Fu Haoran leaned back in his chair, glanced at the three big shots next to him, and didn't take it seriously.
Yang Yuanqing had a stern face, Jack Ma crossed her legs, Shen Wanlin sat upright.
Fu Haoran didn't come here today to argue with anyone, nor to make friends.
To bring DYB's new energy vehicles to China, a super factory needs to be built, and the upstream and downstream supply chains need to be expanded.
Each and every one of these involves dealing with local governments and capital.
This roundtable discussion is, frankly speaking, just a formality, a show for the media, and a way to save face for the local government.
In fact, Fu Haoran could have easily said a few nice words and flattered her, and gotten the matter done smoothly.
But the words were on the tip of his tongue, and Fu Haoran couldn't hold back.
He dared to act arrogantly in Amerikan, confronting the president, intimidating the White House, and selling missiles.
Which one isn't just arguing with everyone and everything?
They're back with real money to invest, not to ask anyone for favors. Why bother playing those old foxes' games of social niceties?
To put it bluntly, he had been the Planetary Governor of an entire planet, had survived countless battles, and had witnessed interstellar warfare.
There are plenty of nobles in the Warhammer World with higher positions and more power than these three, but he still criticizes them without hesitation.
Looking back now at these people living in the 2K Era, to put it bluntly, they weren't much different from the villagers in the remote mountains who had just gotten internet access.
At least the Warhammer World knows there's always something beyond our understanding.
These three big shots had never even left the atmosphere, yet they were pointing fingers at him, the Planetary Governor who had seen it all.
"Sigh, it seems that being in a position of power for too long has really spoiled him," Fu Haoran muttered to himself.
As for who he offended or who he had to please, he didn't care at all.
A person with the stars and the sea in their heart has no time to care about the opinions of a few ants on the ground.
As expected, Yang Yuanqing was the first to lose his composure and picked up the microphone.
He crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair, and looked at him like he was looking at a recent graduate intern, speaking in a sarcastic tone, "President Fu, everyone outside is raving about how amazing your electric scooters are. Well, let me ask you, what do you think is the key to your scooters' success in the market?"
"Products." Fu Haoran didn't even lift his eyelids.
"Products?" Yang Yuanqing laughed. "So how many have you sold so far?"
"Thirty thousand." Fu Haoran almost blurted out three million three hundred thousand, but three million of them were running in the Hive City of the Warhammer World, and there were only thirty thousand in stock on Earth, so he had to swallow the words back.
"Thirty thousand." Yang Yuanqing repeated the number, then turned to look at the audience, his sense of superiority practically overflowing.
"Young man, you can't be too idealistic when it comes to business."
Do you know how many users Lenovo has? Last year, we sold 100 million devices, which is an average of five devices per second.
"We invest tens of billions of yuan annually in GG (Google's advertising platform) to cultivate a strong brand image among consumers over the years, which has laid the foundation for our market presence today."
"And you? No game overboarding, no marketing, just 30,000 units. Do you think you can win by relying solely on the product?"
"I've never liked the word 'marketing.'" Fu Haoran finally looked up at him. "I think it's wrong to use GG (Google's marketing tools) to compensate for a lack of product quality."
"To put it bluntly, marketing is just finding excuses for bad products and tricking people into spending money on junk."
"My car sells because it's genuinely good and solves users' needs."
"What's holding me back now is production capacity, not GG."
"If production capacity were truly available, I could sell not just 30,000, but three million."
Yang Yuanqing's face darkened instantly.
Fu Haoran wasn't finished yet. "And speaking of your company, after all these years, besides changing the shell and adjusting parameters, what progress has been made in core technology?"
"When Apple releases a new laptop, it completely dominates your consumer market. In the end, it still relies on government and corporate purchases to stay afloat."
"To put it bluntly, the product can't support the market, so they can only survive by sabotaging it."
These words left no room for sentimentality.
Yang Yuanqing was so angry his hands were trembling, and he raised his voice. "What right do you, someone who sells for 30,000, have to talk to us like that!"
"Mr. Yang, you only saw the 30,000, but you didn't see how much I laid the groundwork behind it."
"I've built tens of thousands of charging stations across the US and laid thousands of kilometers of dedicated power grids, all to eliminate range anxiety for my car owners."
Fu Haoran looked at him, his tone calm but his words cutting.
"You throw money at GG (game over), I throw money at building the foundation; our approaches are different."
"You're selling five units per second, is it because of the product itself or the inertia in consumers' minds?"
"If a brand needs to spend tens of billions of dollars to maintain growth, isn't that growth itself unrealistic?"
