In the office, Xu Chuan turned on his computer, logged into his mailbox to deal with some emails that had accumulated in the past two months, and waited for Musk to come over.
For him, contact with Musk is not just about the aerospace technology in his hands.
After all, no matter how advanced the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle is, no matter how powerful the performance of the starship is, it is just a younger brother in front of the Xinghai space shuttle, which uses small controllable nuclear fusion reactors and aerospace engines as its core technology.
The only things that can arouse his interest are the life support units, communication technology, nanoscale dynamics and other detailed technologies in the starship.
However, these things are not necessarily necessary for him.
After all, in the current aerospace field, payload capacity is the most critical core foundation. Once this is solved, everything else will be easy to talk about.
But Musk doesn’t only have SpaceX in his hands.
In addition to the most famous Tesla and SpaceX, he has investments and companies in the fields of aviation, new energy, artificial intelligence, bioscience, brain-computer interface and VR helmets.
And therein lies what he wants.
...
After waiting for a few minutes, heavy footsteps could be heard outside the office.
Then, the door to the inner room was pushed open by Tang Ran, and Musk, wearing a plaid shirt commonly used by programmers, walked in with a bright smile on his face.
"Professor Xu, you are now out of isolation."
After saying hello with a smile, Musk then congratulated: "Congratulations on solving a problem that has plagued academia for hundreds of years."
Xu Chuan stood up and walked out from behind his desk, stretched out his hand to shake Musk's hand, and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I kept you waiting for a long time due to my previous breach of contract."
"No, no, no, Professor Xu, please don't say that."
Musk shook his head quickly and said: "Although I don't understand the unified theory of strong electricity, for civilization, let alone two months, it doesn't matter if I wait two more years or ten years.
relation."
Xu Chuan smiled, stretched out his hand and made a polite gesture of invitation, and said, "Please sit down first."
The two sat down opposite each other on the sofa. Tang Ran, who was outside, opened the door and walked over, making a cup of fragrant green tea for the two of them before respectfully exiting the room.
After chatting for a while, Xu Chuan finally couldn't stand this kind of 'nonsense' among businessmen.
After all, although Musk holds the title of ‘Chief Engineer’ of SpaceX, he is ultimately a businessman. His ability to talk about familiar topics is probably not enough for ten of him.
After coughing slightly, Xu Chuan said directly: "Mr. Ma is also a busy man. I guess you didn't come here just to chat with me today, so you'd better not waste your time on such irrelevant things."
Hearing this unconventional statement, Musk was slightly stunned.
But he quickly reacted, nodded with a smile and said, "Professor Xu said yes, so I'll just do it more simply."
After a slight pause, he looked at Xu Chuan with a serious look on his face, and then said: "I believe Professor Xu, you know very well that in addition to SpaceX, I have other companies under my name, such as Tesla.
car."
"Before coming here, I did some research and found out that the lithium-sulfur battery technology developed by the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute under your name, Professor Xu, does not seem to have been licensed to foreign car or battery manufacturers."
"So I want to talk to you about the licensing of lithium-sulfur battery technology. If I need to obtain the lithium-sulfur battery technology from you, what conditions are required, or how much gold is required?"
Hearing this request, Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It depends on what conditions you can give."
Seeing an expression of hesitation on Musk's face, he continued: "To be honest, I was not prepared to license lithium-sulfur battery technology to foreign manufacturers at the beginning."
"After all, you also know very well that for the battery industry and even for various countries, lithium-sulfur batteries are a trump card to accelerate the deployment of new energy fields."
"Tesla... is a huge threat to the development of China's automobile manufacturers."
"So, I need you to give me a reason that can impress me."
Xu Chuan named Tesla as a threat, but Musk didn't pay attention.
He knows very well that if this person really directly refused to license lithium-sulfur batteries to foreign manufacturers, he would not be sitting here now.
And since the two of them were sitting face to face, it naturally meant that they still had to talk.
But what he has to pay may be more than he expected before coming here.
