Chapter 665: A 10 Million Stock Option Reward! Total Sales: 70.84 Million, Revenue: 102.74 Billion

September 2nd, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

In a conference room at Tiangong Technology’s headquarters, Mike Keller, Zhou Shouzhi, Wang Teng, and Wu Shengyu were seated on either side of Chen Yansen.

“The Celestial Craft A100’s processor module uses the Tianhe 64-bit heterogeneous multi-core architecture, which we’ve named the Tianhe-100. Its core configuration is four 2.7GHz Tianhe-100 super cores and four 1.8GHz Tianhe-100 performance cores. Compared to the Snapdragon 800, its single-thread performance is 60% higher, and its branch predictor accuracy is 40% greater than the Cortex-A15…”

Mike Keller explained slowly.

A steady stream of technical terms flowed from his mouth.

The CPU module was called Tianhe-100, the GPU module was Profound Core, the memory subsystem was Hidden Dragon, the AI acceleration module was Flowing Fire, and the communications baseband was Wild Goose.

Clearly, Wu Shengyu had put a lot of thought into the names.

Roughly sixty percent of the technology in the Celestial Craft A100 was self-developed, twenty percent was obtained through cross-licensing patents with companies like Huawei, ZTE, and NVIDIA, ten percent was purchased outright, and the remaining ten percent skirted the edge of infringement.

“Good work.” Chen Yansen nodded slightly, then instructed Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze, “The new product launch has been pushed from fall to winter, all because we’re waiting on the Celestial Craft A100 and the Yaocheng X2. Finish the collaborative development as soon as possible. The iPhone 5s is about to be released. Orange can’t just be a deserter, can it?”

“Boss, if we’re just looking at domestic shipment volume, the combined sales of the Orange and Yaocheng series may have already surpassed the total for the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5,” Zhou Shouzhi said with a smile.

“But our sales revenue is far behind, and our gross profit doesn’t compare to Apple’s. Zhou, in my eyes, Orange Technology has only truly been founded as of today. Understand?”

Chen Yansen looked at Zhou Shouzhi, his expression grave as he laid out his point.

Before this, Orange Technology was essentially just a phone assembly company.

“Boss, I understand,” Zhou Shouzhi replied with a smile.

‘The boss has grand ambitions. As the company grows, the value of my stock options and my status in the industry will naturally rise with it. As the CEO of Orange Technology, no one understands the company’s timeline and plans for its IPO better than I do. Once the Yaocheng series has the Celestial Craft A100 Chip, Deep Blue Battery, Aurora Future OS, fast-charging technology, and the Moss Voice Assistant, won’t it be more than enough to compete with Mountain Star and Apple? Chen Yansen mentioned in the last meeting that the company planned to initiate its IPO in the first quarter of 2014. Once Orange Technology’s market share surpasses Apple’s, or even Mountain Star’s, its market capitalization could very well break a trillion US dollars. My personal net worth will skyrocket, giving me the equivalent of ten, even dozens of years’ salary all at once. I’ll be rich overnight!’

The thought filled Zhou Shouzhi with motivation.

“By the way, have all the R&D engineers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory re-sign their employment contracts with Tiangong Technology.”

Chen Yansen ordered in a level tone.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll see to it.”

Zhou Shouzhi quickly agreed.

Not long after the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was founded, Chen Yansen had spun it off from Orange Technology. Nominally, it operated out of the same office building and used the same administrative, HR, legal, and financial systems, but it belonged to a different company.

Merging it with Tiangong Technology this time was perfectly reasonable.

After all, constantly fleecing Orange Technology wasn’t a good look, especially since DST Capital still held a 15% stake.

Chen Yansen had forcibly broken up one massive company into several smaller ones.

Now, the most valuable departments left in Orange Technology were the Orange Mall, the Orange Intelligent Life Halls (i.e., the offline sales network), the Operating System Department, and the Industrial and Hardware R&D Department.

Meanwhile, the Orange Phone Factory, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Tiangong Technology were all sole proprietorships owned by Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen grunted in acknowledgment, then stood up. His gaze swept over everyone in the room before he spoke with great solemnity:

“Results are more important than the process. A good product doesn’t necessarily achieve good results. Until the first month’s sales figures for the Yaocheng X2 are out, I expect everyone to remain highly focused and win this most critical battle for Orange Technology.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the executives from Orange Technology and Tiangong Technology responded in unison.

Chen Yansen gave a faint smile and turned to leave the conference room.

Meng Yun gathered her files and hurried after him.

Zhou Shouzhi, Wang Teng, and the others followed close behind.

“Boss, the Orange Technology weekly meeting is scheduled for 2:30 PM in conference room A8 in Building 9.”

Meng Yun said as she walked, updating Chen Yansen on his next appointment.

“Schedule a meeting for me with Yu Chendong from Huawei and He Boting from Hisilicon.”

Chen Yansen said casually.

In terms of product performance, the Celestial Craft A100 surpassed the Snapdragon 800 in graphics processing, digital signals, wireless connectivity, video processing, and power management. Naturally, it could also easily crush Hisilicon’s K3V3.

But how was Tiangong Technology supposed to compete with Qualcomm, MediaTek, and NVIDIA?

The answer was simple: poach their customers!

If he could win over Huawei, he would contact ZTE next.

The Celestial Craft A100 was just the beginning. Next, Mike Keller and Wu Shengyu would continue to expand the A-series chip products to cover the high-end, mid-range, and low-end sectors.

Therefore, the Celestial Craft A100 was aimed at the high-end market.

For the next two years, the processors in Orange Mobile Phones would be a mix of self-developed and purchased chips. High-end models would use the Celestial Craft A100, mid-range models would use Qualcomm Snapdragon, and for low-end models, the no-brainer choice was MediaTek’s A7 processor.

