“Now that everyone’s here, shall we begin the meeting?”
Envidi headquarters, California.
At CEO Jackson Hwang’s command, a heavy meeting began.
“Yes... I’ll begin with quarterly revenue.”
Robert, the CFO, opened his mouth as if treading on thin ice.
It was almost the first time since he had joined the company. With the advent of the AI era, Envidi’s revenue meetings had always been closer to a feast, but today, it was a funeral.
None of the executives except him could adjust to the current atmosphere.
“First, Envidi’s first-quarter performance once again exceeded market expectations and—”
“Hey, Robert. You think I’m sitting here because I don’t know our company’s revenue?!”
“N-no, sir.”
“What the hell is Gemini 3.0? How did TPU development catch up this far? Calculate conservatively how big the technological gap is compared to H200, and how much damage our computing chips will take if Goggle releases TPUs onto the market, and report every single thing to me!”
There is no such thing as a kind billionaire. Jackson Hwang, too, was more sensitive and fierce than anyone when it came to his field.
The reason Jackson, who was usually famous for being good-natured, had turned into a tyrant was because of Goggle’s recently rising TPU.
Goggle had revealed an AI 3.0 version to the market that could learn data such as text, images, and video on its own, and had rubbed salt in Envidi’s wounds by saying they had achieved this without a single GPU.
“You ignorant bastards! You useless parasites! You thieves who only collect a salary!”
Ever since then, Jackson Hwang had cursed out every executive he met.
And for good reason. Envidi’s current market cap was priced on the expectation that it monopolized the GPU market, but because of Gemini 3.0, that monopolistic position had become precarious.
“Alex, you bastard, you answer first! I don’t care about the others, but you can’t keep your mouth shut!”
Alex, the CTO in charge of technology, forced a smile and rose from his seat.
“...Chairman. Please calm down. We’re not yet at the stage where we need to get this worked up.”
“What?”
“As soon as it was released, our technical team analyzed Goggle’s TPU as well, but its performance isn’t even half of ours.”
“This isn’t just a question of performance right now, is it? Pichai is going around advertising that they can cut electricity use down to a quarter. That bastard is branding our H200 as a power-guzzling hippo!”
“What does that matter? To get the performance effect of one of our H200s, they’d have to run ten TPUs. And it isn’t just energy efficiency. Goggle still hasn’t solved the chronic problems of TPUs. Their computing chip is still just a mathematician who’s good at mental arithmetic.”
“Then you explain it yourself. Why did a TPU, which supposedly can’t learn images or audio, produce those results in Gemini 3.0?”
“I believe Pichai’s announcement was greatly exaggerated. It’s only that they used fewer of our GPUs. I doubt they didn’t use any at all.”
Jackson Hwang, who had been practically dancing with a blade, briefly cooled his anger.
Now that he thought about it, there was something suspicious. Wasn’t TPU technology nearly incapable of learning images and audio? But the Gemini 3.0 they announced had AI learn images and even make rap music.
How on earth did they solve geometry with mathematicians who were only good at mental arithmetic?
“Pichai, that bastard...”
Of course, Pichai had explained it this way.
He said it was not the existing method of having GPUs learn everything, but a result achieved through structural innovations such as “TPU-XLA-JAX-A3·A4.” To put it simply, the existing AI learning method had GPUs analyze all data, but Pichai claimed they had created division of labor and specialization through some system they had built.
But if so, that led to a very fundamental question.
If that method was truly possible, why had Goggle placed chip orders with Envidi?
“Alex, are you certain?”
“Yes, Chairman. Settlement was completed yesterday, and next year’s Blackwell GPUs are already completely sold out. Goggle’s order volume hasn’t changed at all from before either.”
“They claim they completed all this structural innovation, so why haven’t they reduced their orders?”
“Doesn’t that prove their innovation isn’t complete yet?”
“...What do the rest of you think?”
“Chairman, as CTO, this is something I can say with certainty. What Goggle discovered is nothing more than a side path. A completely accidental method, like China’s DeepSync! If their structural innovation were truly perfect, there’s no way they would be overpaying us to order GPUs. So there’s only one answer you need to give Wall Street reporters!”
Alex cried out passionately.
“That Goggle is still a customer of Envidi!”
Jackson turned his head and looked around at the executives.
Every executive was wearing the exact same expression as Alex.
In truth, there was no more accurate indicator than this. If “breaking away from Envidi” were truly possible, Big Tech’s GPU orders or market demand should have decreased. But hadn’t they not changed at all?
“Damn... I got too worked up. Sorry, I got too worked up.”
Having calmed his excitement, Jackson returned to his good-natured face.
“Our Envidi executives are always the best. You always exceed expectations. I always trust you.”
-Yes, yes...
“In any case, you’ve got to hand it to Pichai’s bluster, don’t you? He goes on and on in public as if TPU is some all-purpose technology, then places orders with us behind the scenes? What, is he going to keep the GPUs he bought from us as souvenirs?”
-Th-that’s right, Chairman. Goggle’s order volume for next year is higher than the number of employees at headquarters.
