The world's richest man started by developing gutter oil

October 2016, 3, German time.

The business building of the Kamans Building.

Bent Mining.

CEO's office.

In the office, Sergei Bullock looked at the contents on the monitor with an incredible expression.

Because DeepBlue Auto's global pre-orders reached 350 million vehicles in just five days. You should know that 350 million electric vehicles require a lot of refined lithium ore, and this demand is equivalent to 70% of the global supply for three months.

However, 68% of the world's lithium mines are already in their hands, and Deep Blue Group is accepting orders so unscrupulously.

"What the hell is Deep Blue Group doing? How dare they accept orders so unscrupulously? Aren't they afraid that they won't be able to supply the goods when the deadline comes?" Sergei Bullock said in surprise.

Without saying a word, Sergey Bullock picked up the phone on the table and called his assistant.

After a while, a man in his thirties came to the president's office.

"Boss." Maggie Elm greeted after sitting down.

"I always feel that there is something wrong with Deep Blue Automobile. I want you to send people to investigate around the world to see if it is possible for Deep Blue to obtain supplies from somewhere we don't know." Sergei Bullock said.

"Okay, boss." Maggie Elm said and got up and left.

In fact, he had felt something was wrong a long time ago.

As the saying goes, know yourself and the enemy and you will be victorious in any battle.

Based on his understanding of Deep Blue Group, Deep Blue would not do anything without confidence. It was obvious that Deep Blue Group had some backup plan.

After Maji left, Sergei immediately sent a message to the think tank team.

He asked the think tank to help him sort out all the ways to obtain lithium ore.

Sergey Bullock hopes to find Deep Blue's back-up plan in this information.

If he could find Deep Blue's back-up plan, then he would know how to deal with it. If Deep Blue really had a back-up plan, they had raised the price of lithium ore so high, once Deep Blue brought down the price of lithium ore, they would definitely suffer heavy losses.

If he could prevent Bent Mining from losing this time, he would be able to go further even if they failed to stop Deep Blue.

He can discover what Deep Blue's back-up plan is when no one else has discovered it.

Doesn't this mean that he has something extraordinary that others don't have?

October 2016, 3, German time.

The business building of the Kamans Building.

Bent Mining.

CEO's office.

It only took Maggie Elm three days to investigate the global lithium mining situation.

"Boss, based on the intelligence we have obtained so far, Deep Blue has not cooperated with any mining company, and no new mineral sources have been discovered worldwide." Maggie Elm reported.

"You can investigate whether Deep Blue has established companies that recycle used batteries and desalinate seawater." Sergey Bullock said after thinking it over.

In the past two days, Sergey carefully reviewed all the knowledge related to lithium ore and the latest scientific literature.

There are currently four ways to obtain lithium metal. The first is to purify lithium ore, the second is to extract lithium metal through salt lakes, the third is to recycle lithium metal through recycling methods, and the fourth way is to extract lithium metal from seawater.

The first two methods are by far the most mainstream methods for obtaining lithium metal.

So far, many scientific research institutions are conducting research on the third method, while the fourth method is still just a concept because it has very high technical requirements.

If this kind of thing happened to other companies, he would definitely not doubt the latter two options, but this happened to Deep Blue Group, and Deep Blue Group is best at technological innovation. Perhaps Deep Blue has already achieved a technological breakthrough.

So Sergey Bullock suspects that Deep Blue Group obtains lithium metal through the latter two methods.

After half an hour.

Maggie Elm came to Sergey's office again.

"Boss, I found out that Deep Blue and Hua Xia State-owned Assets invested in building a seawater desalination plant in Hong Kong Island last year. The plant is expected to be completed in the next two months." Maggie Elm said.

"It is true, it is true." Sergei Bullock kept muttering to himself.

Seeing Sergei Bullock muttering to himself, Maggie Elm could only wait silently.

"Maggie, please notify all shareholders of the company that an online meeting will be held in one hour. This meeting is extremely urgent and everyone must attend." Sergey Bullock said.

