141: Nvidia's probing

"Mr. Lei, a friend of mine in the USA revealed some news to me."

Lin Bing was not a pure businessman; compared to marketing and business matters, he actually preferred doing development work. After thinking about it for a long time, he still decided to tell Lei Jun the news from the USA.

"What news?" Lei Jun asked, looking at the conflicted Lin Bing.

"Nvidia wants to sell their mobile processor business and is asking if we at Xiaomi want to take it over."

"The failure of Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor this time has caused internal disagreement. Coupled with the fact that their graphics card market business is being squeezed by competitors, the investors behind Old Huang don't want to invest any more funds into mobile processors."

"Right now, apart from us at Xiaomi, there isn't a single manufacturer in the world whose products are equipped with Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor."

"So, there is an idea within Nvidia to sell off the mobile processor business and focus on doing their graphics cards."

"However, I suspect that this news was deliberately leaked to us by Nvidia. Their goal is to probe our thoughts and see if they can get us at Xiaomi to take over their mobile processor business."

Lin Bing knew that Lei Jun had always had the idea of making chips himself, especially after the Hongmi Note series was subjected to dimensionality-reduction strikes by the Red Star shining note using flagship processors.

"Damn it! They screwed me over and still want me to be their bag holder?"

"They are truly shameless!"

"Now that they aren't doing the mobile processor business, they just want to dump the burden on us at Xiaomi?"

"How can there be such a good deal in this world!"

Lei Jun ranted at the air. Lin Bing had never seen Lei Jun like this before; it seemed the previous processor incident had truly angered Lei Jun quite a bit.

If it weren't for the guys in India coming through, Xiaomi would have taken a huge fall this time.

A few minutes later, Lei Jun calmed down and began to consider whether he should be this "bag holder."

After all, mobile processors were something Lei Jun really wanted. In his business blueprint, Xiaomi wouldn't just make 1999 cost-effective phones; Xiaomi also wanted to advance toward the high-end market.

To move towards the high-end, relying solely on Qualcomm is unrealistic. What if Qualcomm's processors failed one day?

Wouldn't that screw over his own high-end phones too?

Like Huawei, Fruit, Samsung, and Red Star, their high-end phones all use their own processors. Only by using their own processors can they clearly understand the performance and shortcomings, and thus make targeted responses.

Xiaomi's laboratory disassembled the Red Star Kunpeng mobile phone and found that if the cooling module on it was removed, the Lingxiao S3 processor equipped on the Kunpeng mobile phone also had very serious heating issues. However, Red Star understood their own processor's situation and designed a set of cooling modules specifically for this processor.

"Mr. Lei, if the price Nvidia offers is reasonable, we can consider taking over the mobile processor technology they have in hand."

"Moreover, I heard that Nvidia is also designing their own 4G chip, though I don't know how the progress is going."

"If we choose to take over, then this part of the design and patents can also be licensed to us or sold to us."

While Lei Jun was still considering whether or not to take over, Lin Bing had already set his sights on their 4G technology. One must know that starting this year, China began issuing 4G licenses, and 4G phones could officially enter the network. This year is the first year of 4G.

"Hmm, what you said is not bad. We at Xiaomi cannot just be the assembly plant that netizens talk about. We must also have our own core technology. I think this Nvidia processor business is a very good opportunity."

"It's just that I don't know what price they will ask for. If Nvidia asks for an exorbitant price, I won't choose to be a sucker."

"Lin Bing, you first make secret contact with Nvidia. Since they specifically released the news to you, it shows that apart from Xiaomi, they don't have many other choices."

Lei Jun finally decided to let Lin Bing make secret contact with Nvidia first. If this became known to everyone, and Red Star found out about this, they would definitely intervene.

According to Lei Jun's understanding of Chen Chen, as long as Nvidia's chip technology was helpful to Red Star, Chen Chen would definitely not be stingy with funds.

One must know that Red Star's thirst for chip technology and talent has reached the point of being unscrupulous, crazily poaching people globally. I don't know what this kid Chen Chen is nervous about?

Could it be that the USA will target their company in the future?

Meanwhile, inside the Nvidia company on the other side of the ocean, Old Huang also gathered the senior management to discuss this matter.

Now, Nvidia's senior management has formed two factions. One faction states that since so much capital has already been invested in the mobile processor business, the sunk cost of exiting now is too high. They should learn from their mistakes, be brave, and continue to increase investment in this area.

First, resolve the Tegra 4 problems one by one through modifications, then increase the R&D of 4G chips, and strive to turn the situation around this year.

The other faction is mainly composed of investors. They feel that now the reputation of Tegra 4 is already rotten, and increasing investment is just throwing money into the water. Even if it is developed, I am afraid that no manufacturer will choose to use Nvidia's processors again.

It would be better to quickly cut the flesh and sever the mobile processor business, and focus on doing the computer graphics card business.

Old Huang's heart is also extremely conflicted. Before, it was he who saw the smart phone market was hot, and Qualcomm was making a killing in it, that he insisted on entering the mobile processor chip market.