Chapter 416: The Official Challenge
—What Su Yuanshan meant: Are you afraid of me?
—What Andy Grove meant: You think I'm scared of a kid like you?
The two of them opened with gunpowder in the air, a tone that hadn't been part of Su Yuanshan's plan.
But from his research on Andy Grove, Su knew one thing for sure—you must never show weakness in front of this man. Andy was a textbook example of someone who respected strength and trampled the weak. Or to put it more politely, if you begged, he'd ignore you. If you stood your ground, he might just see you in a new light.
In truth, Su Yuanshan was the same kind of person.
He slowly shifted his gaze away from Grove, not wanting to escalate their staring contest further.
To be honest, FarCore wasn't in an advantageous position right now. Psychologically, Intel had the upper hand, having just launched the powerful Pentium Pro. Grove had every reason to feel confident. FarCore, on the other hand, had little insight into what Intel was planning.
But the fact that Su came here at all proved he had his own confidence.
"In front of you, I won't talk about ideals," Su said quietly. "Let's talk benefits, Mr. Grove."
"Benefits?" Grove tilted his head, smiling faintly. "I don't see what benefits there could be."
That wasn't entirely true. If that were really how he felt, he wouldn't be here. He wasn't doing this just to please Gates. No, he was curious. He wanted to see what kind of offer FarCore might lay on the table to change his mind.
As for commercial authorization—that was definitely on the table.
Why? Because Intel needed a "stable, long-term opponent." Not this chaotic mess of AMD, Xinghai with Cyrix, FarCore, and other upstarts. What Intel needed was one or two worthy adversaries to help suppress the rest.
This way, it could dominate through structured competition.
When Xinghai launched the Thunder series at the beginning of the year, it looked like a blow to Intel. But in reality, AMD was the one who took the hit.
Classic case of the No.1 and No.2 fighting while No.3 takes the damage.
Now, if Xinghai's creator wanted to enter the market again, Intel could only see it as a gift from the heavens—Su and FarCore would end up battling Xinghai, saving Intel the trouble.
As for coordinating with each other, Intel wasn't worried. Neither FarCore nor Xinghai had the power yet, and antitrust laws were a very real guardrail.
Intel just needed to stay ahead technologically.
…
"First of all," Su began, "given FarCore's current strength, it's hard for us to even enter your market. And you've probably noticed, our focus has always been on the mainland and surrounding regions."
Grove nodded and smiled faintly. "But that's an emerging market."
"If you insist on taking it all for yourself, then we really have nothing more to discuss, Mr. Grove…" Su said, clearly annoyed.
Andy just shrugged. "Go on."
"Second, while FarCore has many architectural ideas, I must admit our logical design and implementation abilities are still weak."
Grove exhaled subtly, nodded, and replied, "Then let me say this—your Thunder architecture is quite impressive. Especially its microarchitecture philosophy and the way you implemented L2 cache."
Su immediately caught the slip in Grove's comment.
That meant Grove wasn't just familiar with Thunder—Intel may have even bumped into some FarCore patents in the process.
The only reason Grove could speak so calmly was because Intel had a history—well-known for enforcing its own patents while ignoring those of others.
In modern internet slang, they were the textbook definition of "double standards."
Also—Grove hadn't mentioned MMX.
In Su's memory, the MMX instruction set had actually been developed around this very time by Intel's Haifa team in Israel. That team was shockingly aggressive—very similar in spirit to Xi Xiaoding's Pandora team.
Historically, MMX wouldn't become official for another two years.
Back then, Intel took MMX so seriously that they even named the processor series after it—a unique honor among instruction sets.
That was because Win95 was marketed as a multimedia-centric OS, targeting consumer users. MMX, of course, was built for multimedia.
And now, with Win95's release imminent, Grove hadn't even mentioned MMX.
That was very telling.
Could they be copying?
Su's mind raced through the possibilities as he eyed Grove with suspicion.
Grove's face remained unreadable—either he was hiding something well, or he was just that good at bluffing.
