70: Naming of the new battery

This trip to China was not going smoothly, or rather, the Tegra series processors were not going smoothly at all.

The Tegra 2 had screwed over some manufacturers, like HTC; after being burned, they refused to continue purchasing it no matter what.

Left with no choice, Old Huang came to Mainland China again to look for partners.

First, he was stood up by Zou Hongyi of 390. Zou had said he would use Tegra chips in 390 TV boxes, but after Old Huang waited for a long time, he discovered that 390's hardware business was struggling to survive.

Then he went to Japan, where things were going well, and Nintendo there said they would purchase Tegra chips for their gaming consoles.

In the end, Old Huang was stood up again.

After running around for a long time, he finally found Xiaomi in China. The chairman of Xiaomi offered an extremely low purchase price, and Old Huang had no choice but to agree.

However, he made an agreement with Xiaomi that the total purchase volume could not be less than one million units; otherwise, he couldn't offer Xiaomi such a low price.

Looking at Old Huang, whose eyes had dimmed, Chen Chen spoke up:

“Mr. Huang, I'm sorry about your Tegra 4. I'm a straight talker, so I hope you don't mind.”

“Thank you, President Chen, for giving me this opportunity to come to Red Star. I hope we have the chance to cooperate again in the future.”

Seeing that Red Star had no intention of purchasing, Old Huang decided not to stay any longer and stood up to take his leave.

“Mr. Huang, don't be in such a hurry to leave. Since you're here, take a tour of Red Star. Besides, just because we can't cooperate on the Tegra 4 doesn't mean we can't cooperate in other areas.”

Hearing Chen Chen say this, Old Huang, who had already lifted himself up, sat back down.

“Oh? I wonder in what area President Chen wants to cooperate with Nvidia?”

“I want to purchase a batch of enterprise-grade graphics cards in the second half of the year. I hope we can cooperate then, Mr. Huang.”

He had originally thought about investing a sum of money in Nvidia, but on second thought, it would take at least ten years to see a return. It would be better to keep that money for continued investment in the Lingxiao Processor.

Besides, what if he did become a shareholder?

If things really got heated with the Americans, even if he were a shareholder, Old Huang might not necessarily be able to sell him graphics cards.

It wasn't like at the end of last year when Red Star Investment went to find someone named Zhang Yiming to invest; that was a Chinese company. An investment of over 80 million would definitely yield ten or a hundred times the return in the future.

“Then I'll wait for your good news, President Chen.”

At this point, Old Huang knew it was time for Chen Chen to see him out, so he stood up to leave.

Several people escorted Old Huang downstairs. On the way back, Lu Weiqi finally couldn't help his curiosity and asked Chen Chen, “President Chen, why do you want to purchase such a large batch of Nvidia graphics cards? Our company has no use for them right now.”

“As for the reason, you'll know once classmate xiao xing is released. Their CUDA will definitely be the most powerful artificial intelligence development platform in the future.”

“And our classmate xiao xing will also be the most powerful artificial intelligence. When Red Star's market value reaches a trillion us dollars, I'll give you a bonus, Old Lu!”

Lu Weiqi curled his lip in disbelief; this Little Chen only knew how to paint big dreams.

The equity incentive promised to him was still nowhere to be seen, and now he was starting to claim Red Star could reach a trillion in market value.

Boast, just keep on boasting.

If it could reach a hundred billion us dollars upon listing, that would be good enough.

A trillion?

Old Lu didn't even dare to think about it.

And giving him a bonus only at a trillion us dollars—didn't that mean he wasn't planning to give him a bonus at all?

“Let's go, accompany me to the fast-charging lab. The day after tomorrow, come with me to Wuzhen; take it as a chance to relax.”

Lu Weiqi was overjoyed.

As expected, I am now President Chen's number one confidant.

He even invited me, Old Lu, to a high-profile event like the Internet Conference.

