In the monitoring room, Eric and his lawyers, Jim and Harry, were looking at the screens on the wall.
Eric turned to Jim, and with a curious expression, asked, "Why are there so many people? Wasn't it supposed to be a simple announcement?"
"We thought so too, but Global Foundries announced the news of the sale with too much fanfare. Apparently, the price we paid was a lot higher than they expected, and they wanted to drum up the news before the announcement of their quarterly results."
"Hmm, let's go."
***
In the auxiliary building, reporters and journalists were checking their recording devices and flipping through their notebooks when Eric and his lawyers arrived.
Before any of the reporters could say anything, Eric started speaking, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. We're just settling in, so there's a lack of attending personnel.
"With that out of the way, I welcome you to Avante Inc. We are an advanced technology and research company, and as some of you may have heard, we bought this campus from Global Foundries for around 260 million dollars.
"We will begin our recruitment drive later this week, and I'd like to pledge that we are committed to North Carolina. We have decided to reserve 40 percent of the jobs for residents of North Carolina. We'll be recruiting engineers, researchers, and scientists—we aim to be a world-class research company. That's it for the announcement. I will answer any questions you have."
One of the reporters at the front, who was wearing an ABC11 badge, asked, "How much did Avante Inc. raise, and can you share the valuation?"
"Yes. We raised just north of 700 million dollars from a single source, Orbit Holdings. It didn't involve any transfer of company shares. They paid the money for the right to have exclusive access to a few technologies that are currently in the pipeline. They're a materials and resources company, and they strongly believe our technology will benefit them."
Another reporter raised his hand and started asking, "How many people will Avante hire?"
"We're looking to hire somewhere around 1200 researchers, engineers, and scientists. We'll also recruit a couple of hundred personnel to man the facilities. Ultimately, we expect to create 3000-4000 direct and indirect jobs. We have set aside 250 million for payroll and personnel costs."
Eric heard a couple of gasps from the crowd.
A young man, who looked to be the same age as Eric, raised his hand, "I'm from the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina. I should first congratulate you. That's a significant number of jobs your company will be contributing to the economy of North Carolina. And I commend you for your commitment to prioritizing North Carolina residents."
"Thank you for your acknowledgment," Eric replied with a smile.
A young woman with colorful hair raised her hand and posed a question to Eric, "Do you have a policy in place for equal opportunities? How committed are you to employing women, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community, and will you be paying them the same?"
Harry and Jim, Eric's lawyers, looked at him with a strange expression, seemingly wanting to tell him something.
But Eric didn't care. With a smile, he answered, "I believe in meritocracy, and that's how I'll run my company. My hiring practices will reflect the same. Be it a man, woman, or—whatever they identify as, they'll be paid the same, given that they dedicate the same amount of effort to the company."
The woman looked offended and was about to say something when another reporter raised his hand and posed his question, "We found out that you've acquired a significant number of patents from your alma mater, UC Berkeley. How relevant are the patents for your company's products, and do you already have EUV and lithography equipment on order? What does the production timeline look like?"
"The patents we've acquired from Berkeley are dual-purpose, just like the other patents we've acquired since the past couple of weeks. Just like any tech company, having a pool of patents is invaluable both for future products and to deter litigation.
"Coming to the second part of your question, no, we have no active orders with ASML, nor do we plan to place any. Our company aims to be fully vertically integrated, and to that end, we've developed our semiconductor fabrication machines and equipment. And our equipment is extremely advanced and beats the best of ASML by an order of magnitude."
The group fell silent. Some people had disbelief written all over their faces, while some who couldn't understand what was being discussed looked at the faces of the others.
"I know you're all very skeptical... At least those who know about semiconductors. But I guarantee you, we didn't raise so much capital for nothing. In fact, our first product, a state-of-the-art microprocessor, is ready for serial production. We'll soon unveil our product at an event in this same building—and when we do, it'll change the course of computing forever."
The group of journalists and reporters in front of Eric stood rooted in place and stayed mum.
"Thank you, we'll meet again soon." Eric left the hall, followed by his lawyers.
Everyone left in the hall soon recovered from their reverie.
"Holy fuck!" Someone exclaimed.
Some quickly reached for their phones, while others ran out of the room wanting to follow Eric.
***
In his office on the sixth floor, Eric looked at Jim and Harry and said with a smile, "That went pretty well, I think."
"It did, maybe except for the question by the pink-haired woman—or was she a man? I'm not sure, but the rest went well," Jim assured Eric.
Harry Specter looked at Eric with a perplexed expression. "Do you really plan to recruit so many engineers and scientists? I'm afraid the company will be bankrupt within a year if we keep being reckless with the money."
Eric grinned at Harry's words. "Haven't you heard what I just said? We have a product ready to ship in a month, and it's going to be revolutionary. I'm not kidding. Besides, we can always raise money from Orbit Holdings."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I still can't wrap my head around how you managed to create a legally perfect entity. And if I recall, didn't we empty the accounts?"
Eric leaned back in his chair. "I know a guy. He's not from around here. He'll get us what we need."
Eric's words drew Jim's attention. "Not from around here? Whoa—is it some Russian oligarch?" Seeing Eric's grin, he continued, "Holy fuck, you're more shady than me... Well, at least we'll have a sugar daddy who'll keep the lights on."
"Yup. There's no cause for concern. You should go ahead and draft the NDAs and employment contracts. And if we have a big chunk of change left in the legal department's budget, buy up more patents. Our product will be too good to be affected by litigation, but it's good to have a pool of patents nonetheless.
"Also, once we have the prototypes ready, we'll seed them to all major companies, universities, and government laboratories like Oak Ridge and Los Alamos. We should also apply for export of the prototypes. There's no need to bat for countries like China and Russia, but we'll need to seed them to European and Asian companies and universities."
Harry looked at Jim. "Time to get busy, Slippin' Jimmy."
Jim nodded, and they soon left the room.
***