Chapter 55 Great Increase in Value_1

Several days later, Cao Ge stepped into the recently established Infinite Technology Company.

After two weeks of recruitment, there are already over a hundred employees here.

"Chairman, you've arrived," Cao Ge had just entered the company's front door when the secretary, Bai Zhi, approached him.

"How's it going?"

"Chairman, ever since we launched our artificial intelligence service, our company's inbox receives emails from new companies every day about collaboration. The external assessment of our company's value has already reached one billion US dollars," Bai Zhi reported.

Cao Ge listened as he walked towards his office.

Upon reaching his office and sitting down, Cao Ge looked at the secretary standing across his desk and said, "What else?"

"Oh, Chairman, after our artificial intelligence made a huge splash in the market, several well-known domestic and international companies have called to inquire if we're interested in financing. These are the biggest few that I've sorted out for your review," Bai Zhi said, handing over the documents to Cao Ge.

"Do these people think I'm a fool?" Cao Ge smiled as he picked up the documents and opened the cover.

"How comes Penguin's little Ma is also joining the frenzy? Didn't we just fight a lawsuit with them?" Cao Ge flipped through a few pages and then commented upon seeing the name of Penguin Corporation.

Without waiting for an answer, he abruptly closed the documents and slammed them on the desk.

"Bai Zhi, go back and reply to these companies with an email saying that our company has no plans for financing at the moment," Cao Ge instructed, pointing to the documents.

"Certainly, Chairman," Bai Zhi bent down and reached to take the documents from in front of Cao Ge.

"These people really do take me for a fool."

Having said that, Cao Ge waved his hand dismissively to Bai Zhi, "Alright, you may go now."

Cao Ge certainly wasn't short on money. Although his companies hadn't been established for long, they had already begun to turn a profit.

Take Galaxy Science and Technology as an example. Even though it was no longer developing games, focusing instead on manufacturing mobile phones, the few games it had developed were already bringing in a yearly revenue of over ten billion yuan. Moreover, as time passed and the user base grew, the revenue would only increase.

Turning back to his Infinite Technology, the main asset of the company wasn't the over one hundred employees, but the artificial intelligence Murphy. The current Murphy was already very sophisticated and fully capable of making money directly, as evidenced by the growing number of partnership requests over the past few days.

At this time, their approach for financing was nothing short of treating Cao Ge like a fool.

Not to mention that Cao Ge didn't lack money, but even if he did, he could wait until the state bought the research data from him.

The nation was determined to advance artificial intelligence research, and with the world's most advanced technology in his hands, it naturally wanted to make a purchase.

And with an AI like Murphy, did they really expect to give him a pittance in exchange?

Therefore, whether now or in the future, Cao Ge would never be short of money. On the contrary, it would only increase.

Since he wasn't short of funds, Cao Ge obviously wouldn't let unscrupulous capital into his company to mess things up, although introducing capital from these companies could boost his company's development in the short term.

...............

Life continued on quietly, except that the international situation became more and more unpredictable.

Media around the world frantically reported on the changes in the global situation over the past year, ceaselessly interviewing various political leaders to find out what exactly had happened and what agreements had been reached between the nations.

It was not until one day, a month later.

After the nations had finished negotiating among themselves, nearly simultaneously on August 24th of that year, they announced that the Trisolarans were about to invade Earth.

Instantly, global sentiment surged, and discussions about aliens on the internet skyrocketed after the information about the Trisolarans was released. Official and civilian organizations worldwide turned their telescopes towards Centaurus, four light-years away.

Both the scientific community and the public continually made suggestions to governments.

After announcing that the Trisolarans were set to invade Earth, nations sequentially announced policies for entering the crisis era. Consequently, social resources gradually shifted towards national defense, the social economy suffered a severe impact, and on the day of the announcement, stocks of hundreds of listed companies around the world hit the limit-down.

In the following days, large-scale unrest erupted around the world, with looting and violence spreading through many countries.

However, since the arrival of the Trisolarans was 400 years away, still centuries in the future, aside from a few extremists who joined in the turmoil of terrorists, most people remained relatively composed, allowing governments to quickly quell the rebellions.

It was around this time that Academician Cao called him to say that the Artificial Intelligence Research Center was about to be established and invited him to attend the opening ceremony.

Cao Ge accepted the invitation. The research center was in a large building not far from the combat center, and he inadvertently became neighbors with Professor Wang Miao when he realized that the Nano Center of the nation was right next door.

The newly established Artificial Intelligence Research Center was still sparsely staffed yet fully equipped with a massive supercomputer—Tianhe-1.

Staring at the huge computer, Cao Ge showed a look of envy. Shocked but also secretly promising to himself that he would acquire one once the funds were secured. Only a supercomputer of this caliber could support hundreds of millions of users simultaneously online.

Since it was the first day of the research institute's establishment, no immediate research took place. Instead, there was a brief introduction to the center's equipment followed by a meal.

Of course, Cao Ge's appointment as deputy director had already come through.

Moreover, the state negotiated with him to make a duplicate copy of his artificial intelligence. The compensation offered by the state was 10 billion renminbi.

Naturally, the value of Murphy went far beyond the 10 billion renminbi offered. He believed that even if he quoted 100 billion US dollars, there would be international buyers, but China is a socialist country. Besides, with his upcoming position within the system, the country proposed this price after considering various factors and promised not to enter the civilian market. After some thought, Cao Ge agreed.

After all, Cao Ge's goal was never simply to make money; earning money was just a means to achieve his goals. He had no reason to antagonize the authorities over financial matters.

On the day the contract was signed, 10 billion was transferred into his bank account. The state's treasury, robust and powerful, did not bother with staggered payments but provided the sum in one lump sum.

From then on, Cao Ge's net worth, just in cash, had reached 11.2 billion. Including the valuation of his two companies and real estate, his worth was getting very close to 20 billion.

With such a substantial amount of funds, Cao Ge began to rapidly expand in the technology sector, with the development of smartphones proceeding swiftly.

Infinite Technology also started to collaborate with various companies, providing them with technical services.

Cao Ge's companies grew stronger and larger.