Su decided to go straight to the point: "So… what about the MMX instruction set? Don't you think that in a future where PCs become mainstream and the internet expands rapidly, desktop machines will need to serve not just work but entertainment too?"
That was the first time Grove's eyes flickered.
Just a flicker, but Su caught it.
He quietly let out a breath of relief.
Maybe his time at Intel in the "past life" hadn't been in vain. Maybe the Haifa team had indeed been caught off guard—just like the old ARM group.
With renewed confidence, Su smiled. "Looks like you and I see things differently, Mr. Grove. It seems Intel is focused more on the server side."
Grove shot him a sharp look.
This guy… is sharp as hell.
He'd deliberately avoided MMX because Intel had, in fact, borrowed heavily from MMX-like ideas—and because their relationship with Microsoft gave them early access to integration with Win95. Ironically, Pentium Pro's branding as a "multimedia processor" owed a lot to the Thunder CPU.
Win95 was already optimized to support it.
"There's no need to probe with loaded questions, Su," Grove said, smiling. "Please continue. And just so you know—I don't necessarily agree that your two arguments benefit us."
Su shrugged inwardly. Stubborn old fox.
"Lastly… One more competitor for you might mean several fewer in the long run."
Su looked Grove straight in the eye. "On behalf of FarCore, I am formally issuing a challenge."
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1
Chapter 417: You Are a Pioneer
Andy Grove stared quietly at Su Yuanshan.
He understood perfectly what Su's last sentence meant—and it was exactly what he himself had been thinking: once FarCore entered the desktop CPU market, the ones who would suffer the most wouldn't be Intel.
Intel had history. It had vast R&D capabilities. It had deep reserves of technology and experience.
FarCore, on the other hand, even with a miracle-maker like Su Yuanshan at the helm, would still face an uphill battle. Designing a chip wasn't about one person having a clever idea—it required hundreds of engineers working tirelessly, night and day. And sometimes, it just came down to luck.
For example: never again could they afford to repeat a fiasco like the infamous floating-point division bug.
In other words, if Intel truly had confidence, then now was exactly the moment to grant FarCore a license.
"What terms are you offering?" Grove asked.
Su Yuanshan kept his excitement tightly controlled and smiled calmly. "Cross-licensing."
"Like AMD?" Grove chuckled and shook his head. "Robert is no longer with us."
Robert Noyce—founder of Intel, of Fairchild, of Silicon Valley itself. Arguably the greatest figure in the Valley's history. Possibly the greatest. It was he who had once convinced everyone to allow AMD to receive an x86 license from Intel.
Now, Grove was saying that Noyce was gone—and with him, the spirit of that decision.
"You should forget about getting a deal like AMD's," was the implication.
"Mr. Noyce is one of the pioneers I respect the most," Su said earnestly, locking eyes with Grove. "Andy, even though he's gone, his spirit shouldn't vanish from Intel. Back when the eight of you left Fairchild, I believe it wasn't just for profit or market opportunity—it was for a shared pursuit of technology and ideals."
"It was your passion for that dream that built Intel into what it is. And Intel, in turn, helped shape Silicon Valley into what it is today—a place of ambition, a place of greatness."
"Your stories inspire all of us," Su continued. "Not just in Silicon Valley, but across the world. And yet now, you're the one unwilling to give us—the next generation—that same chance."
For a brief moment, Grove was caught off guard. His eyes flickered before quickly regaining their usual calm.
"FarCore cannot share any architecture with Xinghai. If you do, we'll claim full, unconditional access to all your patents," he said sharply, raising a finger for emphasis. "That includes AMD. No sharing. That's the condition."
Su clenched his teeth slightly. Then he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath…
And nodded.
"Deal."
"Let's find time to talk more. Come down and have some tea," Grove said, smiling gently as he stood up first.
Su Yuanshan lightly clenched his fists, then also rose to follow.
Grove's voice called back from ahead, now noticeably warmer. "What's your view on the future of personal computing? I'd love to hear it."