Interacting face-to-face with those industry giants—I, Old Lu, can go see big shots like Mr. Ma of Shenzhen and Old Ma of Hangzhou?

No, wait, I am the president of Red Star. Red Star is now one of the top three companies in domestic shipments.

I'm an industry giant too, okay?

In other words, is it possible to Overthrow Star and Restore Jin??

Chen Chen didn't know the little schemes in Lu Weiqi's head. The group arrived at the fast-charging lab.

Since giving them the plan for the new type of battery last year, several experiments had all failed. Chen Chen hadn't put pressure on the researchers and hadn't asked much about it.

Since the system provided the first fast-charging solution, Red Star's own research force had continued to study that solution in depth. From 18W to 27W, to 40W, and then to 67W in the lab, it was estimated that the Dual-path Charge Pump solution had broken through to 120W in these few months.

But the toothpaste still had to be squeezed out bit by bit.

How could he be like the Protagonists in other novels, starting right off with 120W?

What would be left to develop later?

Could he just make one phone and be invincible across the world?

Some also say that if you transmigrate, don't make graphics cards of all things. You put in all that effort to make a card comparable to a 1050, and Old Huang just pulls out a 3060 with a flick of his wrist, leaving you completely lost.

You have no idea how much toothpaste he has left in the tube.

Just like now, if a transmigrator suddenly showed up and made phone fast-charging 120W, Red Star would just pull out a 150W Dual-path Charge Pump dual-battery system to crush them.

After arriving at the fast-charging lab and swiping through the access control, the person in charge, Little Zhang, immediately came forward to greet them.

“President Chen, CEO Lu, the most recent experiment for our new battery was successful. Both stability and charge-discharge performance met expectations, though there's still a significant gap from the theoretical value due to manufacturing issues.”

“What about safety?”

Chen Chen asked.

Whether the battery was new or not didn't matter that much, but safety was the most important thing.

Don't try to make a big splash with a new battery only to have it go “boom.”

“Regarding safety, President Chen, please rest assured. Our cycle life and high-temperature resistance have undergone a series of tests.”

Looking at the confident Little Zhang, Chen Chen nodded.

As long as safety was handled well.

Lu Weiqi curiously took a battery handed over by Little Zhang. He had only seen reports about this new battery from his subordinates; this was the first time he had seen it in person.

Not just him, it was Chen Chen's first time too. He had wanted to come see the previous experiments but was refused by Little Zhang on the grounds of safety.

After turning it over and over, Lu Weiqi didn't find anything special and handed the battery to Chen Chen.

“CEO Lu, don't underestimate this battery. Its capacity reaches 5,000 mAh!”

“How much? 5,000 mAh?”

This time, Lu Weiqi was truly shocked.

Because the size of this battery didn't look any larger than the 3,000 mAh one used in the current Kunpeng mobile phone, and it felt lighter.

“Yes, this battery is 23% lighter than the original lithium-ion batteries, and its capacity has increased by 42% for the same volume. Moreover, it can withstand higher charging currents; currently, a 5C charging current is still within the safety threshold. It's a significant improvement.”

In fact, this battery isn't a revolutionary innovation in terms of process and technology; it just has some improvements in the separator folding method, electrolyte ratio, and anode material ratio.

Simply put, the energy density has been increased slightly.

“This battery is still some distance from the theoretical value. According to the data you provided, President Chen, there's still a gap of over 30%. We are constantly improving the equipment to meet the manufacturing requirements as soon as possible.”

“How long until mass production?”

“This version can already be mass-produced. It's just, should we give this battery a name? Something that sounds impressive as soon as people hear it?”

Facing Little Zhang's flattery, Chen Chen was noncommittal. Names like “Jinsha River” and “Qinghai Lake” almost slipped out of his mouth.

On second thought, he decided against it. Those names sounded powerful, but they might have copyrights like Xiao Ai. If there was an infringement... “Let's call it ____” P.S.: Everyone, think of a name... I'm calling it Polaris.