After thinking quickly in his mind, Musk said: "For a scholar like Professor Xu, it doesn't make much sense to directly talk about whether I can give you a large sum of money."
"And if I had to give a reason, it would be very simple."
"China needs Tesla, and the people of China also need Tesla's existence."
"I believe Professor Xu knows very well that capitalists are all profit-seeking, and I am no exception."
"Of course, but compared to those guys who only make money, I still have some dreams. For example, SpaceX, such as OpenAI."
"Ahem... Back to the topic, if Tesla is lost, or Tesla is no longer competitive, I have enough reasons to judge that the prices of cars and lithium-sulfur batteries will continue to rise in China."
"And I can guarantee that if we can obtain lithium-sulfur battery technology authorization, then I can guarantee the price of new energy vehicles in China."
"Regarding this, normative requirements can be made through contract documents."
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "The catfish effect."
Today he is willing to contact Musk. In fact, there are reasons for this.
As for why he didn’t take the initiative to bring it up, he naturally wanted to see if Musk had any thoughts on this aspect.
Now it seems that although it is not very high-level, after all, Musk is willing to help control the domestic new energy vehicle market because of the lithium-sulfur battery technology in his hands.
But at least it's good to have such an idea.
Although he can also do this by force with the technology he has at his disposal, this kind of thing is like the government directly regulating the market and economic development. Once or twice is fine, but more is not a good thing.
This has caused domestic manufacturers to complain, so it would be better to leave it to market competition.
At least, compared to those domestic manufacturers who like to join together in groups, Musk is an outsider.
"right."
Musk nodded and said with a smile: "Without Tesla, all owners of lithium-sulfur batteries will be Chinese manufacturers. This is not very good news, especially for ordinary people."
After a slight pause, he turned to flatter him smoothly.
"If I were asked to pick three people I admire the most in this world, then Professor Xu, you must be one of them."
"You are not only a great scholar, but also a saint who works for the benefit of the general public. Everything you do is more willing to be considered from the perspective of the general public. I admire this very much.
, because I can’t do it. After all, I am a businessman and a capitalist, and I need to consider the interests of myself and the company.”
"Including SpaceX, although it carries my dream, it is still developing in the future of profitability."
Originally still listening to Musk's analysis, he suddenly shifted to flattering himself... This caught Xu Chuan off guard.
However, he has heard a lot of this type of talk. Although he is not completely immune, he at least has some resistance.
After coughing slightly, he nodded and said, "I have to say, from this aspect, you did give me a reason to authorize lithium-sulfur battery technology."
"In that case, let's talk about the price next."
Although it did impress him, it is impossible for Musk to use lithium-sulfur battery technology for free.
Musk nodded and said with a smile: "Of course."
After thinking for a moment, he looked at Xu Chuan and said, "How about the annual technology licensing fee of two billion meters of gold?"
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "If it is only used on your Tesla car."
Hearing this condition, Musk frowned. The conditions proposed by Xu Chuan can be said to be difficult for him to accept.
Battery technology is a very important basic technology, whether it is for new energy vehicles or other fields, it is extremely important.
If this were not the case, he would not come to China to negotiate in person.
However, the right to use lithium-sulfur batteries is restricted and can only be applied to Tesla cars...
After thinking for a while, Musk frowned and looked at Xu Chuan across from him, and said bitterly and helplessly: "Professor Xu, are your conditions a little too harsh?"
"The annual licensing fee of two billion meters of gold, I think this price should be far beyond the domestic cooperative manufacturers you license."
Picking up the tea on the tea table and taking a sip, Xu Chuan smiled and said: "I am a Chinese, so of course I have to give some discounts to my compatriots. I think you should be able to understand this."
After a slight pause, he continued: "If it is difficult for you to accept such conditions, I have a better cooperation plan, do you want to hear it?"
"please."
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Similar to domestic manufacturers, we will jointly establish a production plant through technical cooperation and share profits from sales."
