Chapter 179 Children Always Choose
Ken Kutaragi stared at Su Yuanshan with wide eyes and an open mouth for three seconds.
Then, he closed his mouth and quickly regained the composure and steadiness befitting a Sony executive.
Although his current main role was as General Manager of Sony Computer Entertainment, and his technical background was primarily in television and digital products, as a Vice President of the group, he naturally had to keep an eye on the broader picture.
He didn't fully understand lithium-ion battery technology, but he was aware of its challenges.
Even though Sony's lithium battery team had announced they had developed a commercially viable lithium battery and were actively working on standardizing it, the high costs and not-so-great safety issues meant that, for now, lithium batteries were more symbolic than practically useful.
Inside Sony, the lithium battery team led by Dr. Kazunori Ozawa held considerable prestige.
Their breakthrough had great implications for the company's future direction and public image.
Indeed, Yuanxin itself had been inspired by Sony's success to dive into lithium battery development.
Having worked with Yuanxin for a while, Ken Kutaragi knew Su Yuanshan wasn't someone who made rash decisions—thus his surprise.
But he quickly calmed himself, realizing Yuanxin probably hadn't made a major breakthrough yet—they must have gotten lucky.
Otherwise, why would Su Yuanshan offer an entire mobile phone solution in exchange?
...
"Mr. Su," Ken Kutaragi said after a few seconds of silence, "may I ask specifically what kind of exchange you're proposing?"
Su Yuanshan had been watching him closely.
He knew that although Ken Kutaragi eventually missed out on becoming Sony's CEO, many Sony fans later mourned that loss—showing that beyond his work in digital entertainment, Ken also had a genuine sense of broader business strategy.
Judging by Kutaragi's reactions, Su Yuanshan was confident: Kutaragi definitely had insight into Sony's other divisions.
That was good—it would make negotiations much easier.
Su Yuanshan smiled and said,
"Our complete lithium battery technology."
Ken Kutaragi froze, instinctively shaking his head.
"Mr. Su, that's impossible."
Su Yuanshan grinned and winked.
"You guys have, at best, a one-year lead in lithium battery tech.
Given how fast things move, your current technology will soon be caught up with or surpassed—right?"
Ken Kutaragi hesitated, then admitted,
"Yes.
But even so, we can maintain a strong advantage.
Mr. Su, in the tech world, a one-year lead is massive.
It could solidify Sony's position as a market leader."
"...Are you so sure the market will embrace it?" Su Yuanshan asked.
Ken Kutaragi gave a sly smile.
"Mr. Su, the fact that you're willing to exchange a complete mobile phone solution for it tells me the market definitely will."
Su Yuanshan opened his mouth, speechless for a long moment.
He couldn't help but laugh helplessly.
Ken Kutaragi laughed heartily too.
Ever since their negotiations began a year ago, Ken had recognized Su Yuanshan's terrifying technical intuition.
He could even sense that Su had done an insane amount of research on Sony itself, predicting their moves like he was the company's chairman.
For a long time, Kutaragi had felt like Su Yuanshan could see straight through him.
But now, seeing Su Yuanshan finally get "trapped by his own cleverness," Kutaragi felt deeply satisfied.
So geniuses could be human too, after all!
"Mr. Kutaragi," Su Yuanshan said, pretending to grumble, "you're too cunning."
"It's Mr. Su who was too impatient," Kutaragi replied with a smile.
"...No, it's because I thought you wouldn't refuse," Su Yuanshan said.
"Your mobile phone development is at least a year behind schedule.
Meanwhile, if we get your lithium battery tech now, we can immediately start safety experiments and share the results with you."
"When it comes to choosing cathode and anode materials for lithium batteries, luck plays a big role.
And we happened to be a little luckier."
"If you're willing to share your technology, we're willing to share our luck," he said sincerely.
Ken Kutaragi's eyelids twitched slightly.
He had worked on LCD projects before—he knew that sometimes a material breakthrough was pure luck.
After a few seconds of silence, Ken said seriously,
"Mr. Su, I'm sorry, but I don't have the authority to agree.
However, I will faithfully convey your proposal to the president."
"Thank you," Su Yuanshan said with a smile.
"But Mr. Su, may I ask one thing?" Kutaragi said, his expression turning curious.
"If you had to choose—would you pick lithium-ion batteries or mobile communications?"
Su Yuanshan blinked in surprise, then smiled mischievously.
"Children make choices," he said.
"Adults want everything."
Ken Kutaragi was momentarily stunned—then burst into laughter.
...
After the first day of the exhibition ended, Su Yuanshan returned to Silicon Valley early.
Chen Jing stayed behind because unexpectedly, the YX architecture had attracted a licensing deal from a newly established chip design company called Rise.
This company had only been around for about a month and had just twenty-something employees.
Supposedly, the team included veterans from Sun, IBM, and Motorola—or at least that's what the founder, Lawrence, claimed.
Why did the founder reveal all this background just to sign a licensing deal?
Because Rise was dirt poor.
They had originally planned to copy Intel's X86 path like AMD and Cyrix.
But seeing that Xinghai had acquired Cyrix and was moving full steam into the X86 field, they realized there was no room left for them.
Thanks to the YX architecture's excellent performance and its PlayStation showcase, they spotted a new opportunity.
At that time, there were many RISC architectures around, but only PowerPC and YX had real commercial clout.
ARM's architecture existed too—but it was still rudimentary compared to YX, both in performance and in core patent strength.
So this little company decided to gamble everything on joining the YX camp.
However... being poor was a curse.
After paying the YX licensing fee, they'd barely have enough left to survive.
Thus, Lawrence approached Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing, proposing a slightly higher royalty split in exchange for reduced upfront fees.
Su Yuanshan agreed.
Lawrence would never know that, in Su Yuanshan's memories, Rise later became quite famous—
not for its technological achievements,
but because it somehow morphed from a tech company into... an advertising agency.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1