Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park. New Year’s Eve.

”Boss, Mr. Hu from the Huake Science Association is on the first floor.”

The receptionist’s sweet voice came through the phone.

”Please show him to the conference room on the fifth floor,” Chen Yansen instructed immediately.

”Yes, Boss.” Tian Tian hung up the phone and, with a smile, turned to Hu Ruihui and his entourage. ”Mr. Hu, please follow me,” she said softly.

”Thank you,” Hu Ruihui said with a nod.

One of the people following behind him muttered under his breath, a look of displeasure on his face, ”So young, but he really puts on airs.”

Hearing this, Hu Ruihui turned and shot the man a fierce glare.

The Huake Science Association and commercial companies operated on different tracks. For them to show respect was a courtesy, not an obligation.

Tian Tian heard it too. Her brow furrowed, and her expression immediately soured.

’In this Science and Technology Park, no one would dare speak about my boss like that.’

Tian Tian took a deep breath, forced a smile, and led Hu Ruihui’s group into the elevator bay.

DING! The elevator doors slowly opened.

”Mr. Hu, a pleasure. I’m Chen Yansen of Orange Technology. This is the chief designer of the Celestial Craft T100, Mike Keller, and this is the lead designer of the Celestial Craft T100, Wu Shengyu.”

Chen Yansen stepped forward and greeted them with a smile.

”Mr. Chen, a pleasure. Sorry to intrude...”

Hu Ruihui was halfway through his sentence when he caught a glimpse of Mike Keller’s face out of the corner of his eye. The words caught in his throat.

”Forgive my forwardness, but Mr. Mike, did you used to work in the chip division at AMD?”

Hu Ruihui raised a hand in an apologetic gesture toward Chen Yansen, then fixed his gaze on Mike Keller and asked his question.

”Oh, Mr. Hu, you know me? I did indeed work at Advanced Micro Devices for six years, where I led the design of the Athlon K8 processor. But that was nine years ago. After that, I went to Apple and led the teams that developed the A4 and A5 chips.”

Mike smiled, not bothering to hide anything as he stated the facts.

After hearing this, Hu Ruihui immediately matched the man’s resume with that of a master chip designer he knew of.

He had assumed it was just someone with the same name, but the reality was completely unexpected.

For a moment, he stood frozen on the spot, his mouth slightly agape, his eyes filled with utter shock.

The dozen or so Huake engineers behind him wore equally stunned expressions.

Seeing this, Wu Shengyu’s lips curved into a slight smile.

’He remembered being just as dumbfounded when he first met Mike Keller.’

It was like the president of Ali Baba suddenly becoming the sales director for some small-time shopping guide e-commerce company. It was surreal.

At Apple’s chip division, Mike Keller’s rank and status were second only to the division head, Johnny Srouji. His skill level and industry influence were on par with a senior principal engineer at Qualcomm.

Whether in the North American Region or the Asian Region, Mike Keller was no unknown.

’So, why did you join Orange Technology?’

Hu Ruihui desperately wanted to ask the question out loud, but as the words reached his lips, he forced himself to hold them back.

’It was best not to ask tactless questions!’

Besides, he was visiting Orange Technology to ask Chen Yansen for a favor.

”Ten years ago, I represented the Science and Technology Association on a study visit to the AMD Company. I never imagined, Mr. Mike, that you would now be a chip designer for Orange Technology.”

Hu Ruihui recovered quickly and shook Mike’s hand.

”In my opinion, the R&D environment at Orange Technology is every bit as good as Apple’s. The Boss’s computer programming skills are especially astonishing. I’m making rapid progress here.”

Mike shrugged and gave a casual reply.

’Chen Yansen’s programming skills?’

’Isn’t he a liberal arts major?’

Hu Ruihui subconsciously turned his gaze to Chen Yansen, his mind filled with questions.

”Mr. Hu, why don’t we sit down and talk?”

Chen Yansen suggested.

”Of course.”

Hu Ruihui gave Chen Yansen a deep look. He faintly sensed the other man’s intentions.

With this in mind, he suddenly turned and took in the expressions of the others.

These guys, usually so proud and arrogant, now had their heads lowered, all their doubts about Orange Technology’s chip research capabilities gone.

To an outsider, Mike Keller was just a chip designer. But to these professionals who had spent years toiling in the field of CPU design, he was without a doubt a titan of the industry.

’So, just what level of skill did Chen Yansen—the man Mike Keller claimed was even better than him—actually possess?’

