1193 About Two Generations Ahead
The first day of May.
The labor force in China was celebrating a long Labor Day holiday.
On the other hand, a major earthquake happened in the communications industry.
The Asia Pacific Cable No.3 project, which was generally considered a good idea by the industry, was stalled because of the three major communication companies in China refusing to cooperate. Since this order worth tens of billions of yuan could not be fulfilled, SubCom’s stock price began to drop.
No one understood why the three major Chinese communications companies did such a thing.
In fact, most of the employees at the communications companies did not know either…
The Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study.
Lu Zhou was sitting in his office. He meticulously drew something on a piece of paper.
Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door.
Lu Zhou stopped writing and put the unfinished drawings into the drawer. He looked at the door and spoke.
“It’s unlocked, come in.”
When the door opened, a unique face appeared at his door.
“Academician Lu, you’re still working hard I see.” w.a.n.g Zhengfei said with a smile as he walked into the office, “Aren’t you going to take a break?”
“When I’m not busy, every day is a break. When I am busy, I can’t afford to take breaks.” Lu Zhou looked at w.a.n.g Zhengfei, who was sitting down on the office sofa, and said, “Aren’t you the same?”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei waved his hand.
“Me? I enjoy life much more than you. I’m much less stressed than before. I might be able to retire in a few years.”
Compared to the troubles a few years ago, Huawei was in a much better position than before.
From carbon-based chips to HV-1 helmets, to the popularity of the 5G network, Huawei’s strategic plans had proven to be fruitful. They had control of the entire industry chain. Nothing could stop the growth of this semiconductor giant.
Even if w.a.n.g Zhengfei stepped down, Huawei could continue to grow steadily. Perhaps after he left, the company could even develop at a faster rate.
Because of this, he had been planning to find a suitable time and retire from the front lines.
If it wasn’t for his respect for Academician Lu, he would have asked his chosen successor to come here today.
“I originally planned on going on a vacation, but I heard from my a.s.sistant that you have something to discuss with me, so I immediately took the maglev from Shanghai and rushed over.” w.a.n.g Zhengfei poured himself a cup of tea and said with a smile, “You have always been indifferent about business matters, so I wonder what project interests you so greatly.”
Lu Zhou had an apathetic look on his face.
In fact, he still wasn’t interested in business matters. He didn’t want to partic.i.p.ate in this project.
However, the president personally appointed him to handle this project, so he had no other choice.
Judging by the envious looks on other people’s faces, Lu Zhou knew that this was not an ordinary task. It would undoubtedly bring him a “sizable” fortune.
In some sense, this was a reward from the state, just like his stocks in East Asia Energy.
As far as the state was concerned, money was just a number. Social development couldn’t be measured solely by dollar signs. Anyone could profit from this, so it was better to give it to someone that deserved it.
Lu Zhou didn’t have any ambitious plans at making money. After all, the patent fees from the quantum computer and quantum communication technology were more than enough. The business of submarine optical cables wasn’t attractive to him.
Thus, he thought of a compromise, which was to work with other people.
This way, he could delegate the troublesome tasks to other people.
He could also avoid being accused of taking all of the profits for himself.
After all, this was a Trans-Pacific submarine optical cable. This was going to be the lifeblood of the future global information network.
It was too dangerous for one man to have this kind of power…
“CEO w.a.n.g, are you interested in the submarine optical cable project?”
“Submarine optical cable?”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei paused for a second. He was a little confused.
However, he quickly realized there was something more to this statement. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked curiously, “Is there something more to this?”
Lu Zhou contemplated for a second and spoke.
“We plan on building a submarine optical cable.”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei frowned.
“I thought it wasn’t going to be built?”
“Not exactly.” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “Precisely speaking, we’re not going to build the old cable, we’re going to build a more advanced one.”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei rubbed his chin and spoke.
“I don’t get what you’re trying to say… Can you be more direct? What do you want us to do?”
Lu Zhou had a headache. He didn’t know how he should explain this.
However, he suddenly had a realization.
Wait a second, why do I have to ask him like it’s a favor?
This is free money!
I’m the one giving him an amazing business opportunity.
Lu Zhou couldn’t be bothered to explain everything, so he spoke straightforwardly.
“In recent years, our country has launched a strategy of developing into a marine economic powerhouse. Strengthening and developing the submarine optical cable industry plays a pivotal role.”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei: “???”
Lu Zhou ignored the muddled face on the old man and continued, “However, due to the high technical threshold of the industry and the capital investment requirements, the current global submarine cable market is basically monopolized by three companies—United States’ SubCom, j.a.pan’s NEC, and Europe’s Alcatel-Lucent. There are only a few domestic companies that are compet.i.tive in this industry. If the trend continues, it will be difficult for us to gain an advantage in the information technology field.
“Therefore, the Communist Party of China wants outstanding private companies like us to set an example—”
“I get it.” w.a.n.g Zhengfei interrupted Lu Zhou and said, “How much will it cost?”
When Lu Zhou looked at the nervous old man, he was stunned.
His intuition told him that the old man had misinterpreted his words. However, for some reason, he didn’t want to clarify himself…
Lu Zhou decided to improvise.
“The budget hasn’t been created yet. Basically, the Communist Party of China wants us to spend our own money and integrate small domestic companies into the submarine optical cable business and build a submarine optical cable from the east coast of China to the west coast of the United States.”
Lu Zhou thought that it would be difficult to convince w.a.n.g Zhengfei to hop on board without revealing the quantum technology.
However, surprisingly, w.a.n.g Zhengfei waved his hand and spoke without hesitation.
“Don’t worry, money is not a problem! Is there anything else?”
Yep, this guy…
Has definitely misunderstood me.
“Um, one more thing… I’m sure you know a lot of excellent entrepreneurs. The more people involved, the less each person has to pay.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle this, I’ll contact other companies!”
Seeing how enthusiastic w.a.n.g Zhengfei was, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but want to laugh.
I’m making these people rich, but it feels like… I’m deceiving them.
But I can’t say anything about quantum computers for now.
Quantum communications was another story. It might be made public in a few days, but that wasn’t a big deal, since most people did not know about quantum computers, and even fewer people knew about the serious network information security challenges.
Basically, if there was no threat of quantum computers, there was no need for quantum communication.
Even though Lu Zhou couldn’t explain anything, he tried to comfort w.a.n.g Zhengfei.
“Don’t worry, this project will be a huge success. The technology and initiative are in our hands, and I can guarantee this is a stable business.”
w.a.n.g Zhengfei smiled, clearly not taking Lu Zhou seriously.
He didn’t mind losing a bit of money. He had made so much money that he was fine with contributing to the country.
He was more worried about whether they could actually build an optical cable across the Pacific Ocean.
Huawei had tried to enter the submarine optical cable industry before, so he knew how much this could cost.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sold off Huawei’s submarine optical cable business a few years ago.
“Can you give me some details…? What’s your level of confidence?”
Lu Zhou raised two fingers.
w.a.n.g Zhengfei had a solemn look.
“Only 20%?”
Lu Zhou shook his head.
“No, I mean in terms of the technology…
“We’re approximately two generations ahead.”
The office went quiet…