Chapter 69
Translator: Dreamscribe
“No, when did you start preparing something like this?”
“Looks good, right? Not a lot of cars pass through here, so the traffic is convenient, and the parking lot goes all the way down to the third basement floor of this building.”
Hyung widened his eyes as he looked at the tall building being erected.
“So this is that landmark-like place you’ve been talking about since before, right?”
“Yes. I started buying up some land around here early last year, and recently, one of the properties came up for auction. It was under construction but got halted due to funding issues. I coordinated with some people in construction and inspected it thoroughly, and they said the foundation and everything were built really well. I think the location isn’t bad either.”
Ever since I first made money, there’s always been one goal I told hyung about.
It was to create a space where I, hyung, and our Guild Members could all gather, play games, and hang out as much as we wanted.
We’d decorate an entire floor with the background of the game we play, like a PC cafe, and on top of that, there’d be bowling, billiards, ping pong, karaoke, and even a restaurant with a professional chef.
I wanted to build a place that could be every man’s dream.
But building a new structure wasn’t as easy as I had thought.
There were countless things to worry about.
With work keeping me busy, I just bought a few plots of land that felt right to me, in areas a bit outside of Seoul where traffic wasn’t too bad.
Then I heard that a ten-story building nearing completion was up for auction, so I checked it thoroughly and just went ahead and bought it.
“Construction will probably be completed around mid-year. We plan to finish all the interior work by then as well.”
“But what’s this? You’re making a restaurant with a professional chef? You plan to take in customers?”
“No. It’s just for us to use. Well, maybe for entertaining guests once in a while. Wouldn’t it be nice if you dropped by now and then for a drink, hyung?”
“You’re really just throwing money around.”
It was all thanks to hyung, who had pulled me out of my dark room and helped me get a job.
“Wait a minute. A bathhouse in the sauna? And even a screen golf facility? All this just for our Guild Members?”
“Yes. You should come and use it often too, hyung. Bring your family as well. The game room will be for us only, but I plan to make the other facilities accessible to family members too.”
A completely profitless, highly luxurious space filled with my personal dreams.
But it’s fine.
Even if the monthly maintenance cost runs into billions of won, it’s like scooping a ladle of water from the Han River compared to the wealth I have.
“But you said this was in Dongtan, right?”
“Yes.”
“Is there any talk of development around here?”
“There was a lot of hype about development before. When I bought the land and even now, there haven’t been any big issues. That’s why the land prices are cheap.”
There was a reason I chose this place.
There’s no crowd, and traffic doesn’t jam.
In Seoul, just trying to get anywhere was a traffic nightmare.
“Ah, man. This is bad. Once this place is finished, I’ll probably want to come here every day.”
“Come anytime. There’s no place better than this for a quiet time.”
A place that’s quiet, not crowded like Seoul, and filled with fun things to do.
Our Guild’s first hideout.
***
“From NVIDIA?”
“Yes. Due to shipping issues, they’ve requested a meeting. NVIDIA’s CEO, Tony Hwang, is personally coming to Korea. But since this is a maritime issue, it seems the group handed this off to Kwangwoon Shipping.”
CEO Kim Doo-young put down the report he was reading.
“It must be because of TSMC, right?”
“Yes. Because of the Bitcoin craze, there’s a huge shortage of graphic cards right now. The problem is, the chips need to be produced and handed over from TSMC, but since Kwangwoon Shipping is completely controlling shipments in that direction, NVIDIA is left helpless.”
That’s why the CEO of NVIDIA himself was coming to Korea.
To beg them to open the sea route.
But what can you do?
“Even if I wanted to open it, I don’t have the authority.”
The explosion at Tianjin Port and the dissolution of the Dragon Sea Alliance have caused a full-scale logistics crisis that’s still ongoing.
Looking globally, there’s no company that can rival the influence of Kwangwoon Shipping.
It has long since solidified its position as the overwhelming number one in the industry.
If there’s even one exception, it would be the Danish shipping company Lusk.
That company is barely managing to grab a share of the market in Europe.
“Looks like they didn’t know that either.”
On the surface, since Kwangwoon Shipping is directly blocking the sea route, they probably think things will work out if they talk to its representative.
But it wasn’t CEO Kim Doo-young who planned and executed the blockade.
“I’m talking about how Kwangwoon Shipping only moves under the direction of CEO Jung Jin-ho.”
In fact, there had been a bit of friction even within Kwangwoon Shipping.
They were a shipping company, after all, with seasoned veterans who had spent decades navigating this industry, and yet they were being told to follow the orders of a securities firm CEO.
But after the Dragon Sea Alliance incident, the atmosphere changed completely.
