181: Chapter 182 A Trillion-Dollar Mega-Market! Hundred-Billion-Dollar Giants All Board the Ship

Shen Du pressed his hands on the edge of the round table, looking down at Zhou Zhenghai, who had just tried to pour cold water on the situation with talk of "internal and external troubles."

He did not bother responding to the pleasantries meant to soothe emotions.

Instead, he cut straight to the core of the underlying business logic.

"Uncle Zhou, the future chip industry is by no means the low-end assembly work you imagine, where you just take a blueprint and find a foundry to stamp a logo on it."

Shen Du's voice echoed in the private room, carrying an irrefutable sense of penetration:

"It involves an extremely wide range of branches. It could even be said that it will reshape the skeleton of all future industries."

His gaze was sharp as he shifted his eyes away from Zhou Zhenghai.

He scanned the tycoons present one by one and began to break it down:

"At the very bottom are highly monopolized cutting-edge materials like photoresist and extreme ultraviolet light sources; moving up are heavy machinery and equipment like Lithography Machines and Cold Etching Machines; further up is the chip instruction set architecture, which is like the foundation of a skyscraper; and at the very top is the underlying system that drives these hardware components."

Qin Zhengye, who had been silent, furrowed his brows deeply. As a tycoon who controlled Sheng Tang Communications, he knew the difficulty of this:

"President Shen, everything you mentioned, whether it's machinery or architecture, has been walled off by patents set by Western capital. If we try to touch it now, it's like snatching food from the tiger's mouth."

"Uncle Qin is right, but our current situation is already that of meat on someone else's chopping block!"

Shen Du coldly took over the conversation and struck the table heavily:

"The so-called tech companies in our country right now are all just renting shovels at high prices from someone else in a gold mine that others have already built! As soon as foreign capital turns against us, they can cut off raw materials, blockade machinery, and revoke authorizations for systems and architecture. The entire seemingly prosperous tech tower in our country could completely collapse overnight!"

The room fell silent, and the expressions of all the tycoons sank.

Because they knew deep down that what Shen Du had exposed was the fatal weakness they feared.

"And what I want to do is not to go to someone else's place to rent a shovel to pan for gold."

Shen Du straightened up, his deep eyes burning with aggressive ambition:

"I am going to take all of you to build this gold shovel!"

He opened his arms, painting a terrifyingly clear blueprint for this group of shrewd capitalists.

"As long as we master the complete closed loop of building the shovel—the system, architecture, machinery, and raw materials—then regardless of whether it's the popularization of smartphones, future vehicle networking, or intelligent applications in various industries, everyone who wants to survive in this race must buy shovels from us, or even pay a toll!"

Shen Du paused, his gaze like a physical blade, emphasizing every word:

"When we lay the foundation firmly and can achieve independent popularization of software and related hardware applications, the profits involved won't be measurable in tens or hundreds of billions of RMB. It will be a bottomless super market measured in trillions of dollars!"

The words "trillion dollars" were like a depth charge, exploding in the extremely quiet private room.

Before this group of old foxes, shocked by such a massive number, could recover, Shen Du slammed his most lethal trump card onto the round table.

"Now, I can give everyone the bottom line."

Shen Du crossed his hands, his gaze sweeping across the room coolly and steadily.

He threw out a terrifying bargaining chip capable of overturning the domestic tech scene:

"Currently, I have secretly gained full control over two teams. One team is a Cold Etching Machine team that can directly tear through foreign physical blockades; and the other is a chip architecture R&D team with world-class standards."

The moment the words fell, the air in the room seemed to be sucked dry instantly.

Wu Tianheng's fingers holding his cigar paused abruptly, and Zhou Zhenghai's pupils contracted violently.

Everyone present was sharp.

They knew too well what kind of terrifying lethality the combination of "Cold Etching Machine" and "top-tier architecture" meant.

It was equivalent to Shen Du single-handedly creating the prototype of that core "gold shovel"!

