Chapter 76: If I Want to Buy Shares
Stanford University, as the sole institution in this era continuously producing talent for the IT industry, was highly valued by major corporations. Every year, outstanding graduates were fiercely sought after by companies like IBM, Oracle, and Apple. With too many monks and too little porridge, salaries rose ever higher, and even offering generous compensation was no guarantee of attracting candidates—there simply weren’t enough professionals in the field.
Today was Stanford’s anniversary celebration, so it wasn’t surprising to run into Bill Gates. Although Microsoft’s headquarters were up north in Seattle, and Gates lived there most of the time, Microsoft maintained an office in Silicon Valley and interacted with many local companies. In recent years, high-tech firms had gone to great lengths to poach talent from competitors, making the industry’s hunger for skilled workers painfully clear.
After stopping, Su Mu pushed his bicycle toward Bill Gates and called out loudly, “Need some help, Mr. Gates?”
Standing alone on the lawn and bending down searching for something, Gates straightened up, squinting with one eye. Realizing he didn’t know Su Mu, he smiled and replied, “I dropped a lens. I don’t dare walk around, afraid I’ll step on it. Do you know who I am?”
After parking his bike, Su Mu answered, “Yes, I saw your photo in the newspaper not long ago. Microsoft, right? It’s a really cool company.”
“Thank you… Chinese boy. If you can help me find the lens, I’d be truly grateful. It might have flown off just now. Be careful where you step—my spare glasses are still in Seattle.”
As a classic example of a “nerd’s revenge,” Gates lacked Steve Jobs’ domineering presence. He seemed easy-going and spoke with a tone of resignation. Searching for a lens with only one eye looked rather comical.
When Su Mu recalled hearing on the radio that, in the future, this man would be worth over ninety billion dollars, the scene became even more amusing.
He remembered the radio broadcast word for word: “Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, an online retailing giant now worth one hundred billion dollars, has become the world’s richest man for the first time this year. His fortune reached $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from 2017—the largest annual gain in history!
“In the past twenty-four years, Bill Gates topped the world’s rich list eighteen times. This year, he ranks second on Forbes’ list of global billionaires, with a fortune of $90 billion, up from $86 billion last year—this is the largest gap between first and second place since 2001.
“Warren Buffett, the legendary investor with $84 billion, fell to third place. His net worth rose from $75.6 billion in 2017, as Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization increased again…”
That was the first time Su Mu had ever heard about Bill Gates on the radio. The astronomical figure of ninety billion dollars left a deep impression on him. The broadcasts were all in Chinese, so there was rarely any news about America. At the time, he thought it was just a fabricated story for the radio, but later he realized it might very well be true. Winning the sports lottery twice in a row, hearing songs that didn’t exist, noticing conversational quirks and a drastically changed political landscape—it all convinced Su Mu that these were messages from the future.
He regretted spending that period just listening to entertaining shows and missing so much useful information. He didn’t know if he’d ever hear those strange programs again. Since there was so little valuable news about America, he considered developing his career in China—but, upon reflection, all he could remember was talk of real estate!
Whenever the host mentioned a place, it was always about housing prices rising or falling, new taxes, or restrictions on buying property. It made him think that, once he had money, investing in real estate would be essential…
He had occasionally heard of Bill Gates before, but this was his first time meeting the man in person. Naturally, Su Mu didn’t want to miss the chance to get acquainted. He planned to build his future in Silicon Valley, and expanding his network could only be advantageous.
From the grass, Su Mu caught a glint of something that looked like glass. He walked over, bent down, picked up the lens, and turned to Gates. “Here it is, sir. I found it for you.”
Those who don’t need glasses can never understand how distressing it is to lose them—like being half-blind, everything around a blur. Gates took the lens with delight, removed his glasses and began to fit the piece back in, talking nonstop: “Thank you, thank you so much. I’ve been searching for ages. The grass is so thick here.”
“It was right near you. The more you want to find something, the harder it is to spot—just like my pen. Sometimes after a long search, I’ll realize it was stuck in a book all along.”
Su Mu remarked casually, his gaze bright and unwavering as he closely observed the young Bill Gates before him. He was eager to understand how this seemingly ordinary guy could, thirty years hence, possess a fortune of over ninety billion dollars. Even if the dollar depreciated, it was still an unimaginably vast sum.
He didn’t know how much the Gates before him was actually worth—certainly not as much as Li Zhe Kai’s father or Wang An, the founder of Wang Laboratories. Microsoft had yet to go public, and, according to Su Mu’s research, their sales last year were just over seventy million dollars, with profits exceeding twenty million.
Currently, Microsoft mainly developed software for IBM, Apple, and several major radio equipment manufacturers. In 1980, Microsoft bought the rights to QDOS from a Seattle programmer for fifty thousand dollars and rewrote it into the disk operating system software MS-DOS. As IBM computers gained popularity, MS-DOS achieved its initial success, beginning its rivalry with Apple’s desktop operating system.
At this stage, Gates was not yet the perennial world’s richest man. Seeing the keen sparkle in Su Mu’s eyes, Gates felt a chill and, thinking he understood, said, “Sorry, I really should show my appreciation.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few bills, found a twenty-dollar note, and handed it to Su Mu. “Let me buy you something to eat to thank you for your help.”
Only now did Su Mu realize his intent. He shook his head and refused, “It’s alright, I can’t take your money. Are you heading to Stanford? I can give you a ride.”
Gates followed Su Mu’s pointing finger and grinned. “OK, I ride on that? When I was under twenty, I had a bike too. After I became an adult, I switched to a car. Really, take the money—it’s your reward.”
“No need, I’m already doing business. I came to Silicon Valley to study and research the market.”
After a pause, Su Mu tried to sound mature, his expression serious as he asked Bill Gates, “If I wanted to buy one percent of Microsoft’s shares, how much would it cost?”
…