Chapter 1558 Crazy Stock Market
At 9:30, the opening bell of the U.S. stock market rang in the virtual world.
For the next hour, Chang Haonan sat in front of the computer and witnessed with his own eyes an almost insane feast in the capital market that was worthy of being recorded in the history of finance.
Tesla's stock price was like a ignited rocket, breaking through the preset circuit breaker threshold the moment it opened. After a brief suspension, it resumed trading and continued to soar upward at a nearly vertical angle.
Following closely behind are LG Electronics, Samsung SDI, Panasonic...all the giants related to lithium battery manufacturing, their stock prices have become a dizzyingly steep straight line.
Giants in the field of materials and chemicals, such as Dow Chemical and DuPont, have also soared to new heights. Even Apple, a consumer electronics giant, has been crazily sought after because its products rely heavily on high-performance batteries.
The area that lags behind slightly is the mineral resources sector.
FMC, Talison, Acadim...
The market seems to have fallen into a collective unconscious frenzy, and funds are rushing like a flood that has broken through a dam, recklessly rushing to any field that may be related to "light field programming", "single atom array" and "lithium battery revolution".
Just 45 minutes after the opening, the Nasdaq Composite Index had risen by a staggering 14.75%, the largest single-day gain on record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also recorded astonishing increases of 9.75% and 9.91% respectively, setting new highs since the financial crisis.
The entire market is green - that is a sign of a crazy rise in stock prices!
Due to the explosive trading volume, the exchange system even experienced delays several times.
Wall Street analysts were stunned, and the financial anchor's voice was hoarse with excitement.
All reports point to the same source: the paper published by Chinese scientists in Nature on "light field programmed atomic arrays" and the blueprint for a leap in lithium battery performance it depicts!
Chang Haonan stared at the K-lines on the screen that were rising wildly as if out of control, stunned, and didn't even notice that the tea at his hand had gone cold.
Although he foresaw that the results would cause a stir in the capital market, he did not expect the stock market reaction to be so extreme and so crazy!
This has gone beyond the scope of technological innovation and is more like a wealth redistribution frenzy sweeping the world.
Chang Haonan turned off the dazzling market charts, leaned back in his chair, and let out a breath.
At this moment, even he himself could not imagine what kind of super monster he had released.
By the way, I finally understood why the American and Japanese media were so "abnormal" and rushed to cheer for them, even using the most exaggerated words to praise them.
"As expected of you, Wall Street..." In addition to being shocked, Chang Haonan also felt a sense of cold irony.
The logic of capital is so naked, so simple and crude at this moment——
Pure "money-oriented" attitude that is divorced from all high-level interests.
In order to pursue the trillion-dollar future market, all positions and prejudices can be temporarily put aside, and all praise can be offered without reservation.
This capital carnival triggered by a paper slightly retreated from its peak in the following two days, but its upward momentum remained strong.
Tesla's stock price almost doubled in just two days, and stocks in the related industrial chain continued to be popular.
What is even more shocking is that since this breakthrough result clearly came from a Chinese research institution, huge confidence and hot money also poured into the Asia-Pacific market.
Even the Hong Kong stocks and the A-share market, which suffered heavy losses due to the financial crisis in 08, recorded record gains for several consecutive days, especially in the new energy and new materials sectors, with trading volumes repeatedly breaking records.
At the same time, a "gold rush" is unfolding around the world in the form of digitalization.
Within 48 hours after the paper was published, thousands of new company registration applications with keywords such as "light field catalysis", "new energy materials" and "lithium battery energy" flooded into the backend of the industrial and commercial registration systems of major economies around the world.
Countless entrepreneurs with dreams or speculative intentions have tried to carve out a niche in this new continent. Unlisted start-up battery companies have announced that they have received tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, and their valuations have been pushed up to staggering levels during the PPT stage.
The whole world seems to be immersed in a fanatical vision of future wealth.
The academic source of this storm, the Lianhai Institute of Chemical Physics, is also experiencing an unprecedented "highlight moment" at this moment.
A press conference of unprecedented scale will be held in its main conference hall.
In the backstage lounge, Academician Zhang Tao looked through the one-way glass at the conference hall outside, which was bustling with people and full of cameras.
Flash lights went on and off, and whispered conversations in various languages merged into a buzzing background sound. Nearly a hundred Chinese and foreign reporters packed the originally spacious conference hall. More than two-thirds of them had blond hair and blue eyes, or foreign faces carrying NHK and Kyodo News logo equipment.
Many reporters were apparently visiting this industrial city in northeast China for the first time, let alone this once low-key national research institute.
But this did not stop them from portraying the name of "Lianhai Institute of Chemical Physics" as a legendary entity comparable to Bell Labs in their reports over the past two days.
This absurd yet real scene made Zhang Tao, an experienced academician, couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
He turned to look at Cui Yan, a party official beside him who was also a little nervous, and asked half-jokingly: "Secretary Cui, guess how much the total amount of horizontal project cooperation intentions and investment consultations our institute has received in the past two days?"
"How would I know..." Cui Yan was just finishing her speech with her head down, and she answered helplessly, "You guys made such a big news without making any noise. I barely even had time to sleep these past two days."
