the headlines, then AI dominated the headlines, and then Zhiyun's APO2000 graphics card became a topic of discussion among industry insiders.

And all of these are closely related to Zhiyun Group!
As a world-class high-tech giant, Zhiyun Group's influence in the field of science and technology is multifaceted and cannot be ignored by anyone.

Even a large number of American companies have to admit that the world cannot leave Zhiyun for the time being... at least, it cannot leave Zhiyun's computing power cards.

----

In late January, Xu Shenxue once again held several rounds of video conferences with several old financial groups on the opposite side. The topics discussed covered quite a few areas.

From the field of smart terminals to the field of semiconductor equipment and consumables, the newly emerging field of AI, and even the field of electric vehicles.

Because both sides have means to make the other side cautious, the talks are not as tense and tense as outsiders imagine.

It is nothing more than a new round of interest exchange and mutual compromise. For example, the other party once again promised that there would be no restrictions on semiconductor equipment and consumables, but in return, you, Xu Shenxue, cannot block my AI computing power card.

I sell you equipment and you sell me computing power cards.

Hand over the equipment in one hand and the chip in the other!

The reason why the two sides were able to reach an agreement in this area is actually because neither side could hold the other back.

The American consortium is now unable to restrict Zhiyun's semiconductor equipment and consumables.

Gulf Technology has developed the DUV immersion lithography machine, which has been officially put into mass production and is sufficient to meet the production of chips using the 400-nanometer process. In theory, Gulf Technology's HDUV- lithography machine also has the capacity to produce -nanometer or even -nanometer chips.

The HDUV-500 lithography machine, which is currently under development and expected to be launched in the second half of this year, is a lithography machine that can further meet the production needs of nanometers, nanometers, and even nanometers.

As for many other core equipment and consumables, the companies under the Xiannvshan Holdings system can basically supply them, the only difference is that the efficiency is lower and the cost is higher, but they are not unusable.

The US has lost its biggest means to restrict Zhiyun, so it has to compromise.

The same is true in the field of computing power cards. If Zhiyun freezes the computing power card, the opponent can barely support it with an ATI graphics card, but the cost will be higher and the efficiency will be lower.

In these two areas, neither side can actually hold the other back...it would be better for them to maintain the status quo and make money on their own.

But in the key area of ​​EUV lithography machines... there is still no consensus agreement. The other party said they would never agree to sell EUV lithography machines to Zhiyun Microelectronics. Xu Shenxue also had a tough attitude towards this. I don’t need it, and you don’t even think about using it!

Then after the negotiations on this topic failed, both sides tacitly skipped this topic and talked about other things.

Anyway, if you can't get it on the battlefield, you naturally can't expect to get it at the negotiating table.

When it comes to core areas concerning the future, no one is willing to give up easily.

Therefore, the subsequent disagreements in the field of EUV lithography machines will have to be resolved in person... to see which side has a more powerful security department.

In the past year, the battlefields of the security departments of both sides have spread all over the world. From America to Europe to India and Africa, security personnel from both sides can be seen everywhere.

This made other non-participating consortiums tremble with fear, especially several old consortiums in Europe, all of which increased their investment in the security field.

Who knows if the fight between these two families will affect them!

In today's business competition, if you want to remain neutral, you must have the strength, otherwise you will be affected in minutes.

Of course, the above-mentioned things are unknown to ordinary people in the outside world, and even the top dignitaries of a slightly lower level are unaware of them. The only ones who know the full picture are a small group of the top people on earth.

These top business competition methods in the global village are too far away from ordinary people.

------

There was nothing to talk about EUV, so both sides tacitly skipped this topic and talked about other aspects instead.

In the field of smart terminals, which is of great concern to both sides, the ban on the sale of Zhiyun in the US market and the ban on fruit in China have become facts. Neither side should expect changes, as nothing can be changed.

You can't treat hundreds of millions of people around the world as fools...one minute you publicize the other party's threats, and then ban them.

Now you realize that you can't stop each other, and continuing to fight will only hurt both sides, so you want to negotiate, and then open up your markets respectively... This will hurt the feelings of those who just watch the show, and it's not good.

Furthermore, these two markets are the core markets for both sides, so there is no point in opening them up to the other side... Even if the US opens up the market now, Zhiyun's products have not been sold much in the US market, and the same is true for fruits in the Chinese market.

So I won’t change it, just keep it like this!
But in other markets, everyone should be more tacit and not mess around, and everyone should make money in a fair and honest way.