Now, if Jung Jin-ho said the word, they’d jump into a pit of fire.
“There’s no point in talking with us for days on end.”
Tony Hwang probably just wants to come and try negotiating.
Even so, there was nothing CEO Kim Doo-young could do.
The only one who could unravel this suffocating blockade wasn’t China, or even Kangseong, it was Jung Jin-ho alone.
***
“CEO-nim, here is the material related to NVIDIA.”
NVIDIA.
The world’s largest graphics card manufacturer.
For gamers like us, what kind of graphics card you had could significantly affect your gaming experience, it was a crucial spec.
But the reason I was looking over NVIDIA documents now had nothing to do with upgrading my computer.
It was because the company’s CEO himself said he would fly to Korea, so I was reviewing the material.
“Currently, their stock price has risen to 130 dollars, and their market cap is fluctuating between 50 to 60 billion.”
As expected of their reputation, NVIDIA was growing massively.
Its stock price had also surged due to the recent Bitcoin boom.
“But it’ll probably be short-lived. There are already rumors going around. That TSMC can’t meet the supply, so NVIDIA can’t manufacture the new product they’re supposed to launch soon.”
The solution is simple.
If Kwangwoon Shipping just allows raw materials to be transported into TSMC, the problem would be solved.
“What if we don’t open the route, no matter what?”
“They’ll find another way somehow. While Kwangwoon Shipping is currently the undisputed number one in the industry, there’s still the Danish shipping company, Lusk. It’s probably the second largest after Kwangwoon, so chances are high they’ll turn to them.”
Even if transportation costs skyrocket, they need to manufacture the product, so they’d proceed with shipping without worrying about the price.
Especially in times like this, with the coin craze causing a frenzy, they’d want to manufacture and sell as many graphics cards as possible.
“So, in the end, they’ll manage to resolve it somehow?”
“Yes. Although manufacturing costs will fluctuate drastically due to the surge in shipping prices, they’ll find a way to make it work. So rather than that, it might be better to have a proper conversation with Tony Hwang and find a solution……”
The idea of strangling TSMC didn’t originate from me.
Chairman Kang Sung-ho had asked for my help to take over the foundry market.
But Tony Hwang, and others as well, believed I was leading the effort to isolate TSMC myself.
‘Should I call Chairman Kang Sung-ho and have a joint meeting?’
A three-way meeting, to reduce the orders being sent to TSMC and have more outsourced to Kangseong instead, might be the better approach.
‘But something doesn’t feel right.’
NVIDIA’s stock was rising due to the Bitcoin boom.
Normally, in situations like this, my instincts would be telling me to buy and hold that stock, but there was no such signal now.
‘Could this mean the stock is about to drop again?’
If so, my instincts would’ve told me to short it, but there was no sign of that either.
Maybe it’s because, to me now, it just feels like pocket change?
As the amount of investment capital and profits I hold increased, it felt like my instincts no longer reacted to smaller plays.
“…….”
Or maybe it was simply that I didn’t have enough information about NVIDIA yet.
My instincts always triggered based on information, didn’t they?
So I slowly went through the materials related to NVIDIA.
Stock growth rate.
Governance structure.
Currently developing products, and so on.
I kept reading through the report without much to gain, until.
“……?”
My eyes caught on something.
It was a list of companies currently competing with NVIDIA.
‘AMD?’
The world’s second-largest graphics card manufacturer.
Interestingly, they also produced CPUs.
But perhaps trying to handle both was too ambitious, AMD hadn’t been showing strength in any particular area.
Because of that, just a few weeks ago, their stock price had fallen to as low as $2 and was currently in a very shaky position.
“Ah, AMD. A CEO named Lisa Woo took over about three years ago and has been pushing various reforms, but in terms of technology and infrastructure, they’re completely lagging behind NVIDIA. Thanks to the Bitcoin boom, the stock that had dropped to $2 has crawled back up to the $3 range.”
Their market capitalization hovered between $4 billion and $5 billion.
Compared to NVIDIA, which had a market cap of over $50 billion, it was an embarrassingly small scale.
As the employees said, their performance was so bad that no one would be surprised if they shut down tomorrow.
“…….”
But why, then?
Why was my instinct now shining a light not on NVIDIA, but on this company AMD?
“What’s the governance structure like here?”
“A Saudi fund holds 10 percent and is the largest shareholder, while the rest of the shares are scattered. Some institutions hold a few percent each, but when the stock dropped to $2, many bailed, so outside of the 10 percent from the Saudi fund, there’s practically no major shareholder. Around 60 percent of shares are publicly circulating on the market.”
In short, this was a company that all the big players had abandoned.
