Korean TV series: King of Peninsula 1997

Chapter 545 Capital from Space

Two weeks later, the investment project recommended by Willump was finally acquired.

If the company has great potential, there will always be a steady stream of people wanting to invest money.

This is certainly the case with Amazon Group now.

Amazon's headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington, USA.

“It’s been a pleasure working with you, Mr. Bezos.”

Li You stretched out his hand and shook hands with a bald man whose head was reflecting light.

"It's a pleasure working with you, Mr. Li." Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon, is a very unique person. He shook hands with Li You with a smile.

After signing the contract, Li You became a small shareholder of Amazon.

After signaling the secretaries to take away the signed documents, Li You stayed and looked at Bezos again.

"Mr. Bezos"

“Just call me Jeff,” Bezos shrugged. “No need to be so formal.”

"Jeff," Li You nodded, "Do you own an aerospace company?"

A long time ago, when Li You was discussing with Chen Daojun, he wanted to set up a space company on the Korean Peninsula, but he had never found a suitable opportunity.

But now Li You saw a glimmer of hope.

"You mean blue energy?" Bezos grinned. "Lee, are you also interested in aerospace?"

When it comes to aerospace, Bezos can't help but smile.

Li You simply followed his words and continued, "What was your idea for founding this company?"

"That's going to take time," Bezos extended his hand and asked Li You to come with him, "Why don't we have a meal here and I'll tell you slowly."

As the future 'king of e-commerce', Amazon's cafeteria is pretty good, and it even has some dishes from various countries.

"We recruit talents from various industries around the world, and naturally we have to provide them with corresponding services," Bezos smiled and took a tray from the side.

"When I was little," Bezos held a tray and lined up with Li You to get food, "every summer, I would go to my grandfather's farm in Texas to help out. My grandfather, old Gus, was a former manager of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Under his influence, I learned to be self-reliant on the farm and developed a love for science."

"Give us two of that," Bezos said, pointing to a steak.

After picking up all the food, they carried their trays and went to find a seat.

"I spent my high school years in Miami," Bezos chewed, "and because of my love for science at that time, I decided to become an astronaut or a physicist."

He smiled at Li You, "Although children always want to become scientists, policemen, doctors, and teachers."

“It seems to me that this is probably true all over the world.”

Li You smiled knowingly.
It is truly a universal dream.

"When I graduated from high school, I was chosen as a student representative to give a graduation speech because of my good grades and outstanding performance in campus activities," Bezos said as if he had said it many times. "At that time, I was named an outstanding student in the United States and received a scholarship for outstanding students in the United States."

"In my graduation speech, I talked about the importance of human migration to space."

Bezos confessed: "Even my university major was physics."

"But unfortunately," he said with some regret, "Although I haven't forgotten my childhood dream, I really don't have the talent for it."

“That’s why I changed my major to computer science.”

Li You secretly sighed that this career change had turned him into a giant in the world.

In the future, Amazon may even become the 'public enemy' among big companies.

For example, when Amazon announced that it would enter the offline supermarket market, the stock prices of mainstream supermarkets in the United States fell sharply after the announcement, and the market value of the entire food retail industry evaporated by at least US$40 billion that day.

It is normal for large companies to enter new industries and bully small companies.

But the Amazon Group in the future will be able to bully an entire industry, and the leading companies in the industry will be directly affected.

Large companies in related industries may even lose hundreds of millions of dollars in market value due to a piece of news from Amazon.

Li You slowed down his eating speed and continued to look at Bezos, "Then blue energy came from your dream when you were a teenager?"

"Pretty much," Bezos said, stuffing a mouthful of curry into his mouth. "When Amazon became better and better and had more money, I certainly wanted to look back at my regrets and dreams, so 'Blue Energy' came into being."

"This thing"

His face turned bitter, "It really cost money."

In fact, ever since Li You mentioned it, Bezos had wanted to bring Li You in.

Blue Energy’s initial ambitions were indeed too grand.

According to Bezos's philosophy, he even wants to carry out a space colonization plan, and Blue Energy is the company that is preparing for it.

“Blue Energy’s earliest work is to develop a space infrastructure that will enable space travel for millions of people and unlock the potential of countless future entrepreneurs and artists.”

Bezos coughed, "But then I realized that this was too advanced. In addition to requiring countless amounts of money, it would also take a very long time."

Seeing some smile on Li You's face, Bezos added: "I was still young at that time, and one of the main needs of doing this work was that the earth was limited, and I hoped to expand into space one day to ensure that humans would not fall into the necessary conditions of rationing and stagnation."

Li You nodded slightly. Bezos’s philosophy had indeed been like this from the very beginning.

For example, a letter that Bezos sent to all Amazon shareholders a long time ago was made public.

The letter places great emphasis on long-term thinking.

He emphasized that long-term thinking is the most important thing, and believed that all investment decisions should be based on long-term market considerations rather than short-term profits. He also believed that long-term thinking could leave room for innovation.

It is basically consistent with the concept of "blue energy".

"So." Li You raised his eyebrows, "Jeff, what are your expectations for 'Blue Energy' now?"

"With the investment of a large amount of funds, talents and other resources, Blue Origin will gradually become more mature," Bezos said frankly. "I believe Blue Origin will definitely leave its mark in the history of human exploration of space."

"Before that, we need to start with the rocket, lunar lander, and space capsule."

Li You has already realized that Bezos said so much just to get Li You to invest money.

No matter how big your dreams are, running a space company for a long time is still very risky, and sharing the risk is what Bezos wants to do.

After all, he is far from being as rich as he will be in the future, where he can spend money recklessly to support his dreams.

"So what success has Blue Energy had now?"