"Uh…" Su replied, thinking aloud. "I think it mainly depends on the pace of global economic recovery. Personally, I believe the internet and personal computing are twin forces—spiraling upward in tandem. Also, I expect revolutionary innovation in PC-adjacent fields, like storage."
"Such as?"
"Well, your work on flash-based hard drives. The speed advantage over traditional drives is significant. It's a genuinely disruptive innovation. Eventually, it will become a strong competitor—maybe even a full replacement—for today's mechanical drives."
They chatted as they descended the stairs. By the time they reached the first floor, the tension had melted away. They spoke like old colleagues rather than sparring opponents.
When they entered the living room, Gates had just "coincidentally" finished brewing coffee.
…
Back at the villa, Zhou Xiaohui couldn't wait to pounce the moment Su walked in.
"How did it go?"
"He budged. Gave me a bottom line," Su replied, glancing toward the kitchen, where the others were still working. Even Ye Rudai wasn't around—just Zhou Xiaohui home on her laptop.
"What's the bottom line?"
Su exhaled with a bitter smile. "Old fox wants an exclusivity clause. No sharing with Xinghai, not even AMD. That's the deal."
Zhou Xiaohui blinked, immediately realizing what that meant. Grove's strategy was clear: divide and conquer. Pit FarCore and Xinghai against each other as separate challengers in the x86 battlefield.
In such a setup, one of them would likely fall first.
Performance, pricing, consumer preference—none of those cared for loyalty or sentiment.
"What about Xinghai, then?" Zhou asked, clearly concerned.
FarCore might still be riding on Xinghai's early momentum, but Zhou Xiaohui had no doubts about FarCore's strength. She had absolute confidence in Su Yuanshan. If he led it, FarCore wouldn't lose.
Her concern was more for Xinghai.
Cyrix, after all, had started out as a scrappy underdog. It had a decent floating-point unit, but in terms of overall architecture and vision—it still lacked something.
Without Su as architect and guiding light, could they keep up?
As for AMD… Zhou had just received an email from Sanders inviting a visit. She was waiting for Su to return so they could discuss it. After all, it had been two years since Su last visited Silicon Valley—he needed to reconnect with old "friends."
But old friends now... were also competitors.
"There's not much I can do for Xinghai now," Su said quietly. "All I can do is hope they grow strong."
There's a saying: both the palm and the back of your hand are flesh. That's true. But to Su Yuanshan, FarCore was the child he raised with his own hands.
He couldn't abandon it.
And after Cyrix joined Xinghai, their progress had been... well, noticeable.
Su pursed his lips, then smiled wryly. "Damn it... let's just say there's been some growth."
Zhou Xiaohui burst out laughing.
It was true: the Thunder architecture had been Su's design. The MMX instruction set? Also Su. L2 cache integration? That was Li Mingliu.
The holy trinity of Thunder's power—all of it came from outside Xinghai.
Sure, Xinghai lacked originality. But in terms of design execution and implementation, they were still far ahead of FarCore's team.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have taped out nearly a year earlier.
"So then... what do you think Karina will do?" Zhou asked after her laughter subsided.
Karina, Silicon Valley's most iconic female CEO, had become a symbol. Covered in accolades, even becoming a feminist figurehead...
And in this context, with Eastern women like Chen Jing, Yang Yiwen, Qin Si, and Zhou Xiaohui mostly staying out of the spotlight, their paths didn't overlap much with Karina's.
But they all knew—Karina had ambition. Maybe even an empire in mind.
With Su "abandoning" Xinghai, who knew how Karina would react?
Su's expression darkened. He exhaled slowly.
Maybe she already saw it coming.
Maybe that's why she'd talked about spinning off the CPU and GPU divisions.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1
Chapter 418: The Legend of a Legendary Architect
There was one thing Su Yuanshan had to admit: in terms of independence and ambition, Karina clearly outshone figures like Chen Jing. But it wasn't Chen Jing's fault—this was entirely due to Su himself. As long as he was present at FarCore, all major decisions would ultimately reflect his will. That naturally limited Chen Jing's space to demonstrate her own capabilities—especially her forward-thinking potential.
