Chapter 277: I, Lu Zhou, Do Not Like Money
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After listening to Lu Zhou, Lu Kaimin thought for a bit.
After a while, he said, “Thank you for your valuable advice, we’ll consider it seriously.”
Lu Zhou nodded and did not say anything else.
He did not need to rely on gimmicks to receive funding, so his words were relatively straightforward.
He had already given his advice; whether it would be used was none of his business.
However, Mr. Lu would not just take his words at face value. He would also have to integrate the opinions of many experts; people from production, performance, safety, and battery engineers, all had valuable advice.
The group of people continued to eat; they basically talked about life and nothing serious.
Dean Li and Mr. Lu started to tease Lu Zhou about “getting a girlfriend” and “Chinese or white girl”.
After talking with Mr. Lu, Lu Zhou suddenly realized that his anxiousness had calmed down.
It was not that he was suddenly fulfilled.
Rather, he found out that his academic reports were not only valuable in the academic community, but also in the industry.
The rise and fall of a company, the development of a country, and even the future of the world were influenced by his thesis.
He did not even need to publish a thesis.
It was no exaggeration to say that he only had to lift his finger and type “Lithium batteries are good” then upload it onto his Weibo and by the next day, a batch of research funds would instantly be poured into this direction. If he did a PowerPoint presentation, then the stock price of a company could go up a lot… Of course, experts would ridicule his PowerPoint presentation if it was not legit.
Although his work was minuscule compared to the world, the effects were visible by the naked eye.
In contrast, $400 million USD did not seem so exciting anymore…
Emm…
Fine.
Just a tiny bit exciting.
…
The next day, the MRS Conference continued. Lu Zhou paid attention to many interesting reports.
This was a good opportunity to learn the cutting edge research of this field. Anyone that wanted to get into the industry would not miss this chance.
It was not just exchanging academic ideas.
Lu Zhou met many interesting people at the reports, and there was one who was especially legendary.
The person was D.E. Shaw, the leading expert in computational chemistry.
He became a professor at Columbia University when he was 30 years old, and he was an expert in the study of large scale parallel computing. In other words, he was quite famous in the academic community.
Columbia University was located in New York; the center of the world’s elite businesses, million-dollar transactions every minute, extravagant girls and cars…
Anyone would be affected by living in this kind of environment.
David Shaw was no exception. After teaching as a professor for a few years, he could not stand it anymore. He decided to get into the major league on Wall Street.
Most people believed that like most professors, he would fail.
However, the end result stunned everyone. In less than a decade, he made a name for himself on Wall Street.
Through his ma.s.sive parallel computing high-frequency trading company, David’s quant.i.tative hedge fund was worth $4.1 billion USD.
Obviously, by this time, he had already achieved what he wanted.
If this was the case, his legendary name would have remained on Wall Street, among bankers.
However, while he was at the peak of his career, he had a sudden realization.
Yes, this guy found out that he did not want a rich hedge fund manager lifestyle!
He found it meaningless.
While he was at the peak of his career, David took off his Patagonia fleece vest and put on a pair of jeans.
For a rich guy like him, he did not have to ask NIH 1 or the NSF 2 officials for research money. He had almost unlimited money and he could personally fund any academic research that he wanted.
Chemistry bio-tech supercomputer?
Did he rent one? Buy one?
Nope, he built one!
The stars.h.i.+p of the molecular dynamics world, super-computer “Anton” was born.
Anton’s special purpose was to conduct simulations for protein bindings.
“… You’re a genius who studies mathematics, I’m a genius who studied ma.s.sive parallel computing. We can work together to build a new framework for the entire computational chemistry industry. Think about it, 100 years later, people will mention our names in the computational chemistry hall of fame. We will be the founders of this field!”
At the dinner party hosted by MRS, David was talking to Lu Zhou.
Although most self-proclaimed geniuses were a manifestation of narcissism, David might be the only man on Wall Street who had the ability to do this. In fact, no one would even flinch when he called himself a genius.
Lu Zhou laughed and said, “Then 100 years later, a group of teenagers will complain about us being in a textbook.”
“You’re right, that’s the feeling,” laughed David. He then said, “How does it sound, interested?”
“I’m interested,” said Lu Zhou. He smiled and added, “If you have some more specific ideas, you can find me at Princeton.”
“No problem,” said David. With a smile, he added, “If you find some interesting mathematical model that you can use in a polymer experiment, make sure to find me in New York.”
Lu Zhou was intrigued. He said, “Actually, I’ve always been interested in supercomputers. I even plan on buying on myself.”
“This is a good idea, but it’s not cheap,” said David. He suddenly remembered something and asked, “Oh yeah, did you sign the patenting licensing agreement with Umicore?”
Lu Zhou said, “I signed the letter of intent. Why?”
David poured himself a gla.s.s of wine and said, “If I was you, I’d take some time to think about the tax issue.”
Lu Zhou frowned and said, “I have to pay tax?”
David said with a serious tone, “Of course! As long as this money enters the United States, you won’t be able to escape from the taxman… Honestly, the taxman always gets what he wants. Now that you’re a Princeton professor, I’m sure you have changed your visa situation.”
Lu Zhou nodded his head seriously.
Indeed, Lu Zhou had to pay tax on his Princeton salary. However, the $400,000 USD per year salary was after tax.
Lu Zhou asked, “Is there a way I can avoid it?”
David smiled.
“This is easy, just find an island and open an account there. My suggestion is to set up a patent management company in the Cayman Islands. Then hire some accountants. This is how Microsoft and IBM avoid taxes on IP. Many firms in Wall Street also does this…”
“… As long as the flow of funds occur between offsh.o.r.e companies, and the money never enters the United States, you won’t have to pay tax. The federal tax bureau won’t go after you…”
- National Inst.i.tutes of Health
- National Science Foundation