Chapter 535: A Thunderclap from a Clear Sky

"The Seattle Times learned from Microsoft-related sources that Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates proposed the 'Microsoft Living Room Strategy' at the board meeting. This is an important step for Microsoft in the hardware field!

Sources revealed that Microsoft will cooperate with Dongling High-Tech, a tech company from Asia, to complete this goal.

Microsoft has currently invested in the Guanxing brand under Dongling High-Tech. This brand will release its first product in the next two years, which will also be the first step of Microsoft's living room strategy."

"Microsoft wants to enter the game console market!"

When this report from the Seattle Times came out, the first thing that attracted everyone's attention was the game console project. Various media, including Yahoo's internet news, also began to scramble to report it.

Once the news came out, it spread like wildfire. What attracted the most attention was Microsoft wanting to enter the game console market to compete with Ren Tiantang and Sony, which was being talked about everywhere.

In reality, this was also intentional by Microsoft. They focused on promoting Microsoft entering the game console industry while downplaying their entry into the computer industry, so as not to trigger another wave of opposition.

And in fact, the investment institutions on Huaerjie all knew that Microsoft was prepared to go all out in the fields of computers, game consoles, and TV equipment.

Whether Microsoft could succeed, Huaerjie couldn't estimate, but the "living room strategy" proposed by Microsoft couldn't help but make people's imaginations run wild.

Especially since it was revealed that the one causing trouble with Microsoft this time was Dongling High-Tech, a tech upstart that had risen in Asia in recent years.

Although Microsoft was a bit of a novice in the hardware industry and hadn't achieved anything major all these years, Dongling High-Tech was born in the hardware industry and was now one of the world's top four mobile phone shippers.

This time, Microsoft suddenly joined forces with Dongling High-Tech to start causing trouble in the computer industry and game console market, which was indeed unexpected.

And Dongling High-Tech was indeed the company with the strongest hardware strength that Microsoft had cooperated with in recent years. Whether this wave of cooperation between the two sides would be a perfect match or a huge mess, no one knew.

However, on that day, Microsoft's stock price surged all day long, with the stock price once rising by more than 6% in the middle. The concept of the "living room strategy" also directly became one of the new concept stocks on Nasdaq. This was Microsoft's influence; even if they farted, it would be studied and analyzed by people...

It was just that, by comparison, the stock prices of Sony and Ren Tiantang plummeted that day. Game consoles were now in an era of two giants; it would be strange if they felt comfortable with a giant crocodile suddenly breaking in.

Visibly, the game console industry was about to usher in a brutal war. If the wealthy Microsoft didn't care about the cost and was willing to compete with them even at a loss, Sony and Ren Tiantang's console businesses would also be hit hard.

On the contrary, the game developers who had been squeezed by these two major console platforms until they could barely breathe felt like fish that had been dehydrated and finally got a breath of air.

Generally, new giant companies entering the industry would spend massive amounts of money to grab market share. For example, when Microsoft developed game consoles, to get games to enter the console platform, they would spend huge sums of money to win over game developers.

And Sony and Ren Tiantang, in order not to let the game developers on their console platforms run away, would also reward them with a little something. But for game developers, this was equivalent to distributing benefits.

It is expected that global console game developers will have a good life in the next few years. After all, there is one more console platform to choose from!

It wasn't just Ren Tiantang and Sony that were unlucky; Intel's stock price also took a dive during the session. Although the dive wasn't large, the news that came out was truly too shocking for the semiconductor industry.

Microsoft secretly released a "small" announcement, but this announcement was not about Microsoft's ambitious living room strategy, but about the obscure Dongxin Semiconductor.

"Microsoft and Dongxin Semiconductor have reached a cooperation in system and chip authorization. Microsoft's new R&D team will be used for R&D in system porting!"

Although Microsoft was being secretive and didn't want to attract too much attention, this sentence in Microsoft's announcement still caused an uproar in the entire semiconductor industry.

Microsoft was being subtle, but everyone knew what this sentence meant. That is, after nearly twenty years, Microsoft announced again that its system would support new chips. If this wasn't backstabbing Intel, what was?

Once the announcement came out, rumors of the Microsoft-Intel alliance dissolving spread like wildfire. And the facts were indeed as Bill Gates expected: this news had little impact on Microsoft, and the stock price continued to advance triumphantly.

Whether the Microsoft-Intel alliance dissolved or not didn't affect Microsoft's dominant position in the operating system industry, but for Intel, it directly caused its stock price to plummet by over 4%!

Forced, Intel urgently announced that Grove had gone to Seattle to negotiate at Microsoft's headquarters. Subsequently, photos of Grove appearing at Microsoft's headquarters also appeared in the media.

From this, one could see Grove's brilliance. If he hadn't gone to Microsoft's headquarters, this storm wouldn't have been able to subside.

