Teach Wife and Children

The most painful part of doing AI isn't being unable to write the code; it's having the code but no graphics cards to run it on.

In 2021, the GPU market was absolutely absurd.

Battered by the dual blows of the crypto mining craze and supply chain issues, even an ordinary RTX 3090 was priced out of this world, let alone the A100, the true heavy artillery of AI. That thing was priceless and unavailable. Major tech giants were waving wads of cash, lining up at Nvidia's door, and still had to wait for Jensen Huang to be in the mood to ship them.

Chen Zhi sat on his dorm balcony, looking at the bustling students below, and rubbed his temples.

You can't make bricks without straw.

Although Moss had an incredible architecture, he wasn't a god. Without computing power to feed him, there was no way he could grow in this era.

Chen Zhi pulled out an encrypted phone specifically used for overseas contacts and dialed a number across the ocean.

Beep— Beep—

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"WTF?!"

An extremely shocked roar came from the receiver, so loud that Chen Zhi had to hold the phone away from his ear.

"Boss? Good lord, you're actually still alive? I thought you'd been abducted by aliens to grow potatoes on Mars!"

David sounded like he had just seen a ghost.

It was no wonder. Ever since Chen Zhi threw that massive sum of money at him to manage a few years ago, apart from occasionally sending emails specifying a few investment directions, the guy had practically vanished from the face of the earth.

If it weren't for the numbers in the account wildly ticking upward, David would have suspected he was working for a ghost.

"Cut the crap, David," Chen Zhi couldn't be bothered to catch up. "How much liquid capital do we currently have on the company's books?"

David instantly switched back into Wall Street elite mode and began checking the financial reports.

"Boss, thanks to your decision to go heavy on Nvidia and Tesla a few years ago, plus cashing out at the peak of this recent Bitcoin wave... right now, Goodnight Capital has about 1.6 billion USD in available cash on the books."

"The rest of the money is tied up in the stock market. A few of the stocks we recently invested in have great prospects, so I'd advise against cashing them out."

1.6 billion USD.

It was barely enough to build an initial computing cluster. He couldn't possibly foot the entire bill himself; other capitalists would have to bleed a little too.

He still needed to pull other investors in and tie them to the same boat.

Otherwise, in a few years, when a certain someone made it impossible to buy the most advanced computing cards, he would only be able to watch helplessly as other AI companies developed at breakneck speed.

"That's enough money." Chen Zhi tapped his fingers on the railing. "David, I need you to use every connection in your network to get me A100s."

"A100s?" David paused. "Boss, are you going to mine crypto? The cost-performance ratio for mining with those isn't great..."

"I'm not mining crypto, I'm mining the future," Chen Zhi interrupted. "How many can you get me?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the line.

"It'll be tough, Boss." David sounded troubled. "The current production capacity has been entirely swallowed up by the big three: OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. They signed long-term strategic contracts and even did equity swaps. Even though we have money, we don't rank high enough on Nvidia's priority list."

"I just want results." Chen Zhi's tone was calm.

"...Alright." David gritted his teeth. "If I use some unconventional channels and sweep up stock from secondary scalpers at premium prices, I can probably scrape together around ten thousand units."

Ten thousand units.

Although it was a bit shabby compared to the tens of thousands in the clusters of major tech giants, it was enough for a start.

"Deal," Chen Zhi made a prompt decision. "Airfreight a few hundred units to China this month first. With the rest, register a tech company for me and invest in building an AI computing cluster in China."

"I want to see this cluster up and running before the second quarter of next year."

"No problem, Boss!" Although David didn't understand why his boss was burning cash like crazy to get computing power at this particular juncture, his boss's decisions had never been wrong. "I guarantee the mission will be accomplished!"

Hanging up, Chen Zhi let out a long breath.

With the computing power sorted, the next step was a long wait.

Server room construction, server procurement, cooling systems, operations and maintenance teams... none of this could be done overnight.

Until then, Moss would just have to make do and squeeze into this makeshift setup at Peking University.

...

A month passed like sand slipping through fingers, so fast it couldn't be caught.

Over this month, Chen Zhi lived a very fulfilling life.

First was Lin Wanwan.

After finishing the variety show and returning to school, this girl had attracted a massive new wave of fans with her top-tier looks and professional skills. She thought she was returning home in glory as a big star, only for her counselor to inform her: she had to make up for her freshman military training in her sophomore year.

That night, Lin Wanwan cried a river, soaking a large patch of Chen Zhi's t-shirt.

"Liars! They're all liars!"

Lin Wanwan lay in Chen Zhi's arms, sobbing, "If I knew I still had to do military training, I wouldn't have gone on the show! Boohoo, my skin... I used to be so pale..."

Chen Zhi tried his best to comfort her, promising to buy her a full set of skincare products and agreeing to deliver iced watermelon to her every day, finally coaxing this little princess into a better mood.

Taking advantage of the good atmosphere, Chen Zhi casually mentioned that he was starting a business.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Lin Wanwan's tears started falling again.

"Starting a business?" She looked up, staring at Chen Zhi with red eyes. "Are you tired of me? Didn't we agree that I would support you in the future? Why do you need to go and work hard to make money yourself?"

In her simple brain circuitry: Chen Zhi starting a business equaled not wanting to be a kept man, which equaled wanting to draw a line between them, which equaled wanting to break up.

Chen Zhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He couldn't exactly say: Baby, it's easy for you to support just me, but I still have to support two others, so the pressure is a bit high.

