Chapter 759: Isn’t this like begging on your knees?
Three days later, when Guo Guangchang learned from Xu Tengyu that the funds raised exceeded 3 billion, he was deeply shocked: "The funds raised exceeded 3 billion? Are you sure this is RMB?"
Xu Tengyu also sighed: "Yes, I also felt incredible when I heard this number. This is a typical case of a stupid person with a lot of money."
In fact, Lu Yiming did not expect that he would be able to raise 3 billion so quickly.
This private equity fund does not guarantee principal, which means that the annual interest rate is relatively high, reaching 15%, but it cannot be redeemed within 6 years. The conditions are actually quite harsh.
Relying on Lu Yiming's title as the richest man and his successful past record, people still flocked to subscribe to the fund. Some of them were not even members of the Linjiang Club, but relied on various connections to join in the fun.
Although he couldn't understand what was going on in these people's minds, Lu Yiming still accepted all the money since it would be a waste not to take it.
Half a month later, a total of 6.47 billion in cash was raised.
At the Maomao Mobile headquarters, Lu Yiming found Tang Jijun.
Before Lu Yiming could speak, Tang Jijun spoke first: "Mr. Lu, you came at the right time! The RF chip project has been successfully developed. Compared with the mobile phone RF chips currently on the market, our theoretical performance is 70% better than theirs! Once the tape-out is successful, we will break the foreign monopoly and become the first generation of purely domestically produced RF chips!"
Lu Yiming was very happy and said, "Great! Maomao Mobile finally has our own unique skills. I have invested so much money in Maomao Mobile and it is worth it."
Tang Jijun sighed, "Indeed, doing research feels good in every way, but it is just too wasteful. Every day, I feel sad when I see the money in my account decreasing rapidly. In the blink of an eye, millions are gone."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Doing scientific research means burning money, this is an objective law. Only mass production can spread the cost. You know Lin Yutang, he is a great writer with a lot of royalties, but in order to make a typewriter called 'Ming Kuai', he not only went bankrupt, but also got himself into debt. What we are doing now is similar to what he did back then. We are walking a path that no one has walked before. But we have to walk this path now. If we don't walk it now, we may not even have the chance to walk it in the future."
"Don't worry about the money. I launched a fundraising project some time ago, and have raised 6.47 billion so far. The money is used to invest in the production of mobile phone parts in Xiaguo. I plan to invest one-third of it in our Maomao Mobile's mobile phone project. This money must be put into operation as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a loss every minute it is left on the books."
Putting aside the daily inflation, Lu Yiming promised an interest rate of 15% for this fund. This interest rate is quite high, which is why so many people are willing to invest.
First of all, there is the golden signboard of being the richest man.
Secondly, the return ratio is indeed too tempting.
You know, the average net profit of the domestic manufacturing industry is less than 5%, which is totally hard-earned money.
When Tang Jijun heard this, his back teeth began to tremble.
Billions of dollars are being spent on research and development? Isn't that too much? If we lose money, how are we going to live in the future?
I'm afraid Lu Yiming is the only one in the world who has the courage to play like this.
Not to mention the richest man in Asia, even the richest man in the world might not dare to make such a gamble.
When Lu Yiming returned home, Shi Qingxue happened to be sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper. The hottest news in the newspaper was, of course, that Lu Yiming was raising funds to make mobile phones.
Seeing Lu Yiming coming back, Shi Qingxue couldn't help but said, "Are you really planning to make a mobile phone? You've been working on this project for two years, but you haven't made a penny yet. Instead, you keep pouring money into it. Be careful not to lose your money."
Lu Yiming said confidently: "Tsk, with my handsome face, I still need to spend money to marry a wife?"
Then, he sat next to Shi Qingxue, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Besides, didn't we agree that if I became a pauper, you would be responsible for supporting me?"
Shi Qingxue pushed his forehead away in disdain: "Bah, bah, bah, stop being so conceited."
Lu Yiming said seriously, "Don't worry. I didn't make the phone on a whim. I started planning it two years ago. I have enough patience and courage, and I'm prepared to not make any money for five years. Don't worry about the money, my dear American friends will keep sending me money."
He holds a large number of Internet company stocks with a market value of trillions of dollars in the future, which are now beginning to show their power and provide him with funds continuously.
As time went by, Lu Yiming raised more and more funds. After another half a month, the funds raised exceeded 10 billion.
