Chapter 228 Commercial Spaceflight Is More Than Just Business

As a European, Nicholas undoubtedly hopes that Europe will become an important level in the future world, but Europe's various actions have disappointed him.

Europe is like a giant with flesh and blood but no brains. Not only has it not reaped any benefits from the Internet era, the scale of its traditional advantageous industries is also shrinking.

Europe's own sovereign funds do not invest in Europe. They first invest in America and then increase investment in China.

This has to be said to be sad.

The public can only see that Europeans enjoy high social welfare, but they fail to see that the foundation supporting these is already rotten.

After listening to the speech, Chen Yuanguang said: "I like Europe very much. We have a lot of cooperation with France in the field of aerospace.

I think Europe still has advantages in technology and educational talent.

But from my point of view, it is difficult for Europe to turn these advantages into industrial advantages.

Like America's Silicon Valley and China's Zhongguancun, these are overall industrial clusters that have been cultivated based on abundant universities and talent resources.

Just as Cambridge nurtured ARM, England failed to catch the smartphone train.

Instead, China, Korea and America have used ARM's technical architecture to manufacture a large number of mobile chips.

It seems that we hardly see similar scenes in Europe.”

After Chen Yuanguang finished speaking, Nicholas was silent for a moment and then said:

"Originally, English companies accounted for about 15% of our fund's holdings, but now this figure has dropped to less than 5%.

The whole of Europe pays too much attention to risk control. The policy differences between countries make the European market look like a unified market, but in fact it is not so unified.

This has led to a lack of innovation in Europe.”

Twenty years ago, it would be hard to imagine Europeans complaining that China's innovation environment is more sound than Europe's.

"Wright, actually every country has its own problems.

Like America, we feel that America has a good soil for innovation, and innovative companies emerge one after another.

But the biggest problem with American companies is that once they become large, they are very likely to develop big company diseases.

Boeing is the most typical example. Not only Boeing, but Lockheed Martin also has similar problems.

Such a military-industrial enterprise actually has to implement Jack Welch's last-in-first-out system.

Core departments such as engineering and manufacturing departments and R&D departments will eliminate the last-placed employees based on their performance.

The elimination rate is as high as 10%.

General Electric has been on the verge of collapse by doing this, but in the 21st century, a monopoly company like Lockheed Martin is still doing this.

Companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all suffer from big company disease.

I have visited many Chinese companies, and they have better control over this aspect.

If I had not visited China, it would be hard for me to imagine that a company as large as Huawei, which has already ranked among the top three in the world in the field of communications equipment, could still achieve repeated success in its entrepreneurial ventures.

This is extremely difficult, even their teacher IBM cannot do it.

Therefore, the market environment, regulatory policies, and cultural systems of each country have jointly created different business backgrounds and industrial advantages in each country.”

Chen Yuanguang was also surprised. He also couldn't understand why Lockheed Martin adopted the last-in-first-out system.

Lockheed Martin should belong to the top manufacturing industry with very little competitive pressure. Shouldn't it provide a stable working environment as much as possible to ensure product quality?
Because last-in-last-out elimination sounds good, it actually causes instability among internal employees and creates a toxic environment.

"Well, it's incredible. It's hard for me to imagine that the last-place elimination will happen to Lockheed Martin," said Chen Yuanguang.

Nicola said: “I couldn’t believe it when I first learned about it, because in the late 80s, I had just graduated from the Norwegian Army Academy and went to Wharton School of Business for an exchange.

At that time, I knew a few people who went back to school after working, and they worked at Lockheed Martin.

They think very highly of Lockheed Martin.

As a result, thirty years later, Lockheed Martin began to show signs of decline.

Wright, how many employees does Light Armor Aerospace have?"

Chen Yuanguang did a rough calculation in his mind: "It should be more than 8000 people now.

We have been expanding very fast recently because we have acquired a number of robotics companies and hired a large number of employees in the field of artificial intelligence. "

Nicola said: "I know that I have seen reports about LightMe Aerospace entering the field of artificial intelligence in many American media.

Even though Guangjia Aerospace has announced to the public that it will focus its main efforts on the combination of robots and artificial intelligence.

However, the American media still believes that GuangMe Aerospace’s entry into the field of artificial intelligence will pose a major threat to America’s artificial intelligence industry.”

This is the benefit of fame. When good luck comes, both heaven and earth will be on your side. Like when Mr. Ma was at his peak, no matter what field he entered, everyone believed that he could succeed.

Not to mention that Chen Yuanguang's reputation and influence in China and around the world have now surpassed that of Teacher Ma at his peak.

"Haha, I'm not interested in generative artificial intelligence." Chen Yuanguang said. He thought that generative artificial intelligence is what Alpha Technology should do.

"I think Nadella (current Microsoft CEO) will be relieved after hearing this, as they no longer have to face new competitors." Nicola said, "So given the huge scale of Light Armor Aerospace, are you worried that it will suffer from big enterprise disease?"

Chen Yuanguang thought for a moment and said, “There will be such worries.

But we are still in an upward phase and there are a lot of things to do, so this is currently at the bottom of my priority list.

Rather than big business disease, I am more worried about the technical difficulties that will cause us to stagnate in the process of moving towards the goal of space mining."

Nicholas laughed: "But from the outside world's perspective, light armor companies are synonymous with technological innovation.

At present, apart from the light armor companies, few other companies can bring us such a big surprise.

Since the second half of last year, I have been able to clearly feel the changes that the technological innovations of light armor companies have brought to the world.

We don’t talk about geopolitics in a podcast like this; we have a lot to talk about just the impact on the business world.

First of all, electric cars. I can clearly feel that the proportion of electric cars has begun to increase significantly throughout Europe.