Lisa Woo, the CEO, was trying to save the company through innovation, but it was nowhere near enough to catch up to NVIDIA.
“…….”
But uncomfortably, my instinct was pointing straight at this company.
“AMD is also in trouble just like NVIDIA. Their foundry is also handled by TSMC. The only difference, and a small relief, is that while switching foundries is a massive cost for NVIDIA due to their scale, AMD is much smaller, so a switch would be much quicker.”
There’s a reason NVIDIA insists on sticking with TSMC.
Even though we’re intentionally choking off TSMC, they continue to do business with them because their entire production system is tied to it.
If they forcibly switched to Kangseong, it would mean huge losses.
Rather than bear those costs, they’d rather negotiate with us to reopen the supply from TSMC.
But AMD, due to its smaller scale, wouldn’t face major issues by changing foundries.
Even now, if they collaborated with Kangseong and rebuilt their production line, it could be done quickly.
Looking at it this way, I could now understand why Chairman Kang Sung-ho was pushing so hard to pressure TSMC.
There was no area in semiconductors that TSMC didn’t have its hands in.
‘So this means I should buy AMD stock now? And then sell when it rises later?’
I wrote ‘Buy’ next to AMD with my pen.
But the response was faint.
“AMD is constantly looking for a buyer. Just like the other big players who dumped their shares and walked away, even the Saudi fund seems to want to get rid of their stake, even if it’s at a bargain. They must know by now, AMD can’t produce its next product because it’s also unable to get semiconductors from TSMC, just like NVIDIA.”
And that’s when the faint instinct suddenly pierced me like a jab.
“How much are they trying to sell the shares for?”
“Well, I suppose we’d have to negotiate to know for sure, but it’s clear they’re trying to offer it below market price. If they dump that much stock on the market all at once, there’d be no one to buy it immediately, and if news of production shortages breaks, the price will drop even further. But they haven’t found a buyer for three years now.”
In other words, it was surprising they had even lasted three years.
……I see.
This time, instead of writing ‘Buy’, I wrote ‘Acquire’ next to it.
“!?”
Then, I pressed down with such force that it nearly punctured the paper.
“They say there have been a few acquisition talks before. But in the end, everyone gave up. First of all, there’s the huge competitor NVIDIA, and while the share acquisition price isn’t that high, the issue is that the CEO here is constantly preaching innovation. Because of that, the costs involved are no joke. They say just the investment needed for the technology side alone is in the hundreds of billions to trillions.”
I cut off Department Head Seo mid-sentence.
“This place.”
“Yes?”
“Should we acquire it?”
“……?”
***
Chairman Hwang Dae-woon lives every day with gratitude.
He had once tried to create a group but nearly ended up on the street.
That was when he deeply realized that his own capacity wasn’t big enough to build a conglomerate and decided to be content with just being the CEO of a securities firm.
But they say dreams do come true.
Thanks to Jin-ho, he had established a group and even earned the title of Chairman.
And the company was growing explosively by the day.
Because of all that, he was always thankful.
But at the same time, the weight on his shoulders was heavy.
He could feel firsthand the pressure that came with being the chairman of a large group, as well as the increased attention from society.
“A new city? What does that have to do with us?”
“It’s one of the major projects the government is pushing this year. Naturally, they’d prefer cooperation from major conglomerates. So they’re asking for some investment.”
Just as President Trump had started a new administration, a new government had also taken office in Korea.
Naturally, they wouldn’t want to mess up their new projects.
“Tsk. Well, what can we do? If they’re asking us to play along, we have to.”
A company inevitably has to stay on the government’s good side.
If the government sets its sights on making trouble, there’s no more exhausting opponent.
“So, which areas are being developed?”
“Yes, I’ve brought the list here.”
As the chairman of the group, it was his job to take care of these things so that our Jin-ho wouldn’t be bothered and could focus solely on investing.
Let’s see.
“Suwon, Pangyo, Gwanggyo… hmm?”
“What is it?”
“Dongtan?”
“Ah, yes. That’s the core development area. They’ve even planned to open a new train station there so you can get to Seoul in under five minutes. Since the announcement of the development zone, land prices there have jumped at least fivefold.”
Hwang Dae-woon blinked at what he heard.
“Chairman… did you perhaps buy land in Dongtan?”
“No. I didn’t buy it, but…….”
Jin-ho had said that if he saw a good piece of land to build on, he’d just buy it.
“W-wait, all that land is in Dongtan?”
Amazingly, it was all in Dongtan.
“No… how did CEO Jung know? The government was extremely careful not to let this information leak.”
“Maybe he was just lucky.”
But calling it pure luck felt off given the strange timing.
‘Don’t tell me…’
Did he already have all the information on where development would take place?