Yang Yuanqing was rendered speechless by the rebuttal, his face turning a deep purplish-red. Finally, he slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "This era belongs to GG! Without us fighting GG, you emerging companies would have starved to death long ago! GG will rule the world!"
These words were spoken with great conviction, but few people in the audience applauded.
Anyone with eyes could see that he was anxious.
Su Yi, standing to the side of the stage, had long since frozen in a smile.
She quickly gave Jack Ma a look, signaling him to step in and save the day.
Jack Ma was too shrewd. She didn't need to give Yang Yuanqing a signal. As soon as she saw Yang Yuanqing being humiliated, she immediately took over the conversation, ready to teach this arrogant young man a lesson.
He crossed his legs, snapped his fingers on the armrest, and wore his signature friendly smile, "Little Fu, I just heard you say that the future belongs to new energy, aerospace, and artificial intelligence."
"Then let me ask you, should humanity first build a base on the Luna, or should we first take care of things on Earth?"
"They can coexist without conflict," Fu Haoran blurted out.
"No, no, no," Jack Ma waved her hand. "I'm not interested in the Luna; I only care about the Earth."
"There are still over a billion people on Earth who don't have enough to eat or access to electricity."
"You're spending hundreds of billions to build a Luna base. If that money were spent on Earth, how many schools could you build, how many roads could you construct, and how much poverty could you solve? Isn't it obvious which is more important?"
Many people in the audience nodded in agreement, and a burst of approving laughter rang out.
"The reason why over a billion people lack access to electricity is not because there isn't enough electricity, but because the power grid can't be laid to cover them."
"The reason the power grid can't be laid isn't because the technology is lacking, but because the cost of ground infrastructure is too high."
"But if we build the first self-sufficient base on the Luna, what can't we use on Earth to develop wireless power transmission, ultra-lightweight materials, and closed ecosystems?"
"You spend tens of billions to build highways, but you're only quenching an immediate thirst."
"You're spending billions to build Luna base, which is about finding a way out for the future of all human civilization."
"This isn't a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of perspective."
Jack Ma's smile faded slightly.
He nodded slightly and tapped the microphone with his finger. "Young people, you always look up at the stars and easily forget that there are pits under your feet."
"Then we can look at the stars while walking around the crater, and do both without wasting time."
Jack Ma's smile faded, her expression turning slightly serious. "Then tell me, where will artificial intelligence go in the next hundred years? How will it change our lives?"
"Everyone is underestimating AI right now," Fu Haoran said, his tone turning serious. "They all think it's just a smarter tool, but it's not."
"AI will be much smarter than the smartest people in the future."
"No one can say for sure what it will become in the future."
All we can do is try our best to correct our mistakes.
As Fu Haoran spoke, the history of the Warhammer World flashed through his mind: the Cybernetic Revolt swept across the galaxy, and human civilization was almost uprooted by the very thing it had created.
From then on, the Empire had only one ironclad rule: all AI is prohibited, and all AI must be killed without exception.
Hearing Jack Ma say "AI is not a threat" now feels like someone who just escaped a fire hearing someone say "playing with fire is quite interesting."
Jack Ma shook her head repeatedly, her tone resolute. "No one can predict the future. Ninety-nine percent of predictions in history have turned out to be wrong."
"There's absolutely no need to be afraid of AI. Those who worry about AI are just nerds. On the contrary, I think AI can help us solve many problems."
"What does Mr. Ma think about robots taking away human jobs?" Fu Haoran asked in return.
"That's perfect! Humans won't need to work anymore. They can just enjoy life and learn art." Jack Ma laughed easily. "Isn't it foolish to try to compete with AI in chess or arithmetic? It's like someone trying to race a car a hundred years ago—putting the cart before the horse."
"Chess is meant to be played by people, why bother arguing with a machine?"
Fu Haoran remained expressionless, inwardly rolling his eyes: I came back from a world where I was almost wiped out by omnics, and you're telling me AI isn't a threat? If the Imperial Inquisition heard that, they'd burn you at the stake.
Even those Mechanicus Cult of Machines would say your idea is too radical and purely heretical.
Fu Haoran didn't mince words and said directly, "Predictions are often wrong, but we still have to make predictions. If we're wrong, we'll correct them."
"The most precious thing in the world is not coal or electricity, but the human brain. We must ensure that machines are always tools in people's hands, and never turn around and ride on people's heads."
"I'm never worried about humans being controlled by AI; that's impossible." Jack Ma shook her head with a smile. "Machines are man-made; how could humans create something smarter than themselves?"
"I strongly disagree." Fu Haoran's voice suddenly turned cold. "Of course, humans can create things smarter than themselves; they don't necessarily have to be humans."
