Chapter 4: Kunpeng & Huawei Merger (Part 2)

Chapter 4: The Kunpeng and Huawei Merger Case (Part 2)

Afterwards, the financing progress for Kunpeng and Huawei continued to move forward slowly.

Jing Hong heard that, to show that Huawei's major shareholder still had confidence in the company's development, Qinghui planned to follow up with a token investment in the next round—just for show, as was standard practice in the industry. It seemed Zhou Chang had actually come to terms with being unable to lead the investment and could only follow along, but Jing Hong simply couldn't wrap his head around it.

So one day, while Jing Hong was handling some cloud computing matters, the deputy general manager of the "Online Financial Business Group" suddenly approached him and said, "President Jing, we've come across something here. Would you like to take a look?"

"Hm?" Jing Hong let out a questioning sound. "What is it?"

"Well," the other party said, "a certain team in our department just interviewed a former employee of 'Huawei.' And then, the hiring manager of that team discovered that this person's projects and work at Huawei overlapped with one of our key projects."

"Oh?" Jing Hong had him on speaker, scanning through some cloud computing documents while listening, and asked, "Which project?" Even though he was juggling two things, he was fully focused on both.

"The AI lending one," the other party said. "A key project of the Online Financial Business Group. The hiring manager of that team was quite sharp and, after discovering that 'Huawei' was also working on it, reported it to the product manager, whose boss then told the AI lending lead, who thought I should know." The deputy general manager of the "Online Financial Business Group" was a Silicon Valley returnee who liked to code-switch between Chinese and English.

"..." Jing Hong's gaze froze for a moment.

AI lending was indeed the key project of the Fanhai Group's Online Financial Business Group. It integrated many technologies, such as ASR automatic speech recognition and NLP intelligent semantic understanding, making the application process much easier while significantly shortening approval times. Applicants didn't have to type out long forms—they could just talk. Many micro-loan applicants couldn't read or write, like some traditional farmers who wanted to raise pigs or chickens, and plenty of small business owners weren't used to typing either. Thanks to AI analysis, wait times dropped from weeks to minutes, so it didn't hold up their business operations. Fanhai's current target was "330"—meaning applicants spend 3 minutes applying, Fanhai spends 3 minutes reviewing, and the entire process involves zero human involvement.

Furthermore, Fanhai's AI lending also tapped into Fanhai's data—as a tech giant, Fanhai had tons of user information. The AI used "digital footprints" to automatically assess risk, like social media data, payment history, and so on, quickly building a profile of the user. This made risk management smarter—way more than just pulling central bank data.

Additionally, this AI lending product also had an assisted interview review feature, using micro-expression recognition to flag the likelihood of fraud, which was then handed off to human reviewers for a second look. It could tell when someone was lying with over 90% accuracy. Finally, it also had more advanced post-loan management—for example, using GPS and AI to analyze soil and weather conditions in a specific area, gauge the risk of a farmer's crop project, and offer real-time advice.

Fanhai planned to use the AI lending product to go after small-business loans nationwide while partnering closely with smaller banks. With cutting-edge customer service, identity verification, risk management, and post-loan tech, Jing Hong was confident this product would have huge potential.

Lending had always been insanely profitable.

But... Huawei was doing this too?

"Do you have any details?" Jing Hong asked without batting an eye.

"Just some—it sounds pretty similar," the other party replied. "The main features are basically identical. One's voice-based, the other's data-driven. Maybe it's missing a few non-essential add-ons compared to ours? That part isn't entirely clear. Sounds like it's launching next year. The guy who came in for the interview had only graduated a little over a year ago and doesn't really get the whole confidentiality thing. When the interviewer asked what the last project was about and what he did, he spilled a little. He probably didn't think it would actually overlap."

This kind of thing happens all the time. Basically, only the "bigwigs" sign NDAs; everyone else doesn't. Many newcomers reveal project details during interviews, and many companies even pretend to recruit for the sake of gathering business intelligence. But then again, low-level employees generally don't know the full scope of a project—this person, for instance, probably only understood the small technical piece he worked on, not the rest, and companies don't pay much attention to that.

"..." Jing Hong pondered for a moment, then said, "Alright, arrange another round of interviews for that Huawei person. Have the AI lending lead sit in and ask about project details—like the difficulties he encountered in his part—listen to his answers, and gauge whether this project really exists."

The other party said, "Understood."

After hanging up, Jing Hong sat in a daze for a while.

...

The result of the new interview was "no discrepancies found" and "this project should exist."

The deputy general manager of the Online Financial Business Group also said that during the interview, toward the end, the other party seemed to sense something, stopped describing project details, and appeared somewhat flustered. A fairly genuine reaction.

But Jing Hong remained suspicious. So, over the following days, his assistant began digging deeper into the authenticity of Huawei's "AI lending" project.

The result was flawless.

For example, more than half a year ago—even before Goldman Sachs' Greater China president had brought Fanhai and Qinghui together to discuss the Kunpeng-Huawei merger—Huawei had already been recruiting AI talent. Moreover, judging from the recruitment content, the primary targets were talents proficient in ASR automatic speech recognition, NLP intelligent semantic understanding, and micro-expression recognition—highly aligned with the needs of the "AI lending" product.

Another example: through the LinkedIn profiles of individual Huawei employees, it was evident they were working on a related project—one person mentioned they were responsible for the micro-expression recognition part of a new "Huawei" product, and another mentioned being responsible for something else. The assistant even had someone pose as a headhunter to contact them and ask a few relevant questions.