Otherwise, third parties will benefit, such as four stars and some Japanese companies. Even India is ambitious to engage in the consumer electronics industry and vigorously develop the smartphone industry. Many local smart terminal equipment brands have also emerged!
This is simply treason!
It must be controlled and, if necessary, strangled!

In this regard, Xu Shenxue and the other consortium reached a consensus: India's consumer electronics industry, especially the semiconductor industry, cannot take off...

It’s okay to set up an assembly plant or something, but don’t invest in core products, especially chips, screens, batteries and other fields.

Our two families are fighting each other to the death, not to foster a new competitor...

The Korean consumer electronics industry, represented by the current four-star group, has already gained considerable benefits from the fight between the two companies.

The Four Stars can still tolerate this, after all, both parties have considerable interests with the Four Stars.

But the emergence of a second four-star star is strictly prohibited.

In order to completely eliminate this trouble, Xu Shenxue proposed that restrictions should be imposed on the export of semiconductor equipment and consumables to some regions.

At the same time, for the sake of climate and environmental protection, both sides must ban the spread of coal-fired power technology.

The consumer electronics industry, especially the semiconductor industry, has an extremely huge demand for electricity.

The electricity consumption of an ordinary chip factory is almost equivalent to that of a modern city with a population of 100,000.

The electricity consumption of TSMC alone accounts for almost 10% of the local island’s electricity consumption!
Coal-fired power is the most important source of cheap industrial electricity supply for backward countries.

Nuclear power, wind power, hydropower, etc. are nothing compared to coal-fired power.

It is actually very simple to restrict the development of third-party lagging enterprises. Just lock them down in the coal-fired power sector.

One hundred!
After careful consideration, the other party agreed. Then, both sides discussed and planned to bring in some European, Japanese and Korean consortiums to impose various restrictions.

The global village is small, and there are already enough conglomerates. Both sides, including the conglomerates in Europe, Japan, and South Korea, do not want to see new conglomerates emerge...

Although Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea want to transfer a certain amount of the industrial chain, what they want is to transfer assembly factories with low technical content to places with low labor costs and utilize local cheap labor resources... just like they did in China before.

We don’t want to move our core industries there!
No one would transfer their core high-end industries to other companies. Only fools would do that.

Having their homes stolen by Zhiyun had already made several American consortiums extremely uncomfortable. They regretted it every night and couldn't sleep. Now, they absolutely would not allow a second Zhiyun to appear!

It can be said that the rapid rise of Zhiyun has taught these European and American consortiums a big lesson, a lesson they should remember for decades: that is, don't transfer high-tech industries indiscriminately, otherwise you will raise a competitor in a minute~
These people now remind themselves every night before going to bed: Never make the same mistake again!

As for Zhiyun, when he got into the car, the first thing he thought of was to close the door, and it would be best if he could weld it shut completely...

Therefore, both parties have a highly consistent understanding in this regard.

Of course, when this matter is implemented, it will not be so straightforward... Instead, it will be based on various environmental protection, climate environment and so on, and then impose relevant restrictions.

The reason is not important. What is important is that we do not provide key core equipment such as semiconductor equipment and coal-fired power equipment!

For the American consortium, one Zhiyun is disgusting enough, and no one wants a second Zhiyun to appear.

So now companies like Tata have emerged and want to imitate Zhiyun's approach, want to play in the consumer electronics industry, and then enter the semiconductor industry. This makes everyone very vigilant... No matter whether the other party can do it or not, just step on it first!
So, Xu Shenxue and the other party reached an agreement: in principle, both parties are not allowed to invest in advanced semiconductor fields in India and other regions, and they should also restrain their subordinates and not mess around.

If you can't manage your younger brothers well, I will help you do it...and then it will be embarrassing for everyone.

Then, they also held talks in the field of electric vehicles. In this regard, the two sides had a relatively smooth discussion. They both agreed that electric vehicles are the future and that the two sides should cooperate to expand the field of electric vehicles and then eliminate all the Japanese, Korean and European car companies...

The capitalists on both sides are drooling as they fantasize!

The opposing consortium includes Tesla, while Xu Shenxue owns HaiLan Automobile.

In order to show the strength of the cooperation, Xu Shenxue even said that he could allow Tesla to enter the Chinese market, provided that HaiLan Automobile could also continue to enter the US market without any additional interference.