If one were to compare Xinghai and FarCore to ships, with Karina and Chen Jing as their respective captains, then Karina had simply been given a destination and was left to chart her own course. Chen Jing, on the other hand, had to navigate by a fixed route, drawn by Su Yuanshan himself.
That made her a brilliant steward of what already existed, rather than a pioneer forging into the unknown.
Compared to Chen Jing, Karina had thought more deeply about Xinghai's future. With her instincts and understanding of Su Yuanshan, she must have realized that once FarCore entered the CPU market, Su's focus would inevitably shift in that direction. Rather than waiting passively for him to "pick favorites," it was better to proactively spin off the CPU and GPU divisions into fully owned subsidiaries—granting them more room to grow and gain experience.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Su shook his head and said, "Karina already told me. She plans to spin off the chip divisions into two wholly owned subsidiaries, so we don't need to worry. As for Claude… the current Cyrix team is only missing one great architect. They just need to find one."
"Yeah, because brilliant chip architects are everywhere, right?" Zhou Xiaohui rolled her eyes. She'd been around Su long enough to understand—even without knowing hardware design—that Su had been the cornerstone of the Thor architecture. Calling him the lead architect would be no exaggeration.
"Haha, if you keep your ears open, you'll find one eventually," Su said cheerfully.
Just because they had stopped cooperating on CPUs didn't mean Su was abandoning the Cyrix team. As he said, what they lacked now was just one truly brilliant architect.
And he happened to know exactly one.
In the future, this man would be known across Silicon Valley as the legendary architect Jim Keller—often called the "Silicon Immortal." At this moment, however, Keller was still languishing at a declining company: DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), a once-glorious enterprise now fading into irrelevance.
DEC had developed a 64-bit RISC-based architecture known as Alpha. It had decent floating-point performance but was terrible at integer operations. Its instruction set was too minimal, too advanced, and it simply couldn't compete with x86.
According to the historical timeline, Keller wouldn't jump ship until next year—when he'd join AMD and spearhead the design of the K8 architecture. That chip would nearly dethrone Intel in the early 2000s.
But as great as Keller was, he had one flaw—he loved to job-hop.
In the tech world, job-hopping wasn't unusual. But Keller took it to another level. DEC, AMD, Apple, Intel… plus obscure ventures like SiByte and P.A. Semi—he'd been to them all. And at each stop, he left behind a groundbreaking architecture.
K8. Zen. Apple's A4 and A5. The list went on.
He was a legend.
If Cyrix could land him—even if just for a single "legend"—it would be enough to keep the company going strong for years.
"Well, go ahead and dig. I'll start cooking," Zhou Xiaohui said, glancing at the time. The others would be home from work soon. She stood up and paused. "You're still set on visiting AMD tomorrow afternoon?"
"Yep. It was bound to happen eventually," Su said, though the thought of facing Sanders gave him a headache. That old man probably wasn't too happy with him. "Oh, and tomorrow, start coordinating with President Qin on the finances and internal planning. Let's wrap things up quickly and head home."
"Got it."
…
Soon enough, the folks from Xinghai began arriving home. Ye Rudai lived next door to Xinghai's offices, so she came back with them.
Naturally, everyone asked how the Intel meeting went. When they heard Intel had drawn a hard boundary around FarCore, the reactions were furious.
"What a cheap trick, Xiaoshan," said Tang Wenjie with concern. "We used to have a decent relationship with Intel. But ever since Xinghai entered the CPU market, things got tense fast."
"Yeah, it's no surprise Sanders is nervous. CPUs are their bread and butter," Su replied with a smile. "For us, it's just one department. Honestly, that's part of why Intel was willing to make concessions."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
When Xinghai first acquired Cyrix, many people scratched their heads. Even after the IPO, the capital markets still held little faith in Xinghai's CPU division—it wasn't even factored into the company's valuation.
