"If we can't surpass them in performance… no, even if we could match them, or were just slightly weaker, we wouldn't be in such a passive situation!" Old Joe sighed. After berating his own people, he began to ponder a solution. However, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't find one. After all, the hardware gap between the two sides was insurmountable.
Up to this point, Apple's own chips couldn't catch up to the processing power of the Tianzhou 1 chip. Now, the Jiangnan Group was about to launch its second-generation product. How could they possibly compete?
Just as Old Joe was agonizing over this, his secretary suddenly rushed in and handed him an invitation.
"It's an invitation from Mr. Moore? He's inviting me to dinner in his personal capacity?" Seeing the invitation, Jobs couldn't help but be somewhat taken aback, as this invitation came from Gordon Moore.
To the Chinese, Gordon Moore might be a name they've never heard of. But in the electronics industry, especially in the American computer industry, Gordon Moore was a legendary figure, someone that any industry insider would respectfully call an elder.
His status was somewhat akin to Zhang Sanfeng's position in Taoism.
This was because Gordon Moore was the founder of Intel.
Like most founders in the electronics industry, Gordon Moore was a technically-minded businessman.
In his youth, he participated in the creation of integrated circuits. Later, along with seven other people, he co-founded the renowned Fairchild Semiconductor. This semiconductor company was hailed as the West Point of Silicon Valley, as almost the entire development of Silicon Valley originated from Fairchild Semiconductor.
In later generations, Fairchild Semiconductor would be known as the dandelion of Silicon Valley. Once this dandelion scattered, Silicon Valley was born.
However, due to Fairchild Semiconductor's various questionable operations, Gordon Moore eventually left Fairchild with his friends and founded Intel, ultimately building this the world's most powerful computer chip research and development enterprise.
In 1987, Gordon Moore handed over the position of Intel chairman to someone else and retreated to the second line. By 2001, he had completely exited the board of directors, holding less than 1% of Intel shares merely as a symbol of his continued association with Intel.
It could be said that Gordon Moore was one of the living gods in the entire electronic computer industry. Jobs was a generation younger than him, and he would always show great respect when they met.
However, Gordon Moore and Jobs had very little interaction, only meeting at various social events. They had no personal friendship, let alone attending Gordon Moore's private banquet.
But now, this invitation had been delivered to Jobs. Even a fool would know that this private banquet must have another purpose.
Would Jobs refuse this invitation?
Naturally, that was impossible. In fact, Jobs had been waiting for this invitation.
Indeed, that evening, Jobs arrived at Gordon Moore's home with gifts. It was a small estate far from Silicon Valley, surrounded by farmland, with almost no trace of modernity. It was hard to imagine that an elder who had changed the entire electronic computer industry lived here.
However, Jobs discovered that he was not the only one who had received an invitation. Several old acquaintances were also present, including his current rival, Google's CEO Larry Page, and Qualcomm's President Irwin Jacobs.
With these individuals present at a private banquet, Jobs knew that this gathering was likely for discussing business matters.
"Everyone, please join me in a toast!" Gordon Moore raised his glass first. Naturally, everyone else followed suit. After finishing their drinks, the initially stiff and awkward atmosphere instantly became more cordial.
"You are all probably wondering why an old fellow like me, who has long since retired, has invited you all here. Actually, this wasn't my idea; Intel asked me to convene everyone. After thinking about it, I decided to invite you all!" Gordon Moore began, and this opening statement made it clear that this was no ordinary private gathering.
"Sir, we all know this dinner is not a simple one. Please get straight to the point!" Jobs said very directly.
"Alright, since that's the case, I'll be blunt. Over the past year, I'm sure you're all aware of the tremendous sales of Tianzhou terminals. If this brand is allowed to continue developing, the entire terminal market, or perhaps the mobile phone market, will likely fall into the hands of our competitors."
"The key reason for our competitor's success is that we have consistently failed to produce a product that can match them technologically."
