The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 263



Only Noblemtl

263. Countdown (2)

The rice called subprime mortgages is almost cooked.

Now it was time to take a break, and in the meantime, I went to Apple’s headquarters in California to take care of other business.

“Mr. Kim! I heard that you came to America a long time ago. Why did you come here so late?”

“I’m a little late because I had to deal with my pre-arranged schedule. How have you been?”

“I couldn’t have had a better time.”

Steve was very thin.

Just by looking at him, he didn’t seem to be in good condition, but there was no one who could stop him from being a workaholic.

“I’m glad you had a good time. But take it easy.”

“You can rest forever when you die, so how can you rest now? Rather, you have a place to go with me. Please give me a moment.”

“Steve asked me to give him some time, so of course I should.”

I got into the car with Steve.

We arrived at a place not far from Apple headquarters.

It was like an empty plain, and there was nothing worth looking at even if you tried hard to find it.

“Do you see it, Mr. Kim?”

“What do you mean you see?”

“This is where Apple’s new home will be. Rather than simply building a new headquarters, we will create a technology development center, park, auditorium, cafe, etc. to recreate it as a space just for Apple.”

I guess it’s about Apple Park.

Apple’s current headquarters was in an unsightly state, so a new headquarters was needed.

Just as my grandfather was greedy for Taewoo Group’s new headquarters, Steve was also the same.

“The current headquarters building does not live up to Apple’s reputation.”

“We’ve already made all the plans. We’ve almost finished acquiring the site and hired an architect. As long as we select a construction company, construction can begin right away.”

“The site alone appears to be at least 100,000 pyeong. There are probably only a few construction companies that can do this kind of work.”

“So, I’m planning to request a contract from Taewoo Construction… How, are you interested?”

I never thought you would make such a suggestion.

Of course, it was a very grateful offer from my perspective.

How could you refuse if they told you to stay still and put rice cake in your mouth?

It was a project that seemed to have a minimum construction cost of $5 billion, and it was also a very large scale among the projects Taewo Construction had received.

“Of course I’m interested. But I’m already worried. Taewo Construction will have a hard time meeting Steve’s exacting tastes.”

“I want to build a building in the shape of a UFO-shaped donut, install solar panels everywhere, and achieve 100% power self-sufficiency, so there is no need for a separate power supply.”

“That level of construction would only be possible at a construction company like Taewo Construction. I’m not bragging, but Taewo Construction maintains the top ranking among Korean construction companies and is one of the world’s leading construction companies.”

It wasn’t a bluff.

Taewoo Engineering & Construction had already led large-scale construction projects several times.

Taewoo Engineering & Construction was the company with the technology to build a nuclear power plant.

“Isn’t it strange? According to the media, all the money in the world is being spent by Apple, but a significant portion of Apple’s money is flowing to Taewoo Group.”

“Isn’t that kind of trend because we coexist?”

“I have absolutely no intention of blaming or blaming you. I’m just saying this because I feel like the media and the world are underestimating the Taewo Group.”

As Steve said, the world was not yet fully aware of Taewoo Group.

However, as soon as the subprime mortgage crisis ended, Taewo Group’s presence was revealed.

“Can Taewoo Group just suck up Apple’s money? So I would like to make a suggestion.”

“If it’s Kim’s suggestion, of course we should accept it. So far, none of the projects Kim has proposed have failed, and on the contrary, they have only been huge successes.”

I looked back for a moment.

Dozens of cars were parked behind the car Steve and I came in.

There were cars with bodyguards protecting us, and among them, I walked towards the car that was guarding me.

“Maybe it’s because they’re protecting me, so it’s a Taewoo car.”

“These days, it’s easy to find Taewoo Motors vehicles in the U.S. And the number seems to be increasing significantly every year.”

Taewoo Motors’ market share in the U.S. was rising significantly.

The perception of Taewo-Kai cars was good enough to be ranked in the top 10 in a U.S. consumer preference survey.

“But it’s still not enough. We need to completely destroy the current image of it being perceived as just an inexpensive vehicle, but we can grow one step further.”

“We have a shorter history than other car companies, and we entered the U.S. market late, so there is nothing we can do about it.”

“So, I would like to borrow Apple’s power to change its image. Why not make a car together with Taewo-Kai Automobile?”

This was the reason I came all the way to California to see Steve.

Collaboration between Taewo-Kai Motors and Apple.

There has been a lot of collaboration with Apple so far, but this has been limited to home appliances.

But now it’s time to go beyond that limit, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that we’ve been collaborating with Apple for this day.

“You mean, let’s make cars together? Hehe, Apple is a company that makes smartphones and laptops. It’s a company that has absolutely nothing to do with the car industry.”

“What does the division of industries matter now? We live in an age where people use the Internet on TV and do banking on their mobile phones. What’s different about cars?”

