Chapter 630 450: The 4G Era, the First Batch of Partners! An 80 Billion US Dollar Investment

Chen Yansen remained silent. He pushed open the garden's wooden gate, walked straight to the lounge chair, and sat down before speaking slowly.

"This isn't about money. If NVIDIA were sincere, Orange Technology wouldn't mind helping sell Tegra processors. It's just that I don't like being threatened."

'A threat?'

'Was there?'

Huang Renxun awkwardly touched his nose, deliberately slowing his speech to make his tone seem more sincere. "President Chen, it might be because my Chinese isn't very good and my wording was off, causing a misunderstanding. Actually, NVIDIA is very eager to establish a partnership with Senlian Capital."

In fact, as soon as he returned to company headquarters after attending Xiaomi's new product launch, he briefed the board on the potential partnership, but several major shareholders, including Vanguard and BlackRock, disagreed.

'Why should we share the spoils with some tech company from Hua Country?'

'Not even 1%!'

But as the Qingcheng D2, Redmi 1, 360 F1, and Qingcheng D2 SE became consecutive best-sellers, the total shipments for these models surpassed 30 million units in just three short months.

In other words, MediaTek sold 30 million processors as a result, since all those models were equipped with their chips.

Seeing this, Huang Renxun and the financial groups behind NVIDIA naturally grew green with envy. So, they finally nodded in agreement to the partnership but added an extra condition: Orange Technology had to purchase a batch of Tegra processors.

"A misunderstanding? So, what you're saying, Mr. Huang, is that NVIDIA is willing to accept a strategic investment from Senlian Capital whether Orange Technology buys Tegra processors or not?" Chen Yansen countered.

Huang Renxun gave a sheepish smile and said in a placating tone, "President Chen, to be perfectly honest, we still have unsold inventory of the Tegra 3, which NVIDIA released two years ago."

"I can offer a price of eight US Dollars per unit. Given the sales pace of Qingcheng Mobile Phones, a 200 million US Dollar purchase order would only be for 25 million units."

"MediaTek's MT6589T has an integrated 3G baseband and costs only eight US Dollars a piece. The Tegra 3 requires an external baseband, has higher power consumption, takes up more space, has an unstable signal, and a higher overall cost. Sorry, Mr. Huang, but I can't afford it."

Chen Yansen had made the Tegra 3 sound utterly worthless.

Huang Renxun was silent for a long moment. He wanted to hang up but couldn't bring himself to do it.

Now, Orange Technology's influence in the Hua Country mobile market surpassed even that of Huawei and ZTE, with a whole host of smaller players following its lead, including 360, Xiaomi, NetEase, LeTV, and Meitu.

With Orange Technology's clout and influence in the industry, they were more than capable of reviving NVIDIA's mobile chip business.

After much deliberation, Huang Renxun gritted his teeth and said, "The price remains the same, still eight US Dollars a unit, but we'll throw in an Infineon or Qualcomm baseband for free."

There was no other way. The Tegra 2, launched three years ago, had ultimately been liquidated at four US Dollars a unit, bundled with graphics cards, just to clear the inventory to LG, Motorola, Mountain Star, and Hisense.

But in the last two years, the upgrade cycle for mobile phone chips had become incredibly fast. Even with its price slashed by sixty percent, the Tegra 3 still had no takers.

Last year, HTC, Celestial Language, and Coolpad were still willing to place orders. This year, they had all defected to MediaTek and Qualcomm.

To clear his inventory, he had even traveled thousands of miles from the Lighthouse Country to Yanjing to appear on stage and show his support for Lei Yijun.

Some netizens who didn't recognize him even thought he was an emcee Lei Yijun had hired to warm up the crowd.

"Seven US Dollars a unit, as a package deal. I can step in and get Xiaomi, 360, Meitu, and LeTV on board for you. We'll move at least 10 million Tegra processors."

Huang Renxun had just taken a step back, and Chen Yansen immediately pushed forward another step, completely backing him into a corner.

