America: My Time

Chapter 462 Conspiracy
Chapter 462 Conspiracy

“John, the reason I invited you to Japan this time is to discuss memory chips. As you know, the situation in the United States is getting more and more serious. The SIA has filed an anti-dumping lawsuit, which is putting a lot of pressure on us. Now the United States has decided to issue a US-Japan semiconductor agreement, and we need your help!” When John arrived in Tokyo, Akio Morita quickly came to him and stated his demands directly, or more accurately, the demands of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers!

"It's too late, it's all too late. I did warn you before, but no one took my warning seriously. All you saw was greed, frantically grabbing market share from your American counterparts. Now Intel has been suppressed to the point of bankruptcy and liquidation by you. Under these circumstances, how could Intel not fight back with all its might? The emergence of SIA is their counterattack. Now I am willing but powerless. Game World can only ensure that our cooperation is not affected. I can't do anything else. This is not something I can do alone!"

When he heard John's words, the old fox Akio Morita sneered inwardly: "Intel's problems are not entirely due to the pressure from Neon Semiconductor, the impact from Nvidia, and the impact from AMD, but now they are all being blamed on Neon Semiconductor. This is too insidious."

Although he harbored some dissatisfaction, Akio Morita could not show it. They were now in need of John's help, and there was no major conflict of interest between them. Therefore, John was someone they could win over. Even if he couldn't become an ally, they shouldn't become an enemy, otherwise Japan's situation would become even more dangerous, or even worse.

"John, what do you think we should do now? How can we get out of this predicament?" At this moment, Akio Morita turned to John and asked him, perhaps this was his real purpose.

"What to do? It's actually very simple: cooperation. You can choose to cooperate with your American counterparts and jointly build factories. Don't try to keep all the profits in your own hands, or you'll only suffer greater setbacks. Also, you can build factories overseas. If your semiconductor factory were in the United States, do you think these problems would still occur? The choice is yours to make. I can't do anything about it. My situation isn't too good right now either. There are also many old guys watching me closely. The most I can do for you is to provide support in media publicity. Everything else is up to your own actions."

To put it bluntly, the semiconductor war between the US and Japan is driven by profit. If the Japanese were too greedy, the current situation wouldn't exist. Moreover, these companies have pooled resources, even involving national governments, to jointly develop and compete for the market. Such a frenzied approach is simply beyond the capabilities of their American counterparts. Therefore, this outcome is perfectly normal. "I can't beat you, but I can use the power of the White House to deliver a fatal blow."

Japan's biggest weakness is not its R&D capabilities, but its small market size. Its domestic market cannot meet the needs and development of its companies. Therefore, when faced with pressure from the United States, they have no choice but to compromise. Otherwise, the United States could easily crush these companies by wielding its trade stick. Without overseas markets, Japanese companies will only face certain death.

John was well aware of Japan's weaknesses, so he always believed that Japan could not stand up to its American counterparts. He thought that a short-term victory would only subject Japan to greater pressure and plunge it into a greater crisis.

"John, can we work together?"

"Mr. Morita, you're here on behalf of Toshiba, right? Unfortunately, I can't agree. As you know, I've just acquired Seagate, a hard drive manufacturer. If I were to cooperate with Toshiba on memory chips at this time, it would only lead to resistance from other companies in the industry. The impact would be severe. Dreamworld, Nvidia, Seagate, and even ASUS would all face resistance from their competitors. Therefore, I cannot accept your request. If Toshiba is willing, it's better to choose to cooperate with other American companies!"

At this moment, John didn't think twice and directly rejected Akio Morita's offer. He also pointed out that Morita had come for Toshiba. John had a considerable grudge against Toshiba. Although it was in the past, John never wanted to let Toshiba go. Most importantly, Toshiba was now in a crisis and could not extricate itself. The core asset of the Mitsui Group would suffer a heavy blow!

Despite John's numerous collaborations with the Mitsui Group, he has always been wary of them. These bastards are no good; they're probably plotting against him and trying to drag him down with them, using him as a shield. But these guys are overthinking it. Even if they were to collaborate, John wouldn't choose Toshiba, but Fujitsu. At least Fujitsu isn't foolish enough to hand over its secrets to the Americans.