"Silly girl." Chen Zhi tapped her nose. "I've seen too many incredible people at Peking University. I'm not willing to just be mediocre for the rest of my life. I want to stand at a higher place so I can protect you better, right?"

This excuse was incredibly cliche, but it was very effective.

Lin Wanwan sniffled and reluctantly believed him.

"Then... then promise me." She held out her pinky finger. "If your business fails and you go bankrupt, you'll obediently come home and I'll support you. When that happens, you'll stay home to be a good husband and raise our kids, no more messing around."

Chen Zhi was a bit speechless. "...I haven't even started yet and you're already hoping for my bankruptcy?"

"Hmph, men turn bad when they have money!" Lin Wanwan muttered. "I'd rather you be a bit poorer and belong only to me."

Chen Zhi's heart skipped a beat.

Her intuition was spot on.

Having pacified his main girlfriend, Chen Zhi thought of Li Zhiyi, who was currently taking off like a rocket.

This girl had been incredible lately.

Ever since she entered the Renmin University Law School, it was as if she had turned on cheat codes.

Rumor had it that because her performance in a certain mock trial was so stunning, she was directly taken in as the closing disciple by the titan-level dean of the law school.

Now, trying to see her was harder than getting a meeting with the president of Peking University.

Her social media feed was full of photos of her flying all over the place with her mentor to attend conferences.

Today she was auditing at the Supreme Court, tomorrow her teacher was taking her to audit the revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law, and the day after she was taking a group photo with some grand justice.

Her senior classmates were either senior partners at top-tier law firms or powerful figures in courts at all levels.

Sometimes, when Chen Zhi looked at her WeChat Moments, a cold sweat would break out on his back.

This kind of network was simply terrifying.

If the day ever came when his multi-timing was exposed, Li Zhiyi wouldn't even need to lift a finger herself.

Her senior classmates could probably draft a Special Act on Severely Cracking Down on Scumbags like Chen Zhi overnight, and then legally and compliantly send him to prison to operate a sewing machine, complete with an annual subscription package.

He couldn't afford to mess with her. He really couldn't.

Therefore, recently, Chen Zhi had been incredibly well-behaved in front of Li Zhiyi. Even his WeChat replies had become exceptionally proper, for fear of being caught with any leverage against him.

As for Pei Ningxue...

This wicked woman had a completely different style.

Ever since that day at the hotel, it was as if some weird switch had been flipped inside her. She tried every trick in the book to flirt with Chen Zhi every single day.

"Brother~ My heart condition is acting up again, and I haven't taken my medicine today."

"I had classes at the Guanghua Building today. My legs are so sore, I want you to help massage them, brother~"

Her WeChat messages were so explosive that they made Chen Zhi's blood boil.

This wasn't a heart condition; this was clearly trying to take Chen Zhi's life.

Chen Zhi could only silently chant "form is emptiness" in his heart while sneaking out to meet her, feeding this young miss some medicine to treat her heart condition.

"You really are a busy man, brother."

Pei Ningxue rested on Chen Zhi's shoulder, tracing circles on his collarbone with her finger, her tone resentful. "You're so busy every day that your feet barely touch the ground. I have to take a number just to see you."

Chen Zhi stiffened all over and took her hand away. "It's better if we see each other less in the future. It's too easy for things to go wrong."

"What are you afraid of?" Pei Ningxue leaned close to his ear, her breath smelling like orchids. "Afraid you won't be able to control yourself?"

"Heh," Chen Zhi sneered. "I'm a man with a family now. I have to uphold male virtue."

"What a coincidence." Pei Ningxue blinked. "I'm also your family."

"..."

Chen Zhi fled in panic.

...

Having freed himself from romantic entanglements, Chen Zhi finally got down to some real business.

Yanyuan Entrepreneurship Incubation Base.

This was a venue specially provided by Peking University for student entrepreneurial teams. Although simple and crude, its best feature was that it was free.

Dai Damai was sporting two huge dark circles under his eyes, typing frantically at his computer screen.

He had been extremely frustrated this past month.

Although the Moss model Chen Zhi gave him was absolutely mind-blowing, causing him to study it day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep, the hardware conditions were simply too poor.

That guy Chen Zhi had actually only gotten him a few dozen 3090 graphics cards!

Using consumer-grade graphics cards to run a large model was like using a tractor to tow a Boeing 747; it was so slow it made him want to vomit blood.

Every time the model ran halfway and the VRAM exploded, Dai Damai wanted to crawl through the network cable and strangle Chen Zhi to death.

"Lao Dai!"

A shout interrupted Dai Damai's thoughts.

He turned around to see Chen Zhi leading a group of people carrying several boxes of things inside.

"Delivering drinks again?" Dai Damai rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Boss, can we be a bit more practical? I don't want drinks, I want computing power! Computing power, do you understand?!"

"What's the rush."

Chen Zhi patted the box, a mysterious smile appearing on his face.

"Lao Dai, don't say your boss doesn't care about you."

"Your days of suffering are over."

Chen Zhi reached out, popped open the latch with a click, and lifted the lid of the box.

Nestled quietly within the black shockproof sponge were several pieces of black hardware.

NVIDIA A100.

Dai Damai's eyes instantly widened in disbelief.

"This... this is..."

His voice was trembling.

Chen Zhi casually picked one up and weighed it in his hand.

"This is only the first batch. There are hundreds more on the way."

Chen Zhi looked at the dumbfounded Dai Damai and revealed the smile of an evil capitalist.

"How about it, Comrade CTO."

"This time, can you make our Moss run a little faster?"