Both sides should open up their markets to each other and compete fairly!
The other party requires that Zhiyun cannot strangle the company in the field of automotive-grade computing chips, especially image recognition chips. At the same time, Hailan Automobile's models can enter the US market, but they cannot provide subsidies, sell products at low prices, or release any cheap models.

Then the two parties agreed to jointly explore the electric vehicle market in other regions and adopt a certain degree of mutual advancement and retreat.

The two sides had relatively smooth discussions in the field of electric vehicles, mainly because the electric vehicle field is still in its infancy and both sides are optimistic that they can coexist to a certain extent.

The main reason is that they all have a common enemy: traditional car companies in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States!
As for the several traditional car companies under the other party, they themselves are about to give up... Due to various reasons, the traditional car companies under their control have become irreversible and there is no hope. They have even become a burden, the kind that is annoying just to watch!
One thing must be made clear: it is the ordinary people in the Rust Belt who hope to preserve these traditional car companies, not the representatives of the consortium who are negotiating with Xu Shenxue!

The interests of the consortium and ordinary people are inconsistent!
The opposing consortium has placed its hopes in the automotive field on electric vehicles represented by Tesla. As for the traditional fuel vehicles controlled by ordinary people in the Rust Belt, let them die...

If HaiLan Auto doesn't come, Tesla under their control will have to kill these traditional car companies in the Rust Belt first.

That's why they were able to find common interests with Xu Shenxue and start cooperation!

----

After several rounds of video conferences, Xu Shenxue reached some cooperation agreements with the other party... Although they were all verbal agreements, it was hard to say how long these agreements could last in the future, but some agreements were finally reached.

Having an agreement recognized by both parties is much better than having no recognition and then fighting to the death in the entire field... The main thing is that you can't kill the other party, and it's useless to fight, and you may get punched if you're not careful!

As for some areas where we cannot reach an agreement, we will continue to fight, but only within that area, without upgrading or expanding the arsenal... Especially if the other party strongly demands, we cannot continue to use extreme measures such as physical sanctions.

Nowadays, everyone goes out with dozens of bodyguards every day, and some people don’t even dare to go out. It’s not easy to have to stay at home!

Just like that, without the outside world knowing, Xu Shenxue had reached a new round of agreements with multiple American consortiums.

However, the contents of these agreements are destined to never be made public!
As an additional condition of a series of agreements, Zhiyun will officially delist from the U.S. stock market, and the U.S. consortium will give up its 15% stake in Zhiyun Group.

Most of the shares given up by the American consortium will be taken over by the European consortium, while some capital from other regions, such as Japan, will also take over a small amount of shares.

However, the shares withdrawn by the American consortium need to be redeemed by Zhiyun first, and then Zhiyun will issue targeted shares to consortiums in Europe, Japan and other countries. This mainly involves the issue of stock price recognition and redistribution of interests between the two parties.

Xu Shenxue would not allow the American consortium to freely buy and sell these stocks and then sell them to some random people. If other consortiums wanted to acquire Zhiyun's shares, they had to either buy them in the secondary market or ask Xu Shenxue for a targeted share issuance.

During this process, Zhiyun needs to raise a lot of redemption funds, probably to redeem about 15% of the shares held by the American consortium, which costs about US$76 billion.

However, this part of shares is more difficult to redeem than the circulating shares, and there must be a certain degree of premium. It is impossible to give a price according to the current market value. The consortium is not stupid!
The fact that we can sell the shares back to you is based on the fact that both parties have reached a lot of agreements beforehand, but being willing to sell does not mean that the price will be low!
There will even be a premium!

The transaction for this part of shares would require a premium of at least tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars.

At the same time, 18 percent of the outstanding shares in the delisting process also need to be redeemed.

At present, Zhiyun’s stock price is still at a low level, with a price of only 510 billion US dollars, and has long been far surpassed by Apple.

Although Fruit’s revenue is not as high as Zhiyun’s, it is a light-asset company with a higher profit margin, and therefore its market value is also higher. Its current market value has reached more than 600 billion US dollars.

Zhiyun is increasingly leaning towards being an asset-heavy company, and its various large-scale investments are too scary. Therefore, although its revenue is higher, key data such as profit margin and return on assets are getting lower and lower, resulting in a pessimistic market value.

According to investors, the company is still able to maintain a market value of 500 billion US dollars because of Xu Shenxue's consideration...

Zhiyun is actually doing well. Sixing Electronics, which has a similar model, has an even lower stock price, which is only over 100 billion US dollars now.