And another example...

In short, there were no flaws whatsoever.

...

On the day the assistant submitted the report, after Jing Hong finished reading everything, his fingers tapped lightly on the executive desk in a steady rhythm.

He no longer had any doubts.

Jing Hong still believed this could all be a setup—a scheme to force him to hand over the CEO position of the new company formed by the Kunpeng-Huawei merger to the other side. A scheme orchestrated by Zhou Chang.

But Jing Hong wasn't willing to gamble.

Kunpeng, after all, was just a small company Fanhai had invested in. But the AI lending product involved the Fanhai Group itself.

Having made up his mind, Jing Hong pressed an extension number and said to Zhao Hanqing, the president of the investment division and also group vice president, "Hanqing, come here for a moment."

Zhao Hanqing replied, "On my way."

"Alright, no rush."

When Zhao Hanqing arrived, Jing Hong's first words were: "Tell Goldman Sachs' President Shen that Fanhai wants to immediately restart the Kunpeng-Huawei merger, with the CEO position going to Qinghui's side, but Fanhai needs veto power. Remember to first convince Kunpeng's CEO. Don't let him come out and oppose it."

As Kunpeng's investor, "convincing Kunpeng's CEO" was an easy matter—in fact, a single "threat" would suffice. He would do his best to help the CEO of the startup he'd invested in, but he clearly wouldn't sacrifice himself for the other party. He wasn't that kind-hearted.

"Give it to their side?" Zhao Hanqing was bewildered. "Why so sudden?"

It wasn't just sudden—he was completely caught off guard.

"No choice," Jing Hong said, his eyes still carrying that cold, detached look. "One of Huawei's projects overlaps with Fanhai's key project. And the launch timelines are roughly the same."

Zhao Hanqing asked, "Which one?"

"AI lending." Jing Hong didn't elaborate further. "The group is very confident in this product's application, as you know—the 'lending' business has huge profit margins. And because of small and micro enterprises, this product also helps Fanhai's brand reputation. Now that the projects overlap, we have no choice but to restart the merger."

Zhao Hanqing let out a sigh as well. "I understand."

He already grasped Jing Hong's meaning.

AI lending was one of Fanhai Group's current priorities, and Fanhai certainly wouldn't want another company launching an identical product at the same time. On one hand, Qinghui also had vast amounts of data, and the product from its invested company Huawei might not be inferior to Fanhai's—Huawei would inevitably pose some impact on Fanhai, preventing it from quickly establishing a unique position, yet the profits from "AI lending" were enormous. On the other hand, Fanhai was a tech company, and Jing Hong believed this product strongly showcased Fanhai's creativity, technology, and humanistic care—AI was booming, and Fanhai had been the first to use it to create an efficient, reliable lending product that safeguarded small and micro enterprises. But if a small startup launched something similar at the same time, with comparable features across the board, it would also affect Fanhai's "Online Financial Division" leadership position in the financial sector. People would think, "Well, Fanhai's technology isn't all that impressive after all."

However, if Kunpeng—invested in by Fanhai—merged with Huawei—invested in by Qinghui—then both Fanhai and Qinghui would become major shareholders of the new company. This way, Fanhai could leverage its special status as a major shareholder to intervene in the new company's operational decisions and directly halt the original Huawei's "AI lending" project. This wasn't difficult—for any company, not harming the major shareholder's interests was the most basic business ethics, especially since Jing Hong also wanted veto power in the new company.

Zhao Hanqing knew that, for Jing Hong at this moment, compared to Fanhai's own key project—and a key project of the Online Financial Division at that—the CEO position after the Kunpeng-Huawei merger was no longer important.

"Move quickly," Jing Hong said. "Merge Kunpeng and Huawei immediately, then shut down Huawei's current 'AI lending' project."

Zhao Hanqing nodded. "Understood."

However, before going to execute, Zhao Hanqing still asked one question: "President Jing, could this be a setup by Qinghui's side? With the goal of getting us to immediately restart the Kunpeng-Huawei merger?"

"Possible," Jing Hong said, his eyes gazing out the window. "But I'm not willing to gamble." Whether real or fake, Huawei's new project involved Fanhai itself now.

Zhao Hanqing said nothing.

"So," Jing Hong finished his thought, "if it really is a setup, then they've won."

Author's note:

Jing Hong didn't want Huawei to produce an identical product. If Kunpeng and Huawei merged, he'd be a shareholder of both, so he could just shut down Huawei's similar project directly.

Yeah, I'm recycling this trope—it was used in an earlier story... but only here! All the business battles from here on out are completely fresh! This part does serve a purpose...

That's basically it for the technical stuff in this case! The next few chapters are all about interactions and dialogue! You can take a breather! orz... I'll take one too...

A reader from the last chapter asked about "It's getting cold—time for the Wang Corporation to go bankrupt," hahahahahaha. This meme started with a boys' love (danmei) novel posted on Jinjiang Forum's "Xianqing" section in 2005. The novel's first line was "It's getting cold, let the Wang Corporation go bankrupt," and it blew up from there, becoming shorthand for the domineering CEO type. Today's readers might not know that over a decade ago, Jinjiang Forum was also a place for reading stories. Back then, people would split it into the "Green Jinjiang" and "Pink Jinjiang" sections when talking about where a story was posted. The forum barely has any stories now, but that phrase has stuck around...