the story between exxonmobil and lu zhou happened a long time ago.
in fact, if it weren’t for lu zhou’s new thesis, this whole debacle would have been over.
however, it turned out that lu zhou’s thesis was the key to a trillion-dollar market…
the other side of the pacific ocean.
a room inside the white house.
woods walked into the office and slammed his hands on the table. he spoke to the chief of staff of the white house, kevin.
“i want to see the president!”
kevin put down his pen and sighed.
“the president is not in the white house, so i’m afraid he can’t see you. neither can i. i’ll pass on your request to the president.”
exxonmobil was one of the supporters for their parties, so they had to listen to their request to some extent…
woods looked at the chief of staff and spoke.
“listen, the lithium-air battery patent originally belonged to us. they used subterfuge to steal it! china is committing commercial fraud!”
even though kevin had been in the political field for many years, he still couldn’t help but frown.
commercial fraud…
the patent transfer is clearly written. did you sign the contract under duress?
“what do you want me to do? convince the president to change the law?”
woods opened his mouth and nothing came out.
honestly, he didn’t know what to do either.
before coming here, exxonmobil salesmen went to star sky technology several times, trying to buy the patent off star sky technology for ten times the price they sold it for. however, they weren’t able to buy back the caged carbon molecules patent…
kevin sighed and said, “maybe you should think this through before coming here again.”
woods sighed and continued to stare at the president’s chief of staff. he took a deep breath and spoke.
“listen, we both know how important lithium-air batteries are. we’ve already fallen behind china because of lithium-sulfur batteries. if we let them master lithium-air batteries, we’ll fall even more behind. do you know what i mean?
“the patent might only last for 20 years, but they’ll be constantly sucking the blood out of us like mosquitoes. we will always be behind by 20 years! this is just like the semiconductor industry!
“we have to do something!”
kevin frowned.
in his opinion, the exxonmobil ceo was only venting his frustration at the chinese companies, but something caught his attention.
it wasn’t in america’s interest for china to continue leading the alternative energy industry.
especially since china already had control of nuclear fusion…
while kevin was thinking about how to report this to the president, the office door opened.
a man in a plaid shirt walked in and spoke.
“i want to see the president!”
kevin looked at elon, who was standing at the door.
“you sound just like someone that came into my office half an hour ago… do you want to discuss this in private?”
elon stared at woods and tried to remember who this person was. he took a deep breath and looked at kevin.
“listen, i don’t care what this gentleman said, i have something very important, let me—”
kevin: “let me guess, does it have to do with the alternative energy industry?”
elon paused for a second and snapped his fingers.
“that’s right! lithium-air batteries! you must know what these chinese people are doing! they’re bundling lithium-air batteries and wireless charging together, forcing us to adhere to their standards, this is…”
elon struggled for a while before speaking with emotion.
“it’s like we’re forced to eat their sh*t!”
“pfft!”
woods nearly laughed out loud.
it wasn’t until the other two people stared at him did he cough and put on a more serious expression.
“i apologize… i sympathize with your experience.”
elon opened his mouth and wanted to speak.
however, kevin stood up from his chair.
“okay, gentlemen, today’s meeting will have to end here. i have a very important conference to go to; i can’t sit here and listen to you two forever.”
he paused for a few seconds and spoke.
“i know what you guys want. star sky technology is a threat, am i right?”
elon and woods replied.
“that’s right, they’re a tumor!”
“yeah, they’re shameless thieves!”
“okay, gentlemen, the white house will take this matter seriously.” kevin nodded and said, “i’ll ask the department of commerce to investigate the patent acquisition that happened six years ago, as well as the improper use of the patent in the sh standard.”
elon finally sighed with relief.
even though this wasn’t exactly what he wanted, he was satisfied.
as long as the department of commerce could try to destroy this monopoly, most of his problems would be solved.
after all, the department of commerce was no joke.
once they set their eyes on someone, they would get to the bottom of it…
elon had no doubt about that.
the meeting was over.
woods walked out of the white house and got into a black limousine.
sitting across from him was another man in a suit.
“how did it go?”
woods wasn’t as aggressive as how he was in the white house. instead, he spoke in a formal tone, as if he was scared of this man.
“the white house recognizes the seriousness of the problem, and they plan on launching an antitrust investigation on star sky technology. i just met elon… did you ask him to come?”
“nope.” lawrence nodded toward the driver and turned his head back to the ceo. he then said, “i didn’t tell him to do anything, but he obviously made the right choice.”
woods frowned and said, “you’re that confident in tesla’s charging station market in china? even though the chinese market is huge, this is related to national security… if they’re willing to privatize the charging station market, they might not allow a foreign company to control shanghai’s power industry.”
“mr. woods, let me ask you something.” lawrence smiled and said, “if the white house changes the president every four years, how are we supposed to ensure that every president is the best candidate?”
woods frowned.
“we have to investigate the voter support rates of each state, and use—”
“it’s not that complicated.”
lawrence shook his head and smiled at the ceo of exxonmobil.
“we just have to be on both sides.”