Chapter 420 |
CarOS has officially launched the ADT1.
While the company had previously commercialized platooning by attaching modules to existing trucks, the unmanned electric truck is a technology several steps beyond that.
The audience, upon seeing the massive truck move quietly and smoothly without any engine noise, rose from their seats and applauded.
Electric vehicle and autonomous driving technologies shine even more brightly in commercial vehicles than in passenger cars. Among them, the unmanned electric truck can be considered the future core of land transportation.
For this reason, all truck companies had announced development plans, and companies like Scania and Benz Trucks had even created prototypes for test runs.
However, CarOS was the fastest to commercialize the technology.
Daryl spread his arms wide and announced:
"The ADT1 will first be deployed to Silicon Valley and will be used to rebuild California!"
***
(Excerpt)
CarOS's future strategy can be distilled into three main points. First, the continued development of unmanned electric vehicles; second, an open platform; and third, the enhancement of passenger services.
The most noteworthy of these is the open platform strategy. This strategy is advantageous in several respects.
First, it allows them to avoid competition with existing automakers and grow alongside them. CarOS has already brought Eunsung Motors, GM, Ford, and BMW into the so-called "CarOS camp."
Second, even if a consumer buys a competitor's car, that car will run on CarOS's software. This is analogous to buying another company's computer but finding it runs on Windows, or a Korean company's smartphone being powered by Gooble's Andromeda.
Third is the preemption of the in-car infotainment market. CarOS has already established Letz, a company specializing in car infotainment, in a joint venture with Faceit.
Letz analyzes user preferences and provides various content through the vehicle's display, including education, video, entertainment, and travel.
As autonomous driving technology and vehicle sharing become more widespread, car sales are bound to decrease. However, whether people rent or buy, the total time they spend using cars will not change significantly. During that time, passengers will be using Letz's content.
This shows that even if car sales decline in the future, CarOS's profits can continue to increase.
Analysts racked their brains trying to calculate CarOS's enterprise value.
For a publicly traded company, the stock price tells the whole story, but for a private company, one can only estimate its value by inputting various metrics.
For simple manufacturing, assets and profits are crucial factors in valuation. However, for advanced manufacturing and service industries, market share and growth potential are more important than immediate assets and profits. As long as you can increase your share of a growing market, it doesn't matter if you make the money later.
It was impossible to apply the same valuation to CarOS as to other auto companies. Considering the growth potential of the future car market, it wouldn't be out of place to apply the same valuation as Gooble or AMZ.
JPMorgan estimated CarOS's value at over $900 billion, and Morgan Stanley stated that if CarOS were to go public, it could be valued at a minimum of $1 trillion.
If this were true, it could surpass AMZ, currently the number one company by market cap in the US.
CarOS's ownership structure is simple.
The largest shareholder, OTK Company, holds 71.5 percent; the second-largest shareholder, Seosung Electronics, holds 24.5 percent; and the management, including Daryl, holds 4 percent.
Since Kang Jin-hoo is the CEO of OTK Company, this meant that he effectively controlled the massive corporation known as CarOS.
This was an almost unprecedented event in the entire history of the American economy.
People could not hide their renewed astonishment.
"Just how high should we estimate Kang Jin-hoo's assets to be?"
"More importantly, isn't the key question how much more he's going to make in the future?"
"At this rate, it's going to multiply several times over."
"To think a young Korean man is the richest person in the world."
Fortunately, Americans did not have a strong aversion to this.
America is the land of opportunity, where anyone with ability can succeed. And Kang Jin-hoo was the hero who had saved America from crisis.
***
The current US economy is booming so much it's being called a furnace.
Manufacturing, led by the auto industry, and the service sector, including IT, were thriving, and the California reconstruction projects had even caused a construction boom.
The unemployment rate had dropped to 3 percent, effectively a state of full employment, and companies were experiencing labor shortages. In short, there were plenty of jobs but not enough people.
Therefore, now was the perfect time to launch the ADT1.
In any industry, there is fierce opposition to automation. Who would be happy about their job disappearing?
