Chapter 133

Chicken Game. People from JP Morgan. Chairman Jamie and the general managers at the World put the option. I could even see Ellie’s eyes light up. “You mean you are buying put options for the companies you are talking about.” “That’s right.” Stocks related to computers and semiconductors have large market capitalizations and exhibit significant fluctuations. Since semiconductor prices rise and fall by 5% per day, it was close to daily life, so the risk and return of put options were inevitably large. Chairman Jamie asked cautiously. “How much are you thinking about investing?” You may be aware that my net worth exceeds $120 billion. Contrary to his original timid personality, he is known to the world as a terribly aggressive investor after accumulating great wealth on the coin board. Of course, I had no intention of betraying those expectations. “I plan to bet $30 billion evenly.” “Thirty billion dollars.” Chairman Jamie was silent for a moment. The people who came with them froze, and I could see that Ellie’s eyes were shaking. Even those who make big bucks on Wall Street won’t be dealing with these huge investments very often. $30 billion could be $100 billion or $100 million. A bold bet on a truly gigantic financial market. President Jamie smiled. “I think it will be a very good match.” Elevator for the Penthouse at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York. Chairman Jamie, the managers, and Ellie were making calm faces. 40th, 39th and 38th floors. As the elevator went down, their heads were very complicated. ‘Put options on semiconductor companies.’ ‘Do you know what source the stock price will fall? I’ll have to report on companies again.’ ‘If you do business in Silicon Valley, you must know more about that field than we do. But I haven’t heard any rumors in the industry.’ ‘I said it was highly related to Korea’s Lee Seong-electronics. Is it possible for Lee Sung Electronics to mass-produce 3-nanometer foundries early? TSMC would still be too much.’ If they knew why Shin Kim boldly bet on put options, they could have had a chance to earn huge profits. A chance to earn big bucks and graduate from life. Of course, Wall Street financiers are not ordinary people, but rather than retire with the money they earn, they will bet bigger amounts. As the elevator was going down the 20th floor, General Manager Choi Jae-bok said. “President. This bet can be quite risky for our company.” “I know.” Chairman Jamie nodded. A put option worth about $1 billion could be a pretty good deal if digested internally by the company. Even if it doubled or tripled, it could handle JP Morgan’s quarterly profit decline. A put option on $30 billion of individual stocks could cost you more than one year’s profit. “It means the venerable JPMorgan could be shaken.” “I didn’t mean it that way. President.” “know. It’s an extremely risky investment. That’s why I told CEO Kim Shin that it would be a match, not a good deal.” “If so… … .” “We will only participate as an agent for buying options and will not issue options directly.” Chairman Jamie decided to wait and see after eating only the fee. The decision to invest $30 billion was not an easy one. The initial investment in put or call options was $500 million. As the stock market rose throughout last year, call options were repeatedly reinvested while increasing assets. ‘You can’t think of it as a quarter of your cash assets. Think of it as a good opportunity to make a profit.’ The stock market was fickle. Insignificant events create wind and shake stock markets around the world. In the financial markets, you can make tens of billions of dollars, lose it all, and go bankrupt. Didn’t Charlie Chaplin say that killing one person is murder, and killing a million people is a hero? If you want to make money by speculation, you should do it on this scale. ―Kim Shin: Vice President. I have something to tell you. I sent a text message to the vice chairman of Lee Sung Group after a long time. I plan to make the most of my connections while speculating for 30 billion dollars. Several business relationships were intertwined with the Lee Sung Group. ―Vice President Seon Jae-yong: It’s been a while. Happy New Year, how have you been? Why is it that the second-generation conglomerate and the head of a conglomerate have better social skills than I? -Kim Shin: Yes. Happy New Year to you, too, Vice President. ―Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong: Haha. Nice to hear from you after a long time. Did you contact us about the vaccine? ―Kim Shin: Actually, this time I started investing in semiconductors. ―Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong: Semiconductors? Hah, you’re not investing in TSMC, are you? Lee Seong Electronics, a powerhouse of memory chips, was actively investing in the foundry market. In the foundry field, its market share reaches 18%, so it has global competitiveness, but its rival, Taiwan’s TSMC, is an absolute leader with a whopping 56% market share. Seong-Eun Lee was a difficult competitor to catch up with. -Kim Shin: It’s not like that. Rather, we plan to bet aggressively on the decline of semiconductor stocks. I have a good relationship with the opposite sex group, so I decided to talk about investment. It is also because put options on individual stocks are not allowed in the Korean stock market. ―Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong: The decline of semiconductor stocks. Recently, the stock prices of related companies have risen dangerously high. But there seems to be some solid reason that it will decline. ―Kim Shin: The basis is a secret. ―Vice President Seon Jae-yong: I like secrets very much. It’s okay if you don’t tell me, and if you do, I won’t tell anyone else. I thought about it for a while. Various situations when I talked to Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong. In the semiconductor field, the movement of isoelectrics can have a great impact on the industry as a whole. ―Kim Shin: Earth Resources will start a new service. ―Kim Shin: And we expect that service to significantly lower the stock prices of semiconductor companies around the world. ―Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong: A new service? ―Kim Shin: We named it Pangea System. Lee Sung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus. The huge factory site, the size of 400 soccer fields, was named Campus, which means free culture. “The yield of the P2 plant, which produces memory and foundry products, is almost at hand.” A key factory that produces high-capacity, high-performance DRAM, state-of-the-art NAND flash, and 5nm foundry. In the new year, while inspecting the factory where Lee Sung Electronics invested a whopping 30 trillion won, a text message came from Kim Shin. “Hold on, everyone.” Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong communicated with Kim Shin via text message. The executives had to stand and wait for a while, but it was an important contact that could not be missed. A key customer who has grown Iseong Biologics more than three times as the next core business of the group. The manager of a company that provides food for the entire group by placing orders for data centers in trillions of units every month. Most of all, he was difficult to contact. ‘The person who created nearly half of the property of Lee Seong Electronics in one year.’ I exchanged text messages with Kim Shin, who is doing a brilliant business in the United States, for over 20 minutes. Executives had to wait endlessly, but Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong’s expression was very serious. Even after the text conversation was over, he kept silent for quite a while. ‘The Pangea system is a contradiction to rational electrons. The same goes for other computer manufacturers.’ When the stock market was fluctuating like now, it seemed difficult to avoid falling stock prices. Although it was a short time, I thought about making various deals with Kim Shin. In exchange for delaying the opening of the Pangea system, Iseong Biologics lowers the unit cost of vaccine production. Or reducing construction costs in the data center. ‘It’s the wrong way.’ It is unknown whether Kim Shin will accept the deal. Negotiations with money or interests are not because the other person has nothing to regret. And companies had to actively follow changes in the environment. “President Lee Kyu-han.” “Yes.” “I just received an important call. Let’s actively dispose of our memory semiconductor inventories and readjust our investment and production plans.” Even if the price of DRAM or NAND flash goes down, it has decided to dispose of its inventory. And with the idea that a crisis is an opportunity, I had to do what I do best at Lee Sung Electronics. “Let’s prepare a game of chicken at the Strategic Business Headquarters.” A term derived from American auto racing. The one who runs toward each other and avoids first becomes the coward, the chicken. In competition between companies, it was used to trample on the other. If blood is shed in Iseong Electronics, other memory semiconductor companies have to use this opportunity to endanger their lives. An Myeong-guk hated sending his wife and children to Hawaii. Living as a wild goose father is lonely and forlorn, and everyone around him discourages him. “No.” “I’m not asking you to go because you like me. Aren’t you thinking about the future of the children who will live in the future?” “Can’t you teach in Korea? Everyone goes to school in Korea, and we’ve been doing well up until now.” “I have to think of a better future. Do you have to study hard in Korea to be taught outside of large corporations? Biolife or Earth Resources. It’s impossible to get a job at a company like this.” “There… … .” I was about to say that it is not an easy place to go to, even if you get first place in a school in Hawaii. Because I couldn’t hit my child with facts. “Send me to America. I will raise my children well. Being a father is something you can do for your children.” I had a conversation with my wife every day, and a quarrel broke out over the issue of studying abroad. Amid a tense confrontation, the one and only daughter said. “Dad. I want to go to America.” “Dahyeon.” “Can’t you send me to go to school in America?” It was a request from my daughter, a middle school student. They say that there are already many friends at school looking to study abroad. “My dad boasted to his friends that he was the executive director of Bio Life. Everyone was envious.” “Is it?” “Yes. I will study hard when I go to Hawaii.” “… … .” Would you like to go to Hawaii to study something you wouldn’t do in Korea? Their only daughter was the light of their married life. I grew up changing diapers from the time I was born and couldn’t even turn over. After work, I came home, fed my baby formula, and went for a walk in the neighborhood together in the evening. Memories of holding hands, carrying them on their backs, holding hands and walking around the neighborhood, and going to parks and playgrounds. As I watched my daughter suddenly grow up, I thought a lot. ‘You can study hard even later. Even if I don’t, it would be nice to see the wider world.’ Ahn Myeong-guk said to his daughter. “You know that Dad wants to do whatever Dahyun wants, right?” Yess.” “I will send you to America.” “Really?” “Okay. I will tell my mother too.” When I allowed my wife to study in the US, I received several promises. “You have to contact me every day. I have to send pictures and videos of the kids.” “Of course I should.” “You have to watch closely and make sure the kids aren’t doing anything wrong. If anything happens, call me right away.” “Yes, of course.” I heard that when the wife follows the children to study abroad, there are many cases of cheating. It was a wife who had been dating and maintained a 50-kilogram range even at the beginning of marriage. After giving birth to two children, her body began to swell gradually, and she could not stop eating late-night snacks, and her weight exceeded 70 kilos. “But you won’t have an affair just because you went abroad, right?” “What are you talking about. You are the only man for me.”