Not only the financial and technology circles were shaken, but also various mobile phone manufacturers, such as Bird, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola, all focused their attention on Lu Yiming.
Raising tens of billions of funds to make mobile phones has made all the players in the industry feel an inexplicable hostility.
Is the mobile phone industry about to change?
However, unlike in China where everyone was trembling with fear, after international mobile phone manufacturers learned the news, a happy atmosphere emerged on the Internet.
"People from Xia Country also want to make mobile phones? This is a joke!"
"Can anyone tell me if today is April Fools' Day? There are people in a place like Xia Country who actually want to make mobile phones."
"Do people in Xia Country like to dream so much?"
"Perhaps Motorola and Nokia should pay more attention to this. Xiaguo's mobile phone companies are still very capable of plagiarism and counterfeiting."
"Hahaha, indeed. Our mobile phone manufacturers should prepare to file lawsuits against them for infringement."
At this moment, Xia Country is still considered a barbaric, backward and poor place by many people abroad. In the eyes of many people, Xia Country may not even have electricity now, so how can it want to build a telephone?
If this isn't an April Fool's joke, then what is it?
Motorola and Nokia, the mobile phone companies that have been leaking information, naturally did not take this news seriously.
As the overlord of the mobile phone industry, their every move represents the direction and trend of the mobile phone industry. They also have a large number of related patent technologies in their hands. It is very easy for them to kill new emerging competitors.
Not only are people abroad not optimistic about this, but even people at home think that Lu Yiming is messing around and is suspected of defrauding money.
After all , that's more than 6 billion yuan. Why waste it instead of doing something else?
Amidst all the noise, Lu Yiming paid no attention and continued to do his own thing.
After the fundraising was completed, Lu Yiming's Lu Family Garden welcomed a new group of guests.
The boatman who was invited met Master Ren at the door.
Both of them are leading figures in Guangdong Province's manufacturing industry, so they know each other.
Ren Zhengfei is 22 years older than Wang Chuanfu. Now Ren is almost 60 years old, while Wang Chuanfu is less than 40 years old, which is the prime of life.
"Mr. Ren!"
The boatman was very polite to the big brother.
Sect Leader Ren smiled and said, “Xiao Wang, I didn’t expect that you also received an invitation from Mr. Lu.”
The boatman said, "I don't know what Mr. Lu wants to do by inviting us to the banquet this time?"
Ren said: "I think it has something to do with his recent fundraising to make mobile phones."
Mobile phones are very profitable and the industry is well aware of this. After all, no matter how complicated an item is, there are no secrets once it is taken apart by professionals. Everyone is familiar with the components inside and can calculate the specific cost.
This year, Nokia's sales of just one model, Nokia 1100, have exceeded 200 million units worldwide, making so much money that it is no exaggeration to say that it is a money-printing machine.
But in China, the production and sale of mobile phones requires taking photos, so everyone can only drool at this business.
Fortunately, Lu Yiming made arrangements early and bought the mobile phone license two years in advance.
When they walked into the Lu family garden, they were shocked to see beautiful women dressed in elegant attire coming to greet them. After entering the house, they were attracted by the antique decoration and design inside.
Sect Leader Ren said with great envy: "The richest man is really rich. His residence is decorated so luxuriously."
Although Huawei is currently somewhat well-known in the industry, its strength is not that strong, and the money it earns is all hard-earned money that foreign big companies look down upon, so it has no money to enjoy itself.
The boatman brother is even worse off than Master Ren. They have just entered the field of lithium batteries and cannot even afford a production line to make batteries. They are still at the stage of hand-rubbing the batteries - this is real hand-rubbing, the pulping machines are all manual, which shocked the foreign customer Nokia at the time.
The beauty led the two of them for a distance, then stopped and said, "You two, the reception room is in front. I can only escort you here. You can go along this corridor to the house opposite."
In the conference room, there were more than a dozen people sitting on both sides of a long table .
Master Ren and Brother Boatman saw many familiar faces there, such as Cao Wang from Fuyao Glass, who was very ugly and recognizable.
Wang Dongsheng of Jingdongfang, who has been deceiving people into swapping debt for equity, is also on the list. He has a very bad reputation in the industry, and is almost the kind of person that people fear. After all, no one likes someone who borrows but does not repay.