Europe originally wanted to slow down the pace of electric vehicles, and the original goal of fully electrifying cars was postponed or even cancelled by major countries including Germany. Only some Nordic countries are still insisting on it.

But while European governments have slowed down, markets have accelerated.

With the large-scale deployment of perovskite batteries, the sales share of electric vehicles in Europe has increased significantly.

It acts like an accelerator, pushing the automotive industry towards electrification.

In the chip field, we saw that in the first half of this year, Huawei's P series equipped with topological semi-metallic chips held a press conference in Europe to announce its return.

These are the transformative forces brought about by the technological innovations of the light armor series.

Wright, as the main driving force behind this, how do you view these industrial changes?

I know that you once said in an interview in China that you would bring the next golden age to the Chinese people. This interview is also very famous in Europe.

From my perspective, these technological changes have created a much better external environment for China than I expected, and it can be said that we have achieved what I understand as a golden age.

I understand that if space mining is truly possible, and the benefits of space mining exceed the costs, then human society will usher in a great abundance of material resources. If the energy problem is also solved, the entire human society will be able to usher in a golden age of at least another two hundred years.

What do you think about this? "

Chen Yuanguang said: “This topic is too big.

There is a saying that misunderstanding is the fate of those being expressed. After you express what you want to express, these contents will receive various interpretations in the process of dissemination. Even if you are the output of the content, you cannot control these interpretations.

The technology I output is like an expression, which is interpreted by different companies. The interpretation is like putting the technology into practice. I don’t know what it will become in the end.

Like human hibernation technology, I can imagine that people will use it to treat diseases and relieve stress, but I can never imagine that America will use it to deal with illegal immigrants, or even draw blood regularly and treat illegal immigrants as assets.

There is also room-temperature superconductivity. After I made it, I could think that it could be applied in many fields and could bring about technological breakthroughs in quantum computers. But I certainly could not have imagined that the breakthrough of quantum computers would cause the world's encryption systems to fall into an unprecedented crisis.

I have no way of controlling how companies and governments "interpret" technologies as they are disseminated.

As for the golden age, I don’t think it is now. The industrial changes brought about by these technologies only benefit people in the upstream and downstream of the industry, and their level of inclusiveness is not enough.

The changes it brings are not enough to bring about a qualitative improvement in the lives of every Chinese citizen.

When space mining is realized in the future, it will certainly be on a small scale at the beginning. It will take time for it to expand from basic space mining to one of the important sources of Earth resources.

Speaking of this, we sell some commercial aerospace technology to the outside world at a relatively low price, and also to create some new forces to promote the development of commercial aerospace.

Like the space station we are going to launch in the next two years, in the long run, we will build it into a space city.

At the beginning, there will be three or four modules connected in parallel. On this basis, we will continue to expand. Within five years, we will build it into a small base that can accommodate hundreds of people and start to undertake space mining missions.

In another five years, it will become a small city with thousands of people.

If we introduce more enterprises and institutions, we can better achieve our goals and enrich its role.

It seems that Blue Origin is talking to us, hoping to buy space station modules from Guangjia Aerospace. Blue Origin can turn this part of their modules into a space tourism project.

Future space cities will have a tourism purpose.

Space mining can solve humanity’s resource problems and bring more possibilities to mankind, but it may take a very long time.

As for the golden age of the entire earth, I don’t know, it’s not just about resources.

It’s also about productivity and the distribution patterns that governments in different countries have.”

Nicola said: "Wright, after listening to your introduction, I want to buy a space station module from Guangjia Aerospace.

I think it’s going to be a very profitable business.”

“I welcome this. If the future space station of Light Armor Aerospace will be a space city, then these modules will be the properties that make up the city.

Properties carry different urban functions.

Blue Origin wants to open a travel agency, France wants to build a research institute, and you can also build a hotel." Chen Yuanguang used an analogy.

Nicholas took it seriously after hearing this: "It's not impossible, I think the Nordic countries can unite and buy a space station module from you.

Someone will come and talk to you later."

"We choose to cooperate with Chinese companies purely for commercial purposes, without any political purpose.

I am a white person and a beneficiary of the current American global system. I would never take the initiative to overthrow the current system." Bezos was questioned by Congress.

Although America once banned Light Armor Aerospace from entering the American market.

The problem is that the angle chosen by Blue Origin is very cunning. Whether it is purchasing technology or purchasing a space station, it can bypass the restrictions of America.

A subsidiary shell was set up abroad, and then Blue Origin found Light Armor Aerospace through the shell to buy space station modules, which would be launched into space by Light Armor Aerospace and used by Blue Origin.

Technology transactions are even more often conducted through shell companies, since there are no publicly registered patents anyway.

There is no apparent relationship between Blue Origin and these transactions.

The only problem is the lunar lander. NASA really can't accept that I give you the project, and you sell it to Light Armor Aerospace, so why don't I go directly to Light Armor Aerospace?

However, this project was also packaged by Blue Origin as a technical consulting project.

On the surface, there is nothing wrong with Blue Origin.

Sometimes having no problem is the biggest problem.

The masters in Washington obviously cannot tolerate Bezos' behavior. In addition, Silicon Valley, Washington and Wall Street have been the three poles of power in America since the new century. Washington does not mind finding fault with Amazon, one of the forces in Silicon Valley.

Bezos is helpless because Washington wants to link business behavior with politics and accuse him of false charges.

"No, Mr. Bezos, your actions were business actions, but the consequences were devastating.

This will set a very bad demonstration effect for the whole world. We can cooperate with China in cutting-edge manufacturing.

This will speed up China's industrial upgrading." Congressmen will obviously not let Bezos off so easily.

(End of this chapter)