Its market value is even lower than their net worth!

According to Zhiyun Group's current market value of US$510 billion, to redeem 18% of the outstanding shares, it would require a payment of more than US$90 billion... This is too much money, and although Zhiyun can afford it, it is not necessary.

After all, Zhiyun is not going to be completely privatized, but will delist from the US stock market and then transfer to the H-share market for listing.

Therefore, we adopt a redemption plus stock exchange plan...It would be best if investors are willing to exchange stocks, but if they are not willing to exchange stocks, they can only redeem.

Redemption is simple and easy to understand. Investors can directly sell the stocks back to Zhiyun Group at a certain price. Zhiyun will cancel these circulating stocks after taking them back. This also requires a certain amount of funds, at least tens of billions of dollars.

Then there is the stock exchange plan. Investors can choose to keep the U.S. stocks and then deposit them with the brokerage firm designated by Zhiyun. After Zhiyun is listed on the Hong Kong stock market, they can exchange them for Hong Kong stocks in equal proportion. This does not require any extra money.

Zhiyun is not going to be privatized, it just wants to change the listing location... There are too many uncontrollable risks in continuing to be listed on the US stock market, and Xu Shenxue needs to control this risk, so it is more appropriate to switch to the Hong Kong stock market, which is relatively controllable.

In this case, Zhiyun's entire delisting plan and the recovery of 15% of the shares from the American consortium will require approximately 70 to 80 billion US dollars.

If the negotiations do not go smoothly, it may cost more than 90 billion US dollars.

Then some of the stocks in the delisting process need to be repurchased. This depends on the choice of the investor. If he wants to repurchase, Zhiyun must redeem it for the sake of corporate reputation. If the investor does not request redemption, he can choose to exchange shares and return to Hong Kong stocks.

However, a considerable portion of these circulating shares are actually controlled by American financial groups, and they will most likely demand redemption when the time comes.

In order to prepare for the enemy's defeat, Zhiyun needs to prepare at least 50 billion US dollars for stock redemption.

The total cost of the two will probably be between US$130 billion and US$150 billion. The exact figure will depend on subsequent negotiations with the US consortium and other institutional investors!

Although Zhiyun Group's own cash flow is large enough that it can come up with even hundreds of billions of US dollars by gritting its teeth, this will cause great damage to the entire group and it is impossible to do so.

In early February, Xu Shenxue, on behalf of Zhiyun, personally held talks with a banking consortium composed of several domestic financial institutions and formally finalized a $50 billion private placement plan.

At the same time, a credit line of US$100 billion was finalized.

At the same time, in order to avoid accidents, the banking group has also prepared an additional US$100 billion in emergency credit... This US$100 billion is not a regular credit, but only to prevent accidents for Zhiyun.

With such a huge delisting operation by Zhiyun, various unexpected events are inevitable... If the consortium says they will sell the product to you smoothly, you will believe it. But what if they create obstacles halfway through the delisting?

As a world-class giant, Zhiyun needs to grit its teeth and hold on for the sake of its corporate reputation when it encounters an unexpected situation, so the more funds it prepares, the better!

In order to support Zhiyun's delisting plan, the banking group prepared a total of 250 billion US dollars...

Although only US$50 billion of this money is real money for strategic investment, the other US$200 billion of credit line is only a temporary loan, which will be returned after Zhiyun issues additional shares to other strategic investors and re-lists on the Hong Kong stock market.

However, it is still very difficult to mobilize the combined funds of 250 billion US dollars.

This is 250 billion US dollars, all in cash... The American financial group doesn't recognize other miscellaneous assets, they only want cash!
After handing over money and shares in one hand, the two sides went their separate ways and continued to fight to the death!

In order to raise such a huge amount of funds, many companies engaged in international trade even feel that it has become more difficult to exchange foreign currency in cash, and some even suspect that foreign exchange has shrunk.

It’s just that no one knows why!

In late February, Xu Shenxue formally reached an agreement with the opposing consortium and agreed on the share repurchase price. He also reached a targeted share issuance agreement with consortiums in Europe, Japan and other places, and the credit funds from the bank group were also ready and in place.

Under such circumstances, Xu Shenxue officially held a press conference: Because the stock price in the US stock market has been sluggish for a long time and cannot reflect Zhiyun’s true stock price, in order to ensure the interests of shareholders, Zhiyun Group officially delisted from the US stock market!
When the news came out, the whole world was shocked!

(End of this chapter)