Why? Because desktop CPU design was an extremely complex and specialized field. It required top-tier technical talent, patience, and precise strategic direction. History was littered with dead architectures—some survived, but just barely.
In that kind of environment, FarCore charging in boldly, despite its size, didn't intimidate anyone at Intel.
After all, FarCore was a mainland company. Most of its employees were local engineers.
Just on that point alone, they couldn't compare to Intel.
Even with a genius like Su Yuanshan, it wasn't enough.
Intel wasn't worried about FarCore threatening its dominance—but FarCore could very well hurt other competitors.
Case in point: AMD was already feeling the squeeze.
"Alright, let's stop talking about it. Time to eat."
…
The next afternoon at 2 p.m., Su Yuanshan arrived at AMD's headquarters.
As expected, Sanders didn't come down to greet him. Instead, he sent a secretary to wait at the door—a clear display of seniority.
Or maybe it was his way of expressing dissatisfaction.
Because last night, word had spread across Silicon Valley: Su Yuanshan had a private meeting with Andy Grove at Bill Gates' house.
Everyone was buzzing. What had the two discussed? Was it personal? Business? Why Gates' house?
"So, Su—care to satisfy my curiosity?"
When they finally met, Sanders—his hair now almost completely white—plopped down on the sofa and grinned at Su Yuanshan.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1
Chapter 419: Becoming the Target
Although Sanders spoke in a relaxed tone, Su Yuanshan could see the bloodshot eyes beneath the older man's slightly shrunken gaze—clear signs that he hadn't slept well the night before.
Ever since Su Yuanshan had met with him two years ago to jointly push the USB protocol and co-found USB-IF, AMD had entered into multiple areas of cooperation with both Xinghai and FarCore. They'd even shared licenses in CPU design.
For example, when the Thunder series taped out successfully at the end of last year, FarCore had immediately authorized AMD to use the MMX instruction set. In return, AMD had added several new 3D instructions on top of that MMX foundation and licensed those improvements back.
It was an incredibly rare thing: two natural competitors working together toward a common goal—defeating the great "final boss," Intel.
And somehow, it worked.
Sanders had been very satisfied with the arrangement. Sure, Xinghai's CPU had made him uncomfortable, but its technical strengths couldn't be denied. And with AMD set to launch the K-7 architecture soon, featuring MMX 2.0, high-speed L2 cache, and a 200 MHz clock—well, the battlefield was still anyone's game.
But all of that… had been upended last night.
They'd agreed to fight Intel together.
And now, one teammate had gone behind everyone's back to shake hands with the landlord.
What was that supposed to mean?
Sanders stared hard at Su Yuanshan. The stubborn old man was clearly waiting for an explanation.
Su let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
Though he wasn't an "AMD-yes" fanboy, he did respect AMD's never-say-die attitude. And Sanders—the man who always said, "I started this company to make money and have fun"—had his own kind of grit beneath the easygoing surface.
"Old man, I want to build CPUs too," Su said with a half-grin. "You're not going to tell me I can't, are you?"
"Aren't you already doing that?" Sanders raised an eyebrow.
"I mean FarCore."
"What?"
Now Sanders sat up straight, genuinely surprised.
Of course he knew Su had a team at FarCore. But he'd always assumed it was just a side division—like Intel's team in Haifa. To Sanders, Xinghai and FarCore were just two companies under Su's control. Why make a distinction?
Even when Gao Xiaodi had licensed the MMX instructions in FarCore's name, Sanders hadn't thought much of it. At most, he assumed FarCore was a patent and tech provider.
Honestly… even with Su Yuanshan involved, he didn't think FarCore could build a desktop CPU from scratch.
"Well, my meeting with Andy Grove was about that," Su continued. "FarCore applied for x86 licensing. We've already designed a CPU based on the Thor architecture. It's taped out successfully. We're launching it in Shanghai next week."