"Okay, boss." said Maggie Elm.

After half an hour.

At the strong request of Sergey Bullock.

All shareholder-related persons in charge log into their designated online conference rooms.

After seeing that everyone had logged into the conference room, Dieter Zetsche asked Sergey Bullock, "Sergey, why are you so anxious to call everyone to an emergency meeting? What happened?"

“I believe all directors are aware that DeepBlue Auto’s global bookings have exceeded 400 million. Have you ever thought about what would happen if DeepBlue Group really had no lithium resources?

Why hasn't Deep Blue Group stopped accepting reservations for Deep Blue cars?" Sergey Bullock asked.

"Sergey, don't keep us in suspense. Just tell us the main point of this meeting and don't waste everyone's time," said Mark Fields.

"So far, we have controlled 67% of the world's lithium resources. It is very difficult for Deep Blue Group to obtain enough lithium resources. Normally, Deep Blue Group will not accept pre-orders without restraint.

The reason why Deep Blue Group dares to accept customer orders without restraint is that it has channels to obtain a large amount of lithium metal.

There are currently four ways to obtain lithium metal. The first is to purify lithium ore, the second is to extract lithium metal from salt lakes, the third is to recycle lithium metal, and the fourth is to extract lithium metal from seawater. The first two methods are the most mainstream methods of obtaining lithium metal so far, and the third method is still being studied by many scientific research institutions. The fourth method is still just a concept so far, because the fourth method has very high technical requirements for extraction.

Three days ago, I asked someone to do an investigation. It was found that no company in the world cooperates with Deep Blue, which means that lithium ore is not obtained from external channels. In this case, Deep Blue Group can only produce and sell it by itself.

But I asked people to investigate worldwide and found no new lithium resources.

In other words, it is impossible for Deep Blue Group to obtain resources through the first two methods. If Deep Blue Group wants to obtain lithium metal, it can only use the latter two methods.

So I asked my subordinates to investigate the Deep Blue Group. It was found that the Deep Blue Group had not established a resource recycling company, which meant that it was impossible for Deep Blue to obtain lithium metal through recycling.

But the people below told me that Deep Blue Group invested in a seawater desalination company in Hong Kong Island a year ago together with China Asset Management.

Judging from Deep Blue Group's previous business model, Deep Blue would not invest in this type of industry. The reason why Deep Blue invested in a desalination company is that I suspect they have mastered the technology for extracting lithium from seawater.

Otherwise, they would not be able to accept global car orders so unscrupulously.

My suggestion is to sell the lithium resources immediately. If the board of directors does not accept my proposal, I hope the board of directors will approve my resignation. "Sergey Bullock said seriously.

Many people present fell into deep thought after hearing Sergey Bullock's words.

"Sergey, Panasonic has been researching lithium extraction from seawater for five years, and so far they have not succeeded. Your idea is just your personal idea. Hong Kong Island is a peninsula with a severe shortage of fresh water. It is not surprising that Deep Blue invested in a seawater desalination plant.

Deep Blue Capital, a subsidiary of Deep Blue Group, has invested in many industries. I think you have a problem with your brain and are suspicious. " said Hachigo Takahiro.

"Mr. Takahiro Hachigo, just because Panasonic can't do it doesn't mean Deep Blue can't do it. Deep Blue is a company that is good at creating miracles. If Deep Blue did not master the technology of extracting lithium from seawater, how could it be possible for Deep Blue to accept orders so unscrupulously." Sergei Bullock said with a straight face.

In fact, Sergei Bullock hated the Chickens very much because his grandfather was killed by the Chickens during World War II.

"If we sell all the lithium resources at this time, even if we sell them secretly, the price of lithium ore will definitely fall back to the level of a year ago, and Deep Blue can produce batteries unscrupulously with cheap lithium ore. By then, electric vehicles will completely replace fuel vehicles.

Moreover, we have just raised the price of fuel vehicles and sold all our lithium resources, so the price of our fuel vehicles must go back down.