And subsequently, Intel announced that it had reached an agreement with Microsoft. The Microsoft-Intel alliance still existed. As for Dongxin Semiconductor, it was just an "accident," and Dongxin Semiconductor would not affect the alliance relationship between the two sides.

Intel also announced some details of the cooperation between Microsoft and Dongxin, claiming that Microsoft only cooperated with Dongxin and would not authorize system copyrights to a third chip manufacturer.

Then Grove appeared before the media and aggressively announced that Dongxin would not become Intel's competitor.

"A company that has only made one phone chip since its establishment, provided radio frequency chips for the so-called 'Little PHS' mobile phones, and doesn't know when it will be able to launch computer chips—can it threaten Intel?"

Standing at Microsoft headquarters and accepting media interviews, Grove said with a helpless face, as if he had been amused by the rumors of the media's nonsense that Dongxin would become Intel's competitor.

"Of course, Intel will not underestimate any competitor. For Dongxin, Intel will give it the 'respect' it deserves!"

Finally, facing the media, Grove's face sank. He was almost publicly calling out to Dongxin Semiconductor. In the upcoming war initiated by Intel, Grove would not raise a tiger to cause trouble for himself!

After Intel issued the statement and Grove called out before the media, Intel's stock price, which had originally fallen, began to be slowly pulled up.

Clearly, Huaerjie institutions and Intel investors also believed that Dongxin probably couldn't become a "qualified" competitor to Intel and couldn't threaten Intel.

Whether Dongxin Semiconductor could become Intel's competitor was hard to say. However, the news reported was enough to shock the American semiconductor industry and even the global semiconductor industry.

For so many years, Intel's dominant position in the semiconductor industry had been unshakable. Even their arch-rival AMD could only add a little trouble to Intel.

And this time, the obscure Dongxin Semiconductor had caused a crack in the foundation of this Intel empire. It might still be a long way from toppling this Intel empire, but it made people see that this empire also had a health bar—it was just that this health bar was very, very thick!

"He really did it!"

Lin Benjian, who was packing his things and preparing to move his whole family to Hanxi, couldn't help but slap his thigh when he saw the report and said to his wife.

Not to mention how others viewed Dongxin, for those at Dongxin Semiconductor, getting Microsoft's support meant that the chips produced by Dongxin had the qualification to be sold all over the world!

This also made Lin Benjian let out a long sigh of relief. With Microsoft system support, Dongxin's chips had commercial value. If they didn't sell well, it was because the performance wasn't good or the price was expensive; it couldn't be blamed on others.

But for being able to produce high-performance chips but not being able to commercialize them, that would be a huge blow to Dongxin's employees.

For now, there was no need to worry about these. By the next time Dongxin needed to catch up with Intel and truly threaten Intel, Intel would probably have to let Microsoft choose between the two again—whether to support Dongxin or Intel. Because by then, Intel would really need to rely on external forces to keep its crown.

Not only Lin Benjian, but when the news spread back home, the entire domestic semiconductor industry was also in an uproar.

Domestic semiconductors had withered severely in recent years, but when the news of Microsoft supporting Dongxin spread, chip factories like Shougang NEC and Huajing, as well as chip R&D teams like those at Huaqing and Yanda, were also stunned.

No one expected why Microsoft would break the precedent and start porting chips for Dongxin. This was also beyond their expectations.

And at the Dongxin Semiconductor headquarters in Xiyuan, Hanxi Province, it went without saying. When the news spread back, the entire Dongxin Semiconductor headquarters erupted in a burst of fierce cheers.

"Is the news definitely true?"

Dongxin Semiconductor's two major engineers, Ni Guangnan and Huang Lingyi, both ran to ask Dongxin Semiconductor's general manager, Wu Xinyi.

Wu Xinyi nodded forcefully. "The news was sent back by Zhou Hualiang, president of Dongling High-Tech North America. It absolutely cannot be wrong!"

After hearing this, Ni Guangnan's eyes couldn't help but get a bit moist. Li Dongling had set up the stage for them. As long as the computer chip could be successfully developed, it would never be just for self-entertainment. It wouldn't be a case of working hard to develop a chip only to have no place to use it.

"Now it depends on us!"

Ni Guangnan said to Huang Lingyi, who also nodded solemnly. The two of them were responsible for Dongxin Semiconductor's computer chip project. Li Dongling had already done his best to provide full support; the rest depended on them.

151 Manhattan, New York. When Li Dongling and Yao Luoying arrived at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, countless media and reporters had already gathered here. Today was the day Yahoo went public. ===== CHAPTER 536 =====

At 151 Manhattan, New York, when Li Dongling and Yao Luoying arrived at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, it was already crowded with countless media and reporters; today was the day Yahoo went public.