Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 919 Wall Street's Anger and Tesla's Crisis
Seeing Lei Jun suddenly get emotional, Chen Mo jokingly said, "Hey~ I mean, is it really that serious?"

In the past, the two drank together perhaps because they were too familiar with each other, and Lei Jun would always drink like a fish. But now that the other party was behaving in a different way, Chen Mo could roughly guess what was going on.

Lei Jun's current feelings are perhaps similar to his own mindset after reshaping the landscape of Chinese capital.

Despite their words, Chen Mo and Li Fuzhen also stood up one after another, and the three of them drank another cup together.

As soon as he sat down, Lei Jun poured a third glass: "This glass is for our richest man in China! Congratulations to Mr. Chen on winning the title for the third consecutive time!"

Just a few days ago, the Hurun Rich List was released again. As expected, the rankings of the other nine people in the top ten may have changed, but the number one spot remained unchanged, dominating the competition. Chen Mo has won the title of richest man for the third consecutive year.

Chen Mo had originally decided to eat a few bites of food first, no matter what the other person suggested, since the doctor had said that drinking alcohol on an empty stomach was not good.
Upon hearing Lei Jun mention this, Chen Mo waved his hand dismissively, as if receiving a red envelope during Chinese New Year, and said, "Oh, they're all just empty titles. This richest man has always regarded fame and fortune as fleeting clouds."

Before he finished speaking, the wine had already been downed to his throat.

"Eat your food, eat your food. Goodness, I haven't even touched my chopsticks yet, and I've already downed three glasses! You can't drink beer like this!"

Lei Jun laughed heartily, revealing a frankness that was completely different from his shy and reserved image in public.

Chen Mo ignored him and first served some food to Li Fuzhen before starting to eat heartily himself.

Lee Boo-jin quietly gazed at the man beside her.

She hadn't expected Chen Mo to have such influence that he could actually push the two sides to reach a consensus—this far exceeded the resources that could be mobilized in the business world.

Otherwise, even with his own resources and skills, plus Chen Mo's financial resources and technology, and Lei Jun's supply chain system, he wouldn't have succeeded so quickly; it requires the cooperation of a certain momentum.

He guided the trend and acted in accordance with it, and this trend was entirely created by this man who could turn the world upside down with a flick of his wrist.

She was glad she hadn't followed the wrong person.

Afterwards, Lee Boo-jin and Lei Jun shared a drink alone and congratulated each other.

As for Chen Mo, since we're family, these formalities can be skipped.

The three of them ate and chatted.

The conversation flowed smoothly throughout the meal. Chen Mo glanced at the painting "A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains" on the wall, his expression suggestive:
"Conquering a country is easy, but maintaining it is difficult. What follows is the real highlight."

Lei Jun was full of confidence: "Don't worry, production capacity will definitely keep up this time! The Mix 2 in the middle of the year will definitely give everyone a surprise."

Chen Mo's eyes were deep and unfathomable. "What I fear is that the game is played by those outside the game."

Is the game played from the sidelines?
Lei Jun's eyes sharpened as he recalled the concern Chen Mo had casually mentioned earlier: "You mean the overseas supply chain has been disrupted?"

“Samsung or Apple, they’re all ultimately businesses of that company,” Chen Mo said, and Lee Boo-jin couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Coming from a chaebol family, she understood the power struggle behind it better than anyone else.

“They won’t stand idly by, so Xiaomi needs to prepare in advance and plan ahead.”

"It will definitely have an impact, but I don't think it will be crippling. In some ways, it's even a good thing—it shows that our efforts over the years haven't been in vain. Besides, we stockpiled a batch of Qualcomm chips, which should last about a year."

Hearing Lei Jun say that, Chen Mo felt somewhat relieved.

He then asked Lee Boo-jin:
When is Lee Jae-yong's second trial?

"Two months later."

"Judging from the current situation, it doesn't seem enough. I remember you have a 'three-five' rule over there."

Lee Boo-jin's eyes widened; she hadn't expected Chen Mo to know so much about the unspoken rules on their side.

The "3-5 rule" states that if a chaebol receives severe legal sanctions, they can overturn the first-instance judgment on appeal and reduce the sentence to 3 years with a 5-year suspended sentence, thus avoiding even the need to operate a sewing machine.

Finally, they tried to pay some economic sharing funds under various pretexts in order to obtain a pardon and be exempt from punishment.

This is a set of procedures.

Hyundai, LG, SK, and Samsung are traditionally considered the four major conglomerates, with Samsung ranking first among them.

Back then, Lotte's chairman famously shouted in court, "Anyone who dares to convict me, just try it!"

It should be noted that Lotte is not even one of the Big Four, yet it is so arrogant and domineering, even though it is just one of the top ten following closely behind.

Therefore, Korean films and dramas are basically documentaries.
Chen Mo knew that Lee Jae-yong would eventually be pardoned, so he specifically gave him this instruction.

"On the one hand, you need to remind your superiors to be careful of the other side going through this three-five process. Lee Jae-yong has not made any moves during this period, which is definitely because he is protecting himself first, making things more difficult for the other side. You should not interfere in the rest, so as not to get too involved."

On the other hand, Summer Mobile is currently riding high, which is your bargaining chip—since you're putting on an act, go all the way, adopt a resolute attitude of 'willing to risk everything to dethrone the emperor,' and let Samsung know that everything you're doing is to seize and compete. Even if it doesn't work out, Summer Technology can still rise to prominence and already possess the strength to rival Samsung.