No matter how much Toshiba struggles now, it's useless. Once the time is right, they will face fierce suppression from the United States, and a life-or-death crisis awaits them. Furthermore, John has never considered cooperating with the Japanese in the semiconductor field at this time; it's not suitable for him, and he has too many concerns. Most importantly, John doesn't want to attract the attention of those old fogies at this moment, keeping their eyes fixed on him. Admittedly, the profits from memory chips are huge, but compared to his plans, they are insignificant. Besides, he's not without other opportunities in the future. When Toshiba suffers a devastating blow, when their R&D personnel leave, won't that be his opportunity, won't it be ASUS's opportunity?

He only needed to wait a little while to get everything he wanted, and without paying a huge price. How could he refuse such a good thing? And how could he give up a bigger future for such a small benefit? He wouldn't make a foolish decision.

"Mr. Morita, it's not just Toshiba that's affected now, but the entire Japanese semiconductor industry, and even your Sony is in it. Instead of thinking about Toshiba, you should think about Sony's situation. You should know that because of the acquisition of Columbia Pictures, your reputation in the United States isn't very good. If Columbia Pictures hadn't been consistently losing money, you might have faced even greater resistance from Hollywood."

At this point, John reminded Akio Morita that Sony's situation was equally precarious. The slightest carelessness could result in a severe blow in the upcoming crisis. More and more Wall Street counterparts were entering the Japanese market and making strategic moves; John couldn't believe the Japanese hadn't noticed. However, these companies were still unwilling to share their profits, so they would only sink deeper into trouble.

It seems that Toshiba wants to cooperate with him and jointly build a factory, but John doesn't believe these scoundrels at all. In John's view, this is a conspiracy, a conspiracy against him. Toshiba just wants to frame him. Nowadays, Nvidia is also under a lot of pressure in the semiconductor industry. If Nvidia hadn't reacted quickly and reached an agreement with AMD, it would probably have been besieged by its semiconductor peers, with Intel at the center, and a big label would have been placed on Nvidia's head.

In fact, if Toshiba had been able to cleanly and efficiently transfer its memory chip manufacturing plant to the United States at this point, they might still have a chance to survive, and everything could have turned around. At least the White House would have had enough excuses, and it would have also created many jobs for the United States, turning their reputation around. It's just a pity that these guys couldn't make such a decision, or rather, they didn't expect the Americans to be so ruthless as to break their bones.

The trade deficit between the two countries was widening, and Japanese companies were unwilling to share profits with their American counterparts or Wall Street. Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that they would suffer. The subsequent aggressive overseas expansion of Japanese companies was actually due to the suppression they faced from the United States at home, which forced them to venture outside of Japan.

“John, thank you for your guidance. Sony’s situation is indeed very dangerous right now. Columbia Pictures’ losses are getting bigger and bigger. Maybe I should have listened to you and reduced Columbia Pictures’ production. Now not only are Columbia Records’ profits being lost, but that’s not enough. We need more financial support from Sony.”

John knew exactly what was going on at Columbia Pictures. It wasn't a secret in Hollywood; those guys at Columbia Pictures didn't care about money at all. They were just recklessly spending money like crazy. If things continued like this, Columbia Pictures' situation would only get worse. But now John wouldn't say anything more. He had said what he needed to say. Since Akio Morita insisted on courting disaster, it had nothing to do with him. It was all his own doing.

Akio Morita should understand the simple truth that a long, drawn-out pain is better than a short, sharp one, but he made the wrong decision anyway, so he has to bear the consequences himself. If these guys in Japan still don't recognize the current situation, what awaits them is a disaster, a terrible catastrophe, and they will pay a heavy price.

In less than a year, real estate prices in Japan have skyrocketed, and the trend is getting more and more outrageous. John was alarmed and had to stop investing. Although he knew this was just the beginning, John needed to consider his exit strategy. He already owned a lot of real estate and there was no need to continue. Otherwise, it would be difficult to get out before the crisis broke out!

(End of this chapter)