Simon returned to Los Angeles to sort out all aspects of Daenerys Entertainment's work and left for San Francisco on Wednesday, May 8, to host an interview with the FusionTimes team and other matters here in the Bay Area.

After several months of continuous interviews, the framework of FusionTime, SolarCity, and SpaceX was basically completed. FusionTimes and SolarCity are located in Silicon Valley, and SpaceX is located in Los Angeles.

SpaceX, which is making the fastest progress, has already begun designing and building its team's first rocket.

FusionTimes is the most difficult, the team will settle in the Mountain View City Igrete campus in a short period of time, mainly engaged in theoretical research in the early stage, and will not carry out the actual nuclear fusion reactor construction work until the construction of the headquarters of FusionTimes is completed.

As for SolarCity, the solar power-focused company seems to have the lowest technical content of the three, but Simon is not too serious about it. This is because this company is the most promising of the three companies to achieve sustainable commercial operation in a short period of time.

Speaking of which, the former SolarCity is actually a photovoltaic product distribution company established by Musk's cousin, because it is too expensive to install a photovoltaic power generation system at one time, SolarCity has developed a new business model, renting and selling, first installing a solar power generation system for users, and then charging fees in the form of electricity rent, and the user's power generation system can also sell excess electricity through the network.

In fact, the cost of electricity in this business model is not lower than that of the general power grid, the key is that it has a gimmick of clean energy, and it can indeed solve the electricity problem of residents in some remote areas, so it has been successful and attracted a large number of followers to enter extensively.

Simon agrees that this business model is very good, but his ambitions definitely don't stop there.

Mountain View, Egrett Campus.

After lunch, Simon arrived in a conference room at SolarCity's headquarters to discuss the long-term plans for the newly formed company with a five-person core scientific team.

The core scientific research group deals with the chief scientist system of many enterprises or scientific research institutions.

Simon also initially considered adopting a chief scientist system for all three companies, but after much deliberation, he gave up.

One person counts short.

And, while Simon is an elitist, he believes more in the power of teamwork, so all three companies have adopted a core research group strategy, which is currently five people, and not all of them are top scientists, including those who are more managerial like Emmanuel Brandt of FusionTimes.

Because the core of the positioning of the three companies is a commercial company, pursuing profits, this is also the basis for Simon to think for a long time to determine that such companies can develop quickly but in the long run. Since it is a commercial company, it must pay attention to cost control and business management, Simon will not let a group of scientists squander their wealth, everything must be controlled.

Therefore, on the FusionTimes side, after Emmanuel Brandt offered to join, Simon quickly agreed, and directly appointed the girl as the president of FusionTimes and a member of the core research team. Compared to Simon, who can only be regarded as a layman even after reading a lot of materials hard, Emmanuel, who has a Ph.D. in particle physics, is much more professional than him.

What's more, Simon's business acumen is most important to Emmanuel.

Knowledgeable and proficient in business management, it is only fitting to be responsible for such a project.

On the SpaceX side, Simon is naturally Elon Musk who cultivates talents according to this kind of talent. However, before that, Simon could not wait for Musk to grow, so according to memory, he recruited the president of SpaceX in the original space-time, Gwen Shotwell.

Still a woman.

Although a woman, Gwen Shotville, like Emmanuel Brandt, has a high IQ and a high degree of education, the 33-year-old Gwen Shotville has a double master's degree in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics from Northwestern University, and has been with a NASA-affiliated space company for eight years since 1988.

Historically, Gwen Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 and became Musk's right-hand man, mainly responsible for the day-to-day operations of SpaceX. If Musk's mindset guided SpaceX's corporate culture, then it was Gwen Shotwell who really turned these mindsets into reality.

Although it is six years ahead of schedule, the age of 33 is more of a person's golden age in Simon's opinion.

As a result, Simon directly appointed Gwen Shotwell as president of SpaceX and a member of SpaceX's core scientific research team.

Since this is the case for both of them, SolarCity will simply ask for it.

The person in charge is also a woman, Daniela Greenwalt, 31 years old, who not only has a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from MIT, but also took time out to read an MBA from Harvard University, according to the other party. Before being recruited by Simon to SolarCity, this young woman with short brown ears and glasses was planning to leave the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States and plan to start a business in Silicon Valley, and also planned to set up a photovoltaic product research and development company.

In the face of the opportunity given by Simon, Daniela Greenwater gave up her plan to join SolarCity on her own, but she didn't expect to be appointed as the president of SolarCity, so she boldly tested whether a guy had other intentions for her, after all, although she is not a big beauty, Daniela's appearance and figure of 70 points are more than enough.

Simon said yes.

Daniela immediately put her mind at ease, and the man's words were to be listened to in reverse.

All right.

"First of all, first question, who knows when the earliest history of photovoltaics can be traced?"

In the conference room, Daniela Greenwalter didn't expect Simon to mention this issue first, and many people were quite disgusted by the chapter that many professional textbooks often had to talk about the history of related technology development at the beginning, but in the end, a few people did not disappoint Simon, one of them said: "In 1839, the 19-year-old French scientist Émond Becquerel first discovered the photovolt effect of silver chloride liquid, and made the first photovoltaic cell. ”

"Very well," Simon said, standing in front of a whiteboard at the front of the conference room, writing down a '1839' number with a pen, and then a '1996', "From 1839 when the photovolt effect was discovered to the present, 1996, 157 years have passed, how do you feel?"

Several people looked at each other, and after a moment, Daniela Greenwalter finally said, "157 years, all wasted. ”

Simon tapped lightly on the whiteboard with a pen, nodded, glanced at the others, and said, "So Dani is the president, and you are not." ”

The other three men and one woman couldn't help but roll their eyes slightly.

