2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 773 Boss Tan, Unaware of His Status
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According to the China Passenger Car Association's calculations based on 2011 new energy vehicle sales data, the overall sales volume of new energy vehicles this year should be between 1.2 and 1.4 units.

The reason why the data is so accurate is that the proportion of new energy vehicles is so small that it is easier to collect statistics.

Currently, new energy vehicles account for only 0.6% of the total market, which is a pitifully small figure.

It's worth mentioning that the China Passenger Car Association's market forecast report excludes the more than 5000 ZF vehicles that Weilai Auto ordered separately last year, which were ordered last year and delivered this year.

If these orders are included, this year's sales could reach between 1.7 and 1.9 vehicles.

From this perspective, Weilai Auto still holds an advantage in the sales of new energy vehicles. However, this advantage can only be used once or twice, as Luzhou already has the largest number of new energy vehicles in the country.

There won't be much growth in the next few years, including in Ningbo; it's pretty much a one-off deal.

Ultimately, sales figures depend on individual consumer acceptance.

The actual sales of the ES6 last month were not much. More than 100 units were ordered, but just like when the Yuechi A1 was launched, the actual sales were only a few dozen units, which is not worth mentioning.

However, the number of installations (officially registered users) of the Weilai APP has reached more than 3000, with the majority being the iOS version.

This is a huge surprise! These 3000+ officially registered users all have the potential to become ES6 users. Even if only one-tenth of them buy one, that's still 300 units sold.

And this is only the first month since the ES6 was officially launched, so it seems that the expectation of 300 units this year is not a problem.

300 units sold is not a lot, but when compared to the annual target of 1.4 units, it is quite remarkable. A single model accounts for 2% of the total market share, and it is a model priced above 30 yuan.

Once the target is met, the sales volume will reach 100 million.

"We will continue to increase our publicity efforts and fully promote the APP. However, we should pay attention to the allocation of resources. At present, we should focus on ensuring the sales of the Yuechi series."

For this kind of niche and somewhat specialized app, it's more suitable to promote it through professional automotive media outlets such as Yiche and Auto.com.

It's unclear how Li Bing's talks with his colleague, Mr. Li, about the merger of Bitauto and Autohome are going.

The original shareholders of Yiche are no longer willing to invest, mainly because Yiche's stock performance has been too poor over the past year. Although the merger of the two companies would be beneficial to the company's development, they do not want to wait any longer.

There are many investment opportunities in the market now, and the mobile internet era has arrived, so there's no need to stick to just one website.

If Li Bing wants to acquire Autohome, the only source of funding he can get is from Tan Jincheng. Anyway, Tan Jincheng didn't invest in Bitauto to make money, and he won't sell no matter how much the stock price rises.

After being targeted by NetEase's automotive channel for a year, Dizi has finally come to his senses this year and has clearly increased his investment in internet media significantly.

Once the money is paid, things become much easier. Otherwise, his boasting about the BYD Qin's fuel consumption of 1.6L per 100km would have gotten him roasted. This boast is really excessive and somewhat ironic.

The entire Dizi family has high hopes for Qin Du. The A-class car with a 0-100 km/h acceleration of 5.9 seconds is indeed a big selling point. Recently, they have also been planning to hold an event called "Qin's Battle Against the Six Kingdoms".

The straight-line acceleration contest was open to anyone, and anyone could participate. The winner would receive 1000 yuan. This publicity was spread through car reviewers, what we would call self-media more than a decade later, creating a huge buzz.

With increased advertising and travel expenses, Dizi's reputation visibly improved, and even the pig farm stopped keeping an eye on them.

This is a real breakthrough.

"Haha, your remarks today have a very American flavor. I thought you wouldn't say these things."

After the game, there were some interviews at the venue, and Tan Jincheng was also scheduled for one. NBA reporters are not so easy to talk to, and there was also a hint of discrimination against Tan Jincheng, who is a "foreigner".

The questions asked were quite pointed. If an entrepreneur with a biased view of foreign countries, or someone born in the 1960s or 70s, were to fall for it, they might actually be tricked.

However, he came from 2023, and he not only has no prejudice against foreigners, but you could even say he looks down on them a bit. He is not afraid to answer questions at all.

If the questions were too pointed, he would directly retort. In the end, the reporter had no choice but to ask some questions about the Knicks' games.

The Knicks lost again today, as expected, but he really knows these NBA players. He even gave the reporter a brief introduction to the nickname of the Knicks' current star player, Carmelo Anthony, in China.

This made the reporters quite bored, but it did fit the American cultural atmosphere and was very popular with the fans at the scene.

Especially the praise for the Knicks and Carmelo.

