The next day, the funds from Hong Kong were successfully transferred to the United States.
That very same day, Lin Baicheng hired a lawyer and went to Goldman Sachs to sign the financing contract. Even though Goldman Sachs was an internationally renowned investment bank, he wasn't about to let his guard down. Business cooperation, no matter the partner, always required caution. Every clause had to be reviewed carefully with legal assistance — that was basic business sense.
Once the contract was signed, the total sum of six hundred million US dollars from both sides was deposited into a joint account.
This account required passwords from both parties. On Goldman's side, only a few senior executives had access. The bank would also assign staff to monitor the account, tracking the futures' buying prices and current values. If the holdings neared the margin call line, a report would be escalated immediately, and Goldman would notify Lin to add more collateral. If the account hit the liquidation line, Goldman would close the positions without hesitation — to prevent their capital from being exposed to loss.
With the funding secured, Lin ordered An Yuan and the others to start purchasing gold futures. He had already asked Goldman Sachs to assign a trader to guide them through the operations. The process was straightforward. Lin's instructions were simple — buy gold at the current price; there was no need to wait for dips. In other words, all they had to do was buy, buy, buy.
Had Lin completely trusted Goldman Sachs — and been willing to pay their extra service fees — he could have delegated the entire job to them. But he preferred keeping control in his own hands.
The following day, another piece of good news arrived from Goldman Sachs. They had reached an agreement with the shareholders of Apple Computer, Inc.. Apple's valuation stood at six million dollars, and Lin would invest 1.8 million dollars for 30% ownership. Half of that amount would go toward buying Mike Markkula's shares, and the other half would be invested directly into the company, diluting the existing shareholders proportionally.
Including Goldman's commission — a little over one million dollars — Lin spent just under three million in total to acquire 30% of Apple.
At present, this price might seem outrageously high, perhaps even absurd. But Lin knew better. Apple was set to go public in 1980, and its IPO would create multiple billionaires. That meant its market capitalization would likely exceed one billion dollars on its first trading day.
If he held onto around 20% of Apple's shares after the IPO, those would be worth at least 200 million dollars — a fortyfold return on his five-million-dollar investment within just two to three years.
And Lin wasn't planning to sell on day one. His intention was to hold at least until Steve Jobs left Apple. Only then would he consider the right time to cash out, depending on the market conditions.
Later that afternoon, Lin and his lawyer followed Wade Thomas to Apple's headquarters, where they met with Mike Markkula and Steve Jobs to sign the share transfer agreements. Once the documents were signed and the transaction registered with the authorities, Lin Baicheng officially became one of Apple's major shareholders.
Jobs and the Apple executives were surprised. They knew Goldman Sachs had been representing an outside investor, but they didn't expect it to be a businessman from the Far East — from Hong Kong, no less. None of them knew how Lin had even heard of Apple or why he was willing to invest such a large sum.
Still, no one in business ever rejected money. Their curiosity aside, Jobs and the others welcomed Lin warmly as a new shareholder.
For Lin, meeting Steve Jobs, the future pioneer of the smartphone era and a man who would change the world, was an odd experience. He had only ever seen Jobs on TV in his previous life. Seeing the young man in person now, Lin almost didn't recognize him until he introduced himself.
He did feel a flicker of excitement — but just a flicker. Remaining calm and professional, Lin shook Jobs' hand firmly.
During his brief discussion with Apple's executives, Lin demonstrated just enough understanding of computer technology to avoid being dismissed as a layman. But he was careful not to reveal too much. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally hint at future technological concepts and have geniuses like Jobs get a head start on them.
Because with someone like Jobs, even the smallest clue could become reality far earlier than history intended.
Although Lin was now a major shareholder of Apple, that didn't mean their interests would always align. A few years down the road, they might even become opponents. So Lin kept his guard up.
"Mr. Lin," Jobs said with enthusiasm, "let me show you our company's latest product."
That product was the Apple II. As Jobs and his team passionately described its features — calling it revolutionary, innovative, and destined for success — Lin couldn't help but smile at their optimism.
The Apple II looked like a blend between a small black-and-white TV and a keyboard. The monitor and CPU were stacked neatly, compact compared to IBM's bulky machines. It was, indeed, a "personal computer."
As he experimented with it under Jobs' instruction, Lin suddenly noticed something odd — the machine had no office software whatsoever. He was about to ask about it but caught himself just in time, filing the thought away silently.
Later, after leaving Apple's offices, Lin sent Eric Davis to investigate the market. Davis returned with the results: while computers had existed for years, and IBM's models were already being used in offices, no true office software yet existed on the market. Only primitive prototypes.
That realization lit a spark in Lin's mind.
If he could develop genuine office software now, then as personal computers became mainstream, the demand would skyrocket — and so would the profits.
Although his past focus had been on video game development, the underlying principles of software creation were the same. In fact, developing office software was simpler — at least from the perspective of someone who'd lived decades in the future. But in this era, it was cutting-edge work, requiring both technical skill and conceptual foresight.
A newly discovered market. A golden opportunity.
Lin knew he couldn't do it alone. He needed a team — skilled programmers, long-term maintenance staff, and developers who could evolve the software over multiple versions.
He immediately assigned Eric Davis to begin recruiting: software engineers, financial staff, and, importantly, new security personnel.
Now that Lin was a major shareholder of Apple — and soon to be one in Microsoft as well — he wanted his own financial staff stationed inside both companies to monitor the books and ensure his interests were protected.
As for the bodyguards, it wasn't about distrust toward his men from Hong Kong. But as Chinese nationals, they often faced inconveniences in the U.S. In certain situations, they simply wouldn't be able to enter or operate freely.
Hiring local — white or black — security professionals would solve that problem neatly.