Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

159: Chapter 159 Riyadh’s Billion-Dollar GambleJanuary 3rd, 10:00 AM, Riyadh Royal Palace underground conference room.

This was a room completely shielded from electronic signals. The walls were half-a-meter thick concrete reinforced with lead plates, and the door was a bank vault-grade hydraulic sealed door. Seven people sat in the room: King Salman of Saudi Arabia (holographic projection), Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Prince Fahd, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of National Defense, the Director of General Intelligence, and—joining via encrypted video—Su Chen.

”Mr. Su,” the King’s holographic projection spoke, his voice aged but powerful, ”We have studied the proposal you submitted. A 10 billion USD low-interest loan, with an annual interest rate of 1.5% and a term of 20 years. This has never happened in the history of Saudi Arabia.”

Su Chen bowed slightly in the video: ”Your Majesty, this is not a loan, it is an investment. Every factory that Spark builds in Saudi Arabia will create jobs, train talent, and bring technology. Twenty years from now, the value of these factories will far exceed 10 billion USD.”

”But we require a controlling stake,” the Minister of National Defense interjected. ”Saudi Arabia must hold 51% of the Jeddah Aerospace Base.”

”Agreed,” Su Chen answered crisply, ”but the core technical team must be dispatched by Spark, and key technical positions must be appointed by Spark. Additionally, Spark shall have veto power over product export approvals.”

These terms were harsh, but everyone in the room knew why—Spark could not allow its most advanced technology to spread without control.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looked at Fahd: ”Brother, what do you think?”

Fahd stood up and walked to the sand table in the center of the room—it was not a sand table, but a three-dimensional holographic map of the entire Saudi Arabia. He used a gesture to zoom in on the Jeddah region:

”Father, gentlemen, I personally went to the site in Jeddah. It is 8 square kilometers of flat desert, 15 kilometers from Jeddah Port, and 8 kilometers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. What is to be built here is not a simple assembly plant.”

He pulled up the planning blueprint: ”Phase One: Drone assembly line, with an annual output of 30,000 ’Thunderbird’ series and 50,000 ’Wasp’ series. Phase Two: Fighter aircraft composite parts production line, providing wings, vertical stabilizers, and skins for Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group’s J-10CE and future J-31. Phase Three: Aero-engine test bench—this is what we are most lacking.”

He turned to Su Chen: ”Su, is Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group really willing to transfer some composite material technology?”

In the video, Su Chen nodded: ”Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has already agreed to establish an ’Aviation Materials Joint Laboratory’ at the Jeddah base. Materials experts from Xidian University, Beihang University, and AVIC will come in rotations to mentor Saudi students. But the prerequisite is that the intellectual property rights of all research results will be shared by both parties.”

”Agreed,” the Crown Prince made the final decision immediately. ”The Ministry of National Defense will draft the agreement immediately. Additionally, at the Riyadh tank and armored vehicle base, I want to see the first batch of ’Spark Armored Vehicles’ roll off the line within six months.”

Fahd continued: ”The shipyard base in Jizan is even more critical. On the Red Sea coast, we plan to build two 100,000-ton dry docks. The initial goal is to build 1,500-ton light frigates with technical support from China—not just buying blueprints, but joint design, adapted to the special hydrological conditions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.”

He zoomed in on the Jizan map: ”Here, in the future, we must be able to build submarines. Not now, but five years from now. By then, we must have the capability to maintain, upgrade, and even build conventionally powered submarines.”

This sentence made the room quiet for a few seconds. Submarines—this was strategic naval equipment.

The King’s holographic projection spoke slowly: ”Mr. Su, is China willing to help Saudi Arabia possess the capability to build submarines?”

”Yes,” Su Chen’s answer remained brief, ”but in phases. Phase one: help Saudi Arabia establish a submarine maintenance base. Phase two: transfer some subsystem technology. Phase three... depending on the situation.”