In Tan Jincheng's view, the fans at Madison Square Garden are similar to the fans of Beijing Guoan FC.

His grades were just so-so, but he was incredibly arrogant.

After losing three games in a row, they were eliminated in the first round again. Tan Jincheng's praise made them feel much better.

"Haha, I really know Melo well, I'm not kidding you; but I'm not very familiar with the Knicks, so I prepared a little before coming."

"This preparation is good. Knicks fans are quite arrogant. We're here to make money, so it's not shameful to flatter them a little."

Shen Nanpeng genuinely admires Tan Jincheng and is happy to collaborate with him. Tan Jincheng has a very strong overall perspective and extensive information resources at Sequoia Capital. However, Shen Nanpeng often falls behind Tan Jincheng in many investments, only able to follow him through Series B or even Series C funding rounds.

Investments like Xiaomi, ByteDance, and 91 Mobile Assistant, which Tan Jincheng personally participated in, have truly made him a fortune.

Shen Nanpeng was quite certain that in terms of information sources, even in China, Tan Jincheng could not possibly be as well-informed as they were. After all, investment was only a secondary project for Tan Jincheng, and he did not have much time or energy to do investment.

This can only be attributed to Tan Jincheng's extremely keen overall perspective, and the fact that such a keen person is also very attentive to details.

This might be related to his background in marketing.

Although Tan Jincheng started his business in foreign trade, he truly became famous for his marketing campaigns when Flashpoint was founded, which have now been included in the marketing textbooks of some universities.

He wants to co-invest in both Xiaomi and ByteDance. It seems that Xiaomi is about to start raising funds again, but unfortunately ByteDance has no intention of investing at the moment.

However, it's probably coming soon. Given ByteDance's rate of spending, the next investment won't be far off.

The only pity is 91 Mobile Assistant. This company no longer accepts any investment, and Tan Jincheng has basically invested in all the well-known mobile assistant software in the mobile application software market except for those from major companies.

It's fair to say that the current mobile application software market is dominated by either major companies or Tan Jincheng.

He ate all the meat; that's incredibly ruthless.

"Come on, let me treat you to dinner. We can have a good talk after dinner."

Shen Nanpeng was in a good mood. The hype surrounding Old Mi had started right after the game. He needed to talk to Tan Jincheng about the subsequent acquisition of Nvidia shares, and also meet with Huang Renxun.

So far, Tan Jincheng has not met Huang Renxun in person, although they have communicated via email before.

Looking at Huang Renxun's founding history, it is quite legendary. He seems to be a lucky one, always inexplicably standing at the right moment when he is about to die.

During the entrepreneurial process, Huang Renxun's most frequent saying to his employees was, "We only have 30 days left before we go bankrupt."

Actually, he wasn't just fooling his employees; that's really how Nvidia is.

When the company was founded, there wasn't even a PowerPoint presentation, and they didn't know what they were going to do. They inexplicably received a $2000 million investment from Sequoia Capital. Initially, they were developing game chips.

Huang Renxun's idea was simple: to enable personal computers to play 3D games. The idea was good, but it was too advanced.

It is said that being half a step ahead makes one a pioneer, while being a full step ahead makes one a martyr. This was the case with Nvidia's first chip, NV1. The square integrated chip was too advanced and too expensive, and no manufacturer could afford it.

In addition, their compatibility was terrible. Of the 2.5 chips ordered, 2.4 were returned, and only 1000 were sold. In just two years, the company almost went bankrupt.

Without new investment or new orders, Huang Renxun's first entrepreneurial venture would normally have failed.

However, at this time, Sega, which was struggling financially, seemed to appear like a savior. They took a liking to their chips and placed an order with them, and that's how the NV2 came to be.

Sega placed a $500 million order with Nvidia.

However, Huang Renxun messed up this order again, and the NV2 he developed was completely unusable.

It has to be said that the Americans have a novel way of thinking. In China, when such a large order is a company's lifeline, the company would either be dejected and ready to accept the loss and pay compensation, or simply pack up and run away.

However, Huang Renxun had a novel idea and went to Sega's headquarters to ask the Sega boss if they could not deliver the goods first and could use the money first.

If this kind of thought process happened in China in the 90s, he would probably have had his legs broken and be thrown out.

But somehow he managed to convince Sega, and he actually got $500 million for free. With this $500 million plus Sequoia Capital's second round of investment, he was able to survive until the NV3 was released.

Only then did Nvidia, having returned to the triangular chip design, slowly get back on track and survive.

However, Huang Renxun continued to make many outrageous moves in the process, which earned him the reputation of being the most capricious contractor.