“So, what exactly are we going to do?”

“We plan to build an Apple-Tauka.”

Apple car.

It was a project that had been attempted several times before returning.

However, it was also a project that had never been properly pursued.

The reason was Apple’s excessive conditions.

Apple’s greed to use the technology and infrastructure of automakers almost for free.

Because there were no automakers willing to accept such conditions, the project could not be implemented.

But things were different now.

Because I was the person with the largest stake in Apple, and I also formed a bond with Apple’s CEO, Steve.

“To put it simply, we want to create an Apple Car.”

“That’s correct. We also plan to make it an electric car, not a regular car. Doesn’t it fit Apple’s pioneering image perfectly?”

“Making the Apple Car out of an electric car would be great if possible. But we can’t release an unfinished product under Apple’s name. I know that electric car technology is still far behind that of internal combustion engines.”

Steve was also a car enthusiast.

Steve was known to buy a new car every six months.

It is known that he used that expedient method not because he liked cars, but because he was too lazy to put a license plate on his car.

When you purchase a new car, you are given a temporary license plate for 6 months.

Steve bought a new car before it was time to put on official license plates and continued to drive with temporary license plates.

Would you say you’re a car lover?

Anyway, Steve had quite a bit of knowledge about cars.

“We have no intention of releasing an unfinished electric car. Electric car technology has advanced beyond what Steve thought. The technology is not much different from that of an internal combustion engine car. In fact, there are many areas where it is superior.”

“That’s a lot of confidence.”

“You can think of it as the same confidence as when we first developed the iPhone.”

The iPhone that revived Apple.

Because in this life, it was the iPhone that Steve and I made together.

As soon as I mentioned the iPhone, Steve’s expression turned serious.

“We can’t spend a lot of development money. Didn’t you warn me that a global economic crisis would come soon?”

“There is no need to spend a lot of money right now. We just need to develop a UI and an operating system that can be used in cars. If you wish, Taewo Group can fully support the development costs.”

It wasn’t worth the money at all.

If only the Apple logo could be placed in front of Taewoo Motors, the image of Taewoo Motors could immediately rise several levels.

Therefore, we planned to cover all development costs ourselves.

But Steve shook his head and spoke firmly.

“That can’t be possible. I clearly remember how much of the shares were taken away from Taewo Group instead of covering the iPhone development costs. Since we can’t repeat the same mistake twice, the software development costs will be fully borne by Apple.”

“This is such a waste. We would make more money from software than we would from selling cars.”

The same was true for the iPhone.

Profits from software, including the App Store, were growing larger than the profits from selling iPhones.

“Unlike smartphones, I don’t think the software profits from cars will be that big.”

“We are planning to launch a subscription service. You will have to pay a monthly subscription fee, but you will be able to use all the software. Of course, the basic software will be available for free.”

“It’s a subscription service for cars. Haha, it will be a completely new model.”

“In the future, the day will come when subscription services will be applied to all businesses. We are just taking one step ahead.”

Subscription services were already applied in many places.

The most representative example was, of course, games.

There was also a system that required users to pay a certain amount of money every month to play games, and subscription services were also applied to music sites and OTT services.

“It’s a very groundbreaking idea. It’s good. I will sign an automobile collaboration agreement with Taewo Group. But I will only allow it to be released if it is an electric vehicle that meets my standards.”

“Of course you should. And I will make a lot of concessions in terms of design. We will proceed with the exterior and interior design in the direction Steve wants.”

“Wow, there’s more work to do. Apple’s top designers will be put into the Apple Car project.”

We talked about the Apple Car for a while.

Although we did not discuss exactly how to divide the shares.

A verbal agreement was reached in which Taew Group would receive the profits from vehicle sales and Apple would receive the profits from software.

* * *

After completing related discussions with Apple, the destination I headed to was Amazon.

We are already in the process of collaborating a lot with Amazon, and today we visited Amazon to discuss factory automation equipment and robots.

“Vice Chairman! Just like you said, the real estate market these days is ridiculous. If things continue like this, it looks like we’re going to have an economic crisis.”

“It looks like Amazon is taking quite a hit as well.”

“We have Amazon warehouses all over the U.S., so we feel the real estate price fluctuations firsthand.”

Jeffrey cried.

Jeffrey was famous for being a cold and cool-headed CEO, but he used to complain only to me.

I received full support from SAVE Investment Company from the beginning of the business, and I showed this because I owned a large stake.

“I will provide real-time information on real estate issues, so don’t worry too much. How is the automation facility-related project progressing?”

“I already wanted to show you something. I have completed an automated facility that will revolutionize the industry!”

Jeffrey is full of confidence.

I followed him to the factory and, as he said, I saw an incredible sight.