"Alright, alright, Paul, calm down. I don't have any ill intentions towards Carter either. It's just that, this is our baby, you know? If we bring in a third party... Or, let's say, a third partner. We've only known Carter for less than three months, it's too early to talk about these things."
Seeing his good friend getting a bit worked up, Gates quickly reassured him, "If it's just a loan, no problem! I agree. Besides, please help me thank him for the assistance."
"I will!"
Seeing his friend sigh, Paul muttered as he walked towards the phone, "You don't always have to think the worst of people."
The subsequent process doesn't need much detail. After receiving Paul's call, Carter wasted no time instructing his bank teller to transfer twenty thousand dollars from his account to the Microsoft account provided by Paul.
As for a loan agreement, personal loans don't require that sort of thing. Carter couldn't be bothered with an IOU; it wasn't because he was naive, but he just didn't see the need for it.
The purpose of the loan was to extend a favor. As long as Paul and Gates received it, that was all that mattered. As long as in the future, they could get him some original shares before Microsoft went public, it would be worth much more than twenty thousand dollars.
After making the call, Carter didn't stop. He immediately dialed Paulsen's number. Compared to Microsoft, even though Gulfstream was a younger brother, its significance in the future wasn't insignificant. When it's time to build relationships, it's necessary to treat everyone equally! Playing favorites in business is a big no-no.
After chatting for a while about family matters, and agreeing to attend the first flight ceremony of the "Gulfstream III" prototype in Savannah on December 2nd, Carter hung up the phone.
Taking out his little notebook and comparing his "golden egg" list, apart from companies like Apple and Intel that he hadn't approached yet, he seemed to have contacted all the ones he needed to. Just as Carter was about to close the notebook, he suddenly noticed ADM.
Pig feed?
Carter rubbed his chin. To be honest, this pig feed company, even though it was listed among renowned companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Intel, seemed notably less impressive.
If it weren't for that last glance, Carter almost overlooked its existence. But on second thought, an American company, even one dealing with pig feed, but being able to sell pig feed to an ordinary old farmer in China, didn't seem like a simple matter, right?
It's necessary to delve deeper! He wondered if Julian would know about such a small workshop... Well, even if he didn't, Carter could ask him to find out.
"Hey, Julian, sorry to bother you again. I'd like to ask you to look up ADM."
"ADM? I know about it, it's quite interesting. Even though they should have gone to NASDAQ, last month they went public on the NYSE, as if they were deliberately going against Intel, always against them!"
Carter: Huh?
A pig feed company going against Intel??
This felt as absurd as hearing about Cristiano Ronaldo playing against Michael Jordan on a baseball field. Wait a minute, ADM, AMD?! Advanced Micro Devices!!!
Carter was astonished again. He might be a loyal supporter of Intel's Core series in his past life, but he wasn't deaf; hadn't he heard of AMD's famous Threadripper?
They went public on the NYSE last month?!
"Uh, Julian, I'm talking about ADM, not AMD. It's a company that sells pig feed, well, maybe not anymore, but it's in the feed industry, or agricultural products. It's called... Archer-Daniels-Midland or something like that, a bit of a long name."
After jotting it down in his notebook, Carter couldn't help feeling overwhelmed. AMD's stock might be appealing, but a barren wallet could only allow Carter to sniff it.
The big cake of Advanced Micro Devices might be beyond his reach for now.
"Ah, you mean Archer-Daniels-Midland? I know, I know. They're an interesting old grain merchant. It's not like what you said about selling pig feed. They've been listed on the NYSE for 24 years. Why, do you want to buy their stock?"
Huh?
Carter was dumbfounded. Did he get it wrong? Wasn't that small workshop near Decatur, Illinois, part of this old established public company? Didn't that young man who gave him the chocolate recipe mention that their cocoa products were still in the development stage and hadn't been put into production yet?
So, that small workshop, which he encountered in the small town, was just a very small research or testing site? It wasn't their real production factory or office location?
Well, it seemed he couldn't even afford pig feed now.