Although she said so, she was obviously very interested in this topic, so she guessed hesitantly: "How much can it be? 20 million?"
After all, it's just two days.
Even for academicians and the Academy of Sciences, this number is already very exaggerated.
Zhang Tao shrugged slightly, and this action seemed particularly "Versailles" in Cui Yan's eyes.
"Incomplete statistics." He said calmly, as if he was talking about an insignificant number. "The intentions reported by the major research groups on lithium batteries, electrode materials, and catalysis alone, added together, are more than 300 million..."
"How much?" Cui Yan's hand shook, and a thick stack of press releases fell on the table with a "click", and the papers scattered all over the floor.
She didn't bother to pick it up, but stared at Zhang Tao with wide eyes, as if she had heard a fairy tale.
"Yes," Zhang Tao bent down to help her pick up some papers, with a helpless smile on his face, "and the threshold is very high. For small projects below one million, I have to consider whether to assign them to the young researchers below for training. Otherwise, the limited manpower in the group will not be able to handle it."
Cui Yan opened her mouth, but in the end it turned into a long sigh. She bent down and silently picked up the scattered manuscripts.
The power of money is demonstrated so intuitively and shockingly in this storm caused by science.
……
Time is up.
Zhang Tao adjusted his suit and tie, took a deep breath, and under the guidance of the staff, he walked into the spotlighted press conference platform with Cui Yan and other leaders.
The audience fell silent instantly, leaving only the sound of camera shutters clicking.
The press conference was opened by Cui Yan.
Afterwards, Zhang Tao, as the corresponding author of the paper and project leader, began his keynote presentation.
He tried to use relatively popular language to explain the core principles of light-field programmed single-atom array catalysts, the synthetic breakthroughs on carbon nanotube carriers, and its unique advantages in constructing an "ultra-stable electrochemical interface."
"It is important to point out," Zhang Tao emphasized, "that in addition to the core paper published in Nature, which elaborates on the principles of material synthesis and basic properties," Zhang Tao raised his voice deliberately, "we also published a sister paper in the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (JCAS) at the same time, entitled "Light Field Programming Single Atom Array Coating Significantly Improves the Cycle Life of Lithium-ion Batteries."
The large screen behind him displayed the cover and key data charts of the JCAS paper in a timely manner.
"This paper focuses more on the application level, showing in detail the actual performance data of this new coating material in a variety of lithium battery systems. Most importantly," Zhang Tao paused to attract the attention of the audience, "this coating material can be applied to both the positive and negative electrodes of lithium batteries, and there is no need to make fundamental and subversive changes to the existing mainstream lithium battery chemical system..."
There were low murmurs of exclamations and the sound of rapid typing on keyboards from the audience.
"Whether it is the nickel-cobalt-manganese or nickel-cobalt-aluminum ternary system commonly used in high-end electric vehicles, the low-cost and safe lithium manganese oxide system, or the rapidly developing and extremely safe lithium iron system." Zhang Tao's voice was clear and powerful. "In principle, by replacing the new electrode coating we developed, the battery's energy density, cycle life, and - most importantly - safety can be significantly improved without significantly increasing costs!"
"Of course," he added, appearing to be very frank, "in the traditional lithium-ion system, due to the intrinsic limitations of the material, the performance improvement is the most amazing, which is supported by detailed data in the JCAS paper..."
"..."
Entering the question and answer session, host Cui Yan's eyes swept across the countless raised arms in the audience.
She hesitated for a moment, and surprisingly did not call on the domestic reporters first, but pointed to a blond and blue-eyed reporter in the front row: "Please ask the reporter from the Los Angeles Times."
The reporters in the audience were recording rapidly, snapping photos of the data charts on the screen with their cameras.
The reporter who was called immediately stood up, took the microphone, and spoke quickly: "Hello, I am Emily Chen, a technology reporter for the Los Angeles Times. One of the biggest concerns about lithium batteries in the market is safety, especially the risk of thermal runaway in extreme cases. Can the new material you developed that can greatly improve battery performance also significantly improve battery safety while improving performance?"
This question hit the nail on the head. The scene instantly became quiet, with all eyes focused on Zhang Tao.
"This is a very good question." Zhang Tao nodded, but did not answer directly. Instead, he asked the staff to play a video. "Please look at the big screen."
The screen is divided into two pictures, left and right. On the left is a soft-pack lithium battery marked "new coating", and on the right is a battery of the same specification marked "conventional". In the picture, a sharp metal needle pierces the left battery. The battery shell is penetrated at the moment of penetration, but it does not catch fire immediately, and only a small amount of white smoke slowly emerges. Time passes second by second, and after three minutes, a weak open flame begins to appear at the pierced part. After about half a minute, the fire suddenly increases and a violent explosion occurs.
The conventional battery on the right, on the other hand, staged a completely different tragedy: the moment the metal needle pierced, a bright flame immediately erupted inside the battery. With almost no delay, the fire quickly spread and expanded. In less than ten seconds, the entire battery turned into a violently burning fireball, accompanied by a violent explosion.