To be honest, collaborating with such a highly individualistic person is quite risky. However, Tan Jincheng is also looking to the future. Currently, automotive chips don't need their technology, so there's no need to worry too much about Nvidia delaying its orders and affecting the company's car development process.

"You don't need to worry too much. Mr. Huang is Chinese, so there's still a chance for cooperation. Besides, the relationship between the two sides has been good these past two years, and both sides are happy to cooperate in this way." "Furthermore, what you need is automotive-grade chips for new energy vehicles, which are not mainstream products right now. You've taken advantage of the time difference."

In the brightly lit city of New York, Tan Jincheng and Shen Nanpeng sat in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling window, holding glasses of red wine and admiring the beautiful scenery outside.

Shen Nanpeng saw Tan Jincheng's concerns. The economy is a continuation of politics, especially when it comes to cooperation with multinational corporations.

Some business collaborations, which are clearly beneficial to all parties, have been interrupted due to political reasons, causing huge losses to the partners.

It's frustrating, but that's how the rules are. If you want to go abroad, you have to accept all sorts of bizarre rules.

In fact, Wei Lai had already formulated a plan to go to sea.

The Frankfurt Motor Show next September will be the first step for WILAY Auto to go global. At that time, WILAY will bring all its models to the Frankfurt show. In addition to the complete vehicle brand, WILAY will also showcase its battery technology in Frankfurt.

If Dizi is learning from Japanese styles, then Weilai's style is probably closer to German styles, or even closer to European and American brands.

In terms of vehicle safety, exterior design, and interior, we strive for excellence. In addition, we also pay close attention to the establishment of our supply chain system and our control over parts.

An excellent company must have a strong supply chain management system.

Tan Jincheng realized this from the very beginning when he established his first foreign trade company. Resource integration is something that every company attaches great importance to from the start.

By the time they got to Weilai Auto, they were already very familiar with this approach.

Batteries are considered an independent component segment of the Weilai Group. They are not only supplied to its own automobiles, but will also be supplied to more manufacturers in the future. The Frankfurt Motor Show is a great opportunity to showcase the company.

Who knows, we might even be able to sell them to Jack Ma later. Tesla currently uses 18650 batteries supplied by Panasonic.

Currently, the world's most well-known battery suppliers are Panasonic, LG, and BYD.

Next year, Tan Jincheng hopes to add another lieutenant.

BMW and Yutong were far larger than Tesla at that time, especially BMW's hundreds of pages of technical specifications, which made Tan Jincheng's scalp tingle.

With BMW's approval and strategic cooperation on battery supply, Tan Jincheng has reason to believe that Xuanwu Battery has the capability to join the ranks of top-tier battery suppliers.

"Haha, I'm not particularly worried. At most, it'll only be a loss of tens of millions. Just consider it as making friends with your headquarters."

Tan Jincheng swirled his wine glass. He wasn't a big drinker; he was just putting on an act and drinking with Shen Nanpeng.

The Red Shirt headquarters really gave them a lot of face; just this media activity alone would cost a lot of money, not to mention the need to win over the U.S. Department of Commerce.

$2000 million is really not expensive.

Tan Jincheng believes that this was the result of Shen Nanpeng's manipulation. For these venture capital firms, the Chinese market is like picking up money, and Shen Nanpeng still holds a very high position in Sequoia Capital.

In Shen Nanpeng's view, things are not entirely like that.

Sequoia Capital's investments are quite unconventional. Often, they don't look at business plans or business proposals; they invest in the people.

The reason for such a concerted effort is twofold: firstly, promoting this cooperation is beneficial to Sequoia, and secondly, Sequoia headquarters has already taken notice of Tan Jincheng.

They wanted to invest in Tan Jincheng.

Those involved are often confused, while bystanders see things clearly. Tan Jincheng, who is caught up in the situation, has not yet fully realized his status in the underworld.

Tan Jincheng is an investor, and a fairly large one at that, making him one of the investment tycoons in China. However, he doesn't operate in the financial world; his main business has always been manufacturing. Such companies are highly sought after everywhere.

Ningbo is an industrial city with a developed manufacturing industry. If Flash was just a clothing company, Ningbo might not care about its GDP, because they also have large clothing companies such as Shenzhou and Youngor.

However, it is not entirely absent. Whether it is the Flash or the Weilai, Ningbo has always lacked the attribute of "vehicle". Two-wheeled electric vehicles are fine, but if they are gone, they are gone.

However, the automotive industry holds a completely different position.

Weilai will definitely open factories all over the country, but no matter where it opens its factories, Weilai, which fills the gap in Ningbo's automotive industry chain, is a Ningbo-born enterprise, and that is indisputable.

