allonlinenovel Chapter 464 Lingyun's Hedging Philosophy
Chapter 464 Lingyun's Hedging Philosophy
Four Seasons Hotel, Central, Hong Kong.
The conference room was on the 46th floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of Victoria Harbour at night. Cargo ships and yachts moved slowly on the water, their lights shimmering and blurring on the surface.
Lingyun stood by the window, holding a glass of plain water in her hand.
The door opened, and Sophia entered first, carrying her ever-present laptop. Li Ziyu followed behind, wearing a dark blue casual suit and carrying two bottles of red wine. Zheng Bin entered last, closing the door behind him and flipping the "Do Not Disturb" sign over.
"President Ling, everyone's here." Sophia placed her laptop on the conference table and turned it on.
Li Ziyu placed the red wine on the table. "I took it from my dad's wine cabinet, an '82 Latour. Shall we open it tonight?"
"Let's talk business first." Ling Yun walked over from the window and sat down at the head of the conference table. "We can drink after we've finished talking."
The four people sat down. Outside the window, a cruise ship slowly sailed across the sea, its lights illuminating the water.
Ling Yun placed the water glass on the table. "I called you here tonight not to discuss specific investments. It's about something much bigger."
Li Ziyu leaned back in his chair, while Zheng Bin took out a cigarette and put it back.
"We've done a lot in the past six years," Ling Yun said. "In 1997, we shorted the Thai baht, and the two of you followed me, turning your initial investment of ten million into seven times. In 1998, when the Hong Kong stock market fell below 6,600 points, we went all in to buy at the bottom, and the Hang Seng Index rose all the way to 18,000, making eight times our initial investment. During the dot-com bubble in 2000, I cleared out all my US stocks at the peak of the Nasdaq and went short, making several times our initial investment again."
He paused, then looked at Sofia.
"In Sofia, IceCloud has grown from a shell company in 1997 to an asset size exceeding $50 billion. Every one of you who followed me has made money." He tapped his finger lightly on the table. "But this money isn't what we ultimately want."
Li Ziyu leaned forward slightly.
Ling Yun stood up and walked to the whiteboard. The whiteboard was blank. He picked up a marker from the pen holder and wrote three words: lithography machine, baseband chip, operating system.
"Each of these three things requires a huge investment. I invested 10 billion yuan in the lithography machine. Mr. Ni said that the 90-nanometer prototype is almost ready, but the subsequent 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer processes will each require billions more. As for the baseband chip, Liang Mengsong spent three years in Hong Kong before making the first call, burning through nearly a billion US dollars, and it's still not in mass production. The operating system, from Xingchen in 1997 to Xinghuo now, has also cost billions."
He turned around and looked at the three people.
"People ask me, 'You've made so much money in the financial markets, why do you still do things that might not even pay off in ten years?' I tell them, 'Because finance is just a tool, while real industry is the foundation.'"
Zheng Bin placed the cigarette on the table but did not light it.
"I called you all here today to announce something." Ling Yun walked back to the table and sat down. "Sophia, you speak."
Sofia turned on her computer, and the projector lit up. An asset allocation plan appeared on the large screen.
"President Ling has decided to divide the financial assets managed by Icecloud into three parts." Sophia stood up and walked to the screen. "The first part, about one-third, will remain with me for continued management. The strategy will shift from offensive to defensive, seeking stable opportunities in the global market, and no longer taking the initiative. The second part, one-third, will be transferred to Spark Group's long-term strategic fund, specifically for supporting the research and development of core technologies such as semiconductors, operating systems, and baseband chips. This part of the money will not pursue short-term returns, but only look at its strategic value over ten or twenty years."
"What about the third part?" Li Ziyu asked.
"Let's establish the Spark Technology Public Welfare Fund," Ling Yun continued. "It will fund basic scientific research and talent cultivation in domestic universities. Developing lithography machines requires optical talent, baseband chips require communication talent, and operating systems require software talent. These talents don't fall from the sky; they are cultivated one by one in universities. This fund will be specifically used to pay their tuition, provide scholarships, and build laboratories."
The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.
Li Ziyu picked up his water glass, took a sip, and put it down. "Ling Yun, do you know what you look like right now?"
"Like what?"
"Like someone who ran away from the financial world and then used finance to support real industry." Li Ziyu leaned back in his chair. "I've been in Hong Kong's financial world for so many years and have seen countless people. Some made money to gamble, some made money to buy private jets, and some made money to buy wineries in the United States. You are the first person I've ever seen who made money and poured it into lithography machines."
Zheng Bin chuckled. "I think the same thing as Ziyu. To put it bluntly, if you weren't Ling Yun, I would definitely think you're out of your mind."
Ling Yun smiled too. He picked up his water glass, noticed the water was cold, and put it down. "Do you guys remember when we met in Hong Kong in 1997?"
Li Ziyu nodded. "I remember. You had a bodyguard named Zhao Hu with you back then, who had just escaped from Thailand a few days ago."
"Back then, we only had tens of millions of dollars in our accounts. Soros invited me to dinner and asked if I would like to join him in conquering Southeast Asia. I said I wasn't interested." Ling Yun stood up and walked to the window. "Finance can do many things, but there are some things it can't do. It can make money, but it can't make technology. It can beat its competitors, but it can't build lithography machines."
A ship outside the window sounded a low whistle.
"Do you remember the bet I made with Soros?" Ling Yun turned around.
"I remember," Li Ziyu said. "He lost, and he owes you a favor."
"I've already thought of that condition," Ling Yun said. "When the time comes, I'll make him fulfill it."
"What are the conditions?"
You'll find out then.
Ling Yun returned to the table. "What we discussed tonight concerns Spark's strategic direction for the next ten years. The three of you are all in the inner circle, so don't tell anyone about this yet."
Several people nodded.
Ling Yun pushed the water glass aside, picked up the Latour that Li Ziyu had brought, and said, "The business is over. We'll drink this tonight."
Li Ziyu laughed, "Didn't you just say we should talk business first and then drink?"
"The matter is now settled."
Zheng Bin stood up to find a corkscrew, and Sophia took a Swiss Army knife out of her bag and handed it to him. The red wine was poured into the glass, gleaming a deep red under the light.
The four men raised their glasses.
The lights of Victoria Harbour outside the window were reflected on the wine, shimmering. In the distance, on the dock, containers were being lifted by cranes, slowly moved above cargo ships, and then steadily lowered back down. The sea was calm, with several barges moored at their berths, their mast lights flashing.
"Ling Yun," Li Ziyu put down his wine glass, "tell us the truth. What are you after for earning so much money and doing so much?"
Ling Yun twirled the cup in his hand and remained silent for a while.
"One year, I saw hundreds of laid-off workers fighting tooth and nail for a cleaning job at the gate of an electronics factory. At that time, I thought, can we allow more people to work with dignity and live with respect? Later, when we were held hostage in the United States, I thought again, can we prevent others from holding us hostage?"
He finished the last bit of red wine in his glass.
"These ideas, when put together, have become what we are doing now. It's not because these things can make a lot of money, but because with them, we can speak with our heads held high."
No one answered. Sophia looked down at the computer screen, her fingers hovering over the touchpad.
Another ship's horn sounded outside the window, much closer than before. A cargo ship fully loaded with containers was slowly sailing out of Victoria Harbour, its bow lights shining against the night sky, white waves churning the water before being swallowed by the darkness again.