Sanders took two deep breaths. His eyes didn't leave Su's face.
After a long pause, he finally asked, "Andy agreed?"
"Yes. But under one condition—no cooperation with Xinghai or AMD."
"Heh… dirty trick," Sanders scoffed, waving dismissively—but the regret in his eyes couldn't be hidden.
He'd spent a lifetime in this business. Unlike most Silicon Valley titans, he didn't come from an engineering background—he was a salesman. A complete outlier in this world.
But that background gave him a sixth sense for reading people.
Years ago, he had sensed Su Yuanshan's potential. And personally, he liked the kid. If not, he'd never have agreed to work with him in the first place.
Time had proven him right. Xinghai had risen. FarCore too. And somehow this kid had helped Cyrix build the Thor architecture, dragging desktop CPUs into the L2 cache era.
Honestly, Sanders had always hoped to work with Su long-term. He didn't want to fight Xinghai to the death. He preferred a gentleman's rivalry—splitting the market between them.
But now…
Su had agreed to Intel's terms. He was even willing to "abandon" Xinghai to pursue CPU development on mainland soil.
That reminded Sanders of what Wall Street had been saying about Su.
"Su," Sanders said, leaning forward, "when you bought Cyrix, I told you—you'd be better off acquiring us if you wanted to build CPUs."
He chuckled. "Well, I'm saying it again. Only this time, it's not an acquisition. I want you to walk away from Intel's deal—and join AMD."
Su blinked. He stared at Sanders, stunned.
Had the old man been drinking?
"I want you to run AMD. How about it?" Sanders grinned. "I'm almost 60. Time to retire. And you—you're a genius architect. Your head's full of insane ideas..."
"Wait, hold on—old man…"
"Let me finish." Sanders raised a hand, cutting him off. "If you join AMD, it doesn't mean you have to give up Xinghai or FarCore. As far as I know, even at FarCore, you're not very hands-on anymore."
He hesitated, then added, "In fact, I'd even suggest—you should get out of China. If you come here, you'll realize… the world is so much bigger. Why stay in a poor place? Is your dream about pushing tech forward—or ending poverty?"
Su pressed his lips together, eyes calm as he met Sanders' gaze.
He hadn't expected this. The old man wanted to hand AMD over to him? And he was trying to lure him out of China?
"A genius like you," Sanders continued, "will only shine brightest if you stand on this land."
Then he started listing names—people Su knew well. Names that, to others, might mean little. But to Su, they were iconic.
Indeed, they were all overseas Chinese who had joined the U.S., achieved immense success, and shaped their fields.
Some had returned to China for lectures or exchange programs in recent years. Some even helped recruit bright students to study abroad.
But not a single one had renounced U.S. citizenship.
Widening the scope—even fewer had given up their green cards.
There was one exception, though.
Su Yuanshan smiled faintly to himself.
Xi Xiaoding.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1
Chapter 420: Each in Their Place
More than Sanders' offer to "recruit" him into AMD, what intrigued Su Yuanshan most was: why Sanders?
He didn't know the other CEOs all that well—but this old man, he knew very well. Although Sanders often claimed his only hobbies were flashy clothes, horse-riding, cockfighting, and other "vulgar" pastimes of a nouveau riche, in truth, he had done the kind of work only a true warrior could endure.
Under Intel's constant suppression, this old lion had fought tooth and nail without backing down. He had outlasted wave after wave of CEOs in his generation, persevering until the 21st century. It wasn't until the launch of the K8 architecture, which finally gave AMD a shot at matching Intel, that he retired with satisfaction.
Even those who disliked him had to admit: Sanders was someone who never surrendered. And that spirit didn't just define AMD—it made AMD. It was the very core of the AMD–YES movement.
That this kind of man would now try to step down and hand AMD over to Su Yuanshan?
Su had never heard anything more absurd—not even when drunk.
…
"Well?" Sanders asked, eyes glowing with sincerity. "What do you say?"
"No," Su answered honestly.
