radiothebook Chapter 226 Market Expansion
Chapter 226 Market Expansion
The Geneva test results were like a domino effect.
When the first one fell, everything else followed in quick succession. Europe was the first to react. The CEO of Deutsche Telekom flew to Hangzhou three days after the test ended, without his strategic team, only a technical director and a framework agreement with the company seal. When Han Lu received him, he pushed the agreement towards her.
I don't want to negotiate. His English is very limited. I want to sign a contract.
The solution is straightforward: replace 30% of Germany's existing submarine fiber optic cable transmission capacity with the Sky Dome satellite network. The contract is for five years and totals over €1.2 billion. The technical director added, "Latency data from Geneva shows that Sky Dome is nearly twice as fast as the submarine cable from Frankfurt to Singapore."
That afternoon, the vice president of EDF also arrived. He wanted space-based solar power. EDF operates Europe's largest nuclear power network, but urgently needs solar power to supplement it under pressure from renewable energy quotas. The 402 second-generation satellite solution has a single-satellite efficiency of 91.2%, and its cost is 30% lower than building ground-based solar power in Europe.
The first contract was for eight years, totaling 1.8 billion euros. After signing, the French vice president glanced at Zuo Cheng. He said something in Chinese: "You have changed the physical rules of energy."
Zuo Cheng replied in Chinese. This is just the beginning.
Over the next two weeks, contracts flooded Europe. Italy's state-owned electricity company signed a €500 million solar power contract. Telefónica of Spain signed an €80 million grid connection agreement for Sky Dome. Royal Dutch Shell unexpectedly signed a deal to power its North Sea drilling platform with space-based solar power. The Karolinska Institute in Sweden secured its first overseas order for brain-computer interfaces: five sets of interplanetary neuromedical devices worth €30 million.
Han Lu updates the summary table every night. The total value of formal contracts received in the European region within two weeks has exceeded five billion euros, equivalent to nearly four hundred billion yuan. She places the table on Zuo Cheng's desk. Europeans didn't buy things at this pace before.
"They weren't just buying things," Zuo Cheng said. "They made their decision before the Geneva results came out. The results simply meant they didn't have to wait any longer."
The reaction in the Asian market was even stronger. Toyota and Honda of Japan sent letters on the very day the Geneva results were announced. Both letters conveyed the same message: they wanted to replace their existing self-developed systems with the 402 autonomous driving solution. The reasoning was simple: the latency data from satellite communication and quantum computing provided by 402 meant that cloud-based decision-making could be improved by at least three times. And the core of autonomous driving is decision-making speed.
Han Lu and her team flew to Tokyo. In three days, they signed four contracts. Toyota signed a five-year autonomous driving cooperation agreement worth $1.5 billion. Honda followed up with a ten-year comprehensive technology cooperation agreement worth $1.2 billion. Nagoya University Hospital signed a brain-computer interface medical cooperation agreement with a special approval letter from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. SoftBank also signed an exclusive agreement for the deployment of its Sky Dome technology in Japan.
Samsung of South Korea acted even faster. The night the Geneva results were announced, headquarters held an emergency meeting, and the following morning issued a formal letter requesting a commercial license for quantum computing. When Han Lu arrived in Seoul, Samsung's vice president was already waiting at the airport, with a printed contract beside him.
The contract is for three years, including quantum cloud services and joint chip development. The total amount is one billion US dollars, plus process sharing clauses. Samsung agreed to include its R&D data on processes below three nanometers in the joint laboratory.
Orders are coming in bulk from Southeast Asia. Singapore Telecom signed a comprehensive smart city cooperation agreement. Thailand's CP Group signed a contract for a comprehensive intelligent agricultural solution. Indonesian Telecom signed a satellite broadband plan to cover millions of islands. Vietnam's largest industrial park signed a contract for the "Four Zeros" industrial transformation. Construction has also begun on a brain-computer interface rehabilitation center in Malaysia.
Han Lu flipped to the last page of the summary table for the Asia region. The total contract value for Asia exceeded US$10 billion, equivalent to over RMB70 billion.
While the orders from South America and Africa aren't as large in volume, their significance is different. A Brazilian agricultural group signed a smart transformation agreement, utilizing 402's unmanned systems and satellite remote sensing technology to cover over ten million acres of cultivated land, with a contract value of $450 million. India's Reliance Industries signed a smart city solution, using Sky Dome technology to cover communication dead zones in rural India, with a contract value of $600 million.
African orders are concentrated in digital infrastructure construction. Ethiopia's Ministry of Communications signed the Sky Dome Landing agreement, covering 60% of the country's areas without signal. Nigeria signed a comprehensive contract for a satellite internet plus brain-computer interface medical training center. Kenya signed a smart agriculture pilot project. Combined, contracts in South America and Africa exceed three billion US dollars.
It was late at night when Zuo Cheng finished reviewing all the summary tables. Han Lu sat opposite him, her eyes bright despite her dark circles.
Global order total. She turned to the last page. Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America combined, 18 billion US dollars. Over 100 billion RMB. Everyone wants to sign with 402. Not to negotiate, but to sign. Because they're afraid those behind them will take away their share.
Zuo Cheng looked at her. "What do you think?"
Han Lu paused, stunned. She felt there was a larger logic behind these orders. The international giants hadn't stopped after losing the Geneva test. Microsoft was increasing its quantum computing R&D budget, Google was expanding Starlink broadband, and Apple was acquiring a brain-computer interface company. They were still catching up. But these orders meant that 402's market share was expanding exponentially. By the time the giants caught up, the market would already be saturated.
"They're competing on technology," Zuo Cheng said. "We're competing on the market. Technology can be caught up with, but once the market is saturated, it's saturated. Every contract signed before the giants catch up is a fulcrum they can never reclaim."
He stood up and walked to the window. Outside, in the Hangzhou night, most of the lights in the 402 headquarters building were still on. Data streams from the satellite control center flickered on the screens, and the cooling equipment in the quantum computing center emitted a low hum.
Han Lu leaned back in her chair. "And what about America?"
"The Americas are Microsoft and Google's home turf," Zuo Cheng said. "They have a thirty-year-old network of political and business connections there. The ice won't melt just because we win a test. But the ice in Europe has already broken, the waters in Asia are rising, and South America and Africa are the new roads we've paved. As long as these three lines connect, the Americas will have to open up sooner or later."
He closed the summary sheet. He needed to finish executing all the contracts on hand first. The global team needed expansion, but there was no rush to hire. After Geneva and these orders, people would come to them.
Han Lu wrote a few lines in her notebook, then suddenly remembered something. Nearly 30% of the newly signed contracts in Europe and Asia involved quantum cloud services. All of these orders went through the Galaxy Cloud quantum platform. In other words, the global commercial ecosystem for quantum computing was already on the platform we built using Tianyan.
Zuo Cheng said, "This is exactly what we want. It's not about one company's quantum supremacy, it's about everyone using the same set of standards. Whoever provides the platform sets the rules."
Han Lu looked up at him. "So, how far do you think we are from setting our own rules?"
Zuo Cheng walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and wrote two words: "Soon."