"Primitive humans only knew how to hunt, but the chips we create now have a computing speed millions of times faster than the human brain, making them smarter than humans in many ways."
"The biggest flaw of smart people is that they always think they are the smartest."
"Then give me an example. What things have humans created that are smarter than humans?" Jack Ma pressed on, unconvinced.
"That phone in your pocket. It can access all of humanity's knowledge in seconds, you can't. It can beat world champions on the chessboard until they question their existence, you can't." Fu Haoran leaned back in his chair.
"Mr. Ma, you think AI is not a threat only because you haven't seen AI that's truly out of control yet."
"When it not only takes your job, but also your living space, you won't say that anymore."
"You don't really think we can't create robots with self-awareness, do you?"
Jack Ma opened her mouth, but was speechless for a moment.
He realized that no matter how he answered, he was slapping himself in the face.
Just as Jack Ma was in an awkward position, Shen Wanlin picked up the microphone.
He wore a custom-made dark blue suit, a Patek Philippe dangling from his wrist, his hair meticulously combed. He cleared his throat, his voice deep and steady. "Mr. Fu, you just said that the future real estate model will be overturned."
"I've been in the real estate industry for thirty years, from the coast to the inland areas, and I've seen all kinds of cycles. What makes you think that houses will become worthless?"
He leaned back in his chair, a tolerant smile on his face, a smile that suggested he'd been through it all. "Young man," he said, "Real estate isn't the internet; it can't be overturned by a few lines of code."
"Land is finite, the population is growing, and urbanization is still ongoing. Housing will always be a hard currency."
"Mr. Shen, you say land is limited, that's because you're only looking at the earth." Fu Haoran looked at him, his tone calm.
" The Luna has a surface area of 38 million square kilometers. How many Shanghai could that be built on?"
" Mars has a surface area of 145 million square kilometers. How many Imperial Capital could that be built on?"
"That's the true future of real estate, not building another sky-high-priced school district house within the Second Ring Road."
"Besides, even on Earth, technology is already changing the rules."
"Our company's Chinese and American teams held the same technical meeting across the Pacific Ocean; online collaboration has long been the norm."
"People won't all need to be crammed into one office building to work; remote working will become the mainstream in the future."
"Once everyone can work from home, who would be willing to spend millions to buy a cramped apartment? The traditional housing market's demand will naturally collapse."
The tolerant smile on Shen Wanlin's face gradually disappeared.
He opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but found that his old-fashioned idea of "land being scarce and always rising in price" was completely untenable in the face of their interstellar perspective.
Su Yi stood to the side of the stage, her hand almost crushing the microphone in her hand.
She had prepared a whole host of difficult questions, but Fu Haoran deflected them all one by one.
The bigwigs she had placed high hopes on all fell behind.
"How unreliable! In the end, I had to do it myself!"
She took a deep breath, and with an objective and neutral professional smile on her face, said, "Thank you for sharing, three experts."
"At the end of the roundtable, on behalf of many international friends who care about you, I would like to ask Mr. Fu one last question that everyone is very concerned about."
She paused, her gaze sweeping across the room, and said, word by word, "Mr. Fu, you started from scratch in Amerikan."
"It was Amerikan's venture capital that gave you your first investment, it was Amerikan's engineers that helped you build your first production line, and it was Amerikan's free market that made your technological empire possible."
"Even last month, the Amerikan government disregarded past grievances and accepted your defection, including you in the United States military's supplier system."
"But now, you turn around and bring your so-called advanced technology back to University of Tokyo, wanting to build a super factory and compete with Amerikan car companies for the market."
Many of your friends at Amerikan's are asking: By doing this, aren't you betraying Amerikan that nurtured you? Aren't you letting down their Amerikan in you?
"Furthermore, we all know that the University of Tokyo's protection of intellectual property rights has long been criticized by the international community."
"Aren't you afraid of having your core technology copied by bringing it to the University of Tokyo? Or are you just here to make a quick buck from the government subsidies and cheap labor at the University of Tokyo?"
She stepped forward, her sharp eyes fixed on Fu Haoran, and posed the most cutting question, "Finally, I'd like to ask one more question: You're building missiles for the United States military while simultaneously constructing a factory at University of Tokyo."
"Are you Amerikan or from University of Tokyo? If a technological conflict were to occur between the US and China in the future, whose side would you be on?"
The moment the question was asked, the entire room erupted in chaos.
No one expected that Su Yi would ask such a sharp and uncompromising question.
Has this woman lost her mind?
However, everyone is more concerned about how Fu Haoran will respond.
Because no matter which side he answers in support of, he will offend the other side.