Chapter 232 Konzern
As they chatted, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing tidied up their things, getting ready to head back to their respective offices.
Just as Su Yuanshan was about to leave, Chen Jing suddenly called out to him:
"By the way, my brother still plans to set up a small design team to work on a laptop project. It'll be a tiny team, just two or three people.
He wants them based here at the tech park from the start. See if your Senior Brother can spare a group to assist."
Chen Jing spread her hands helplessly.
"I don't know much about R&D. And besides, your Senior Brother still needs to support your dad's supercomputer project..."
Su Yuanshan stopped immediately, turning to look at her seriously.
Chen Jing blinked, checking herself for any issue. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing..." Su Yuanshan smiled and said,
"Thank you, Sister Jing."
Chen Jing cleared her throat awkwardly.
"What are you thanking me for? Anyway, I think the combination of YX architecture and Linux... the biggest problem is the software ecosystem.
The market outlook isn't promising. If it doesn't lose money, we should be thankful."
"I understand," Su Yuanshan said.
"We'll aim for business laptops targeted at specific industries, like chip design and software development — both fields already heavily support Linux.
Later, we can expand with Linux network applications.
Worst case, we use the laptops internally for our own employees."
Su Yuanshan returned to his office, sat down, and exhaled deeply.
He could guess: this wasn't Chen Daohua's idea.
It was Chen Jing's doing.
Chen Daohua's attitude toward laptops had always been lukewarm.
First, because laptops were essentially entire systems — meaning massive R&D investment.
Without VOODOO graphics cards hitting their profit targets yet, venturing into new territory would only amplify risk.
Second, because Meijie's motherboard technology was under constant pressure from island competitors.
To maintain Meijie's high-end image, Daohua needed to pour resources into tech upgrades.
Currently, Meijie had set ambitious goals: motherboard energy efficiency, dual BIOS, USB integration, built-in audio and networking, and even collaboration with SiS to integrate a 2D graphics core directly into chipsets.
Su Yuanshan knew all of this — he had even offered advice on some points.
Meijie had regained its top position among motherboard manufacturers, both technologically and market-wise.
But precisely because of that, they had to double down on securing their lead in motherboards.
As for Yuanxin directly launching a laptop brand?
It wasn't strategically or technically viable yet.
Thus, Chen Jing must have persuaded her brother to assign a few engineers to team up with Yuanxin's people and quietly get the project rolling.
After a short rest, Su Yuanshan picked up the phone and called his father.
...
After dinner, Duan Yongping and his apprentice and deputy, Cao Xiaoliang, took a stroll along the artificial lake.
Cao Xiaoliang, who had graduated in '92, was technically his junior.
But after entering the factory and following Duan's lead, he was considered his disciple.
Hearing the laughter from across the lake, Cao Xiaoliang said enviously:
"No wonder I heard that the CPU guys didn't even want to move to Shanghai. They just want to stay here...
This work environment is not something you see in normal companies."
"And the salaries are insanely good too," Duan Yongping chuckled.
"President Shan is a true idealist — and the crazy thing is, he might actually pull it off."
"What's President Shan's ideal?"
Duan Yongping looked toward the peach orchard behind the Pandora Lab, thought for a moment, and said:
"Hard to say for sure. But one thing's certain — he's building a Konzern."
"A Konzern?"
Cao Xiaoliang tried to recall the political economy lessons he had barely paid attention to in university.
"Isn't that a bit... scary?
Yuanxin is just a research-driven tech company — it's not like they're doing finance and investments."
"Yuanxin might not play finance now," Duan Yongping said,
"but that doesn't mean President Shan won't.
And besides, finance isn't a requirement for becoming a Konzern."
Duan thought back to how he had been shocked during the quarterly meeting when Chen Jing presented report after report from Yuanxin's various subsidiaries...
As long as Yuanxin methodically executed all its current investments and deployments, it was inevitable it would become a behemoth too big to fail.
Whether it was lithography R&D, wafer fabs, chip design, telecom equipment, or communication protocols —
Yuanxin was leading the nation in all these fields.
If Yuanxin collapsed, it would cripple the country's entire tech development.
And yet, even that wasn't the full picture.
In Silicon Valley, Yuanxin's sister company Xinghai was thriving.
Meanwhile, another Yuanxin-affiliated investment company had already quietly invested in over a hundred startups — totaling billions of dollars.
And in Hong Kong, they were laying the groundwork for a global trade agency.
Not to mention, Yuanxin still held shares in Farvision EDA.
Strictly speaking, Farvision and Yuanxin were separate entities now.
But in practice?
Duan Yongping didn't believe for a second that Su Yuanshan didn't still have influence over Jiang Wanchao.
"President Shan is incredible," Duan Yongping said, lighting a cigarette and staring out over the rippling lake.
"Xiaoliang, work hard.
In three to five years, you might be running the mobile division yourself."
Cao Xiaoliang was stunned.
"Huh? What about you, Master?"
"Me?" Duan Yongping laughed.
"Yuanxin's organizational structure is still intentionally compressed.
President Shan said it himself — we're still in a development phase. Stay low-profile."
"Look at the VCD division — pulling in 2 billion in revenue, and it's still just a 'department.'
Even the director isn't ranked as a vice president — though to be fair, that department is factory-based, and the factory director is his senior brother."
"Even the base station division — pulling in tens of billions — is just under a director-level head."
"If that's not low-profile, I don't know what is."
"When this development phase ends, Yuanxin will reorganize into a true international giant.
By then... expecting President Chen Jing alone to hold the line would be impossible.
She'd work herself to death."
Duan Yongping took a long drag on his cigarette, eyes burning with ambition as he looked toward the administrative building.
...
The next day, the commercial division sent detailed activity reports.
The customer feedback alone filled over a dozen faxed pages.
As Duan Yongping had predicted, while Yuanxin's brand recognition was decent, there was still skepticism about its mobile phones.
Some users asked:
"If it's made in China, why is it so expensive?"
Su Yuanshan handed all the gathered issues over to Duan Yongping.
Two days later, Duan Yongping, armed with a polished action plan, officially departed the provincial capital to take full command.
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