However, if people can find other jobs, the backlash is somewhat lessened.
The justification was also more than sufficient. Materials were being transported to Silicon Valley from all over the US, and every construction site was desperate to find truck drivers.
If they put forward the pretext of speeding up reconstruction, it would be even harder to oppose.
The problem, as always, was production volume.
The monthly production of the ADT1 was a mere 600 units. Considering that last year's logistics truck sales in the US were around 300,000 units, this was an absurdly small volume.
Additional production lines were under construction, and the plan was to ramp up production to 1,000 units immediately through stabilization.
Either way, there's just no end to the work that needs to be done.
Looking at the article, Taek-gyu said:
"It says CarOS could be the number one company by market cap in the US."
"They're just talking."
Mega IT corporations were keeping their operating profit margins as low as possible while focusing on investment. Since CarOS was also employing this strategy, it was, in fact, receiving an ridiculously high valuation considering its net profit.
No one truly knows the value of a stock. A single line in an article can send a stock soaring to its daily limit and then plummeting to its floor.
"One trillion dollars..."
There was a time when a market cap of one trillion dollars was uncharted territory.
But a few years ago, several companies surpassing the trillion-dollar mark emerged simultaneously. Currently, there are four companies in the US stock market with a value of one trillion dollars.
AMZ, MS, Npple, and Gooble.
As you can tell from the names, they are all in the IT industry.
Only these four companies were playing in the trillion-dollar league, while the next tier of companies were "only" hovering around the $500 or $600 billion mark. One of those companies was Berkshire Hathaway, run by Warren Boat.
The companies already at the trillion-dollar market cap had each built their own moats that no one could easily cross. And the same was true for CarOS.
Currently, there were no companies in the future car market that could be considered a rival to CarOS. Nikola, once a competitor, had fallen into a workout after failing to repay its maturing bonds.
Having already solidified its position in the market, CarOS's solo run was set to continue for some time.
That must be why they were valuing it so highly.
But no matter how high a price they named, it wasn't as if I had that cash in my hand right now. It's not like I was going to sell it anywhere.
"Still, doesn't it feel good when your stock value goes up?"
"That's true."
Indeed, after the trillion-dollar valuation was announced, the CarOS executives were visibly uplifted. The number held that much symbolic meaning.
"How about a round of games to celebrate hitting a trillion dollars?"
"...We're in the middle of work."
Did it ever occur to you that it could drop to 500 billion dollars?
***
After work, I headed to the wine bar at the Grand Dayton Hotel.
Perhaps because it was still early, the bar was quiet. I sat at a table in the back and waited.
A short while later, a person arrived. She was a woman in her 30s with a graceful figure, her hair tied back neatly, wearing silver-rimmed glasses. Her attire was a form-fitting white blouse and a high-waisted skirt.
Hyun-joo noona looked at me and said:
"Sorry. I'm a little late. Have you been waiting long?"
"No. I just got here myself."
Hyun-joo noona ordered wine. We lightly clinked our glasses.
"Did Henry arrive safely?"
"Yeah. It's been a while since he's been there, so he seems busy meeting people."
Henry had left for New York yesterday.
"Did you call me out for a drink just because you were bored?"
Hyun-joo noona laughed out loud.
"Well, there's that. When I get home from work, it does feel a bit empty without the person who always used to greet me."
"But you still have Oh Geon."
"That's such a relief. It would be so lonely to be by myself in that huge house."
For reference, Oh Geon had two nannies looking after him 24/7. Still not feeling at ease, Hyun-joo noona checked the CCTV in her house on her smartphone from time to time.
"So, why did you want to see just the two of us?"
"I just wanted to have a drink, the two of us. You don't like it?"
"Of course I don't mind."
We saw each other almost every day, but it had been a really long time since we had met just the two of us.
"And to give you this."
Hyun-joo noona handed me an envelope. It was none other than a wedding invitation.
"Congratulations. So you're really getting married now."
