Rebirth of Hong Kong Island, leading the technology war

Chapter 602 A phone call summons the two giants of Huayao! Boss Hu connects with Ali, and the chip dilemma is easily resolved!

Hu Jiangshan answered the phone immediately and said, "Mr. Wang, yes, I'm here now, in Starbucks."

"It's okay, I just arrived too, I didn't have to wait too long."

"Oh, also, I ran into a few friends here. They are two leaders from the Ali Group. Yes, they happen to be here too. They would like to take this opportunity to talk to you. Maybe we can discuss cooperation or something."

"Okay, that's great, Mr. Wang. Come on over, see you in a bit."

Hu Jiangshan hung up the phone and found Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan staring at him intently, their faces full of anticipation.

Hu Jiangshan quickly explained, "Ah, I just told President Wang that they will be here in a little while."

Song Guoyuan asked hesitantly, "Then Mr. Wang knows that we are from the Ali Group, right?"

Hu Jiangshan nodded: "Yes, I already told him."

Did he say anything?

He said no problem, we can talk about cooperation.

Upon hearing this, Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan's faces immediately lit up with joy.

The fact that a bigwig like Wang Chengdong from Huayao was willing to talk to them means there's potential.

Moreover, judging from the tone of Hu Jiangshan's conversation with Wang Chengdong just now, the two should have a pretty good relationship, at least they are people who can talk to each other, which further increases the possibility of success.

Of course, Wang Chengdong is known in the industry for being impartial and incorruptible, and is rumored to be very tough, so negotiating with him is still quite stressful.

Whether Wang Chengdong will make concessions on this matter remains to be seen.

Hu Jiangshan smiled and said in a relaxed tone, "President Lu, President Song, you don't need to be too nervous. We're just sitting down for a casual chat. It's not a very formal occasion. If we hit it off, we can discuss cooperation in more depth. If we're not interested for the time being, we can just treat it as a normal meeting. There's no loss in that."

Lu Shulei smiled slightly and replied, "Mr. Hu is right."

As she spoke, Lu Shulei couldn't help but secretly sized up Hu Jiangshan.

Clearly, Hu Jiangshan's performance today was somewhat unexpected for her.

When Lu Shulei first met Hu Jiangshan, she only thought he was a rich young master from Hong Kong, a typical scion of a wealthy family, and inevitably had a bit of a playboy vibe.

Although Hu Jiangshan is said to be running his own business, he mostly relies on his family's influence, and even if he has some ability, it is unlikely to be outstanding.

But this time, Hu Jiangshan was a refreshing sight.

Putting everything else aside, the fact that he could communicate with Wang Chengdong of Huayao on equal footing, and even arrange to meet him for coffee with just one phone call, is itself extremely unusual.

It's important to know that Wang Chengdong is no ordinary person. He belongs to the top tier at Huayao, the strongest core executive, whose power and prestige are second only to the three giants of Huayao.

As a rotating director of Huayao, Wang Chengdong wields considerable influence.

Many business owners who dealt with Huayao couldn't even get a meeting with Wang Chengdong.

According to Huayao's work habits, ordinary daily business does not require Wang Chengdong to personally handle it; it can be handled by ordinary middle and senior managers.

But Hu Jiangshan was different. He seemed to be able to invite Wang Chengdong to have coffee naturally. This kind of treatment is something that many people in the tech industry dream of but can hardly achieve.

At this moment, Hu Jiangshan was leisurely drinking coffee, looking calm and composed.

This kind of demeanor makes him even more charming.

Lu Shulei felt a slight stirring in her heart, realizing that she was behaving somewhat strangely today.

Lu Shulei has always prided herself on being a rational career woman who never wavers in matters of the heart and has no interest in people like "rich young men." In fact, she has always psychologically labeled them as "unapproachable."

At this moment, Lu Shulei actually felt that Hu Jiangshan was a man worth getting close to, a high-quality man, and even developed some curiosity and admiration for him.

Lu Shulei shook her head secretly, quickly suppressing the thought and telling herself not to overthink it, as it was so unlike her usual style.

A moment later, someone pushed open the door of the coffee shop and walked in.

Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan looked up and their eyes lit up. It was indeed Wang Chengdong himself, with someone following behind him.

The two men exchanged a glance, both startled – the man was Xu Zhijun, known in the industry as "Little General Manager Xu." Xu Zhijun held a higher position at Huayao than Wang Chengdong, serving as the rotating chairman and one of the three major players.

The simultaneous appearance of these two heavyweight figures from Huayao is truly astonishing.