-I’m certain they were running our GPUs very diligently behind the scenes for this Gemini 3.0 as well.
-Pichai has been getting a little too cocky lately. Haha...
In that way, the meeting room barely managed to escape its frozen atmosphere, but Jackson’s face grew cold once more.
“Everyone except the people in charge, get out.”
When only the key executives remained, Jackson put a cigarette he had quit for years into his mouth.
“Alex, why are Big Tech companies acting like this lately? Every time I turn on the news, all I hear is in-house chip, in-house chip.”
-But not a single one of them has actually developed a real in-house chip, right? Haha...
“Right. Not until now. But lately, it’s starting to bother me.”
Jackson blew out a long stream of cigarette smoke like Vito Corleone from The Godfather.
In truth, his concern was not excessive at all. What if Pichai had announced 3.0 and actually reduced their GPU orders too? How would the market have reacted? Wouldn’t an AI-bubble theory incomparable to the one during DeepSync have slammed into Envidi?
After a long silence, Jackson Hwang stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and said,
“Robert, I can’t help thinking this. That our prices have been far too friendly until now.”
“...What do you mean by that?”
“Maybe because we’ve been supplying such good chips too cheaply, Big Tech has too much money left over and keeps spending it on R&D.”
“Ch-Chairman...”
The heads of each team all turned pale, but Jackson already wore the face of a man who had decided something.
“From now on, I’m thinking of becoming a little less friendly. What do you people in charge think?”
*
“Mm... So you’re telling me to scatter this money around Washington political circles? Not Korea?”
“Yes, that’s right. Lobbying is legal in the United States. In some ways, it’ll be easier than Korea.”
“Even if lobbying is legal... Sejun, I’m Chinese. There’s no way American politicians would carelessly take money from a Chinese person, is there...?”
“But the president is Donald.”
“What?”
“He cozied up to Russia, so why wouldn’t he do the same with China? And the Republican Party doesn’t hate China. They hate allied countries more. As long as you give them the certainty that it’s safe money to accept, no politician will refuse. Start by approaching Donald’s family.”
I handed Meilin a list of Donald’s family and members of social circles.
If my memory was correct, after he left office, all the scandals that had been covered up would strike American society with tremendous force. Due to America’s peculiar tendency to make political retaliation taboo, no one would be punished, but most of the corruption allegations would turn out to be true.
I traced that memory as much as I could and made a list of people to watch.
“Why...? Why are you lobbying American political circles this time too?”
I smiled bitterly.
“It’s complicated if I explain at length... But simply put, Korea needs Envidi GPUs.”
“Then just buy them. Goodness, look at this amount... With the money you’re planning to spread among American political figures, couldn’t you buy all those chips and still have plenty left over?”
“That’s not something you can buy right now just because you have money.”
“Huh?”
I groaned softly.
Currently, Envidi chips were military materiel. In particular, the latest model, H200, had been thoroughly export-controlled by the United States for years so it could not be sold to China.
But naturally, such controls caused shrapnel to fly.
On the pretext of blocking even indirect exports, the U.S. authorities had restricted sales to allied countries as well, and because of this, even Korea had difficulty accessing Envidi’s latest chips.
“...”
Of course, the U.S. authorities’ overzealousness wasn’t incomprehensible.
An illegal export worth 500 billion won through Singapore had already been identified by the authorities... If this much had been caught, then what hadn’t been caught was probably beyond counting.
“...”
In truth, this would soon be revealed anyway, but China already had every kind of Envidi computing chip, from B200 to H200. They had more than Korea, which was not subject to export controls.
Perhaps that was actually more fortunate.
At present, if the United States’ AI level was considered 100, China had caught up to 90. But theoretically, China didn’t have a single high-performance chip like the H200, so that would mean they had caught up purely in technology.
If so, that would mean China possessed intensive technology incomparably beyond Goggle’s TPU declaration, and that would be a catastrophe for the United States. Wouldn’t it mean China had succeeded in “breaking away from Envidi,” something even Big Tech couldn’t do?
“No, but Sejun... This seems too unrealistic this time. How would American political figures accept money from me, a Chinese person? Donald’s family won’t even meet me.”
“Donald will lift it.”
“What?”
“It’s an issue being discussed right now at the U.S. Department of Commerce, but Donald is going to lift H200 export controls soon.”
“Wh-what? Who will?!”
I smiled bitterly.
Everything I had said was truth that would be revealed to the world when America unlocked the H200.
“Is... is that true?”
“Yes. So trust me and approach these people. They’ll welcome you with open arms.”
“Haa... No, seriously.”
I soothed her, unable to calm her startled heart, and stood up.
“I’m sorry, Meilin. I think we’ll have to tour San Jose next time...”
“No, today you said you’d show me around San Francisco!”
“I’m really sorry... But the person I absolutely have to match schedules with says today is the only day. Let’s tour San Jose next time.”
“Hmph!”
I barely managed to placate her sulking and hailed a taxi.
Then I hurriedly made a call.
“Yes, CEO Hwang... It’s me.”