Chapter 177 Waiting for a Big Shot
Over the next two days, Su Yuanshan continued his visits to AMD, Compaq, HP, Dell, and other veteran IT giants. As expected, the atmosphere during the meetings was very cordial. Everyone expressed support for Su Yuanshan's proposal to jointly develop a Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard—everyone agreed, provided they could ensure operating system compatibility.
The only dissent came from AMD's Sanders. When he heard that Microsoft insisted on bringing Intel into the initiative, Sanders was visibly displeased. He believed that AMD and Yuanxin could have handled it themselves—why involve Intel?
Su Yuanshan fully understood Sanders' frustration.
Ever since Robert Noyce passed away from a heart attack three years ago, Intel, now under Andy Grove's leadership, had completely disavowed any former familial ties to AMD.
It's important to know—Sanders himself was from Fairchild Semiconductor, just like Intel's founders.
Back in the day, when AMD aggressively cloned Intel's chips, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove wanted to crush Sanders.
Later, Sanders personally barged into Intel's conference room and—no one knew exactly what he said—but he somehow persuaded Robert Noyce.
Not only did AMD survive, it also secured a generous cross-licensing deal from Intel.
When Sanders left Intel's offices that day, Andy and others were bewildered by Noyce's decision.
Noyce only said, chain-smoking all the while,
"He doesn't have what it takes to surpass us. Besides... he's family."
Until his death, Robert Noyce treated Sanders with immense affection.
And Sanders, sharp-tongued as he was, never once said a bad word about Noyce.
Their relationship was often likened to that of father and son.
Now that Noyce was gone, Sanders naturally harbored deep resentment toward Intel.
(Note: Robert Noyce—Father of Silicon Valley, a man of remarkable charisma. Worth learning about.)
However, circumstances dictated reality.
Even if AMD and Cyrix teamed up, they still couldn't match half of Intel's strength.
Since Microsoft couldn't afford to alienate Intel either, Sanders could only grit his teeth and accept it.
Before parting ways, he warned Su Yuanshan:
Andy Grove had a nasty temper and might not treat him kindly.
Also, be careful—Intel might pretend to cooperate but then secretly develop a competing standard behind their backs.
Su Yuanshan could only thank him sincerely.
There wasn't much else to say.
In his past life, although Su Yuanshan had only been a small fry at Intel, he had seen Andy Grove up close.
And he knew: Grove wasn't nearly as bad as Sanders claimed—he simply despised Sanders personally.
Soon after, Su Yuanshan received Intel's official reply.
Their meeting was scheduled for the 24th, the last day of the exhibition.
On the 20th, the day before the expo, Chen Jing's group arrived at San Francisco Airport, weary but energetic.
Su Yuanshan and Carly personally went to pick them up.
...
After settling Chen Jing and An Siying into their hotel, Carly left first, while Su Yuanshan stayed behind.
"You've worked hard," Su Yuanshan said, noticing how much thinner Chen Jing had become.
He felt a pang of guilt. "Once we wrap things up here, take a break—don't rush back home.
Hawaii would be perfect for a vacation."
Chen Jing said nothing.
Instead, she sat down on the sofa, handed her jacket to An Siying, rolled up the sleeves of her fitted shirt, and opened her briefcase to pull out some documents.
Su Yuanshan sighed silently and turned to An Siying.
"Xiao An, is Sister Jing skipping meals to lose weight?"
"You're the one who needs to lose weight," Chen Jing replied casually.
An Siying smiled. "President Shan, President Chen has been super busy... You don't know how much paperwork she had to handle in Shanghai."
Su Yuanshan blinked, then smiled and shook his head.
Thanks to Yuanxin's spectacular rise, China's 908 project had been accelerated ahead of schedule, and the domestic semiconductor landscape was far better than in Su Yuanshan's previous life.
In his past life, just getting approval for a fab would practically guarantee you unlimited green lights—borderline insanity.
But Shanghai wasn't a Special Economic Zone; things couldn't just be fast-tracked.
Not because they wanted to be difficult—but because proper procedures had to be followed.
"No rush," Su Yuanshan said reassuringly. "We'll take it step by step. I've scheduled the TI meeting for the 28th."
Chen Jing, still reviewing the documents, asked, "Why wait until the 28th?"
Su Yuanshan smiled. "Because a big shot will be available on the 28th."
"A big shot?" Chen Jing narrowed her eyes. "You mean... Zhang Rujin?"
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan sighed.
TI had been giving them mixed signals, and even the usually confident Su Yuanshan was feeling impatient.
According to Vincente's feedback, the TI board was lukewarm at best—
subtext being:
Show us the rabbit before we bother hunting.
That kind of attitude made Su Yuanshan want to smash a thousand plates.
This feeling of having technical partnerships dangled just out of reach was infuriating—and was one of the reasons he had accelerated negotiations with Lin Bencheng.
Thus, he decided to wait until Zhang Rujin returned to TI for a formal debrief before making his move.
He intended to sit down with TI's executives and have a real, no-bullshit negotiation.
If it worked, great.
If not, he had a backup plan:
Throw everything on the line, even offering Yuanxin's core shares if necessary, to recruit Zhang Rujin and have him directly oversee the fab construction.
Even if it meant falling out completely with TI, Su Yuanshan was prepared.
TI's endless stalling and evasiveness had tested his patience enough.
Chen Jing handed the documents to Su Yuanshan for review.
After confirming there were no issues, she announced that she would take a shower and crash for the night.
Apparently, she too was part of the "stay up all night to fix jet lag" camp.
"Xiao An, take good care of your boss," Su Yuanshan said as he got ready to leave.
"No problem!" An Siying replied with an enthusiastic OK gesture.
...
The next morning, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing both headed to the exhibition.
If the 1991 World Distributor Conference had been a record-breaking event because it followed the end of a semiconductor recession, this year's expo marked the industry's upward climb.
At the same time, it signaled the beginning of the mobile communications era.
Besides Yuanxin and Xinghai, other major players like Motorola, Siemens, Nokia, and Sagem were all showcasing new products.
As the number of communication devices grew, this event would eventually branch off into specialized expos like the Mobile World Congress (MWC).
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Distributor Conference would gradually decline and eventually disappear altogether.
But for now, it was still a prime marketing opportunity.
Upon entering the main venue, Su Yuanshan immediately heard some awkward English:
"Today, we present a next-generation gaming device that will bring an unparalleled visual feast."
Looking up, Su Yuanshan saw Ken Kutaragi standing proudly on the main stage, with a giant Sony television behind him.
Onscreen, a race car sped through the Ridge Racer track.
Even from dozens of meters away, Su Yuanshan could tell:
For a 1993 game... the graphics actually looked decent.
He couldn't help but chuckle.
Three meters away, it looked anti-aliased.
Five meters away, it looked like full HD.
They weren't kidding.
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