"Ten million is too few. At least twenty million," Huang Renxun said, biting the bullet as he clutched his aching chest.

"Twenty million? That's a bit much." Chen Yansen chuckled, and Huang's heart skipped a beat.

Fortunately, President Chen was a reasonable man. He paused, then added, "Fine. Twenty million it is."

An eight-dollar Tegra 3 without a baseband was like dog piss, but a seven-dollar Tegra 3 with a baseband was like divine nectar.

The Tegra 3's shortcomings were obvious, but its advantages were also significant.

As the world's first quad-core A9 processor, its four main cores could reach up to 1.4GHz, providing powerful processing power to handle complex tasks with speed.

It could handle both multitasking and large applications relatively smoothly.

It was also equipped with a 12-core GeForce GPU, delivering three times the graphics performance of the Tegra 2 and supporting high-definition video processing.

'For seven US Dollars, what more could you ask for?'

It might be a bit outdated for a 1,999-yuan phone, but in a 799-yuan model, it offered incredible value.

Even if Orange Technology didn't use them, it could resell them to Xiaomi, 360, NetEase, Meitu, or LeTV.

Especially Wu Hongxin. He would absolutely love the cheaper Tegra 3, which offered nearly identical performance.

"Thank you, President Chen." At this moment, the future hundred-billionaire Huang Renxun was profusely thanking him, overcome with gratitude.

"In that case, I'll have to trouble you to make another trip, Mr. Huang. We should sign the letter of intent first," Chen Yansen urged.

"Of course, President Chen," Huang Renxun replied immediately, unable to help but sigh in relief internally.

From the Tegra 2 to the Tegra 3, these two liquidations were an undeniable declaration of the complete failure of NVIDIA's strategy in the mobile chip sector.

He had originally wanted to sell the Tegra 3 to Lei Yijun, but Xiaomi was just as cost-conscious as Chen Yansen.

Besides, Xiaomi Mobile Phone's shipment volume was no match for Orange Mobile Phone's. Rather than a slow, painful bleed, it was better to clear the inventory quickly and recoup the funds.

Immediately after, Huang Renxun brazenly started pitching the Tegra 4 to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen thought of the high-end Meitu phone Wu Hongxin had mentioned. After a moment of reflection, he only promised Huang Renxun he would help make an introduction, but made no guarantees about whether they could successfully sell it.

Even so, Huang Renxun couldn't stop thanking him.

Compared to the CEO who would helm a trillion-US-Dollar tech company more than a decade later, the Huang Renxun of this year was like a roadside underling who didn't even dare to speak loudly in front of Lei Yijun.

When facing Lei Yijun's "big brother," he was even more overflowing with enthusiasm and respect.

After a short while, Chen Yansen hung up the phone.

'In his opinion, Huang Renxun's clumsy, English-peppered flattery was just awkward to listen to.'

Chen Yansen pushed the door open to go inside, then returned to the garden carrying a bucket of fish food. He sat on the lounge chair and began tossing handfuls into the pond.

Several koi, as fat as pigs, immediately realized, 'The master is back!'

After all, neither Song Yuncheng, Meng Jie, Ye Qiuping, nor the community's property management staff were ever as generous as Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen was in a rather good mood. Although he hadn't managed to land Apple, he had reaped an unexpected harvest.

This 2% stake in NVIDIA could be worth as much as 80 billion US Dollars in the future. Moreover, becoming an NVIDIA shareholder would make it easier to arrange patent swaps down the line, accelerating their own accumulation of GPU technology.

To be fair, while the overall performance of the Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 was poor, their graphics processing capabilities were still outstanding.

The reason they were such unloved products was simply because they were born at the wrong time. At the high end, they were blocked by Qualcomm; at the low end, their path was obstructed by MediaTek.

NVIDIA was cornered on a cliff's edge by these two competitors, caught in a dilemma. After struggling desperately for two or three years, it gradually scaled back its business expansion strategy amid strong opposition from investors.