If the top 30 automakers in the world combined cannot beat Deep Blue Group, then everyone here will become a laughing stock of the world.

Besides, extracting lithium from seawater is not that simple. I suspect Sergei has been bought off. He brought up this matter today in order to disintegrate us from within. This is clearly a conspiracy of the Deep Blue Group." Akio Toyoda chimed in.

However, the words of the two did not resonate with others. Compared with money, face is nothing.

Sergei Bullock is an elite member of the Freemasons, and they believe that Sergei Bullock will not betray the Freemasons.

If what Sergey Bullock said is true, and they can sell the lithium resources in time, each of them will lose at least 10 billion US dollars, although 10 billion US dollars is not a lot for major automakers.

But shareholders know that their failure to heed Sergey Bullock's advice led to the company's losses.

The company will definitely punish them at that time.

They are not Akio Toyoda. The entire company belongs to their family. They will not say anything even if the company suffers losses. They are just employees.

"I guess none of you here can make the decision on this matter. I think you should all go back and report on this matter. Let's hold another meeting at 10 o'clock tonight to decide on this matter." Mary Barra said.

And just like that, the board meeting of Bent Mining ended in such a hurry.

In the blink of an eye, it’s 10: pm.

Sergey Bullock walked out of the Cummins Building carrying a cardboard box.

From this moment on Sergey Bullock will no longer be the CEO of Bent Mining.

It wasn't that Bent Mining fired him, but he chose to leave on his own, and leaving was a big gamble for him.

If his analysis this time is correct, then his future will go further and further, he will be one of the only two winners in this duel, his reputation will inevitably spread in the capital circle, and he will definitely go further in the future because of this incident.

If Deep Blue can deliver vehicles to customers without limit on June 6st, it will prove that everything he analyzed today is correct. If Deep Blue fails to deliver vehicles to customers without limit, it means that Deep Blue has no channels to obtain lithium mines at all. The reason why Deep Blue accepts orders without limit is to scare them.

After learning about this matter, most shareholders immediately convened a think tank to analyze the matter.

After the think tank communicated with a large number of experts, they concluded that lithium extraction from seawater was not feasible. After weighing the pros and cons, the shareholders finally rejected Sergey's proposal.

Even if they lose, they will only lose 10 or 20 billion US dollars, but if they win this time, they will definitely rise again.

"I hope Deep Blue Group won't let me down." Sergei Bullock said after looking back at the Kamens Building.

Ever since Shenlan reopened the reservation channel, coupled with the price increase of fuel vehicles, the sales of fuel vehicles have once again fallen to the bottom.

Many customers who had already booked fuel vehicles chose to cancel their orders and purchase Deep Blue vehicles.

After Deep Blue stopped accepting pre-orders, the sales of fuel vehicles rebounded to varying degrees, and their lives became much better. However, now that Deep Blue has reopened Deep Blue car orders, major brands of fuel vehicles have increased their prices again.

The four-son stores across the country have returned to hard times.

It can be said that the four-son stores are the ones that suffer the most in this struggle between Deep Blue and the major car companies.

Among all the car companies, only Wuling, BYD and Geely, which mainly produce mid- and low-end fuel vehicles, are doing well.

Joint venture brands such as SAIC and GAC are in a difficult situation.

September 2016, 3, China time.

Deep Blue Industrial Park.

Office of the President of Deep Blue Group.

There is a white robot in Han Chen's office. The robot is making tea for Han Chen and Zhu Wensong. The robot's movements are smooth and there is no unnecessary movement.

"Mr. Han, Deep Blue Robot has completed the first phase of AI training. The second phase of training requires the collection of daily data of the robot. According to our plan, we will deploy 2 robots. How do you think we should deploy these robots?" asked Zhu Wensong.

"You ask the factory to mass-produce 2 robots directly, and I will arrange people to handle this matter." Han Chen said after thinking it over.

It was impossible to lay them out for free, so Han Chen had an idea in mind, which was to sell them to America, to sell them to hotel groups in America, and let these robots completely replace their waiters. (End of this chapter)