Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

123: Chapter 123 The Bloody Massacre of the Capital Market9:15 AM, A-share pre-market bidding.

Spark Technology’s buy/sell order data looked like a disaster scene:

Sell Tier 1: 3850 yuan, 260,000 lots (35 billion yuan)

Sell Tier 2: 3840 yuan, 240,000 lots

Sell Tier 3: 3830 yuan, 220,000 lots...

Buy Tier 1: 3750 yuan, 50,000 lots (18.7 billion yuan)

The buy-sell power ratio was 7:1; the bears were completely crushing the bulls.

In the CICC trading room, the trading supervisor yelled into the phone: ’All client orders, list them all at the limit-down price! Run as much as you can!’

’Supervisor, this will trigger a panic sell-off...’

’If we don’t, we’ll die even worse! Hurry!’

9:25 AM, bidding ended. Opening price: 3850 yuan, down 3.75% from yesterday’s close of 3998 yuan.

But this was just the beginning.

9:30 AM, continuous bidding started.

The 3850 yuan price point was instantly broken. Sell orders surged like a breached dam:

3840, 3830, 3820...

10:00 AM, broke below 3800 yuan.

’Margin call forced liquidation has started!’ someone shouted in the trading room.

Spark Technology has 42 billion yuan in margin financing, with warning lines concentrated at 3800-3900 yuan. Once broken, brokerages will force liquidation, triggering a chain reaction.

10:15 AM, 3780 yuan.

10:30 AM, 3750 yuan.

11:00 AM, broke below 3700 yuan, decline expanded to 8%.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange issued an emergency announcement: ’According to trading rules, effective immediately, margin buying of Spark Technology is suspended.’

But it was already too late. Panic spread like a virus, from Spark to the entire tech sector, then to the entire A-share market.

1:00 PM, trading resumed with further declines.

1:30 PM, 3680 yuan.

2:00 PM, 3650 yuan.

2:30 PM, 3620 yuan.

Just when everyone thought it would hit the limit-down, at 2:50 PM, mysterious buy orders suddenly appeared.

100,000 lots, 200,000 lots, 500,000 lots... Large orders were bought continuously, and the stock price was pulled back straight up.

3:00 PM closing, 3680 yuan, a single-day drop of 8%.

Trading volume 368 billion yuan, setting a record high since Spark’s listing. Market value evaporated by 352 billion yuan in a single day.

The Dragon and Tiger List showed: The top five sellers were all hot money seats, selling a total of 58 billion yuan. Among the top five buyers, four were ’institutional accounts,’ but the amounts were not large.

’The National Team has entered, but they are very restrained,’ Shen Nanpeng analyzed. ’They are providing a floor, but not forcefully pulling it up. This sends a signal: The state will support, but will not provide unlimited bailouts.’

Su Chen nodded: ’Reasonable. The real test lies within ourselves.’

Shanghai Municipality, at Wang Jianguo’s home.

This fifty-something former taxi driver turned ride-hailing driver didn’t go out to drive today. He sat in front of the computer, looking at the numbers in his stock account, his hands shaking.

At the morning opening, his 5,000 shares of Spark Technology were worth 20 million.

At closing, they were worth 18.4 million.

In one day, he lost 1.6 million.

His wife sat on the sofa wiping tears: ’Jianguo, sell it. 18.4 million is enough for our family to spend for generations. Buy a good house, prepare a wedding house for our son, and put the rest in the bank to collect interest...’

’I’m not selling,’ Wang Jianguo gritted his teeth, eyes fixed on the screen. ’Selling now is helping foreigners beat the Chinese people.’

’But what if it falls further? What if it drops to 1000? Or 500?’

’Then let it fall,’ Wang Jianguo stood up. ’When I bought Spark, the stock price was 1 yuan. It rose to 3900 and I didn’t sell, so I won’t sell even if it falls back.’

He walked to his wife and crouched down: ’Wife, I know you’re scared. But some things are more important than money. Spark makes our own Chinese chips, our own cars. If even we don’t support them, who will?’

His wife looked at him, tears flowing even more, but she said nothing more.

Wang Jianguo returned to the computer, opened the stock forum, and posted a thread:

’I, Wang Jianguo, hold 5,000 shares of Spark, and I haven’t sold a single share. I lost 1.6 million today, it hurts, but I don’t regret it. If Spark falls, the Chinese chip dream is shattered. What is my little bit of money? Su Chen is betting his life. You can run if you want, but I will accompany Spark to the end.’

The post went out, and instantly there were hundreds of replies:

’Old Wang is tough!’

’I’m not selling either, I’ll hold on with Spark!’

’I sold today, but after reading Old Wang’s post, I’ll buy it back tomorrow!’

’China needs Spark, we need a backbone!’

Wang Jianguo looked at these replies, his eyes reddened.

In this era of capital carnival and panic, there are still some things more important than money.

11:47 PM, Su Chen’s office.

Everyone had left, only he remained. Outside the window, Shenzhen was still brightly lit, but those lights seemed so distant at this moment.