Both Master Ren and the boatman were a little confused.
Could it be that I guessed wrong before, and Lu Yiming didn’t call everyone here to make a mobile phone?
Otherwise, why call all these people over?
Although the people present here are all bigwigs in the domestic industry, their businesses have little to do with each other.
Hua Wei is in telecommunications, Brother Chuanfu makes batteries and also dreams of becoming a car man. As for Cao Wang, he makes glass, and Wang Dongsheng focuses on LCD screens... There are countless examples like this, and they basically have no business dealings with each other.
Although Lu Yiming often becomes a news figure, he himself never communicates too much with people in the industry, nor does he attend various banquets or chambers of commerce. So in the eyes of people in the industry, Lu Yiming is actually a very mysterious person, and no one can figure out what this young man wants to do.
Lu Yiming had not arrived yet. Everyone sat down according to their respective seats. They greeted those they knew, exchanged a few pleasantries, and discussed and speculated on Lu Yiming's intention in calling everyone over.
After a while, the door of the reception room opened again, and Lu Yiming walked in, saying apologetically, "I'm sorry, I was delayed by something and am a few minutes late. Please forgive me."
Wang Dongsheng reacted the fastest and said with a smile, "Mr. Lu is very busy, so it's normal for him to be busy. We don't have anything to do, so we can wait a little longer."
There was a reason why Wang Dongsheng reacted so quickly: Lu Yiming had already agreed to invest in his Jingdongfang. Although the money had not yet arrived, when had the richest man Lu ever defaulted on someone else's debt?
Therefore, it is normal to flatter a financial sponsor.
Think about it, after getting Lu Yiming's investment, at least for the next few years, you don't have to worry about funds. If you were in that situation, you would be numb.
Wang Dongsheng had written billions of IOUs from Lu Yiming. Once the debt was converted into equity, Lu Yiming would immediately become the largest individual shareholder of Jingdongfang. If there hadn't been so many people at the scene, Wang Dongsheng would have wanted to kneel down and hug him and call him dad.
Others were observing Lu Yiming curiously, to see if he really had three heads and six arms, otherwise how could he be so capable of causing trouble?
Lu Yiming sat down at his seat. Before he began to speak, Lu Yiming held up a hundred-dollar bill and asked, "Do you know what business is the most profitable in the world?"
This fresh and unconventional opening immediately attracted everyone.
Faced with the mysterious Lu Yiming, they were all afraid to speak, for fear of saying something wrong and embarrassing themselves in front of a group of bigwigs.
It was Master Ren who asked directly, "What do you think, Mr. Lu?"
Lu Yiming tugged at the dark green U.S. dollar bills in his hand and said, "I can't say it's a brilliant opinion. I just feel that the United States can buy things all over the world just by printing money at home. Is there any business on earth that is more profitable than this?"
The so-called US dollar bill is essentially just a piece of printed waste paper, but this kind of waste paper can be used to fleece everyone in the world by relying on the financial hegemony established by the United States after World War II.
There is really no more profitable business on earth than this one.
Sect Leader Ren agreed with this and sighed, "It's a pity that we can't do this kind of business."
Lu Yiming also nodded and said, "Yeah, so I was wondering, what other business can people like us do that is particularly profitable and doesn't require us to look at other people's faces everywhere?"
Lu Yiming's words quickly resonated with everyone.
Who wants to beg on their knees when they can earn money standing up? Aren’t those people sick?
Lu Yiming said: "I am a very greedy and domineering person, so I don't want to beg on my knees. I want to make money standing up, a lot of money, preferably more than the capitalists in the United States."
When these words were spoken, everyone burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, you are worthy of being the richest man. You speak so domineeringly."
"Yes, we open factories and run businesses, who doesn't want to make a lot of money? Only idiots want to beg for food on their knees!"
Industries engaged in low value-added processing and finished product assembly are basically begging for food in the industrial production system.
Because whether you can make money and how much you can make are all decided by others. If they choke you on core technology, you will be half dead and will obediently wait for others to fleece you.
Some so-called public intellectuals call this the global division of labor.
The concept of dividing the damn work and the industrial scissors gap is written in junior high school political and history textbooks. Who are you trying to fool?
After everyone laughed for a while, Lu Yiming waved his hand and said, "It seems that everyone understands what I want to express. Then, I will talk about this big money-making project."
