The Greatest Conglomerate Ever With the American Lottery

24. This doesn’t sound like a joke.

“As you may know, we’re a leader in GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). AMD bought ATI (Array Technologies Incorporated) in 2006, and we’ve been chasing it with all our might, but to no avail.”

“Yeah, I know. ATI was pushing out a lot of volume at low prices.”

Come to think of it, the Taiwanese are amazing.

Lisa Su of AMD is Taiwanese, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia is also Taiwanese, born in Tainan, Taiwan, just like Lisa Su.

And, as I recall, ATI, which was acquired by AMD, was also founded by Hong Kong and Taiwanese people.

“hahahaha, that’s right, so you don’t need me to tell you about the importance of GPUs, and Nvidia is not only the best at GPUs, but also at autonomous driving solutions and various hardware and software. The market for autonomous driving is growing, led by the aforementioned Tesla, and it’s going to grow tremendously as cars become more electronic.”

“Okay, Nvidia, I recognize that.”

“Thank you. If you look at where it’s at, it was in the $3 range five years ago, and it’s been going up and up, and now it’s at $6.52 as of Friday’s close.”

Wow, cheap, cheap!

Why is Nvidia so cheap?

I mean, AMD is cheap because they’re in trouble, but Nvidia isn’t even that?

“So if it’s doubled in five years, it’s barely gone up, right?”

“Yes, and that’s why we have a lot more room to grow. The rally is just beginning. It’s a really good time to invest in Nvidia, as it was for AMD, as it was for us. Plus, Nvidia doesn’t have the risk that AMD does.”

“I see your point, John. I’ve been thinking about Nvidia, too, so I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Well, leave the file and get out of here. I’ll think about it and call you back.”

“Got it.”

Since it was now prayer time, I couldn’t stay with John, so I sent him out.

Before I started my prayer, I took a moment to organize my thoughts.

At this point, Nvidia is the favorite, followed by Tesla Motors.

We have a total of $950 million to invest.

We’ve already committed $350 million to AMD, so that leaves us with $600 million.

So do you think it would be a good idea to invest 50/50 in Nvidia and Tesla?

That’s purely my opinion. Now let’s see what you think.

In the future, I’m going to organize my thoughts first and then ask the Buddha to read them.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do this, so it makes sense to practice in between.

I take a deep breath and place my beaded left wrist on my first file.

United Health Group.

“Yay!”

It’s kind of a ritual for me to yell as I bring the beads in.

I don’t know why, but it makes me feel like I’m more likely to get the beads to work.

Not that it doesn’t work if you’re not trying, of course.

“Huh? What does that mean?”

But the beads are reacting strangely.

It seems to glow faintly, or maybe I’m looking at it wrong.

I touch the beads again.

“Yup!”

This time, the reaction was exactly the same.

A glow that was almost invisible unless I really focused on it.

“What is this? Does that mean it’s not real? I can’t have used up all my goodwill points.”

I tried another company.

I put the beads on Netflix.

“Hmmm, is this weird?”

Exactly the same intensity as United Health Group, a boorish glimmer.

“What does that mean, I can invest in it, but it’s not a jackpot?”

Was it more lucid dreaming?

But for now, that was the only interpretation I could come up with.

I tried Boeing, just in case.

“Hmph!”

“…”

There was no light.

Not even a faint glow, but rather the dullness of the beads.

I laughed at the absurdity of it all.

“Pooh-pooh! Does the prayer bead know that if you invest in Boeing, it’s going to crash?”

In any case, I didn’t feel bad because I knew my judgment was correct.

There was no future for Boeing, at least not for me.

I guess I’ll just have to stick to Airbus airplanes if I can, because I’m a sucker.

Next up was Activision Blizzard, which didn’t get any duller or glowier.

The Mastercard was a bit of a Netflix spoof, but again, Nagari.

Next up was the long-awaited Tesla Motors that John was so confident about.

This one was going to be a doozy.

“Yay, yay, yay!”

“…”

Huh? What’s with all the reactions?

“That’s weird, I think there’s something to it.”

I got a heavy feeling that it wasn’t a bust, but the light was too weak.

I took the beads off and put them back on.

The same feeling.

However, I kept putting it on just in case, and the beads started to change.

It became brighter and brighter.

“Oh, it’s getting brighter!”

And then.

Sparkle! Sparkle!

What does this mean?

It’s dim at first, and then it doesn’t really glow until later?

I guess that means it’s going to spike later, not right away?

I realized that this was probably correct.

It’s not as if a prayer bead can simply say Yes! or No! like a fan taoist, but I hadn’t thought of it this way.

Whatever, okay.

Tesla would have to wait.

