louisehourcade Chapter 224 Full-Scale Competition
Chapter 224 Full-Scale Competition
On the fourth day after rejecting Microsoft, the winds shifted.
Han Lu placed a summary of international news bulletins on Zuo Cheng's desk. The first line was about Microsoft, announcing that quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces would be the company's highest priority research and development directions for the next five years, with an additional budget of $12 billion. The second line was about Google, announcing the establishment of a joint quantum computing laboratory with IBM, aiming to launch a commercially viable 1,000-qubit processor within two years. The third line was about Apple, which acquired two Silicon Valley brain-computer interface startups for a total amount exceeding $4 billion.
"All three agencies acted on the same day," Han Lu said. "It's not a coincidence."
Zuo Cheng flipped through the next few pages. Microsoft wasn't just increasing its budget; they had joined forces with Google and IBM to form a technology alliance called the Frontier Computing Initiative. Ostensibly an open academic collaboration, internal documents revealed that the alliance's core objective was to develop international standards for next-generation computing and communications, ensuring the dominance of European and American companies.
The right to set standards. Zuo Cheng put down the documents. Just like what we did in space photovoltaics and quantum computing, only this time they struck first.
That afternoon, more actions came to light.
Shen Yiming received a call from a headhunter. The caller claimed to represent a major international tech company and offered him three times his salary plus stock options to poach him. Shen Yiming hung up, and five minutes later received another call from a different company, using the same sales pitch. Within an hour, he received four calls from headhunters.
He walked to the door of Zuo Cheng's office. It wasn't just me. Chen Hao, Fang Ze, and Han Lu all received calls. The quantum computing team and the brain-computer interface team were the hardest hit; headhunters were offering salaries starting at four times the normal rate.
Zuo Cheng asked Han Lu to compile the statistics. The data from that afternoon was shocking. More than two hundred members of the 402 R&D team received poaching calls, with targets focused on three core areas: quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces, and commercial aerospace. Three companies were poaching them: Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
The second day was even worse.
The European Patent Office simultaneously received seven invalidation requests against 402 quantum computing-related patents. The U.S. International Trade Commission received a complaint alleging that 402 brain-computer interface products infringe three patents. Although the initiators were not the same company, the timing was identical.
Zuo Cheng placed the legal team's urgent report on the table. The three appeals were submitted almost on the same day, and the technical terminology used in the appeals was highly similar, as if they were written by the same team.
Han Lu said, "They're not just targeting our products. They're attacking our legal barriers."
Zuo Cheng stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and drew three arrows. Talent poaching, patent litigation, and standards blockade. Three directions working simultaneously, all pointing to the same goal. This would allow 402 to simultaneously disperse its resources across three fronts.
That afternoon, Zuo Cheng convened the entire core team.
He projected his analysis, represented by three arrows, onto the screen. "We rejected Microsoft's $30 billion offer, and now they're making us pay. Not because we did anything wrong, but because the rejection itself is a signal. The signal is that there's a Chinese company that international giants can't buy with money."
He paused. Since he couldn't buy it, he'd just keep it.
Chen Hao stood up to report on the technical response plan. Regarding patent reserves, 402 currently holds over 20,000 patents globally, with over 8,000 in quantum computing. The legal team has completed cross-referencing of all the patents in dispute, and all have independent technical support. The opposing party has initiated an invalidation proceedings, not an infringement lawsuit. Invalidation proceedings require substantial technical evidence, and we have complete R&D process records and experimental data.
Han Lu added to the legal strategy: We have already engaged three top international law firms to handle the cases in different regions. The invalidation declaration in Europe is being handled by a London law firm, and the ITC complaint in the United States is being handled by a Washington law firm. Simultaneously, we are filing a lawsuit in China against the opposing party for malicious litigation, demanding compensation for commercial losses.
Fang Ze is in charge of talent strategy. His plan is simple: a company-wide stock option lock-up plan, with an additional round of incentives for core R&D personnel. He also presented another set of data: in the past week, instead of experiencing talent loss, 402 received over three thousand job applications from overseas. Employees from giants like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Apple are proactively contacting 402.
"Because the best tech jobs in the world are now in Hangzhou, not Silicon Valley," Fang Ze said expressionlessly. "This is a side effect of rejecting Microsoft."
Zuo Cheng nodded. He wasn't just saying this to his team. He was saying it to those who were besieging 402. We don't need to prove anything. Being a global leader in seven technological areas is the best proof.
After the meeting, Zuo Cheng remained alone in the conference room. He erased the three arrows on the whiteboard and rewrote four lines.
Talent. We have the world's best technology platform, and the top talent will naturally come.
Patents. We have 20,000 independent intellectual property rights, and the most core technological barriers cannot be bypassed.
Standards. International standards for quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces have not yet been established, but we have the factual basis of quantum supremacy. Standards are not about who issues documents first, but about whose technical solution is mainstream in practical use.
Competition. A protracted war. But we will prevail.
Another dusk fell outside the window. The Hangzhou skyline was bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun. Zuo Cheng stood by the window, recalling the young man who had stayed up all night coding in the incubator seven years ago. Back then, his competitors were the team from the neighboring lab and the professors at the dissertation defense review meetings. Now, his competitors were Microsoft, Google, and Apple. The setting was different, but the logic remained the same.
"They're used to winning within the rules," Zuo Cheng said softly. "But we're rewriting the rules."
On the system panel, the civilization perception interface displayed battle zones for the first time. The light pillars from the direction of China remained the strongest, but those from the directions of Europe and America began to diverge, with some increasing and others decreasing. Not all international forces were besieging 402; some research institutions and companies were quietly connecting to Galaxy Cloud Quantum, voting in their own way.
The eight leaves on the eighth branch glowed quietly. With a technological increase of 1.5, each technological direction was accumulating at a rate exceeding the normal cycle.
Zuo Cheng closed the panel and opened the next document.
The schedule for the International Conference on Technical Standards appeared on the screen. Geneva, next quarter. The agenda had three tracks: quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces, and satellite communications. Each track had its own participating entities and testing standards. 402 was marked as a leader in all three tracks.
Zuo Cheng drew a prominent circle on the schedule. Then he sent Han Lu a short message.
Please help us register. Register us for all three tracks.