Bezos glanced at their plates, which were empty. He stood up with a smile and said, "Why don't we go back to the office and talk about it?"

He saw that Li You was very interested, maybe because there was a vacancy in the Korean Peninsula? Bezos narrowed his eyes and invited Li You back to his office to discuss the investment in detail.

After returning to the office, Li You sat down and saw Bezos giving instructions to his secretary.

"I asked him to get something," Bezos came over and sat down. "It's not real enough just from what I said. Wait until you see the photos and information, if it's appropriate."

"Why don't we go to Blue Energy together?" He glanced at the sky. "Li, do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

Li You smiled and nodded.

After seeing the photos sent by his secretary, Li You decided that he wanted to invest in "Blue Energy".

This commercial space company is indeed a space company with great prospects.

In particular, it started developing space vehicles and rocket engines early on.

Li You flipped through the information and looked up and asked, "Is the company's headquarters and R&D center in Kent City?"

Bezos also noticed Li You's interest, and in fact, both of them knew it well.

"Yes," he patted his bald head, "In 2003, I bought land in Texas to build the company's launch base and engine test base."

He was quite pleased with himself, and rightly so.

In this day and age, being able to build a private space company to this point has already lived up to his dream.

"Last year, a spacecraft codenamed 'Charon' was tested from a vertical take-off and landing test platform over Moses Lake, Washington."

"But it didn't work out well," Bezos sighed, and it cost a lot of money.

"I plan to have Blue Origin conduct another test flight of a suborbital vehicle code-named 'Goddard' this year."

"In addition, the company is also developing the 'New Shepard' spacecraft."

These are all news that have been announced to the public, and Bezos doesn't need to hide them.

Li You looked through the materials and found that he was indeed making progress.

He put these things down and looked up at Bezos, who was somewhat expectant.

"Jeff, have you ever heard of Elon Musk?"

"Elon Musk?" Bezos recalled, and he still had an impression of him. "The former PayPal executive?"

"Elon Musk founded 'X.com', an online financial services and email payment business, in the last year of the last century."

Li You also found it very familiar because the payment platform he has been promoting on the Korean Peninsula is basically the same.

In fact, there was a reason why Li You continued speaking. He was testing Bezos from the beginning.

After all, in his previous life, these two people started arguing from 2004 to 2005, and from the Internet field to the aerospace field, the two of them had been quarreling with each other.

But it is much more interesting to find out that Bezos doesn’t know Musk now.

Bezos listened carefully, even though he had not yet heard any connection between Musk and "blue energy".

"At the turn of the millennium, Musk's 'X.com' company merged with another, changed its name to 'PayPal', and went public."

"I remember it," Bezos recalled. "When it went public in 2002, I competed with eBay, the world's largest online retailer, for this company. But eBay eventually acquired it for $1.5 billion. I couldn't win."

"And Elon Musk got $165 million."

Li You pointed at Bezos and said, "Speaking of which, Jeff, you and he do agree on some points."

“For example, the obsession with outer space.”

"During his college years, he began to pay in-depth attention to areas such as the Internet, clean energy, and space."

"In 2002, after leaving PayPal, which was acquired, he invested a full $100 million to found a company called SpaceX, where he served as CEO and CTO."

"What is his research direction?" Bezos raised his eyebrows, and his bald head began to glow.

“We will study how to reduce the cost of rocket launches and plan to realize Mars immigration in the future to build a true space civilization for mankind.”

"."

"Your Blue Origin and Musk's SpaceX are now both committed to developing various rocket technologies, and both have set extraterrestrial exploration as their goal, but your goal is the moon, while Musk's goal is Mars."

Bezos frowned and thought for a while, "So, Li, what do you mean?"

"Cooperation."

Regarding the cooperation between these two people, Li You actually has a very important point to note.

That is whether these two people will abandon him and work together on their own.

But after thinking about it, it would be better to be straightforward. Even if he cannot get involved in their cooperation, with the current space companies burning money, especially since these two companies are not making very good profits, they will not refuse Li You's investment in the company.

"Cooperation." Bezos nodded thoughtfully. "That's feasible. Having people on the same path will always be helpful."

"Why don't we make an appointment?" Li You said with a smile, "and invite him to visit Blue Origin and SpaceX together?"

"It's feasible," Bezos did not reject Li You's kindness. In this day and age, it is not feasible to develop products behind closed doors.

"Then I'll ask my secretary to contact his SpaceX and see if we can set up a time," Bezos thought clearly, "but it would be better for both of us to reach a cooperation as soon as possible."

Li You kept smiling, "Of course."

"On the Korean Peninsula, the aerospace industry has been vacant for various reasons, and there are too many people who want to break down those walls."

Bezos suddenly realized.

If a country develops aerospace technology, it will inevitably have military significance. The development of aerospace technology has always represented an important part of political independence.

For example, Israel, North Korea and Iran all developed satellite launch capabilities based on political independence and external pressure. Even after the North launched a satellite, it was unable to continue to carry out in-depth expansion and extension of aerospace technology. Even its national strength began to be seriously insufficient. It was more of a military significance. If it wanted to develop more advanced aerospace technology, it would not be something that small countries could support and achieve.

In particular, the aerospace industry is at the top of the pyramid of the industrial system and requires an extremely large industrial system to support it.

But if it is just a commercial space company, there are some opportunities.

Not only can it boost the morale of many people on the Korean Peninsula who have strong national sentiments and win more hearts and minds, but it can also allow them to do what they want to do.

It will take at least another ten years for commercial space companies to achieve true success.

But if he succeeds, Li You will have the trump card to dominate the entire Korean Peninsula.

“That’s a deal,” Bezos confirmed. “I’ll make sure that commercial space companies are not disrupted by that.”

(End of this chapter)