After dealing with things in Germany, Bao Zixuan went directly to the UK. This time he has a reason to go, with the rapid development of computers, the development of chips continues to accelerate, in the middle of which Bao Zixuan has provided a lot of help, but Heiyun now only occupies a small share, and this part of the share is still low-end chips such as memory, and it can be said that there is no achievement in terms of CPU.

At present, Heiyun uses Motorola and Intel chips, and its own chip design capabilities are very weak. It's not just that we don't want to expand, but we don't have top engineers in this area.

The purpose of Bao Zixuan's visit to the UK this time is to persuade a newly established chip company in the UK to accept his investment and be the kind that he can control.

On December 5, 1978, physicist Hermann Hauser and engineer Chris Curry founded the CPU company in Cambridge, England, with the main business of supplying electronic devices to the local market. In 1979, the CPU company changed its name to Acorn Corporation.

Initially, Acorn intended to use Motorola's 16-bit chip, but found it too slow and expensive. "A £500 machine can't use a £100 CPU!" they turned to Intel for design information for the 80286 chip, but were refused, so they were forced to develop their own.

In 1985, Roger Wilson and Steve Furber designed their own first-generation 32-bit, 6M Hz processor.

It was used to make a computer with RISC instruction set, referred to as ARM (Acorn RISC Machine). This is where the name ARM comes from.

RISC stands for "reduced instruction set computer", and it supports relatively simple instructions, so it has low power consumption and low price, which is especially suitable for mobile devices. The typical device that used ARM chips in the early days was Apple's Newton PDA.

In the late 80s of the 20th century, ARM soon developed into Acorn's desktop products, which formed the foundation of computer education in the United Kingdom.

On November 27, 1990, Acorn was officially reorganized into ARM Computer. Apple invested £1.5 million, chip maker VLSI invested £250,000, and Acorn itself invested £1.5 million in intellectual property and 12 engineers. The company's office is located in a very simple barn.

In the 90s of the 20th century, ARM 32-bit embedded RISC (Reduced lnstruction Set Computer) processors expanded to the world, occupying a leading position in the field of low-power, low-cost and high-performance embedded system applications. ARM neither manufactures nor sells chips, it only sells chip technology licenses.

At present, this company is still in the initial stage, and Bao Zixuan just wants to start in advance when others have not paid attention to him. And not in the name of the black cloud, but in the name of their own private investment. Although the effect is the same, so that the black cloud is not particularly large, although it is already very large, but it can be reduced or reduced by a corresponding part!

When Bao Zixuan came to Cambridge, he saw the two founders of Acorn. Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry were also very puzzled by how the Black Cloud Group could find them, after all, this is the hottest company in recent years. And they are still a small company, and the strength of the two companies is completely unequal.

Now they saw that Bao Zixuan, the founder of Black Cloud, came over in person, which made them even more confused. After all, not everyone can let this young boss come forward in person, at least they think that their own strength is not up to it.

Hermann Hauser said excitedly: "I don't know what Mr. Bao is looking for me. ”

If Bao Zixuan is just an entrepreneur and doesn't get such high respect, he also has the identity of a Turing Award winner. As long as they are engaged in the computer industry, they do not know the importance of this award, and they cannot help but be excited.

Bao Zixuan: "It seems that Mr. Hauzer is an urgent child, so I won't go around in circles." I want to take a stake in Acorn, I recognize your strength, and I am very optimistic about the future of this company. ”

Hermann-Hauser: "But we're doing very well now, and if Mr. Bao buys a stake, we can say that we don't have many shares. ”

Bao Zixuan: "Then how do you look at this problem, the resources you will get after I become a shareholder will be unimaginable." And the company's market capitalisation is now £1 million, and it could reach £10 million if you go your way. But when I join, the company will have a market capitalization of 100 million pounds, 1 billion pounds, all of them. Although your shares are less, the value of your shares has increased. Also, I am only an investment and will not participate in the management of the company. The management of the company is still handed over to you, and you can develop according to your own ideas. ”

Chris Curry said: "I don't know how much Mr. Bao values Acorn and how much he wants to get it. ”

Bao Zixuan: "The market value of Acorn is up to you, and I don't like to invest in companies. More often than not, I like investors, and only in this way can I be invincible. A company can be created at any time, but it takes ten, decades, or even hundreds of years for a talent to be cultivated. Taking a long-term view, my interest in Acorn comes more from the fact that the two of them are still in the company. ”

Hearing that Bao Zixuan valued them so much, both of them were very happy. In fact, when they first set up the company, it was more out of interest, but now that they have developed to this point, if they can't make a profit, their lives will be affected.

They have invested a considerable amount of their savings for this company and have also taken out a loan from the bank. Now that he heard that Bao Zixuan was willing to invest in their company, Chris Curry, who was an engineer, could say that the current situation was quite difficult, so he was so excited that Bao Zixuan would come over to invest, and he also preemptively asked how much the company was worth.

Hermann Hauser: "There have been several investment institutions that have wanted to take a stake in our company, but they have a relatively low market capitalization. And there was some conflict with our philosophy in terms of management, so it was not negotiated. ”

"We are of course more interested in Mr Bao being able to relinquish management now, but we would like to value the business at £5 million. ”

Hearing what Jorge Hauser said, Bao Zixuan wanted to laugh, in his previous life, this company could not be worth so much money until 90 years, this is to see if he is young or stupid and how easy it is to bully. It would be so high a price. But at the same time, he also understands that this price is really not expensive in the future, and this company will be the only chip giant that can compete with Intel in the future.

Bao Zixuan: "I'm not short of this money, but don't you think this valuation is too expensive! And can you guarantee that my investment is worth it!"

Jorge Hauzer: "Mr. Bao never seems to miss out on the company and industry that he is optimistic about, and this is where our confidence lies. And if I reveal the news that you've come to negotiate with us, I think a lot of VC firms will approve of the price. ”

Indeed, Bao Zixuan's current trend has become a benchmark in some industries. This is all due to his fame, and now that he sees that the two of them have no fear, he knows that it will really backfire when he comes to negotiate.

In the future, you still have to listen to the opinions of professionals, and you can't go your own way like this. So he smiled and said: "You are not afraid that I will set up a company next to you, I am not without technology, but I just don't have the time and energy to take care of these things." ”

Jorge Hauzer: "You do have the skills and the quality. But you won't waste your time and energy on a small company, and you won't lose money on your investment in us. ”

Bao Zixuan: "Okay! According to your valuation, there is really no need to worry about this money." ”

In the end, Bao Zixuan invested 3.5 million pounds to occupy 70% of Acorn's shares, and the rest depends on how the founders, shareholders and other staff members will distribute.

However, Bao Zixuan knew that it was still necessary to develop slowly, and he could not be too hasty. Now as long as the chip framework protocol is built, as for mass production, it is still left to the future!