After a slight pause, he looked at Musk and said with a smile: "However, in addition to the funds for building the factory and other things that I need from you, I also need something in your hand."
Hearing Xu Chuan's words, Musk's heart skipped a beat, and his mind couldn't help but become alert.
The potential value of the thing targeted by this person will definitely exceed the two billion meters of gold he paid.
But lithium-sulfur batteries are a technology he must strive for.
Without this, Tesla will lose a lot of competitiveness in the market competition in the next few years.
In addition, the battery itself is a huge market. If he can enter, the income will definitely not be small.
There was silence for a while in the office. Musk took a deep breath, relaxed his frown, put a smile on his face again, and asked.
"what do you want?"
To be honest, with the absolute overwhelming advantage of technology, the negotiation conditions he had were of little use, and the initiative was not in his hands.
So instead of continuing to struggle, you might as well ask him what he wants.
Even if Xu Chuan proposes to invest in Tesla or SpaceX, he will seriously consider it.
Of course, the premise is that it can pass the review by the business manager and... does not affect his power in the company.
Xu Chuan smiled and said calmly: "I want your brain-computer interface company 'Neuralink'."
Hearing this, Musk was slightly stunned and a little surprised.
He originally thought that Xu Chuan would be interested in the Tesla or SpaceX companies he held.
Unexpectedly, what he was interested in was the brain-computer interface company 'Neuralink', which was not very famous in China or even in the world.
This request only made things difficult for him.
Frowning, Musk quickly thought about the details of the 'Neuralink' company in his mind.
This little-known company was founded in 2016 and was founded by him himself.
Mainly dedicated to the research of brain-computer interface technology, it is developing a brain implant. Through invasive brain-computer interface technology, tiny electrodes are implanted in the brain, and current is used to allow the computer and brain cells to "interact", thereby
Implement virtual reality technology.
In addition, there are some medical studies, such as implanting chips to help paralyzed people walk again, curing other neurological diseases, etc.
In the seven or eight years since its establishment, Neuralink has announced a number of research results, including the development of the "brain-machine neural mesh" device N1, implanted chip device Link V0.9, surgical robot V2, etc.
But strictly speaking, these results actually do not have much commercial value.
It's very simple, because the current brain-computer interface technology is not mature enough.
As of the end of last year, most of the equipment produced by Neuralink was still in the animal testing stage.
As for market value...
He recalled that so far, Neuralink has gone through several rounds of financing. Before the D round, most of it came from himself.
The D round of financing is the first large-scale introduction of 280 million yuan of investment led by Founders Fund, an American fund institution. The current market value is estimated to be around 5-6 billion yuan.
Of course, market value is not the key. If we can obtain cooperation authorization for lithium-sulfur battery technology, the number of 5 to 6 billion meters of gold is not much.
only.....
Musk doesn’t quite understand why Professor Xu suddenly focused on Neuralink?
Even though he thought about it for a long time, he still couldn't figure out what new technology in Neuralink was worthy of Professor Xu's concern.
But he did not dare to despise this request.
What if there is technology in Neuralink that he doesn’t know about? It might be a big loss.
But this doesn’t make sense, does it?
Neuralink has not entered China, and is currently in the technology research and development stage. Is it possible that Xu Chuan, an outsider, can understand the company in his hands better than him?
This unscientific.
After thinking for a long time, he was still puzzled. After hesitating for a moment, Musk looked up at Xu Chuan and asked curiously: "Can I ask what you want to do with Neuralink Brain-Computer Interface Company?"
Xu Chuan took a sip from the tea cup, moistened his throat and said with a smile, "You should know that I have a sister, right?"
Musk thought for a moment and said: "That Xu Xiao?"
Although Xu Xiao is not famous, as his biological sister, he naturally knew her before coming here.
If he remembered correctly, the sister named Xu Xiao seemed to be still studying?
Xu Chuan nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, Xu Xiao is studying in this direction. She should graduate in about half a year."
"As a graduation gift, I think Neuralink Brain-Computer Interface Company would be a very good choice."