In fact, the employees of the three companies did not have much opinion on the three women in charge.

Because, except for a few supernumerary scientists who served as consultants, all the other regular employees of the three companies are all under the age of 35 and are all young people, so there are not many seniority in the R&D departments of large enterprises or government laboratories. Moreover, Simon also personally promised everyone that if the three of them did not do well, they would soon be taken down, and similarly, if the others performed well, they would also be personally promoted by him.

Simon also ignored the eyes of several people and continued: "In 157 years, alternating current, semiconductors, fossil energy, etc. have been applied on a large scale in our lives, but photovoltaic technology has been limited to a small number of fields, in my opinion, this is actually a waste. The energy of human society is fundamentally from the sun, and we have been ignoring this most direct application, but continue to consume the fossil energy accumulated and converted by the earth for hundreds of millions of years, which is actually a very serious and countless attempts. I founded SolarCity because I wanted to get our energy applications back on track. ”

After listening to Simon's words, several people at the conference table nodded slightly.

Simon paused for a moment and continued, "So, let's get to business. With 157 years of accumulation, the mainstream photovoltaic materials discovered have actually been discovered, and the related peripheral technologies are also the same. Therefore, my hope for everyone is definitely not to start all over again. What I want you to do first is an integration, an integration of the application of photovoltaic technology on a global scale. I know what you're thinking, and it's certainly not easy for anyone else, but it's not a problem for me because I have enough money to support you guys in this integration. ”

Everyone laughed, but they also understood that it was true.

The so-called integration, to put it bluntly, is still technology integration, speaking of technology, it must involve a large number of patent issues, whether it is direct acquisition or licensing, it requires a lot of money. At this stage, there may be people who have the financial strength to do so, but given the potential returns, or the obvious possibility of running a wasted operation, many people will not do so.

This is not a problem for Simon.

Even if you really have to spend billions of dollars on it, a super-rich person won't break his bones.

On the stage, Simon continued, "Of course, the integration I am talking about is not only the integration of photovoltaic products, I hope that after you have conducted research on related industries, you will build a complete closed loop from photovoltaic material production to final product waste disposal. For many people, the biggest selling point of photovoltaic products is clean energy, which can reduce the pollution caused by fossil fuels. However, everyone actually understands that this statement is a hoax when you dig deeper, because photovoltaic materials will not only consume a lot of energy from the beginning of production, but also begin to cause all kinds of pollution, and photovoltaic waste, as well as battery product waste used to store energy, cause even more serious pollution. Since we want to promote photovoltaic products in the name of environmental protection, then I hope that we can really live up to the name to the greatest extent, not just a gimmick. At the very least, we need to make PV waste and end-of-life batteries harmless. ”

Simon said as he wrote various keywords on the whiteboard: "After completing the technical combing and integration of the first part, I ask you to carry out deeper research and development on the basis of the existing technology, and at the same time integrate a set of photovoltaic product operation plans that can be used for actual commercial operation, of course, it also involves the complete industrial chain from material production to waste disposal." I've talked to you about SolarCity's rent-to-sell strategy, which is a very easy business model to follow. However, as long as you can optimize the cost to the extreme, and at the same time form a complete industrial chain, then other followers in the future will not be able to pose a threat to SolarCity at all. ”

Beginning at two o'clock in the afternoon, Simon spent two hours at SolarCity's headquarters, discussing all aspects with several of the company's core members, and did not leave until four o'clock in the afternoon.

He rushed to the vicinity of a small town called Morgan Hill in the southeast of San Jose.

FusionTimes has purchased 50 hectares of land here, and just a few days ago reached an agreement with the surrounding residents to build the headquarters of FusionTimes here.

In fact, it was originally proposed that FusionTimes be headquartered in Livermore, in the eastern part of the Bay Area, near the Livermore Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy. After all, if you want to research controlled fusion technology, even private companies need to get permission and supervision from the government department, Westeros Systems has reached a number of technical cooperation agreements with the federal government, and the headquarters of FusionTimes in Livermore will make it easier to communicate with the team at Livermore Labs.

Simon directly chose to refuse.

Because Simon hopes to build a company with the spirit of Silicon Valley, whether it is FusionTimes and SolarCity in the Bay Area, or SpaceX in Los Angeles, Simon hopes that the teams of the three companies can be like Silicon Valley companies, forge ahead and strive for innovation.

In comparison, it is almost the Livermore laboratory of the government department, and Simon certainly does not deny the technical heritage of these national laboratories, but the rigid system and idle style within these laboratories are also destined to make it difficult for them to make too great technological breakthroughs.

In my memory, there are always people who compare the official scientific research institutions of China and the West, and then lament the loss of top scientific researchers in China.

Actually, it's all the same.

Otherwise, America's new moon landing program would not rely on a private company like SpaceX.

It's just that relatively speaking, there are still various large private enterprises or commercial research institutions in the West that accept top researchers from all over the world, so that they have enough room to play, just like SpaceX, and even after 20 years, it is fundamentally because of the shallow background, China has not formed such a soil.

All in all, Simon didn't want the FusionTimes team to get caught up in the Livermore Lab's government habits, and of course they had to stay away.

The plot of land that Simon purchased near Morgan Hill is only more than 20 kilometers away from the center of San Jose, and it is basically still within the scope of Silicon Valley, in fact, Simon certainly wants to be more core, but the field involved in FusionTimes is sensitive after all, and it is not easy to buy 50 hectares of land in the core of Silicon Valley at one time.

Morgan Hill, nestled between the valleys southwest of St. Hewland, is a compromise.

After looking at the FusionTimes site and talking to the architectural design team, Simon spent the night in the Bay Area at the end of the day, and then set off early the next morning for New York.