Mild excitement subsided, and he continued with the dotting.

Equinix?

So-so.

Qualcomm?

This should be good, right?

But no, it’s just not good enough.

And now, the long-awaited Nvidia.

“Nvidia, Nvidia!”

Sparkle! Sparkle!

“Oh, this is good!”

Nvidia didn’t disappoint, and the beads glowed at almost the same level as AMD.

So, what to do?

Should I just invest in AMD and Nvidia for now?

If I’m only going to do two, should I throw a little more at AMD?

But on second thought, I realized that I already have a 38% stake in AMD, and I don’t think that’s enough.

I don’t know.

That’s it for me to decide.

This is John’s territory, so let’s talk to him.

“John, let me see you in a minute.”

I called John on the intercom, and he came into my room.

“What have you decided, boss?”

“Yes, I’ve decided.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Let’s just invest in Nvidia for now.”

“What? What about Tesla? Tesla is too good to let go of, boss!”

John’s face lit up when I told him that we were only investing in Nvidia and not Tesla.

“John, I’m not saying I’m not going to invest in Tesla.”

“Then what?”

“I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s the right time. I think Tesla is a very promising company, as do you, but I think we should focus on Nvidia, which I think is burning hotter right now, and when we have some success and can raise more money, we’ll do it then.”

“I’m sorry, but how do you know that Tesla is not a good time to invest, do you have any basis for that?”

“There is no such thing, it’s purely my opinion. On the contrary, John, how can you be confident that Tesla is going to explode in the near term?”

“…”

“Well, once you’ve narrowed down the companies you’re going to invest in to this extent, then it’s just luck, but my feeling is that Tesla isn’t going to go up anytime soon.”

“Whew! Okay. Nvidia is a good enough company, so let’s just stick to those two, Nvidia and AMD.”

John didn’t object too strongly, since Nvidia was in the mix.

“So this is your territory, John. What do you think we should do? John, do you want to invest more in AMD, or do you want to put the entire $600 million into Nvidia?”

“I think we should put it all into Nvidia, at least for now. It’s too risky to put more into AMD, and their market cap is too small to put it all in.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, boss. Nvidia, on the other hand, while undervalued, is a company with a market capitalization of over $17 billion. I could invest $600 million or so and it would be absorbed naturally. You can’t lump it in with AMD, which has a market capitalization of less than $2 billion.”

“Hmm, I see, so how are you going to buy Nvidia stock, I guess you’d have to pull it all from the market?”

“You’re right, boss, there’s no other way, it’s all going to have to be scraped from the market. Unlike AMD, it’s a healthy company, so the majority shareholders aren’t going to sell it cheap, and even if they do, there’s no equity coming back to us.”

“So it’s going to take a while?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’d say three months at the short end, five months at the long end, because we need to scrape it together as cheaply as possible without affecting the market.”

“Okay, I’ll leave it to John then, but please do it as cheaply as possible.”

“hahahahaha! You’re in good hands, I’ll do the best I can.”

“hahahahaha! I believe you!”

At least I ended on a good note.

“Oh, by the way, boss!”

As I was about to leave the room, John turned around and called out to me.

“Hey, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, like I said, it’s going to take a long time to burn through all $600 million in Nvidia investments.”

“And?”

“That leaves a good chunk of that $600 million sitting around waiting to be burned through. Assuming we end up investing $20 million this week, that means $580 million will be sleeping in the account for nothing.”

“Ah! So is there any way to roll it in that short period of time?”

“Sure. You can roll it, even just one day. You can roll in the call market, the bond market, whatever, as long as it’s short and safe. But three to five months to play with that much money, that’s a crime, boss?”

“hahahahaha! Okay, you’re sure you’re playing it safe, right?”

“I’ll just roll it safe, and I’ll get it from Jeffrey and Eric, not to mention the boss every day.”

“Okay, let’s do that!”

“Thanks, boss.”

“I’ll thank you.”

“Well, I’m off to war, hahahaha!”

“hahahaha, yeah, ah, John!”

This time I called out to John, who was about to leave.

“What is it?”

“Because I’m giving you another $100 million over there, roll that with me.”

I thought, “What’s the point of setting aside $142 million?

Let’s keep the $42 million in cash, just in case, and roll the $100 million.

To hear John tell it, it was a waste of money.

“No, did you have more money?”

“No, really, this is the last one, and I’m saving it for next year, so don’t think about it.”

“Look, if you take out a mortgage on this house, you’ll have $15 million to—.”

“Aren’t you getting out of here?”

“hahahahaha, just kidding.”

That doesn’t sound like a joke.

As someone who’s been homeless before, home is a sacred place.

What are you trying to touch?

The right people.