As for Chen Yansen, he was thinking, ’If you’re not in the chip game, seeing me is like a frog in a well gazing at the moon in the sky. If you are in the chip game, seeing me is like an ant looking up at the vast heavens.’

With a single move, he had completely awed the group, saving himself any potential trouble.

Orange Technology needed collaborators with the right attitude, not condescending, ivory-tower experts.

The rest of the process went extremely smoothly. No one acted up or caused any trouble.

Wu Shengyu took the lead, systematically explaining the Orange Z1 instruction set’s execution conditions, encoding format, register structure, and memory access methods.

The interest in Hu Ruihui’s eyes grew more intense. With nearly thirty years of experience in chip design, it wasn’t hard for him to tell that the Orange Z1’s encoding efficiency was a huge step up from MIPS, which naturally meant its power consumption would also be lower.

”Mr. Chen, would it be possible for us to verify this with simulation tools?” Hu Ruihui requested.

”Of course,” Chen Yansen readily agreed, gesturing for Hu Ruihui and his team to go ahead.

Even the finest wine is hard to sell if it’s hidden down a deep alley; a good product doesn’t always sell well!

As a brand-new CPU architecture standard, the Orange Z1 needed widespread commercial application to be continuously improved and optimized through practice.

Why were the baseband chips from Qualcomm and Huawei so powerful?

It was because they had accumulated over a decade of experience with commercial products in the telecommunications industry, giving them extensive testing and tuning capabilities.

While Hu Ruihui and his team were busy, news reached Huawei that he was visiting Orange Technology.

”President Yu, do you think Orange Technology’s new instruction set patent can match the standard of MIPS?”

He Boting, President of Hisilicon Chip, had called Yu Chendong over to ask.

After all, within Huawei, ”Big Mouth” had the most contact with Chen Yansen and Orange Technology. He had even made a trip to Xucheng not long ago to visit Chen Yansen.

”Based on what I know of Chen Yansen, he never wastes his efforts. However, I heard from a friend in Europe that someone from Orange Technology visited ARM two months ago, most likely to purchase an architecture license. So, I’m not really sure.”

Yu Chendong answered cautiously after a moment of deep thought, his brow furrowed.

The implication was that if Chen Yansen was confident in the Orange Z1, he wouldn’t have gone to ARM to buy a technology patent.

Therefore, the Orange Z1 likely wasn’t very technically advanced, or perhaps it was just a backup technical solution aimed at the IoT chip market.

As for developing a new instruction set technology in under two months, from November to December, that possibility never even crossed Yu Chendong’s mind.

’If even Huawei couldn’t do it, how could Orange Technology possibly manage?’

Yu Chendong was a top science scholar and a Tsinghua University graduate with a master’s in radio engineering; he wasn’t some pure manager who didn’t understand technology.

And precisely because he understood the technology, he overlooked the answer that was closest to the truth.

”ARM’s annual licensing fees are too high,” He Boting sighed, his brows knitted tightly.

Yu Chendong remained silent. He knew just how ruthless ARM’s fees were: tens of millions of US Dollars per year, plus a 1.5% royalty.

For every single Hisilicon Chip, whether sold or used internally, Huawei had to pay a patent usage fee to ARM.

There were free, open-source instruction sets like RISC-V and OpenRISC, but due to issues like power consumption and encoding efficiency, they weren’t suitable as the underlying CPU architecture for Hisilicon.

So, Huawei worked on its own in-house development while reluctantly continuing to pay ARM.

”President He, I don’t think we need to rush. Given Hu Ruihui’s judgment, if the Orange Z1 instruction set meets the research needs of the Huake Science Association, I’m sure we’ll hear news of them purchasing the architecture license soon.”

Yu Chendong said with conviction.

He Boting nodded slightly, suppressing the impulse to contact Orange Technology. He changed the subject, chatting with Yu Chendong about the upcoming launch of the Huawei Ascend P2 and C8813.

Meanwhile, after a full day of verification, Hu Ruihui made an immediate decision: they would purchase the architecture license for the Orange Z1.

”A one-time licensing fee of 10 million, with a 0.5% royalty.”

Chen Yansen stated the price before Hu Ruihui even had a chance to ask.

”US Dollars?”

”Hua Yuan!”

Hu Ruihui sucked in a sharp breath. Not because it was too expensive, but because it was so cheap he could hardly believe it.

”Is this Orange Technology’s standard external pricing?”