Additionally, NVIDIA’s Tegra series, which they were clearing out, was also a good option for Qingcheng phones.

This was evident from the explosive sales of the Meitu 1s and the 360 F1 Mini. Users of the former only cared about camera quality and were indifferent to processor performance; users of the latter only looked at the price, and no one cared whether the processor was good or bad.

Besides, the Tegra 3’s performance wasn’t bad. Although it had a ton of flaws, it was, after all, a flagship chip that NVIDIA had launched two years prior.

Putting it inside a thousand-yuan phone was an absolute bargain for the user.

Hearing this, Meng Yun nodded repeatedly and quickly jotted it down.

When Chen Yansen returned to his office, the administration department had just placed his lunch on his desk: three dishes and a soup, steaming with hot white vapor.

Before long, Yu Chendong received the news: Chen Yansen intended to sell the Celestial Craft A100 Chip to Huawei.

‘How could this kid’s R&D be so fast?’

Yu the Big Mouth narrowed his eyes, a look of utter shock appearing on his face.

‘On what grounds!’

Hisilicon had spent so many years just to painstakingly release the K3V3, and the upcoming Kirin 910, which was about to be taped out, was the culmination of the blood, sweat, and tears of countless Huawei employees.

It was the first SoC chip they had produced, and it was also the first to integrate their own Balong 710 baseband.

Yet the Celestial Craft A100 had only taken a year from start to finish to surpass the Kirin 910’s progress. Yu Chendong found this incredibly difficult to comprehend.

‘Could it be a shoddily made product?’

‘For instance, terrible performance, worrying heat generation, a high failure rate, and so on.’

But on second thought, Chen Yansen’s ventures were always top-quality. ‘Would the man tarnish his own reputation?’

‘Definitely not!’

After clearing his thoughts, he knocked on the door to Ren Zhongfei’s office.

At the same time, Hisilicon President He Boting also learned of the Celestial Craft A100’s development progress. Just as he was about to report to Ren Zhongfei, he received a video conference invitation from the group’s upper management.

The meeting was short, but the topic was crucial.

Ren Zhongfei’s intention was crystal clear: first, get a sample of the Celestial Craft A100. If its performance was up to par, they would purchase a batch.

The processors used in Huawei and Honor phones, aside from their self-developed Hisilicon chips, also included products from Qualcomm and MediaTek. Adding the Celestial Craft A100 was hardly a major change, and neither was forgoing it.

Ren Zhongfei also wanted to see for himself just how capable this domestically self-developed chip really was—the one Chen Yansen claimed had 50% better overall performance than the Snapdragon 800.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen finished his lunch, rested for a bit, and at 2:25 PM, at Meng Yun’s reminder, he headed for conference room A8.

At the beginning of the year, he had set a goal for Zhou Shouzhi: if annual global sales exceeded 100 million units, he would issue another 10 million stock options to all employees of Orange Technology. Everyone, from top to bottom, would get a share.

Of course, the exact number of options would be determined by a comprehensive evaluation based on that year’s performance reviews, job level, and years of service.

Based on Orange Technology’s current business scale, this batch of options was worth a total of 400 to 500 million US dollars.

And with Orange Technology’s global workforce numbering just over 4,000, if divided equally, that would be over 100,000 US dollars per person.

This was the main reason for Orange Technology’s extremely rapid expansion in the European market and the explosive growth of its offline sales network.

Three minutes later, Chen Yansen pushed open the frosted glass door of the conference room.

Zhou Shouzhi, Wang Teng, Yan Peng, Ye Qiuping, Ding Houmeng, and the others were already seated.

“Boss!”

Chen Yansen nodded in acknowledgment and sat down directly.

On the LED screen at the front of the room, the core business metrics for Orange Technology from January to September were displayed. This included the mobile phone business, as well as smart devices, computers, phone accessories, and the Starshine Card business.

“Let’s begin.”

Chen Yansen said after glancing at the data.

“Boss, President Zhou, let’s start with the mobile phone business. For Q1 to Q3, the cumulative global shipment volume was 70.84 million units. The domestic market accounted for 61.64 million units, while the overseas market accounted for 9.2 million. The African region contributed 64.1% of that performance, the Eastern Europe region 27.5%, the Western Europe region 7.2%, and regions like Korea and Tianzhu made up the remaining 1.2%.”

As usual, Yan Peng was the one responsible for reporting the core data.

“The best-selling models in overseas markets, ranked by sales volume, are the Qingcheng D2, Orange C3, and Orange C3S. The Yaocheng X1’s total sales were only 73,000 units, concentrated mainly in the European market.”

Yan Peng reported in a steady, unhurried voice.

Chen Yansen looked at the data report on the screen, where specific sales figures were listed after each model name.

The modified Qingcheng D2, which had an added SIM card slot, increased battery capacity, an extra spare battery, and enhanced speaker volume and camera algorithms, had sold like crazy in the African and Eastern European markets at a price of 139 US dollars per unit.

“In the domestic market, low-end models accounted for 71% of sales, while mid-to-high-end models accounted for 29%. Sales for the Qingcheng D2 were 29.37 million units, and sales for the Qingcheng D2 SE were 13.02 million units. The Yaocheng series sold 4.597 million units, the Orange C3S sold 13.283 million units, and older models like the Orange C3 and Orange C2 had combined sales of 1.37 million units.”

After finishing his report on sales figures, Yan Peng swiped his finger across the touchpad, moving the cursor to the revenue column.

The total revenue for the mobile phone business in the first three quarters of 2013 was 102.74 billion yuan.