"We are all leaders in this market. If Tianzhou successfully rises, we will be in trouble. Therefore, I suggest that we set aside our past grievances, sit down together, and cooperate to launch a product that can compete with Tianzhou. Otherwise, we can only wait for the doomsday!" Gordon Moore said calmly, with a sense of urgency in his words.
This was, of course, if he wasn't reading from his speech notes while eating cake.
"How do we cooperate?" Jobs, still quick-witted and decisive, asked.
"Of course, by each of us sharing our strongest technologies for open exchange!" Gordon Moore continued. "Intel can offer our latest chip manufacturing technology. Not the products you see on the market, but technology that was originally planned for release six years from now."
"This is chip technology entirely based on a 30nm process, offering over 340% increase in computing power compared to the microcomputer chips Intel currently provides. Furthermore, we guarantee that its computing power will be more than 20% higher than the computing power of the Tianzhou 1 chip," Gordon Moore stated calmly.
"It seems the rumors online were true. Intel really is the world's greatest toothpaste manufacturer!" Larry Page, sitting nearby, couldn't help but jest.
"Toothpaste manufacturer" was a very popular meme at the time. This was because, except for a few specific years, Intel consistently released products with 20-30% more computing power than the previous year's chips, and this had always been the case.
Initially, buyers thought it was a testament to Intel's prowess, with new technological breakthroughs every year.
But after decades of this pattern, some sharp netizens began to suspect that Intel actually possessed products with several times, or even tens of times, the computing power of their strongest released chips, but Intel was deliberately releasing new generations of products with only marginal improvements each year.
This was to ensure new products every year and to continuously generate upgrade demand, much like squeezing toothpaste, where the contents are squeezed out bit by bit, rather than all at once.
Now, Intel was presenting something with 3.4 times the performance, which indirectly proved that the "toothpaste squeezing" meme circulating online was not without merit.
Moreover, no one knew if this 3.4x performance increase was Intel's final trump card, or if they were holding back even more impressive advancements.
Gordon Moore remained expressionless in response to Larry Page's jest. He then turned to Qualcomm beside him and said, "Although Intel has the corresponding chip manufacturing technology, we are still very enthusiastic about communication basebands. Therefore, I hope Qualcomm will contribute its 3G communication technology."
Then, Gordon Moore turned to Jobs and said, "Qualcomm's chip manufacturing is too poor in terms of process and architecture. Therefore, I also hope that Apple can contribute its related process and architecture technologies."
"By combining the top technologies of our three companies, we are sure to produce a chip that is not inferior to Tianzhou 1 in any aspect of performance. As for the respective shareholding of each company in this joint venture, we can discuss it slowly. Let's confirm this cooperation first!" Gordon Moore said decisively.
His cooperation plan was indeed very shrewd, pooling the strongest technological components from each of the three companies. The chips produced this way might indeed have the wherewithal to compete with Tianzhou. The key was whether the other two companies would agree to this cooperation.
"As long as the share distribution is reasonable, we have no objections." Irwin Jacobs, the President of Qualcomm, was the first to express his agreement. After all, he was the least prominent among the companies present.
Despite Qualcomm's future dominance in the mobile chip market, Qualcomm at this time was in a state of near stagnation. Their promoted 3G technology had not yet been fully popularized, and smartphones were still in their nascent stages. They had finally seen a glimmer of hope, only to be completely outclassed by the sudden emergence of Tianzhou. Qualcomm was the most anxious among everyone present.
As long as a way could be found to improve the market, Qualcomm would naturally not refuse.
After Qualcomm nodded in agreement, all eyes naturally turned to Jobs.
"We believe a joint venture is a good cooperation model," Jobs said coldly. "A joint venture between the three of us sounds good in terms of integrating technical strength, but in reality, it would lead to squabbling among the three. Who would lead when the three are combined? How would the shares be divided? And how would the power over the future products be allocated?"
"Perhaps none of us have ulterior motives at this moment, but once the company is operational, we will no longer have complete control. Therefore, I absolutely do not agree to forming any joint venture!"
"Is that so?" Gordon Moore frowned. Although he had anticipated that Jobs would be difficult to deal with, he hadn't expected him to be this recalcitrant.