Who would have thought that Hu Jiangshan had such influence that he could invite these two to come together?
This energy is truly amazing!

How come I've never heard of such a person before?

At this moment, Hu Jiangshan got up and went to greet them. After exchanging a few warm words with Wang Chengdong and Xu Zhijun, he led them to this table.

Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan quickly stood up to welcome them.

The group first shook hands.

Hu Jiangshan introduced with a smile: "President Wang and President Xu, these two are friends from Ali Group, in charge of the relevant business of the artificial intelligence department."

Wang Chengdong and Xu Zhijun were both intelligent people, and they understood what was going on as soon as they heard it.

After everyone was seated again, the waiter quickly brought out several cups of coffee, and the rich aroma filled the air.

Hu Jiangshan decided to go all the way and succinctly outlined the difficulties Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan were currently facing, as well as their demands.

Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan were both somewhat surprised, not expecting Hu Jiangshan to be so direct, without any roundabout approach.

It seems that he is indeed very familiar with Wang Chengdong and Xu Zhijun, which is why he can be so straightforward.

Now that Hu Jiangshan had taken the lead, Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan took turns explaining in detail the current bottlenecks they were facing and the cooperation model they hoped to achieve.

The two men were sincere and their accounts were clear. After all, they both understood that the opportunity to see Wang Chengdong and Xu Zhijun at the same time was extremely rare, and they probably wouldn't have such an opportunity again in the future.

After listening, Wang Chengdong remained silent for a moment, then turned to Xu Zhijun and said, "Young Master Xu, shouldn't this be your responsibility?"

Xu Zhijun raised an eyebrow and smiled: "Heh, Lao Wang, you're pushing it onto me again now? You didn't say that during the meeting. You were all puffed up and insisted on taking on this task."

Wang Chengdong waved his hand and lowered his voice, saying, "Mr. Xu, let's not talk about what we said in the meeting outside, it's easy to cause misunderstandings."

Xu Zhijun laughed, his tone becoming more relaxed: "Yes, yes, but... I think there's room for discussion on this matter."

Upon hearing this, Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan were immediately invigorated.

Xu Zhijun's words mean that things have taken a turn for the better!
Lu Shulei quickly replied, "Mr. Xu, do you mean we can talk?" Xu Zhijun did not answer immediately, but glanced at Wang Chengdong.

Wang Chengdong said, "Why are you looking at me like that, Mr. Xu? Since you're directly in charge of this matter, you should make the decision. I won't interfere."

Xu Zhijun raised an eyebrow: "Don't just ignore it. Since you're sitting here, you have to give some opinions. If you don't speak up now, and then raise objections when I make a decision later, wouldn't that be pointless? You might as well make things clear now, instead of waiting until later."

Xu Zhijun said this half-jokingly, clearly implying that it was true.

In fact, the affairs of Huayao's senior management are already an open secret. They often argue heatedly in meetings, but nothing serious really happens. They argue, but once they're done, they still do what they were supposed to do.

This is also Huayao's most impressive tradition.

Wang Chengdong was speechless for a moment, seemingly unable to find the right words to refute.

In fact, Wang Chengdong is essentially a pure science guy, and his eloquence is not outstanding.

Many people think that Wang Chengdong is good at marketing and hype, but that is more of a direct reflection of his personal style; otherwise, he wouldn't be called "Big Mouth."

Wang Chengdong's occasional stuttering during product launches actually made many people feel he was genuine, though some disliked him because of it.

After a moment's thought, Wang Chengdong said, "In principle, the company does not recommend selling hardware separately without an algorithm solution, but considering the current situation, we can also make some attempts."

After saying that, he looked at Hu Jiangshan and asked, "Brother Hu, what's your opinion? Do you think it's feasible to just sell hardware without bundling it with algorithms?"

Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan were surprised again. They didn't expect Wang Chengdong to directly throw the problem to Hu Jiangshan. This trust was obviously extraordinary.

After a moment's thought, Hu Jiangshan calmly replied, "Actually, I shouldn't have said anything about this, but since Mr. Wang asked me, I'll just share my thoughts. I think this is something we can do. The more AI chips we sell, the wider their applications will be, and naturally, a broader ecosystem will form. Although users may not all adopt Huayao's algorithms, they will always need the supporting application tools, right?"

As he spoke, he turned his gaze to Lu Shulei.

Lu Shulei immediately chimed in: "That's right. If it's just cooperation at the application tool level, we can totally accept it, since this part of the workload isn't that big."

The so-called "application tools for artificial intelligence chips" are actually low-level software support similar to CUDA, which was later used in NVIDIA's AI chips.