They should have had the wedding long ago, but it kept being postponed because they were busy with the pregnancy, childbirth, and various other things. But they had been preparing for several months, and after gathering opinions and coordinating schedules with various parties, the date was set for next month. The venue was the Ceylon Hotel on Jeju Island.
The reason Henry went to New York was to personally meet and greet the distinguished guests he was inviting to the wedding.
"I don't mind not having one, but he insisted we absolutely must have a ceremony."
"Of course. You need to wear a wedding dress at least once, noona."
The wedding of the grandson of the CEO of Golden Gate, the world's largest investment bank, and the head of its Korean branch. In the financial world, it was nothing short of the wedding of the century.
"You're really not bothered at all that your noona is getting married?"
"Huh?"
Weren't you already married?
"You used to have a crush on me, you know."
"Pfft!"
For a moment, I almost spat out the wine I was drinking.
The reason she knew this fact was, of course, because Taek-gyu had blabbed about it long ago.
"Argh, that Oh Taek-gyu, seriously."
Hyun-joo noona laughed as if she found it amusing.
"Actually, I knew even before Taek-gyu told me."
"Really? Since when?"
"I noticed right away."
I was startled.
"For real?"
"You were coming over to our house so often, wouldn't it be weirder if I didn't know? And you'd bring up some economic term you wouldn't even learn in middle school and ask me what it meant for no reason, and then say you were going to get into Hanguk University too."
"Ah..."
So I had been that obvious.
Truthfully, Taek-gyu and I were just in the same class; we weren't that close. But I happened to stop by his house one day and saw Hyun-joo noona.
Compared to the young girls at school, Hyun-joo noona felt like a real adult woman.
To me, a pure middle school student at the time, it was a refreshing shock.
From then on, I started going over to Taek-gyu's house often after school just to see Hyun-joo noona. And that's how we became the closest of friends.
Thinking about it now, I guess that might have been my first love...
"I pretty much got into Hanguk University thanks to you, noona. Did you know that?"
"I was surprised, too. A little middle school kid said he wanted to go to Hanguk University, and I never thought he'd actually get in."
In elementary and middle school, I was never a particularly good student.
But when I heard her say "Hanguk University," I got the idea that I wanted to go to that university, and I started studying hard from that moment on.
"Come to think of it, if I hadn't met you, noona, I might not have made it this far."
At my words, Hyun-joo noona let out a small laugh.
"I'd be grateful if you think of it that way."
She spoke as if letting out a sigh.
"I was young back then, too. Now I'm a total ahjumma."
"What are you talking about? You're still so beautiful."
"Flattery will get you nowhere."
"It's true. That must be why Henry fell for you."
We continued to drink, talking about this and that. It had been a long time since we'd talked just the two of us, so there was a lot to say.
Hyun-joo noona looked like she had something she wanted to say.
"Even if you live together or have a child, marriage is another matter entirely."
"That's true."
Americans may seem to get together and break up easily, but even in the West, marriage is the most important social contract, and a union of families. That's why if you look at the family trees of the remaining European royal houses, you'll see they are all intricately connected.
Hyun-joo noona looked at me and said:
"I'm going to ask Ellie to catch the bouquet."
The bouquet is usually caught by one of the bride's single friends who is of marriageable age. So it was natural for Ellie to catch it.
Is the important part what comes next?
I realized what she wanted to say.
"The number of men who have thrown themselves at Ellie over the years is countless. And more than a few of them were handsome and rich."
Ellie exuded a model-like aura even in a suit. Add to that her profession as a lawyer in the financial sector, and it was only natural for men to line up for her.
"Maybe because she was pestered so much since she was young, Ellie never had much interest in men. I really never imagined she'd end up dating her friend's little brother. It's not my place to meddle in someone else's love life, and I feel like Ellie would get angry if she knew, but... I just wanted to know what you're thinking, Jin-hoo."
"I..."
At this point, I can't even imagine being with any woman other than Ellie.
Hyun-joo noona tilted her wine glass.
"I'm not telling you to do anything right away. But I thought it would be good for you to start thinking about it seriously from now on. You might think it's too early for you to get married, but that might not be the case for Ellie."