Chapter 154 Share Buyback
"Mr. Philip, we will return the 10 billion RMB that Sequoia Capital invested in Guangjia Aerospace to you along with interest calculated based on China's current interest rate." Li Rui felt that he was unlucky. He was given such an important task less than a year after graduating and joining Guotou.

At first, when he learned that he was responsible for connecting with Sequoia Capital, he was quite happy. He thought this was an innovative project, in which state-owned capital and foreign capital jointly invested in a project, and it was a project worth writing about in his resume.

Who would have known the result was that he was asked to approach Sequoia Capital to buy back the shares of Guangjia Aerospace from Sequoia Capital, and the price they offered was just the investment amount plus the interest during this period, and the interest was still calculated using the official interest rate.

If he were in his place, he would not agree either. Light Armor Aerospace is such a promising project. Even if the payback is nowhere in sight, it is a star project on the market. The fact that Light Armor Aerospace is an investment project alone is worth it for investment institutions to highlight it and give investors a big shout-out.

This is especially true for overseas investment institutions. With the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity, the Chinese government has contracted Guangjia Aerospace's subsequent funding needs, and latecomers no longer have the opportunity to invest.

This is a rare and out-of-print resource that cannot be bought with just a few dollars.

"Mr. Li, we have met three times about this matter. There is no way we can sell such a promising project at such an insulting price." Philip was very angry. On the surface, he was angry, but in fact he could see that the man in front of him was a rookie.

Li Rui said earnestly: "Mr. Philip, this project only sounds very exciting. In fact, its payback period is too long and it requires too much capital. Sequoia's shares account for a very small proportion.

With further financing, your shares will be diluted, and this project is completely useless to Sequoia."

Philip said directly: “Whether it is useless or not is not up to you, but we, the investors, to decide.

As far as I know, the board members of Sequoia Capital in California praised Guangjia Aerospace as the most successful project that Sequoia has invested in in the past decade, without a doubt.

If the most successful projects in the past decade are all useless, then Sequoia Capital has worked in vain for the past ten years.

We invest in people, not companies themselves. The extraordinary qualities demonstrated by Mr. Wright make us believe that he can lead Guangjia Aerospace to achieve the grand goal of space mining.

Once the goal is achieved, this stake can bring Sequoia hundreds or thousands of times the return. "

Philip had been assigned to Shenhai for a long time and was very proficient in Chinese, and could use some idioms at will.

"Mr. Li, let's put ourselves in your shoes. Would you sell your shares in Guangjia Aerospace?"

He continued, "I know exactly what you mean by this. The Chinese do not want us to have shares in Guangjia Aerospace and hope to nationalize all the shares because they realize that Mr. Wright's goal is not a fantasy, but a goal that can be achieved.

They do not want foreign investment institutions to gain excess profits from it, nor do they want foreign investment institutions to understand the operating mechanism, operating model, personnel composition, etc. of Guangjia Aerospace.

They hope to make Guangjia Aerospace a black box, instead of the current situation where we can see Guangjia Aerospace's audit report every year and know what it will do this year.

But this doesn't make sense.

China transferred such an important technology of room-temperature superconductivity to another company. Legally speaking, it should belong to Guangjia Aerospace.

We have not protested against this matter, but China is still trying to kill us and force us to withdraw completely. The offer they made is also insincere.

This is unacceptable to us. If China insists on doing this, we will join forces with the investors behind Guangjia Aerospace to protest. We will issue a statement, questioning whether China's so-called creation of a good business environment and welcoming of foreign investment is just a slogan."

Philip was so rude that Li Rui couldn't handle it.

In his opinion, this was a serious accusation and he didn't know how to respond.

Unconsciously, the initiative was taken away by others. After Li Rui returned to the company, he told the master who was in charge of him about the matter. After listening, his master Li Jian laughed and said, "That's right, he is unreasonable to begin with. Your problem is that you shouldn't reason with him.

Forget it, let's make another appointment with him. The higher-ups are pressing us, so I'll go with you this time."

The next time I saw Philip was a week later. "Hello, Mr. Philip. I am also a project manager of Guotou. This time I came to talk to you about the recovery of Guangjia Aerospace shares."

Philip's eyes widened: "There's no point in talking about this."

Li Jian said: "The reason why we come to talk to you is to maintain our dignity. This cannot be avoided by your refusal.

It is a fact, not a choice.”

There was a hint of coldness in his tone, and Philip knew that this guy was not easy to fool.

Philip first repeated his previous excuse, and Li Jian smiled and said, "You probably don't believe this.

That's right, it's forced.

The upstream and downstream of chips include not only American technology, but also technology from many other countries such as the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, England, etc. Why can only America regulate these companies and prevent them from cooperating with China, while other countries cannot do so?