In the years that followed, Nvidia's AI chips dominated the market, making it extremely difficult for Chinese tech companies to replace them. They had to rely on strong policy support to barely complete the transition. The key reason was the stickiness of the CUDA ecosystem, which, like Windows and Android, was not easy to break free from.

Hu Jiangshan added: "Of course, at this stage, these high-end AI chips are not suitable to be sold directly to ordinary small and medium-sized companies. Those with less capability will not be able to use them well. It is best to focus on large technology companies as partners. This can prevent the technology from being misused and protect Huayao's brand reputation."

Hu Jiangshan's words impressed Lu Xiaolei.

It's clear that Hu Jiangshan has a deep understanding of the industry, knows some technology, and his analysis is spot-on. No wonder Wang Chengdong would take the initiative to seek his opinion.

Wang Chengdong looked at Xu Zhijun and said, "I think Brother Hu makes a good point."

Xu Zhijun laughed: "It seems that Brother Hu is indeed more persuasive. Even someone as stubborn as Lao Wang has been convinced by you."

He paused slightly, then turned to Hu Jiangshan and said, "But Brother Hu, what about your products..."

Wang Chengdong quickly coughed twice to interrupt him.

Xu Zhijun immediately understood that some things couldn't be said in front of Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan.

They simply wanted to determine whether Hu Jiangshan's chip production capacity was sufficient.

Currently, no more than ten people within the entire Huayao company know the true source of the chips, including Ren Zhengfei.

These people are all relatively reliable core members of Huayao.

This matter must be kept strictly confidential and cannot be easily leaked until the chip supply chain issue is completely resolved.

Otherwise, once exposed, not only will Huayao's chip supply be affected, but Hu Jiangshan himself may also be in danger.

In fact, Hu Jiangshan took a considerable risk in offering his assistance this time.

Several core executives of Huayao were well aware of this and were grateful to Hu Jiangshan from the bottom of their hearts, almost regarding him as a benefactor who made selfless contributions.

Even Lao Ren once exclaimed, "Hu Jiangshan has the spirit of his grandfather Hu Yingxiang; he is a descendant of a military family."

Such a high evaluation is truly remarkable.

At this moment, Hu Jiangshan calmly replied, "Don't worry, Mr. Xu, I have no problem. You can go ahead and do it. I can guarantee the supply."

Xu Zhijun and Wang Chengdong both secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as Hu Jiangshan's chip supply keeps up, Huayao will have no worries.

After all, mobile terminal business, such as mobile phones and tablets, is the foundation of Huayao's current profits, and in terms of amount, it has already surpassed the communications business.

We must not allow the production capacity issues of artificial intelligence chips to affect the supply of mobile phone chips, otherwise it would be a losing proposition.

Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan, who were standing to the side, were completely confused.

Why did Xu Zhijun suddenly switch his focus to Hu Jiangshan in the discussion about artificial intelligence chips?
Could Huayao's mobile phone chips be related to Hu Jiangshan?
No, it's impossible that Huayao's mobile phone chips came from Hu Jiangshan, right?
But then they both thought about it again and realized it was unlikely.

Huayao mobile phones sell tens of millions of units every day. If Hu Jiangshan were to supply chips through certain special channels, it would be difficult to imagine the scale, not to mention whether it is feasible.

Perhaps they are referring to other collaborations.

Xu Zhijun steered the conversation back on track, saying, "Well then, in principle, we agree to provide AI chips to the Ali Group, and we don't have to force them to use our algorithms, but they will need to use the software tools we provide."

Xu Zhijun looked at Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan, his tone becoming more formal: "If you two think this direction is feasible, we can arrange another time to discuss the specific details."

The two exchanged a glance, and Song Guoyuan quickly replied, "Of course! As long as we can reach an agreement in principle, we will be very satisfied. As long as the general direction is correct, other details can be discussed."

The implication is clear: as long as Huayao agrees to ship the goods, Ali is willing to accept any purchase price as long as it's not too outrageous.

Hu Jiangshan smiled slightly; things were progressing even more smoothly than he had expected.

Lu Shulei glanced at Hu Jiangshan again, feeling that this man was becoming increasingly unfathomable.

Lu Shulei had indeed underestimated Hu Jiangshan.

He's definitely not your average Hong Kong playboy.

A moment later, Lu Shulei and Song Guoyuan took their leave. They had, of course, arranged a formal negotiation time with Wang and Xu, which was a considerable gain.

Shortly after they left, Hu Jiangshan received a text message from an unknown number.

[Mr. Hu, this is Lu Shulei. This is my phone number. Please add me.]

(End of this chapter)