Watching the crowd, who were completely stunned, Shen Du felt no pride, but instead frankly exposed his own limits:

"But no matter how abundant my personal funds are or how ruthless my methods are, there is a limit to one person's energy and scope."

Shen Du's tone was low, carrying an extremely rational clarity:

"The limit of what I can do is to force these two core technical foundations to reach international advanced levels. But the remaining massive amount of supporting hardware, complex niche fields, and countless terminal applications cannot be swallowed or digested by Jiyuan Technology alone. This requires a massive capital pool and ecosystem to take over the relay."

Shen Du slammed his hands on the table, his aggressive gaze locked onto the face of every old fox.

He threw out that irresistible, crazy invitation:

"This is the real reason why I gathered everyone at the Peace Hotel today! I have already risked my life to build the main trunk. Now, I want to bring everyone here to thoroughly carve up this future trillion-dollar super market. We will eat it to the bone!"

Wu Tianheng's fingers holding the cigar paused slightly, letting the blue-gray smoke curl around his fingertips.

As an old fox who had waded through countless hidden reefs in the business world, he knew better than anyone what kind of terrifying super-profits this "alchemy" of refining worthless sand into high-computing chips meant.

Especially in 2013, at this crossroads of industrial upgrading.

The tycoons present were all hitting fatal bottlenecks in their respective physical fields.

Many high-precision machine tools and production equipment that required computer-integrated control could not be bought internationally even for sky-high prices, let alone domestically, where there was no independent manufacturing capability.

The era where "all equipment is moving towards intelligence" was closing in on them with a suffocating sense of oppression.

The "shovel seller" blueprint Shen Du threw out precisely pierced the deepest fears and desires in their hearts.

But no matter how huge the profit, it did not instantly crush the rationality of this group of billionaire oligarchs.

Wu Tianheng crushed the half-smoked Cuban cigar into the crystal ashtray.

The face, which had changed color slightly from excitement, quickly returned to the coldness of a superior.

He raised his head again.

His eyes, full of experience, stared fixedly at Shen Du in the main seat.

He threw out the final logical knot that everyone in the room was secretly doubting.

"Nephew Shen, are you sure you aren't joking?"

Wu Tianheng placed his crossed hands on the table and asked an extremely sharp question with a serious face:

"Even if, as you say, the ecosystem is too big for Jiyuan to digest alone, taking a step back, even without us, with just those two trump cards in your hand, you could just start a chip foundry and it would definitely be a highly profitable exclusive business in the future. Since you can make money with your eyes closed, why would you go to such great lengths to cut off this massive piece of fat and share it with us?"

Facing Wu Tianheng's rational secondary interrogation, Shen Du did not shy away at all, but calmly sat back in the main seat.

"Of course!"

Shen Du looked straight into Wu Tianheng's shrewd eyes and asked back seriously:

"Uncle Wu, look back and calculate it yourself. Since we started teaming up, when has Shen Du ever tricked you?"

The room was unusually quiet, and Wu Tianheng's slightly furrowed brows twitched involuntarily upon hearing this.

Shen Du didn't pause, directly throwing out his strongest bargaining chip in the business world: commercial reputation.

"Even now, Jiyuan still owes you hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. During the most brutal subsidy wars and when the capital chain was tightest, did I, Shen Du, ever delay your repayments by even a single day for any excuse?"

Shen Du spread his hands on the table, his tone extremely open, yet revealing a chilling determination:

"I am sitting here today, and I certainly cannot represent the Shen Family, nor can I represent the official authorities. But in my business dealings, I have never drawn those illusory, hollow pies to trick my own people. From the moment I decided to pour money into semiconductors, I have had only one goal. Either we are ground into dust together by the torrent of the era, or we step on the corpses of foreign capital and rush to the very top of the world together!"

This raw, yet extremely frank, open conspiracy made Wu Tianheng, who was used to the deception of the business world, freeze for a moment.

He stared fixedly at the junior in front of him, who was two generations younger than him, for several seconds.