Even in the 1980s, when Japan dominated the global semiconductor industry, they still had to obey the White House's orders. Japan should have had enough semiconductor patents at that time. Because the world is never reasonable, whoever has the bigger fist is reasonable.

If Sequoia wants to continue doing business in China, then it must return the shares of Guangjia Aerospace. If not, then these shares are of no use to you and you might as well exchange them for some money.

If you agree, the price can be negotiated."

In fact, there are only three foreign investors in Guangjia Aerospace. After being threatened one by one and made to realize that this was the will of the country, they negotiated a little on the price and finally had no choice but to accept it.

The bigger the fist, the more power it has. Ali Ma was able to split Alipay from Alibaba and set up Ant Financial without caring about the investors' opinions. It would be even easier for China to make these institutions withdraw their shares.

Of course, the price was still a little bit higher, and in the end the interest was calculated for them at an annual rate of 15%.

After the matter was settled, when Li Rui and Li Jian boarded the flight back to Yanjing, Li Rui asked curiously on the plane: "Teacher Li, why did he agree so obediently when you asked him?"

Li Jian tore open the steam eye mask and put it on his face. He leaned back as far as possible to make it less uncomfortable to rest on the plane. Then he said without turning his head, "Because it's not me who is notifying him, it's China that is notifying America.

He knew he couldn't refuse, and the reason he hadn't agreed before was because you were too easy to talk to.

It was a great honor for him to be sent someone to inform him. If it were America, we would have to see the news that we were kicked out."

On the other side, at Mianyang Airport, Lin Jia was about to board a plane back to Yanjing to prepare for the launch of Xiaomi Automobile, which was Xiaomi’s top priority before the end of the year.

"What is Project 712?"

Chen Yuanguang explained: "7 stands for 7nm, 1 stands for 1nm, together, we want to use the 7nm process to manufacture chips with computing power comparable to the 1nm process, and the last 2 stands for time, which will take two years to achieve this goal.

Two years is a conservative estimate. I would say it won’t take more than two years.”

"I see. I have some spare cash. I want to short Apple."

"This Xiaomi car launch will have some surprises, there will definitely be some cool tech you won't expect."

"It's amazing that Mr. Lei and Guangshen teamed up to build a car. Mr. Lei is already amazing enough, but Guangshen is even more amazing. The car these two people built together is definitely something you have never seen before."

“I have talked with Xiaomi Auto insiders before, and they said that this press conference will definitely have surprises, and will use a lot of the latest black technologies from Guangjia Technology.

It is exclusive to Xiaomi Auto, and it can make everyone feel wowed, and of course the price will also be wowed.”

"I have already test-driven their top-of-the-line version and signed a $6 million non-disclosure agreement. I will tell you some of the things you may be concerned about.

I don't know whether the technology it uses is room-temperature superconductivity, but from my experience it doesn't seem like it. Because when room-temperature superconductivity was popular, I saw a lot of popular science videos on Douyin, but I didn't see that room-temperature superconductivity had this effect.

All in all, the experience is very special and it depends on personal preference. I like it very much because it is a unique experience and no other car can give you this feeling.

The price is definitely not cheap, I think it’s a no-brainer to buy it for less than one million. Of course, I’m talking about the version I experienced, they should have many versions.”

On the eve of Xiaomi's technology conference, a group of KOLs have begun to build momentum on major platforms. Those who have test-driven the car have been full of praise, especially those who have test-driven the Ultra model, who have been praising it on Douyin.

The issue that netizens are most concerned about is whether Xiaomi Automobile uses the black technology related to room-temperature superconductivity.

Some bloggers who lack basic scientific literacy swore that they had used it, because they didn't know why the sound effect was so amazing and thought it was the effect of room-temperature superconductivity.

Most bloggers were more cautious and only said that no other car company had ever done this.

Lei Jun himself has a large enough traffic, and with the addition of Chen Yuanguang, the effect is even more amazing than the sum of one plus one. For a time, netizens felt that all major social media platforms were dominated by Xiaomi Auto.

Xiaomi Auto's launch conference was divided into two sessions. The technical launch conference at the end of December gave you an idea of ​​Xiaomi Auto, and the official launch conference at the end of March announced the price and specific parameters.

This time is no exception.

"Dear Mi fans, please allow me to report to you the latest progress of Xiaomi Auto."

"In addition to the Xiaomi Su7 that I just introduced, we have also prepared a special surprise for all of you, and that is the Ultra version." Lei Jun was calm and composed on the stage, and he had no idea how many times he had rehearsed before the show began.

　Today, a total of 7k
　　
　
(End of this chapter)