Chapter 421 New Iridium Project
Before Li Zetian could discuss how much compensation to pay to those victims, the news that Morgan Staley was acquired by Li Zetian suddenly came out, causing a sensation.
A Wall Street investor lamented: "Morgan Staley suffered the biggest loss from the 911 incident. Alas, his final tragic fate was to fall prey to Chronos Li!"
"Yes, this is Morgan Staley, the pride of Wall Street!!"
A white-haired old man said with grief and anger: "Chronos Li's barbaric behavior has trampled on the dignity of Wall Street!!!"
Trample on your sister!
Isn't it just the acquisition of Morgan Staley? What's so great about it? !
Li Zetian didn't know that the people on Wall Street were very dissatisfied with him. If he knew, he would definitely be dismissive.
He doesn't just trample, he simply wants to dominate Wall Street! ! !
Rumor has it that it was Morgan Staley. If given the chance, he would even dare to annex J.K****!
At this time, in addition to owning Wells Fargo and Morgan Staley in the United States, Li Zetian was also one of the major shareholders of Citigroup.
In the early years, well, around 1986, Jamie Dimon and Sandy Weill left the American Express Group. Li Zetian had a keen eye and hired the two to join his company. In 1993, he acquired The Travelers Corporation, and then It was renamed Travelers Group. In 1997, Travelers Group acquired Salomon Brothers, the fifth largest investment bank in the United States. In 1998, Travelers Group merged with Citigroup. The new company formed by the merger was called "Citigroup", and its trademarks were Travelers Group's red umbrella and Citigroup's blue wordmark. This meant that Li Zetian deepened his understanding of The penetration of American conglomerate power and influence on Wall Street.
…
Back at the hotel, Li Zetian began to think about compensation.
"Compensation for victims, compensation for injured rescuers..."
"In addition to personal compensation, there are also losses to businesses in New York... If these are all added up, how much will the compensation be?" Li Zetian picked up a compensation form and glanced at it, the corner of his mouth twitched, "What, more than 40 billion US dollars? ?!!"
"Wait a minute...I shouldn't have to bear all this money. It's the fault of terrorists, the US government and insurance companies!!"
Thinking of the huge compensation, Li Zetian immediately decided, I don't want to show off anymore, why should I pay for the US government! The most I can do is donate some money and do charity...
"Selena, ask the umbrella company to donate 200 million US dollars to express your feelings!" Li Zetian said.
"yes!"
"Well, okay, you go back to your room and rest."
Li Zetian called Selena away, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the dimly lit night view of New York, snorted coldly, and said: "Maybe some people will say, you Chronos Li is a trillion dollar millionaire, how can you just donate Two hundred million U.S. dollars?! Shit, two hundred million U.S. dollars is not a huge amount of money. I asked, how many people in the world can donate, who can say less, then you can do it, you can do it, I want to see what you can do How much money to donate!!!”
"The 911 incident was caused by the U.S. government itself. If you say you don't cause trouble for others, will they fight with you if they turn on the lantern? Therefore, the responsibility must be borne by the U.S. government. I, Li Zetian, don't want to wipe the U.S. government's butt for you!"
As the night progressed, Li Zetian returned to the bathroom and took a shower, then fell asleep on the bed.
The next day, Li Zetian set off back to Los Angeles.
After the 9/11 incident, the United States began to purchase weapons aggressively in order to retaliate against terrorists.
After Li Zetian rested at home for a day, he went to Chronos Industrial Company to take a look and learn about the development of weapons.
Because Chronos Industries was established not long ago, its weapons development is still slightly behind that of the American arms giants.
Fighters, tanks, missiles, tanks, radars, electronic systems, etc. are all still in the catching-up stage.
After the introduction by Dr. Blake, CEO of Chronos Industries, Li Zetian couldn't help but regretted: "Oh, it's really a pity. After the 911 incident, the world's arms increased greatly, and there may not be many weapons orders for Chronos Industries for the time being..."
"Mr. Li, according to my analysis, the 911 incident has a great impact. For a long time to come, all countries in the world will increase their military strength, and advanced weapons will inevitably become hot commodities! Although Chronos Industry started relatively late, But we have a lot of R\u0026D personnel and funds. Space-X and Robot-X are industry leaders, and aerospace and robotics technology leads the world. We just haven’t immediately transformed the technology into weapons. But I am determined that in the future In the arms market, there must be a foothold for Chronos Industries!" Dr. Black said with confidence.
"Well, that's true!"
When Li Zetian heard this, he felt happy. Yes, Chronos Industrial's technology is so powerful, why not worry about becoming an arms giant?
"Mr. Li, this afternoon, a new Space-X factory in Nevada has just been completed in the past few days. Do you want to visit it? This new factory mainly produces satellites and rockets." Dr. Black invited at this time .
Well, another new factory has been completed. The previous Space-X aircraft factory has not yet been visited.
Li Zetian nodded and said, "Okay, let's set off together at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning! By the way, I also want to visit the Space-X aircraft factory."
"Okay, no problem, Mr. Li, it just so happens that the two factories are not very far away..."
On the next day, Li Zetian, Dr. Black and others arrived in Nevada. Nevada is a state in the western United States, bordering Oregon and Idaho to the north, Utah to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and California to the southwest.