「Meanwhile.」

Cook sent the core parameters and samples of the Deep Blue Battery back to Apple Headquarters. Next, they would have to conduct comprehensive testing and verification, using the final performance data as a reference to decide whether to accept Chen Yansen's offer.

「The next morning.」

The moment Chen Yansen walked into the office, he bumped into Ye Qiuping.

At the office, Ye Qiuping was always impeccably made up and dressed in dark business attire, giving off the impression of a sharp, capable professional.

But the moment she saw Chen Yansen, she whispered conspiratorially, "Boss, I heard President Qian from Qianli Group invited Cook to Star of the Milky Way last night, but he was actually turned down."

'Star of the Milky Way?'

'That's a paradise for grown men.'

'It's not like they have what Cook is looking for. It'd be weird if he actually went.'

"His tastes are the same as yours," Chen Yansen said with a perfectly straight face.

"???" Ye Qiuping was sharp; she got the hint immediately. Eyes wide with shock, she asked, "You're not serious, are you?"

Chen Yansen just smiled, not bothering to explain.

'Anyway, Cook has had just as many boyfriends as I've had girlfriends.'

"Get with the times," Chen Yansen tossed over his shoulder before heading straight upstairs.

'He'd seen everything in the Hu City e-commerce scene. He could tell stories more absurd than this for a full day without repeating a single one.'

'Reality is often more absurd and illogical than fiction.'

Back in his office, he opened his computer and, as usual, checked the business and financial reports for various projects, then handled emails and reviewed contracts.

A workload that would take a normal person two or three days to complete, he finished in just half an hour.

Because he read through materials quickly, and made decisions even faster.

Just as he finished the work at hand, Zhao Maolin from the telecommunications company called. "Congratulations, President Chen! Total sales for the Star-Glory Card have surpassed forty million."

"Lao Zhao, I should be the one congratulating you. With the boost from the Star-Glory Card project, you're bound to get another promotion within three years," Chen Yansen replied with a laugh.

"It's all thanks to you," Zhao Maolin said earnestly. "Let's find a time to meet. I owe you a proper thank you."

To be frank, they had started out as mere drinking buddies, their friendship maintained over meals and liquor. But as their partnership deepened, Zhao Maolin truly wanted, from the bottom of his heart, to brazenly call him "Big Bro."

His own promotions and raises came at the steady pace of a train, moving ever forward. Chen Yansen's progress, however, was like a rocket, soaring to heights that had long since left him in the dust.

Many of the higher-ups at Luzhou Telecommunications felt that Zhao Maolin was just plain lucky. He had managed to get where he was today by riding Kang Yiping's coattails with one hand while latching onto Chen Yansen with the other.

"Let's get to business," Chen Yansen said, getting straight to the point.

"How did you know I had more good news?" Zhao Maolin asked, slightly surprised.

"It takes a father to know his son," Chen Yansen quipped.

Zhao Maolin didn't get angry. He just laughed and shot back, "First it was Manager Zhao, then Brother Zhao, and now this? Okay, okay, no more joking around. Let's talk business."

He took a breath and announced gravely, "We got our 4G license. President Kang put Orange Technology on the list for the first wave of partnerships."

"Please thank President Kang for me!" Chen Yansen replied instantly.

This was an opportunity for Tiangong Technology to be deeply involved in the debugging process for its in-house baseband chip, which would in turn help perfect the product's design.

The mobile phone is the user terminal, responsible for initiating and receiving communication requests.

The baseband chip is the "communications translator" of the mobile phone, responsible for processing the encoding, decoding, and protocol interaction of communication signals.

The carrier's base station is the network node, responsible for receiving and transmitting mobile phone signals.

You can't develop a good product in a vacuum. Huawei was only able to develop its Balrog Baseband thanks to the cooperation and support of network carriers.

The message Kang Yiping had Zhao Maolin relay was simple: he intended to deepen their partnership with Orange Technology, leveraging the market appeal of the Orange Mobile Phone to capture a larger share of the 4G market for his company.

In other words, Orange Mobile Phone's next product launch would have to mark the transition from the 3G to the 4G era!