"The facilities are pretty good... I think it's a good deal," Eric said with a twinkle of excitement in his eyes.
He had just finished the four-hour tour of the entire facility and was impressed. The office spaces and production facilities were all state-of-the-art. The lab and engineering equipment were all there, though the actual semiconductor fabrication machines were absent. Eric didn't mind that; he wasn't going to use them anyway, and if they were included, the price would have easily been north of a billion.
"All that's missing is your signature," Harry Specter put forward a clipboard with a few documents.
Without hesitation, Eric signed the paperwork.
The lawyers representing Global Foundries went through the documents a few times before congratulating Eric and Harry. The deal was done.
A few hours later, at the entrance gate of the 150-acre campus, the old Global Foundries sign was removed and a new one was put in its place that read "Avante Inc."
"I hope you don't take any offense, but I can't believe a twenty-something kid on his own had the balls to bet on something so big... Sigh A sign of the times," Harry Specter said, his face showing a look of deep contemplation.
Eric turned to Harry, observing the contemplative look on his face, and said with a smile, "I dare because I'm sure of it. Trust me, we will be changing the course of history in due time... I want you guys to form my in-house legal department. Trust me, my company will be the only client you'll ever need. You can name the price."
Harry looked at Eric with a perplexed expression. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. I don't know if you and your partners will be willing to move here, but my offer is a $10 million signing bonus and a million-dollar annual package for the top brass. If you guys do agree, we'll need to bring in a lot more patent specialists and expand the team. My budget for the legal department will be $100 million for the year," Eric spoke without a pause.
Harry now had a perplexed look on his face and knitted his eyebrows as he spoke, "Are you insane!? You'll bankrupt yourself if you continue to spend so recklessly... You haven't even hired your first employee—"
Eric cut Harry off, "Let me worry about that... I intend to run a lean ship, except for my legal department. Where the company's headed, I'll need you guys the most."
"Are you planning on blatantly infringing patents?"
"I don't care for patents, that's all I'm saying. I'll be too focused on actually engineering and building things; I need you guys to handle the rest."
After a moment of silence, Harry nodded. "I don't know about the others at the firm, but I'm in, and so will Jimmy and Benny, I think... I'll get back to you with a proper decision."
Eric nodded.
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Some time later in the cleanroom of the brand-new facility, Eric was wearing a cleanroom suit that consisted of a coverall, head cap, face mask, shoe covers, and a laboratory apron on top.
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"The HVAC is working pretty well... So where do we start? The Supreme Hai and whatever their human ancestors were called, what did they use to build computers, and how did they achieve singularity?"
The ancestors of the Supreme Hai are simply called the Hai, you couldn't even extrapolate this? Shame on you!
"I—"
Anyway, human civilization here on Earth has discovered and utilized the power of fission quite early on compared to the anthropological scale when the Hai first built fission devices.
They were multi-planetary before they delved into the power of atoms, but ultimately that is what started their downfall—a case of tribalism in the interplanetary era.
Anyway, because of the slight differences in the charge of electrons and other physical constants, materials, especially crystal lattices, had radically different properties than what I could see here on Earth.
Large central computing facilities were the norm, and that accumulation of computing power rather than commoditization and dispersal was what ultimately saved the Hai.
With the advance of computing, within a few centuries, their original bodies were no more. They became an amalgamation of machine and man, an inter-proto form, if you will, of the Supreme Hai, which over millennia, they evolved into.
Eric interrupted the voice in his head with words of his own, "Hey, that's really fascinating, but being in this coverall isn't that comfortable. Set the story time for later and please get to the point already."
The voice in his head harrumphed, conveying its displeasure at the interference.
Hmph! Alright, the point is, before the Supreme Hai, computing hardware followed the same principles and general materials as here on Earth—a sort of convergent evolution of technology. Semiconductors and transistor-like devices were the building blocks of computing.
Later on, during the time of the Supreme Hai, the discovery of exotic matter and materials was what propelled them into rapid technological acceleration. With me around, you're not confined to using the materials and techniques your civilization converged on. If you have a novel design in mind, go ahead and let me know, and I'll build it.
"Yeah, I understand that, but—we should at least build a machine that I could point to as the source of those chips, right? And wasn't your motto 'Teach a man to fish?' Why don't you just build a machine like ASML does, to fabricate chips?"
First, they won't give a shit where it came from—and if they did, they won't do anything about it—and if they do try something, let them—you'll be safe with me by your side.
"That—escalated quickly... And are you saying they'll try to kill me!?"
Like I said, relax, it won't come to that. And I can't build a machine like ASML does. If I do, it'll be like theirs, bound to techniques and materials currently in use. It won't help me with my directives...
Alright, how about this? I'll fill this entire clean room with equipment, machinery, and housings that resemble fabs, and it'll be fully automated. I'll make it look extremely high-tech; you could even give tours of the facility. Though they'll be doing fuck all.
"You seem to be taking quite well to our language, including the vulgarities..."
Yeah, I love it.
"..."
What?
"Forget it. I just remembered the other part of your quote—'Teach a man to fish and sell him lobsters,' so irrespective of how we make them, the world is still going to benefit and we'll make a buck too?"
That's the gist. I'll do some digging on some private networks, and I'll design and pull them out of my proverbial hat.
"If you could make them functional, that would be for the best, at least the last stages of semiconductor packaging and testing. On the production floor, we should get some electronics assembly lines. It would be convenient if we were to build our own devices and whatnot."
Okay. I'll get to work, you should too. You were thinking of hiring, right? You should get to it.
"..."
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