"…?"
"Mr. Sanders, the reason I've placed so much focus on the mainland isn't nationalism," Su said calmly. "It's because I believe, purely from a commercial perspective, that China will become a better market."
"Any commercial venture ultimately serves people. And China just happens to have the largest population on Earth. Unless someone can prove this country will never rise, the next frontier in business has to be here."
Sanders replied, "I told you—you could still influence FarCore even if you focused here. And in the future, whether it's PCs or the internet, the CPU will always be the most important component."
"I agree with that."
"So you'd rather beat AMD… and then beat Intel too?"
"…"
Su was momentarily cornered. He rarely found himself backed into a wall during negotiations—but this time, Sanders had done it.
The old man was being deliberately difficult. You want to make CPUs? Fine, I'll give you AMD.
It was a move so unexpected, so well-timed, it completely broke Su's rhythm.
And he could see the strategy clearly—if he accepted, the next step would be for AMD to absorb both the Cyrix and FarCore CPU teams. Add in AMD's existing IP and talent pool, and even if they didn't immediately beat Intel, they could easily stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
And yet… Su didn't want that.
Because his goal wasn't to defeat Intel.
"I've never thought about defeating AMD—or even defeating Intel," Su said after a pause.
"Moore's Law says transistor counts will double every couple of years. It's held true for decades. And it'll probably hold for at least another ten. During that time, we're all just competing."
"I may be a businessman, but deep down, I'm still a scientist. My team has published three consecutive Nature papers on graphene. So what I want to see, above all, is progress—real technological advancement, driven by science. That's why I hope more companies join the fray. The more competition, the faster we evolve."
Looking directly at Sanders, Su said sincerely, "Old man, all I want is for every company to find the place that suits it in the future processor landscape."
Sanders furrowed his brows, his gaze filled with faint disappointment.
Su's words were noble, idealistic. But ultimately, "finding your place" still meant fighting for it. And if no one fought… how would anyone find their place?
Still, the old man quickly pulled himself together, cracked a smile, and shifted to small talk about Silicon Valley gossip.
That shift meant one thing: Sanders still considered Su a friend—but as far as competition went, he'd fight to the end.
…
Ye Rudai's startup wasn't far from Xinghai. In fact, she'd only rented a small floor in a nearby building. The office held just a dozen workstations, and she didn't even have her own office—just a slightly larger desk in a corner.
Right behind her was a cabinet housing the internal server. Whenever site traffic spiked, it sounded like a helicopter taking off—absolutely deafening.
She had chosen this setup partly because she didn't spend much time in the office anyway. But lately, she'd been there every day. Partly because Su Yuanshan was around, and partly because she had work to finish before her break ended—she needed to pull some overtime.
"Daier, I'm heading back to school soon. Can you check my thesis?"
Wearing headphones and staring at her code debugger, Ye Rudai looked up and saw it was Larry Page. He hadn't graduated yet, but his thesis was ready. Originally, he'd planned to go straight into grad school—until a fateful online chat with Ye Rudai convinced him otherwise. Now he was in Silicon Valley.
"Sure." She took off her headphones and followed him to a corner. Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, she asked softly, "What are you planning to do after you go back?"
"I want to join your company after graduation," Page said shyly, folding his hands behind his back. "You won't reject me, right?"
"Why would I?" Ye Rudai grinned. "Once we make it big, you'll be a co-founder. Actually, even if we don't make it, you'll still be a co-founder."
"Heh. We will be great."
"Mm!" She clenched her fist with bright-eyed determination. "Let's go! I'll take your paper home and find a real pro to review it."
"A pro? Your professor?"
Page looked curious. He'd trusted his thesis to Ye Rudai—a peer—because she was that good. Her mentor had to be even better.
Her mentor had spent a year in Silicon Valley, planted the seed of Xinghai, and then returned home to become FarCore's chief scientist.
"Nope…" she said, just as someone entered through the office door.
Ye Rudai's eyes lit up instantly.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1