Suddenly, this leader of the traditional Shanghai business world covered his face and laughed softly.

The laughter gradually grew louder in the quiet private room, revealing a kind of gratifying relief.

"Interesting... You young man, you are really too interesting!"

Wu Tianheng lowered his hand, his eyes, previously muddy, now bursting with extremely sharp light:

"I, Wu Tianheng, have lived by the Huangpu River for most of my life and have seen countless scheming foxes. But this is the first time I have seen a madman like you who has such grand ambitions and dares to drag billions in capital to gamble with his life!"

He turned his head and quickly exchanged a glance with Zhou Zhenghai and Zhu Qingshan beside him.

Those two old foxes nodded slightly, the previous defensiveness in their eyes replaced by a completely ignited ambition.

The times are changing, and the underlying logic of the business world is undergoing violent tremors.

These old guys guarding their old plates now lacked nothing more than a leader who was both young, had a vicious eye, and could lead them to see through the future.

"Clap!"

Wu Tianheng slapped the marble round table in front of him heavily and stood up abruptly.

He picked up the glass of red wine that had just been poured in front of him and directly issued the fiercest alliance declaration on behalf of the three major traditional giants:

"I, Wu Tianheng, am here today to speak on behalf of our Wu, Zhou, and Zhu families. As long as you, Shen Du, dare to chase it with your life at the forefront of this era, my Wu Family dares to follow you and smash everything to the end!"

Following Wu Tianheng's resounding statement, Zhou Zhenghai and Zhu Qingshan did not hesitate at all, simultaneously picked up their red wine glasses, and stood up steadily.

As the core of the three traditional giants, once Wu Tianheng made the decision, the balance in the room tilted completely in an instant.

Li Jianfeng, who had been sitting on the side watching this game, grinned.

He had long been on Shen Du's R&D chariot, and now without any nonsense, he decisively picked up his glass and followed suit:

"I, Li Jianfeng, got on this boat a long time ago. Now I'm just waiting for everyone to step on the accelerator of this engine together."

Su Yunjing, the leader of the medical and pharmaceutical industry sitting on the other side, adjusted his glasses.

In his mind, he flashed images of those high-end equipment in his own laboratory that were throttled by foreign countries and couldn't be bought for sky-high prices.

He knew better than anyone that future cutting-edge medicine could not be separated from the support of underlying intelligent chips.

He took a deep breath, picked up his wine glass, and decisively left his seat.

Next was real estate tycoon Fu Zhaonan.

There was no more of the flamboyance he used to have when acquiring land, and his eyes showed fear of the future real estate bubble.

The single real estate dividend would eventually peak, and if he wanted to land his assets safely, he had to forcibly carry out a heavy asset transformation.

He tightened his face, gripped the wine glass heavily, and stood up.

Subsequently, Chen Mingyuan, the leader of traditional e-commerce who was squeezed until he could barely breathe by emerging platforms like Alibaba Group, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, and Qin Zhengye, whose lifeline was tightly choked by mobile communication chips, looked at each other.

The two slapped the table at the same time and stood up abruptly.

There were no extra pleasantries, and no more nonsense about profit distribution.

These business oligarchs, who were facing life-and-death bottlenecks in their respective fields, knew better than anyone.

Since Shen Du had already driven this super aircraft carrier that could lead to the future and crush all industry barriers in front of them, they had no reason to refuse to board.

"Cling—"

Eight exquisite crystal wine glasses clinked heavily against the glass in Shen Du's hand over the large marble round table.

The crisp sound of glass colliding reverberated in the private room.

Between the drinks, there was no paper agreement.

But a cross-industry conglomerate alliance of hundreds of billions, absolutely led by Shen Du and spanning real estate, medical, communications, heavy equipment, and traditional entities, was completely locked in.

A super behemoth capable of overturning the entire domestic and even global business landscape in the future officially bared its fangs at this dinner at the Peace Hotel.

"Starting from the next battle, let us harvest a wave of foreign capital from the stock market first!"