145: Chapter 145 Cooperation

"Billion Subsidy..."

"It is indeed an unprecedented promotional design, but as you know, among all domestic mobile phones, Xiaomi's profit margins are among the lowest. I'm afraid I really cannot offer too many discounts."

Inside the Xiaomi Group reception room, Qin Mo and Xiaomi President Lei Jun were sitting on the sofa, talking.

The reception room was not large and was furnished quite simply. A Xiaomi logo hung on the wall, and two freshly brewed cups of tea, still steaming, were placed on the coffee table.

As one of the most well-known bigwigs on the Great Xia internet, Lei Jun's achievements in the internet sector were not much inferior to the 'Two Mas.'

Especially in the mobile phone sector.

When Xiaomi was first launched, it used its ultimate price-performance ratio to directly wipe out the high-priced, low-spec copycat phones that were rampant in the country at the time.

Back then, many copycat phone brands could even broadcast commercials on satellite TV, deceiving many people with overwhelming false advertising.

Qin Mo still remembered a mobile phone brand called "Nichi," whose advertisements were plastered all over the streets, but when you actually held the real phone in your hand, even the plastic casing was cracked.

His own first mobile phone was a Redmi; it cost only a few hundred yuan and lasted for several years. That was something Lei Jun had created.

And at this point in time, Lei Jun was probably already thinking about the direction for his next venture.

Qin Mo had come this time precisely to offer a suggestion on that direction.

In this lifetime, he wanted to lay out plans for AI in advance.

Listening to Lei Jun's words, Qin Mo picked up his teacup, took a sip, put it down, and smiled.

"Won't President Lei reconsider?"

"The Billion Subsidy is also a good thing for Xiaomi. Pinduoduo's user base is still skyrocketing, and with the concentrated exposure on June 18th, sales volume could go up significantly."

"The price we are offering is already the lowest across the entire internet. As long as Xiaomi concedes a little more profit, although the margin will be thin, the volume will make up for it."

After thinking for a moment, Lei Jun still shook his head. "There is still no way for now. Let's leave this matter here."

He placed his teacup back on the coffee table, his tone carrying a hint of candor. "However, President Qin, your Billion Subsidy event design is indeed excellent. Being able to pull the price of high-end products to this level is something no one in the e-commerce industry has done before."

"But with only a few days left until June 18th, you're telling me this directly—aren't you afraid I'll leak it to Alibaba in advance?"

Qin Mo smiled. "Even if Alibaba finds out, it will be too late."

"There are only a few days left; they simply don't have the time to negotiate discounts."

"To launch a Billion Subsidy of our level, they would have to pay for the subsidies themselves. And right now, do you think Alibaba still has that much money to subsidize high-end products on their own?"

Lei Jun pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Alibaba indeed does not have the capacity for large-scale subsidies anymore."

During this period, he had also been paying attention to the competition between Alibaba and Pinduoduo.

Alibaba had invested billions into their fresh produce e-commerce side, lost a huge sum when their Slash event backfired, and on top of that, they were still building logistics warehouses everywhere.

Alibaba's budget for this year had likely been exceeded several times over. For Alibaba to come up with another few billion to subsidize high-end products in just a few days was indeed highly unlikely.

At this point in the conversation, Qin Mo seemed to have thought of something. He looked up at Lei Jun and spoke again.

"By the way, I recently heard that you are considering starting another venture, President Lei?"

He paused, his tone carrying a touch of admiration. "I must say, I admire you, President Lei. Given your current status and assets, making the decision to start over requires immense courage."

Lei Jun was stunned, having not expected Qin Mo to suddenly bring this up. He nodded and replied, "I am indeed considering it; I already have a few ideas for directions."

He couldn't stay idle; he always wanted to start a new business, but he hadn't decided on a specific direction yet.

"Why? Are you interested in investing? I am currently considering these few directions. I've heard you have a good sense for the internet; perhaps you could give me some advice."

Before Lei Jun could finish speaking, Qin Mo interrupted him. "You can put those directions you're considering on hold for now, President Lei."

"I have a project proposal that I am currently seeking cooperation and funding for. If you don't mind, you could take a look at mine first."

Lei Jun was taken aback; he hadn't expected Qin Mo to have come prepared.

"What direction?"

Qin Mo took out his phone, tapped it a few times, and sent a project proposal to Lei Jun's phone. "AI."

Just as Lei Jun opened the file to read it carefully, Qin Mo's voice continued. "I have mastered a brand-new deep learning architecture called the 'Self-Attention Mechanism,' which can train generative AI that is truly logical."

"This architecture is actually not complex, but currently, AI technology companies overseas have not yet recognized its value and have not invested large sums of money to train it."

Qin Mo took a deep breath, a certain look in his eyes.

In the AI field, he who takes the first step stays ahead. Training generative AI in advance is an investment absolutely worth making.

In his previous life, after AI had already developed through many versions, these companies revealed the method they initially used to train AI: this very Self-Attention Mechanism.

And in this lifetime, he was going to be the first.

Meanwhile, Qin Mo's voice continued. "To train this AI to the level I want requires a massive capital investment, a large number of server clusters, and a not insignificant amount of time for training."

"But currently, large-scale server clusters in the country are basically all in the hands of Alibaba and Tencent. You should know that, President Lei."

"My relationship with these two groups is currently not exactly harmonious. With such a large investment, they would definitely investigate the target company thoroughly. They would only hand over what they have to people whose background they know."

"Even if I used a shell company and they couldn't figure out the background, they still wouldn't agree."

"Therefore, I can only find other large internet companies in the country to help me do this."

"Once this AI has a certain level of autonomous learning capability, I will take it back. At that time, I can reserve five percent of the original shares to sell to you, President Lei."

"Believe me, the profits that these five percent of shares will bring at that time will be quite substantial."

Looking at the incredibly detailed document Qin Mo had sent him, Lei Jun asked while reading.

"Are you not joking?" "Diving directly into the AI field?"

"Are you asking me to help you cover for this, set up the clusters for you, and then help you conduct the preliminary training of the AI?"

"But you must know," "In this direction, the investment will be quite large." "It's not a matter of a few hundred million; it's a long-term investment of tens or even hundreds of billions."

Lei Jun was also shocked by the audacity of the young man in front of him; this was even more extreme than when he was young.

The details in the document made him feel somewhat alarmed.

"The money you invest might not see any return for several years. In the AI field, no company in the world has achieved any results yet. Are you really planning to invest so much into it?"

"Any problem in any single link will drag down the entire project."

Facing the skepticism, Qin Mo merely curled the corners of his mouth upward. "I have never regretted any of my decisions."