509: Chapter 509 America and Sansang's Panic

Meanwhile, at the Transsion Africa headquarters in Nigeria.

Huang Tianya issued the final order to the personnel in charge of the operation: "Keep pushing! We must stir up panic among those retail investors."

"Smash it down by 20% for me!"

Following the order, Micron's stock price began to plummet.

It instantly fell another 9%, with its market capitalization evaporating by over $4.2 billion.

Countless panicked retail investors began dumping their shares. Although some people on the forums were advising others to "be greedy when others are fearful" and to increase their positions, given the previous lessons, no one dared to listen.

Consequently, the selling intensified. Under this dual blow, Huang Tianya accelerated the pace of buying up the shares.

"What are those idiots on Wall Street doing now? They used to lead us in harvesting the whole world, and now they can't even protect the market."

"We need to go and suggest to that loser that foreign enterprises should not be allowed to invest on Wall Street!"

This time, the angry retail investors decided not to remain silent; they chose to hold offline protests.

The entire United States industry seemed to... wish they could skin Transsion alive whenever it was mentioned.

To suppress this wave of protests as quickly as possible, the semiconductor office of the US Department of Commerce urgently convened another meeting.

"This time, we must send a professional investigation team. They definitely plagiarized our technology."

"We have endured this so many times already. Now, the global tech community no longer views us with the same awe as before. Let's use this incident to re-establish our authority."

"Re-establish authority? Their chips have already appeared online, and their master control architecture and connection methods are on completely different paths than those of our companies. Moreover, the technology is far faster than our drafts..."

"To put it bluntly, our technical plans aren't even worth them stealing."

The entire meeting room fell into a complex mood again. The people who were originally clamoring there now closed their mouths...

"This won't work, that won't work. If you ask me, let's immediately introduce export controls and restrict the sale of equipment and materials to Transsion."

"Have you not played the clown enough? Their entire industrial chain has long completed domestic substitution; from equipment to materials, they hardly rely on US suppliers. Sanctions will have no effect other than pushing us completely to the opposite side."

The meeting room had been in session for half a day, and his anger grew, but in the end, they didn't come up with an effective response plan.

Until finally, the person in charge of the semiconductor industry for this operation said: "A bunch of idiots! Can you not come up with an effective response plan?"

"Boss, how about we just ignore this matter?"

"Ignore it? Do you know how much tax revenue these semiconductor companies provide us every year? How can you just resolve it with a 'let's ignore it'?"

"Boss, I don't think we need to be nervous. In the words of China, time is the best way to solve all problems."

"I think this principle applies to us as well. China Star is currently only doing ultra-high-end and high-end series; we can still sell low-end products. This is also the path to survival that Transsion has left us; they haven't completely wiped us out."

As soon as this was said, many people in the meeting room nodded repeatedly. After all, this made too much sense; they weren't dead, they just couldn't get high-profit orders.

However, although high-profit orders in this world are very lucrative, the shipment volume is too low.

"Yes, this method is good; we won."

"We did indeed win. Although they launched high-end technology, they also abandoned the low-end market."

A wave of "winning philosophy" instantly spread throughout the meeting, and the people who were originally a bit discouraged also perked up a bit.

But soon, everyone present sighed; they all sighed in unison.

After all, the so-called global division of labor was a big pie they had drawn for China, a path with no future. But now, under the threat of a private enterprise, they had also embarked on this path, and even needed to deceive themselves.

...

Seoul, South Korea, Samsung Electronics headquarters.

Division President Kim Ki-nam had just finished a video conference with the person in charge of the China region.

But just then, his secretary brought him some very bad news:

"President, it's bad. Three mobile phone manufacturers in China have already suspended our high-end Flash Memory orders."

"At the time, they were still threatening us, saying that if we didn't lower the price of low-end storage by another 30%, they would abandon this order."

"And several PC manufacturers have also joined this battlefield, preparing to look forward to Transsion's storage solution."

Just as Kim Ki-nam was preparing to head to the President's office to report this matter, he heard the words of Lee Jae-yong's secretary and immediately headed to the meeting room.

Lee Jae-yong had already raised a very critical issue: after resolving the Flash Memory issue, how soon would China Star be able to bring out storage chips, and at what price point would Samsung need to set its prices then?

On the way to the office, Kim Ki-nam had been thinking about one question: they launched 128 layers, which means they have broken through all the solutions between 32 and 128.

How many routes is that? Why couldn't they leave a little hope for Samsung like they did with chips? And slowly harvest the leeks.

After all, the entire industry's technological upgrade takes at least 3 to 4 years. And they...

On the other side, Lee Jae-yong was also very angry. After all, storage is Samsung's fundamental base, and mobile Flash Memory is the most important part of it.

When he arrived, he heard Lee Jae-yong ask the question: "Speak up, how should we respond in this situation?"

"Yes, the reaction in the Chinese market is faster than we imagined. They just finished their press conference, and several mobile phone manufacturers have already proposed suspending Flash Memory orders, waiting for Transsion."

"Theoretically, if we don't think of any solutions, our market share will drop significantly. But after our probing, these manufacturers are very cunning. They never intended to purchase Transsion's solution; they just want to use this to drive down our prices?"

"Marketing Director Li is right; they want to eat from both sides..."

Speaking of this, the originally panicked Lee Jae-yong felt a little less worried.

"That's right, although the TFS2.0 standard has been recognized by consumers, the price is too expensive and it won't be recognized by manufacturers. Because all manufacturers know that the group of price-performance users online won't pay for it at all. Those who are willing to spend money don't understand technology, so for manufacturers, it doesn't matter what storage is used."

After listening to everyone's analysis, Kim Ki-nam immediately stood up and reported to Lee Jae-yong: "Based on our experience, let's lower the price of 2.0 Flash Memory by 25%, and lower the price of consumer-grade computer hard drives simultaneously. Use the price advantage to keep the users. Anyway, our technology is self-developed and self-produced, and the price is right there."

"I disagree with this plan." Before everyone could think, the Vice President in charge of cost accounting immediately expressed his rejection.

"UFS2.0 only went into mass production last year. We invested $2.3 billion in R&D, and now we have recovered less than 30% of the cost. Cutting the price by 25% is equivalent to losing $8 for every unit shipped. Over the whole year, we will lose at least $1.5 billion. This isn't protecting the market; it's self-mutilation!"

"I also disagree..."