Ningbo, which lagged behind in the automotive industry for decades, has gained a lot of influence after acquiring Weilai Automobile. What pleases Ningbo the most is that Weilai Automobile's gasoline-powered vehicles are selling well, and Weilai is also investing heavily in the new energy vehicle industry.

Combining gasoline-powered vehicles with new energy vehicles—this is an industrial plan spanning decades.

As a local government, having such a company with such a young founder makes one wonder how much it is valued. The fact that Tan Jincheng was able to meet with key personnel from important departments so smoothly in China regarding the acquisition of Nvidia shares shows that the Ningbo government played a significant role behind the scenes.

In the SUV market, the Yuechi series has seen explosive growth and is highly likely to capture more than 10% of the market share this year, making Weilai a definite first-tier domestic brand.

From Sequoia's perspective, Tan Jincheng, 27 years old this year, is definitely the number one post-80s entrepreneur in China and deserves Sequoia's investment.

"You seem quite optimistic. Don't worry, if Nvidia's acquisition fails this time, I'll keep an eye out for other chip companies for you."

"Actually, some small chip companies have good technological accumulation, but you have to look for them carefully. Acquiring them is not as difficult as acquiring Nvidia."

Tan Jincheng's desire to acquire these shares of Nvidia necessitates the establishment of an independent overseas subsidiary; this is non-negotiable, and Tan Jincheng agrees with it.

However, his idea is to locate the overseas company outside the United States, with his ideal location being Germany.
Or rather, his ideal location is Munich.

On the one hand, it's safer to be far from the US mainland, and on the other hand, BMW's headquarters are in Munich.

In the future, the battery business will definitely need to open offices and establish subsidiaries overseas, and Munich is the best place to start, after all, our cooperation with Germany has always been very pleasant.

"It's not impossible. If you have any good ideas, you can ask around for me. Acquiring shares in Nvidia won't affect the acquisition of some small chip companies."

Tan Jincheng became interested; who could ever have too many technology patents?

"Haha, I forgot that you're really rich and powerful now."

Shen Nanpeng, who had already had his wine poured twice, was also a little tipsy. Apple's stock price broke the $600 mark last month, and the market value of the Apple shares held by Tan Jincheng had exceeded $30 billion.

If Tan Jincheng were allowed to buy freely, he could have bought a whole bunch of cars in Europe and America affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, or even directly acquired a well-known car brand.

Geely only spent $18 billion to acquire Volvo. The price has increased a bit in recent years, but $30 billion is really a ridiculously low price.

"By the way, how much money do you actually have right now?"

A slightly excited Shen Nanpeng became curious. Not only had Apple's stock price surged, but Tesla's stock price had also exceeded $30, with last month's closing price at $33.10.

Tan Jincheng's Tesla holdings are worth $3.3 million, and these two alone add up to more than $200 billion, plus the market value of his holdings in Orange Technology and Flash Technology.

These four items alone add up to over 300 billion, exceeding 50 billion US dollars in value.

He wasn't very clear about the other stock investments, but Xiaomi is currently planning a new round of financing, and the capital market has valued Xiaomi at $40 billion.

Goodness, just a quick estimate shows that the value of his equity investments and stocks exceeds 60 billion US dollars.

Not to mention that he also owns two large, unlisted conglomerates. Forbes' asset estimates for these two companies are a joke; they are worth at least $20 billion.

Tan Jincheng's net worth is at least 500 billion yuan. The development of China in recent years has been ridiculously fast.

"I really don't know how much money it has; I'm not drinking anymore, you should go now, I'm going to sleep, we'll go to California tomorrow."

The bottle of red wine was almost empty. Tan Jincheng's alcohol tolerance was only average, and he didn't want to drink anymore. But he was right; he wasn't that interested in counting how much money he had.

Now, when making any industry investment, Tan Jincheng no longer needs to gamble like before. A professional investment team plans how much capital is needed and how to operate it. All he needs to do is make a decision and give the final approval.

Before coming to the United States, ByteDance and Wylink had already sent a team to the United States and hired a legal team there.

His purpose in coming here was to make the final decision; whether the deal would go through or not would be basically decided after he returned to China.

Meeting Huang Renxun at Nvidia's headquarters in California tomorrow will be the key move.

With such a capricious boss, and constantly in a predicament, Tan Jincheng doesn't think that even if the current environment is unfavorable to Nvidia, Nvidia really needs investment.

However, Tan Jincheng did not believe that Huang Renxun would agree so easily.

Although Lao Huang has a Chinese face, that's all there is to it. He's a pure American, and his way of thinking is definitely American; he only cares about interests.

How much affection does he have for China? Nonsense; don't forget, he's still an academician of the US National Academy of Engineering.

(End of this chapter)