Hu Ruihui asked, his curiosity piqued.

”If Huawei were asking, the terms would be doubled,” Chen Yansen replied seriously.

A grin spread across Hu Ruihui’s face, revealing his satisfaction. ”On behalf of the Huake Science Association and the Loongson Project, I thank you for your support, Mr. Chen.”

”Mr. Hu, let me be frank. The contents of the licensing agreement must be kept confidential. To develop the Orange Z1 instruction set, I poached quite a few high-level researchers from integrated circuit companies in Europe and America. The costs were not low, and we do need to turn a profit.”

Chen Yansen spouted this nonsense with a perfectly straight face.

”I understand. In fact, the price the Huake Science Association paid for the MIPS instruction set architecture license wasn’t the 10 million US Dollars that was rumored either,” Hu Ruihui replied with a smile.

”Five million?” Chen Yansen asked with a wry smile.

”What a coincidence. The Huake Science Association also signed a confidentiality agreement with MIPS,” Hu Ruihui replied, beaming.

His subtext was clear: once the Huake Science Association signed the contract with Orange Technology, his lips would be sealed.

”Mr. Hu, a pleasure doing business with you.” Chen Yansen stood up and extended his right hand.

”The pleasure is all mine. I hope Orange Technology can inject new life into the Hua Country’s semiconductor industry.”

Hu Ruihui grasped Chen Yansen’s hand, laughing cheerfully.

”You flatter me, Mr. Hu,” Chen Yansen replied. ”Orange Technology doesn’t have any grand ambitions. We’ll be content if we can just barely surpass Qualcomm and ARM.”

Hu Ruihui’s expression froze for a second before he burst out laughing. He assumed Chen Yansen was joking. It was only then that he couldn’t resist asking, ”Mr. Chen, how on earth did you convince Mike Keller to come to this country?”

’After thinking it over and over, the most logical explanation was that Chen Yansen had either kidnapped his family or obtained some dirt that could utterly ruin Mike Keller’s reputation.’

”Because Orange Technology offers up to triple overtime pay,” Chen Yansen said dismissively.

”Mr. Chen, that joke fell a bit flat.”

Hu Ruihui was a smart man. Seeing that Chen Yansen wasn’t willing to talk, he gave up on pressing the issue.

Chen Yansen invited the people from the Huake Science Association to have dinner with him at the Sky Garden in the city center.

The next morning, the two parties signed the architecture licensing agreement.

And with that, the Huake Science Association became the first external organization in the country to use the Orange Z1 instruction set.

When He Boting of Hisilicon Chip learned of this, he once again sought out Yu Chendong and asked him for an introduction to Chen Yansen.

The fact that Hu Ruihui was willing to pay meant the Orange Z1 instruction set was definitely superior to MIPS in terms of encoding efficiency and power consumption.

That afternoon, Chen Yansen received a call from Yu Chendong. After hearing him out, he agreed to Yu Chendong’s request for a partnership without the slightest hesitation.

Huawei needed Orange Technology’s Orange Z1 instruction set, and Orange Technology needed Huawei’s Balrog Baseband chip as a backup option to Qualcomm.

It was a perfect match!

They scheduled a meeting for January 4th at the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

After seeing off Hu Ruihui and his group, Chen Yansen was just about to leave for the day when Zhou Shouzhi called to report that the revised versions of the Orange C2, Orange C3, and Qingcheng D1S had gone on sale in the Eastern Europe Region. Sales were primarily through carrier channels, supplemented by online channels.

First-day sales reached 19,000 units!

While not a huge number, it wasn’t a bad result for a foreign, non-native mobile phone brand. The bestseller was the Qingcheng D1S, which sold 7,000 units in one day in Beibing Country.

With its moderate specs, powerful camera, and a price tag of just 169 US Dollars, it was extremely popular among young people.

At the same time, Xiaomi was emulating Nokia’s strategy by aggressively building out its offline distribution channels in Tianzhu. By partnering with numerous retailers, they stocked their products in physical stores across the country.

In just one week, they sold 73,000 Xiaomi Mobile Phones!

Excited, Lei Yijun expansively approved a budget for the head of the Tianzhu market, planning to hold a local Xiaomi Fan Festival and give away promotional swag like data cables, headphones, and printed T-shirts to users.

Meanwhile, Cao Dahua, sitting in a Mercedes worth over two million Hua Yuan, drove slowly onto the campus of Xucheng Academy and knocked on the door of Tang Qingshan’s office.