On the desk lay today’s loss report: business cut in half, stock price plummeted, all partners lost. Three years ago, on that cold winter night, he stood in the broken office of the tech park, and he hadn’t felt this desperate.

Back then, he had nothing, so he wasn’t afraid of losing. Now that he had a 4 trillion market value, 100,000 employees, and the expectations of the entire country, he was afraid.

Afraid of letting them down.

Just as his despair reached its peak, a bright red halo suddenly appeared before his eyes.

It wasn’t a hallucination, it was a real light and shadow—just like that night three years ago.

The halo quickly condensed into a system interface, the edges flickering with a red warning border, like the heartbeat line of a critically ill patient on a cardiac monitor.

[Emergency Mission Issued: Resist Sanctions]

[Mission Status: Forced Acceptance (Countdown 59 seconds)]

Su Chen was stunned. This system had been silent for too long, so long that he had almost forgotten its existence. In the past three years, the system only gave rewards when he made major breakthroughs and rarely issued missions proactively.

And now, at his most desperate moment, it appeared.

The text on the interface continued to appear:

[Mission Description: Under the comprehensive blockade of the United States and its allies, maintain the survival of Spark Technology Group and ensure the operation of core businesses]

[Time Limit: 6 months (December 9, 2017, 0:00 - June 8, 2018, 24:00)]

[Survival Standards (Must all be met):]

Group consolidated revenue not less than 50% of pre-sanction levels (over 150 billion yuan)

Core team turnover rate not exceeding 20% (currently 1527 core technical personnel)

At least three main product lines maintained in normal production (chips, batteries, materials, military industry, automobiles)

Stock price not lower than 2000 yuan/share

[Failure Penalty:]

System unbinds, permanent offline

All technologies exchanged through the system will lose the ’rationalization barrier’—the rewarded scientists will take back related memories and abilities, and the source of the technology will be unexplainable to the outside world.

The host’s commercial reputation and social evaluation will significantly decrease

Seeing the ’Failure Penalty,’ Su Chen’s heart stopped for a second. Losing the system wasn’t scary; what was scary was the third point—if those technologies suddenly lost the ’rationalization barrier,’ the outside world would find that Spark’s technology source was unexplainable. At that time, what awaited him wouldn’t be a Nobel Prize, but a laboratory and an interrogation room. If the system’s scientists disappeared, he couldn’t explain the technical source of these products.

But when he saw the ’Mission Reward,’ his breath stopped for even longer.

[Mission Rewards (All):]

14nm FinFET chip full set of technology and process flow (including design, manufacturing, packaging, testing)

16nm immersion lithography machine manufacturing technology (including complete blueprints for optical systems, precision machinery, control software)

1 set of 16nm chip demonstration production line (equipment list + installation and debugging guide + operation manual)

Formulas for chip production auxiliary materials and consumables (12 major categories including photoresist, polishing liquid, special gases, silicon wafers, etc.)

These rewards, any one of them would be enough to change the fate of the Chinese semiconductor industry. Getting them all meant that China would possess a complete 14nm chip industrial chain from materials and equipment to design and manufacturing.

And completely autonomous, completely controllable.

The countdown was still ticking: 30 seconds, 29 seconds, 28 seconds...

Su Chen closed his eyes. Images of the past three years flashed through his mind: Li Weimin working overtime in the lab, Zhang Wei crying at the airport when returning from the US, Zhou Qingyu working overtime at the Red Flag factory, Wu Yi’s nervousness at the material press conference...

And those young engineers, those ordinary people who believed in Spark, who believed in Chinese technology.

When he opened his eyes again, only 10 seconds remained in the countdown.

He didn’t need to think anymore.

’Accept.’

The moment the words fell, the bright red warning border turned into a soft blue. The system interface refreshed:

[Mission Accepted]

[Countdown: 179 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds]

[Current Progress: 0/100]

The interface faded, leaving a line of text at the end:

[Remember, you are never fighting alone. The host can use the system to exchange for era-surpassing technology. Technology exchanged within the next 180 days will be 20% off. Current system cashback funds: 30 billion.]

Su Chen stared blankly at that line of text until it completely disappeared.

The office fell back into silence, with only the ticking of the clock on the wall. Outside the window, in Shenzhen, the night was as deep as ink.

He walked to the window and looked at the city. On the distant Shencheng Bay Bridge, cars were still driving, their taillights drawing red ribbons of light in the night.

Six months, 179 days.

Either create a miracle or fall into the abyss.

But at least now, he had a weapon to fight with—not money, not power, but hope.

His phone vibrated, it was a message from Lin Wan: ’President Su, just received news that the Ministry of Science and Technology, MIIT, and SASAC will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss a plan to support Spark.’

Su Chen replied: ’Received. Tell everyone: Spark will not fall. The worst of times is also the best of beginnings.’

After sending it, he sat back down at his desk, opened a blank document, and started writing a new plan.

The title was: ’Spark Technology Autonomous and Controllable Supply Chain Construction Plan (Six-Month Emergency Plan)’

Outside the window, the darkest moment of the night was about to pass.

On the eastern horizon, the first ray of morning light was struggling to pierce through the clouds.

A new day, a new battle, had begun.