75: They're still laughing? Our photonic chip has been released!

When Lu Chen's Versailles-esque exclamation about a "way to get rich" clearly reached Long Weiguo's ears through the internal communication system,

the general, who was always as steady as a mountain, couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

Good heavens!

Working hard on scientific research is less profitable than simply shorting enemy stocks with a flick of a finger?

If Old Qian, Old Li, and those other Old Academicians who almost sacrificed their lives for research heard this, they'd be so angry they'd grab a knife and come after him on the spot!

Just as Xia Guo was immersed in a sea of joy after harvesting an unprecedented wave of "financial leeks",

the Western Alliance, thousands of miles away, had completely descended into chaos.

The epic financial tsunami triggered by the advent of Xia Guo's EUV Lithography Machine swept across the entire Western Alliance in just three days!

The stock prices of countless high-tech companies related to chips plummeted!

Countless greedy Wall Street capitalists lost everything and lined up to perform "skydiving" (suicides)!

The entire Western Alliance's economy was plunged into immense panic and turmoil as a result!

However,

just when everyone thought the Western Alliance was about to be completely devastated by this unprecedented financial crisis,

a "self-rescue" statement jointly issued by more than a dozen chip giants like ASML, Intel, and Qualcomm acted like a shot in the arm, temporarily stabilizing the collapsing market confidence!

The content of the statement was simple.

But it was filled with a tragic determination and arrogance, as if they had burned their bridges!

[We admit! We admit that we have been temporarily surpassed by Xia Guo in the field of EUV Lithography Machines!]

[But!]

[Lithography machines are just tools for manufacturing chips! What truly determines chip performance is the architecture! It's the ecosystem! It's our Western Alliance's EDA industrial software, which is at least thirty years ahead of Xia Guo!]

[Without our EDA software authorization! The lithography machines built by the Xia Guo people are just a pile of expensive scrap metal! They will never be able to design their own high-end chips!]

[Therefore! From today onwards! The Western Alliance Chip Alliance will completely cut off all EDA software authorization to Xia Guo!]

[We will use the most severe software strangulation!]

[To tell those foolish Xia Guo people!]

[Who is the true chip hegemon on this planet!]

Boom!!!

As soon as this insane statement, filled with the spirit of "killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of one's own," was released,

it instantly reignited the global public opinion scene!

All Western Alliance media and citizens were instantly hyped up, as if they had been injected with stimulants!

"Yes! Well done!"

"That's right! Fight them!"

"Without our software! They are just a bunch of primitives holding dragon-slaying swords!"

"Hahahaha! I can't wait to see the desperate expressions on the faces of the Xia Guo people!"

For a time!

The morale of the entire Western Alliance, which had been low due to the stock market collapse, soared once again!

They seemed to have already seen the pitiful sight of Xia Guo kneeling and begging for mercy under their so-called "dimension-reducing strike" of software strangulation!

They didn't know.

While they were still smugly boasting and shouting about their so-called "software hegemony",

in the country they regarded as "primitives",

a terrifying storm that would completely crush their last shred of pride

was quietly brewing. Kunlun Mountain Underground Base.

"EDA software strangulation?"

Lu Chen looked at the Western Alliance's "declaration of war" statement, which was translated in real-time by heavenly craft on the light screen, and a very strange smile appeared on his face.

It was a smile mixed with amusement, disdain, and

pity.

"At this point in time,"

"they still want to play with us using these antiques from the last century?"

"These guys..."

"They can't really think that we have no other trump cards besides the lithography machine, can they?"

He shook his head, his face full of helplessness.

He felt like a max-level character with divine equipment.

Bullying noobs in the starter village.

It was truly...

a bit boring.

"heavenly craft."

He stretched lazily and calmly gave the order.

[Yes, Master.]

"Notify everyone."

"One week later."

"Still at the National Convention Center."

"We, Pangu Technology, will hold our second product launch."

"Hm?" A hint of curiosity flashed in heavenly craft's wise eyes. "Master, what are we going to release this time?"

"What are we releasing?"

Lu Chen smiled.

It was a god-like smile, full of absolute confidence and absolute control.

"Of course, it's..."

"to release something that will completely shut up our lovely 'old friends'—"

"a little gadget."

A week later.

It was still the National Convention Center, filled with a sense of future technology.

It was still the global media, full of curiosity and anticipation!

Only this time, the atmosphere was completely different from last time!

A strong scent of gunpowder filled the air!

Especially the reporters from the Western Alliance, who all held their heads high like fighting cocks, their faces full of schadenfreude!

They were here today to watch a joke!

They were here to see how the Xia Guo people, after losing their EDA software, would rage impotently on the ground like dead dogs!

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

Just then!

The lights in the conference hall suddenly dimmed!

The spotlight once again shone on the young man, who was almost too young.

Lu Chen was still wearing his simple white research uniform.

His face still held that innocent, harmless smile.

As if the overwhelming "software strangulation" from the outside world had not affected him in the slightest.

"I know."

He looked at the faces below, filled with mockery and ridicule, and smiled faintly.

"Everyone here today wants to see how Pangu Technology will struggle on stage like a clown after losing the 'grace' of the Western Alliance."

"But..."

He changed his tone!

A hint of cold pity flashed in his dark eyes, as vast as the universe!

"I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint everyone."

"Because..."

"We Xia Guo people have a small bad habit."

"That is..."

"We never get used to putting our fate in the hands of others!"

He extended a finger and lightly tapped the air!

The next second!

A small chip, filled with extreme precision and beauty, instantly appeared on the huge holographic screen behind him!

chip!

That chip was very peculiar.

Its substrate was no longer traditional silicon-based!

But a crystal-clear, special material like crystal!

There were no complex circuits inside it!

Only countless interwoven optical paths, a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair!

optical paths!

"What... what is this?!"

All the knowledgeable chip experts in the audience sprang from their chairs as if they had seen a ghost!

Their faces were filled with incredible shock!

"Silicon-based chips?"

Lu Chen looked at the completely stunned faces below and smiled faintly, his tone full of disdain.

"Those backward things, full of electron-hole recombination effects and quantum tunneling effects?"

"They should have been eliminated long ago."

"Allow me to introduce you."

He pointed to the crystal chip on the screen, filled with groundbreaking innovation, a proud smile that looked down on the world playing at the corner of his mouth!

"This is Pangu Technology's first epoch-making commercial quantum photonic chip, based on the 'non-von Neumann' architecture and personally crafted by our 3nm lithography machine! As for its performance..."

commercial quantum photonic chip! As for its performance..."

He looked at the Western Alliance reporters, who were completely dumbfounded, and held up two fingers.

He said in a calm tone:

"Roughly..."

"it's about a thousand times faster than your Western Alliance's top 5nm 'A18' chip."

"A thousand times."