First, Dr. Black took Li Zetian to the Space-X aircraft factory. This factory is very large, covering an area of 50 hectares (one hectare of land is 10,000 square meters), and the total area of the entire factory is 750 hectares. In fact, this factory integrates production and research and development, and is developing larger and faster large passenger aircraft.
Li Zetian walked into a factory and couldn't help but be amazed.
This place is too big and too empty. A huge Space-X2000 super-large passenger plane is placed in the middle, with a dazzling array of robot arms, and the staff next to it are busy non-stop.
"Oh, it's so spectacular!! Space-X2000 is assembled like this!" Li Zetian exclaimed.
Dr. Black smiled slightly: "Each Space-X2000 has at least 50 people responsible for assembling it. It takes nearly a month to build such a giant. The Space-X aircraft factory has twelve such production workshops, each We can guarantee the production of 12 Space-X2000s per month.”
"Well, very good!" Li Zetian calculated that this aircraft factory can produce 144 Space-2000s in one year. The production capacity is huge!
"It's just," Dr. Black sighed at this time and said, "After the 911 incident, many American airlines canceled orders one after another, and orders from abroad also dropped significantly."
Li Zetian frowned and thought deeply. American Airlines has fallen into a trough, and this may not be an opportunity, an opportunity for Kronos Airlines and the Space-X2000 large passenger aircraft to rise!
"Dr. Black, don't worry about this. The more depressed the aviation market is, the more opportunities we have to become bigger and stronger! Who says it's impossible to develop against the trend?" Li Zetian's eyes flashed with a crazy light, "The American aviation industry is depressed. It’s just temporary, and it will definitely recover in the future. I will let Kronos Airlines take advantage of the situation to merge these airlines, and then replace them with Space-X2000 large passenger aircraft for low-cost operations!!!”
"Oh, by the way, Saudi Arabia is very rich. This user is worthy of our development. A high-end, atmospheric and classy aircraft like the Space-X2000 will definitely be very popular with them!"
Li Zetian paused and continued: "I will also consider acquiring some airlines in Europe, Asia, and South America, so the production of Space-X2000 does not have to stop."
…
The Space-X aircraft factory is very large, and Li Zetian visited it for more than half an hour. Then we went to the Space-X factory, which produces rockets and satellites. This factory is also very large and has a satellite launch center.
After Li Zetian visited the new factory, an idea suddenly popped into his mind. He said to Dr. Black: "Dr. Black, do you know about the Iridium Project?"
Dr. Black nodded and said, "Of course I know. This was proposed by Barry Bertig, an engineer at Motorola. The idea came from his wife's complaint when she was on vacation in the Caribbean, saying that she could not contact her customers with her mobile phone, so An Iridium solution was proposed - a constellation of 77 low-Earth satellites, allowing users to make phone calls from anywhere in the world! The total number of satellites was later reduced to 66."
Speaking of this, Dr. Black vaguely knew what Li Zetian wanted to do.
However, the Iridium satellite system began test launches in 1996 and plans to put it into operation in 1998, with a total investment of US$3.4 billion. Motorola worked hard and finally put the Iridium system into use on November 1, 1998. However, on March 17, 1999, Iridium officially declared bankruptcy.
It took less than half a year from the official announcement of its use to the end of its use. In the end, it had to "de-orbit" the 66 satellites it operated, causing them to burn up when they entered the earth's atmosphere. Complete combustion takes one to two years, and the cost of burning the satellite is between US$30 million and US$50 million.
"Mr. Li, it turns out that the Iridium satellite project is not suitable for the market!" Dr. Black said, persuading him tactfully.
Li Zetian smiled when he heard this, "Dr. Black, I still know a lot about the Iridium project. Compared with the terrestrial mobile phone system, the Iridium system itself has many shortcomings. The mobile phone is bulky, unstable, and expensive. So it failed in the end. However, the times are developing, and we must be brave enough to try. Yes, I plan to continue the Iridium satellite project, but not to launch 66 satellites, but hundreds of satellites!"
Dr. Black was shocked when he heard this. He was about to speak to dissuade Li Zetian, but was interrupted.
"Oh, Dr. Black, don't worry. I'm not saying that we should launch a satellite now. First of all, I ask you to develop a cheap satellite that weighs less than ordinary satellites. It is best to reduce the manufacturing cost of the satellite. Cut it down to a few million dollars. The second step is to develop a rocket that can be recycled and launch twice or even more times to minimize the cost of rocket launches. After completing these, I will build the world's largest satellite Communication network provides cheap Internet access services for ground personnel!”
Regarding this "New Iridium Project", Li Zetian had considered it in his heart and did not just talk about it.
Now Apple is developing the iPhone, and it is estimated that the results will be available within a few years. Then smart phones will inevitably become popular all over the world, and the mobile Internet business will increase greatly! Satellite communication networks can not only provide network access services to computers, but also provide network traffic to mobile phones. You may lose money at first, but over time, you can make money back. Besides, even if it is a loss, considering Li Zetian's worth, losing billions of dollars is not a big deal.
The key is that if things are done, it will definitely promote the development of global mobile Internet.
What is lost is the mulberry tree, and what is gained is the east corner.
The money Li Zetian lost on launching the satellite can be made up for in other ways, and it may be a huge profit!
PS: I’m so busy today, I’ll give you more bursts tomorrow, 5 updates? 6 updates? 7 updates? 8 updates? I worked hard, and last time I seemed to have updated 8 chapters in one day. The protagonist starts to launch satellites, hahaha
