850 Ah, I“m So Dumb

Top floor office.

As usual, Chen Yushan was working. She meticulously reviewed the documents sent from various departments of the company.

Even though her life was a little fast-paced, for her, this was enjoyable.

Especially when she saw the impact of Star Sky Technology on the world, she felt like her life was meaningful and fulfilling.

Speaking of which, if it weren’t for Lu Zhou offering her a job, she would have utilized her Wharton degree and her father’s connections to work somewhere in Beijing.

Even though working for the government was also a fantastic job…

But she always felt like her MBA would have been a waste.

She stretched her back and was about to stand up. Suddenly, the phone sitting on the corner of her desk began to ring.

She picked up the phone and spoke.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

Chen Yushan instantly recognized the voice, and she smirked and jokingly asked, “Aren’t you on a retreat researching the Riemann hypothesis? How come you’re suddenly calling me?”

Lu Zhou: “Yeah, I was on a retreat, but that is over… Speaking of which, remember the carbon-based chip project I told you about a while ago?”

Chen Yushan couldn’t help but smile.

“I remember, did a result come out?”

Honestly speaking, she wasn’t very optimistic about the carbon-based chip project. Mainly because this concept was overhyped. Ever since 2018, Microsoft had claimed to have made significant research progress in this direction, but until this day, no actual results were seen.

But Lu Zhou was too stubborn.

If he wanted to burn money on this research project, no one could stop him.

Just like how he wanted to burn money on aerospace.

However, the reply from the other end of the office made Chen Yushan freeze.

“Yeah, they figured it out last night.”

Figured it out…

The phone line went silent.

Lu Zhou patiently waited for a while.

He began to wonder if the phone was still connected. Suddenly, he heard something falling to the ground.

Chen Yushan quickly picked up the phone and checked if she cracked her phone screen. She spoke in disbelief.

“Figured it out? What do you mean? Carbon-based chips? Are you sure?”

Lu Zhou coughed. “Yep, I’m sure… I’m not kidding.”

Chen Yushan sneezed.

She asked in a complex tone, “Do you know what this means?”

Lu Zhou was amused.

You kidding me?

He was the one who discovered the Mott insulator characteristics in graphene, and he was the one who made the SG-1 superconducting material.

Before Lu Zhou could speak, Chen Yushan said, “Carbon-based chips will lower the size limit of chip manufacturing. We can take at least 30% of the profits from each produced chip. We will become the new Intel of the chip field… Even Intel will have to bow down to us!

“Not only that… This is also a great opportunity for our country’s electronics industry to pivot. Do you know what this means? It means that we will receive substantial support from the state policies!”

Chen Yushan felt her mouth getting dry, so she grabbed her cup and took a sip of tea.

However, the tea wasn’t able to calm her down.

A slight cough came from the other end of the phone.

Lu Zhou said, “I already know all of this.

“Also, there’s one point you missed. Not only will this improve traditional computer chips, but the zero-energy Majorana fermions formed in the vortex core region at the interface between the three-dimensional topological insulator and the superconductor creates the possibilities for building topological qubits. Do you know what this means?”

Before Chen Yushan could reply, Lu Zhou smiled and added, “This means that quantum computers are no longer science fiction. We’ve found a material that can be used to build topological qubits!”

Chen Yushan froze. She was full of confusion.

“Wait a second, quantum computers? I don’t get it…”

She wasn’t quite sure how quantum computers were related to carbon-based chips. She obviously didn’t know what topological insulators and Majorana fermions were.

Ah, I’m so dumb.

Lu Zhou had a smug smile on his face as he said, “As for how carbon-based chips are related to quantum computing, we’ll talk about that another time. Basically, this carbon-based chip breakthrough is far larger than just computer chips.

“Also, I have sent a letter to Beijing regarding this matter. If everything goes well, the State Administration for National Defense Patent Office will give me a call. I need you to coordinate with the relevant departments and form a patent plan. If you can, send our expert patent team to the Institute for Advanced Study today.”

Chen Yushan nodded seriously and said confidently, “Don’t worry, I got this!”

Lu Zhou nodded with a serious expression.

“Okay then, thanks!”

Not only did they have to plan for the patents, but they also had to prepare many other things for this world-changing chip.

For example, they had to find a manufacturing partner, then develop a production process that could meet market needs, as well as further reducing the size of carbon-based transistors, surpassing the performance of silicon-based chips that had dominated the electronics industry for decades.

No matter how advanced the technology was, if it couldn’t be industrialized, it was useless.

But if they do achieve industrialization and successfully enter the market…

Then the market itself would push this technology forward.

When it came to technical matters, Lu Zhou knew what kind of experts to hire.

But when it came to business matters, he had to ask Chen Yushan for help…