Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

He was forty-two years old, 1.85 meters tall, with a buzz cut and a three-centimeter-long scar on his right cheekbone—a souvenir from an armed conflict while on peacekeeping duty in Congo in 2015. However, he was currently wearing a well-tailored dark grey suit and rimless glasses, looking more like a business school professor than a former peacekeeping battalion commander.

Behind him followed twelve team members: six negotiation experts (with backgrounds in geology, finance, law, and diplomacy) and six security personnel (all in plain clothes, though the slight bulges at their waists indicated the presence of equipment).

Outside the airport VIP passage, three Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans from the Congolese Presidential Palace were already waiting.

”Mr. Lei, welcome back to Congo.” The person there to receive him was the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Office, Emmanuel, a French-speaking official in his fifties with a standard, cautious smile. ”The President is waiting for you, but there is only forty minutes. Afterward, he has to meet with representatives from an American mining company.”

Lei Zhan shook his hand with just the right amount of pressure: ”Thank you for the arrangements. I have brought the sincerity of Spark Group, and I believe we will not waste the President’s time.”

On the way to the Presidential Palace, Lei Zhan looked at the streetscape of Kinshasa outside the window.

Compared to when he was on peacekeeping duty here three years ago, the city hadn’t changed much: the main roads were reasonably smooth, but turning into the alleys meant bumpy dirt roads; skyscrapers stood next to slums with corrugated iron roofs; old Toyota pickup trucks drove on the streets, with the occasional brand-new Chinese-brand SUV visible.

”Congo possesses 70% of the world’s cobalt, yet 70% of the population lives on less than 2 dollars a day,” Lei Zhan said softly to the legal advisor beside him. ”This is not a coincidence; it is a curse—the resource curse. We are here to break this cycle.”

The Presidential Palace was a white building left over from the colonial era, with guards standing with guns, their expressions serious.

Inside the reception room, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi sat behind a massive desk. He was sixty-five years old, wearing a dark blue suit, with three documents placed in front of him: one was the quote from the American mining company, one was the mineral cooperation framework from the European Union, and the third was blank—reserved for Spark Group.

”Mr. Lei, let’s get straight to the point,” Tshisekedi said directly. ”The American company has offered 2.5 billion US dollars to acquire five cobalt mines and promised to invest 300 million US dollars to build a railway. The European Union’s proposal is to establish a joint venture where they hold a 51% stake and we contribute resources for a 49% stake, with a profit-sharing ratio of 6:4.”

Lei Zhan did not answer immediately, but instead opened the tablet he had brought with him.

He did not play a PPT, but instead played a three-minute video.

The video began with the automated production lines of the Spark Group battery factory, then cut to the assembly workshops for Red Flag and Xingchen cars, followed by images of new energy vehicle charging stations in major Chinese cities, and finally the global sales growth curve for new energy vehicles—from 500,000 units in 2015 to a projected 2 million units in 2017.

”Mr. President,” Lei Zhan spoke when the video ended, ”The American company gives you US dollars, and the European Union gives you a profit-sharing agreement. But Spark Group gives you—the future.”

He pulled up another set of data: ”Cobalt’s current main use is in aerospace alloys and petroleum refining catalysts. But in the next decade, its largest application scenario will be lithium batteries for new energy vehicles. Whoever controls cobalt controls the heart of electric vehicles.”

Tshisekedi leaned forward: ”Go on.”

”We are offering 3 billion US dollars to acquire the five cobalt mines, which is 500 million more than America,” Lei Zhan said. ”But that is just the beginning. We promise to build two roads around the mines to connect to the existing national road network; build a modern hospital with 100 beds, equipped with Chinese medical equipment and doctor training; and build a vocational and technical school to train 500 Congolese youths every year to become miners, mechanics, and electricians.”