It's not impossible for South Korea's top four companies to become five!

"Okay, whatever you say!"

Seeing Lee Boo-jin, who usually presents herself as a strong woman and a "national princess" with a cool and aloof image, being so docile and obedient to Chen Mo's arrangements, Lei Jun couldn't help but feel secretly envious.

If he had even half of that "bastard's" skill and ability to seduce women, I can't even imagine how happy he would be.
In fact, as early as mid-March, the Wall Street consortium that controlled Samsung had already noticed something unusual, because a large amount of overseas funds were shorting Samsung.

They were forced to step in to rescue the market and temporarily alleviate the stock market crisis, leaving them no time to look elsewhere.

Subsequently, the head of the conglomerate found himself in a dilemma: if he wanted Samsung to recover, he had to support Lee Jae-yong to suppress Lee Boo-jin's attempt to seize power, but this would inevitably lead to a diversion of attention.

Due to the inability to focus on one aspect while neglecting another, Samsung's business came to a temporary standstill, and the planned release of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in mid-March was forced to be postponed.

In the debate over "saving people or saving the market," each side chose to "debate." By the time the week-long debate reached a conclusion and all parties agreed, the market was already running out of time, and the opportunity had already been missed.

Ultimately, Samsung suffered a major setback in the global market: its market share plummeted to the brink of falling out of the top three, and its stock market value evaporated by more than $700 billion, equivalent to one-fifth of its total market capitalization.

Seeing Xiaomi surpass Apple to become the world's number one smartphone manufacturer, Samsung and its competitors can no longer sit still.

Neither Apple, openly, nor Samsung, secretly, could stop Xiaomi's rise. This is a situation they cannot accept, even if it is only temporary.

It's important to understand that Apple is the core symbol of their technological dominance, high-end manufacturing, and brand value.

Xiaomi's victory over Apple signifies that their dominance in the consumer electronics sector has been overtaken by Chinese technology companies, representing a strategic setback.

In addition, given that Xiaomi's business model is highly dependent on internet services, IoT ecosystem, and user data, they can use this to portray Xiaomi as a "company controlled by China," and its devices as "potentially stealing user data" and "posing a cybersecurity threat"—a tried-and-true tactic for suppressing Xiaomi.

Furthermore, judging from the current state of international relations, the focus has shifted to comprehensive containment.

According to their sources, actions to suppress Huawei are already in the works, given that 5G communications are the cornerstone of the next generation.

Now that Xiaomi has become number one globally and number three in the US market, it will become a more prominent target than Huawei: because it directly faces consumers, its influence is wider, its impact is stronger, and its destructive power is greater.

A week after Xiaomi topped the list, a secret meeting was quietly held. In addition to Wall Street financial groups such as BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and Vanguard, which are behind Samsung, representatives from Apple, Qualcomm, and other directly affected parties also sent representatives.

Semiconductor companies, especially Qualcomm, feel uneasy and threatened by Xiaomi's increased bargaining power over chips and the emergence of Xuanjie's self-developed chips.

After much discussion, it was finally decided to use a mature and tried-and-tested "process"—just like the one used against Huawei before.

That involves lobbying behind the scenes, then having lawmakers propose legislation, Congress push it forward, and finally enacting a ban bill for enforcement.

Its fundamental purpose is to cause Xiaomi to quickly fall from its position as the world's number one mobile phone brand, causing its global market share and stock price to plummet, forcing its business to shrink to China and a few surrounding markets, turning the Chinese mobile phone market into a "greenhouse," and forcing companies such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Huawei to fight for survival space in an infighting manner, resulting in mutual destruction.

All of this is to maintain America's absolute dominance in the global technology field.

They spared no effort in this regard!
Everything was proceeding secretly and rapidly according to their plan.
Meanwhile, Musk, who had just returned to the United States from China, reached a preliminary agreement with relevant departments in Shanghai on cooperation in building a factory, and a weight was temporarily lifted from his mind.

But if he knew about these developments, the stone would probably hang even higher.

From the end of last year until now, Tesla has been on the brink of its most dangerous moment in history, and it is no exaggeration to call it its 'darkest hour'.

Musk's idealistic requirements led to the complete automation of Tesla's production line. However, this excessive automation has resulted in numerous problems; a bug in one link can affect the entire supply chain.

At one point, engineers and workers even had to set up temporary tents to solve production line problems while manually assembling vehicles.

The production target of the Model 3 has been repeatedly delayed, failing to fulfill hundreds of thousands of orders, and has even been ridiculed by the media as a "monkey" – a nickname that originated in China.

With backlogged orders and stagnant production, Tesla is burning through cash at a rate of approximately $6500 per minute, with huge capital expenditures and over $10 billion in debt coming due soon, putting it under unprecedented pressure to repay its debts.

With frequent departures of senior executives and low employee morale, the market widely predicts that Tesla will need urgent financing or may go bankrupt within the year.

Therefore, Musk urgently needs to solve the current production capacity problem. Since last year, he has been focusing on the Southeast Asian region, such as Vietnam, India and China. He finally chose the last one, a major manufacturing country and also the world's largest new energy vehicle market.

If he can secure that piece of land in China, he can revitalize the entire game.

Fortunately, Musk has more than just Tesla.

He also has SpaceX as a lifeline.

(End of this chapter)