Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

After Forbes Billionaires List was released, under the suggestion of his father-in-law, Link and Ivanka hosted a party at the top of the New York LINK building, inviting many celebrities to attend.

This included billionaires from the capital circle like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Netflix President Hastings, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Carl Icahn, the president of NVIDIA, the Murdochs, and others.

As well as Hollywood, sports, music, investment circles friends and partners such as Schwarzenegger, Leonardo, the Ellison siblings, the Duvall couple, Hoyle, Lady Gaga, and Ms. Kathy Wood.

Plus Ivanka's friends, and the rich and politicians invited by her father.

The party was attended by more than two hundred people, all of whom greatly influence various sectors of American society.

One one hand, they discussed cooperation; on the other hand, they networked to support the father-in-law's election campaign.

The father-in-law has already confirmed his participation in next year's Presidential race.

Link doesn't understand politics, so he could only try his best to help with funding and connections.

"Link, when will you run for office? If you do, I will support you with all my might," Elon Musk said with a laugh, holding a wine glass.

"I haven't considered it for the time being, mainly because I don't understand this field and I don't dare to get involved rashly."

Link shrugged his shoulders.

"Link, you should consider it. You are a national icon, a representative of the American Dream. Your fame is much greater than Lee Kuan Yew's. I think you have a 90% chance of success if you run," Larry Page said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Indeed, Link has dominated the boxing ring, the music industry, and now he's ruling Hollywood. Like Caesar, if Link could take charge in Washington, he would achieve great things," Hastings said, stroking his beard.

"Thank you for the support. If I have any plans in this area, I will definitely seek your opinions first," Link said as he raised his glass with a smile.

Hahaha!

While they were chatting, a burst of laughter exploded from a nearby circle. The father-in-law was standing in the crowd, better suited than Link to lead such a scene.

Since Link didn't understand politics, he started discussing investments with Elon Musk and a few others.

Musk mentioned something that piqued Link's interest.

Musk said, not long ago PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Y-Combinator founder Sam Altman approached him with a proposal to establish an open artificial intelligence research and deployment company, aimed at 'achieving safe general artificial intelligence' to ensure that research benefits all of humanity, also as a non-profit organization.

The company was tentatively named OpenAI.

An investment of 1 billion US dollars was estimated.

Musk found it interesting and was preparing to get involved. He asked Link, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin if they were interested.

Larry Page said he wasn't interested. He has been working on flying cars for the past two years with considerable investment; Sergey Brin felt the same.

OpenAI sounded very familiar to Link.

This company launched a new chatbot model ChatGPT in 2022, triggering an AI competition worldwide, with Y-Combinator founder Sam Altman being called the 'Father of ChatGPT' by the media.

Originally, Musk and Altman served as co-chairmen of this company. In 2018, they had a disagreement over AI research projects, leading to Musk's withdrawal from OpenAI.

Without Musk's support, OpenAI's research lacked funding, and gradually, the company transitioned from a non-profit to a profit-making entity.

Initially, OpenAI was valued at less than one billion, but from the year 2022, its value doubled each year. In less than 30 years, the company's valuation surpassed one trillion US dollars, becoming the internet tech company with the fastest valuation to reach a trillion.

AI is the next big thing in the investment world, which Link had wanted to get involved in but hadn't had the chance. Now, hearing Musk mention it, it seemed like a good opportunity.

Link proactively asked Musk about the specifics of OpenAI's research progress.

At first, Musk, wary of Link's understanding being similar to that of a sports student, explained it in simple terms, using sci-fi movies as examples. But then, Link interjected with precise language to describe the principles of AI's operation and future development direction, as well as some current issues with AI.

Upon hearing Link's comments, Musk was surprised to realize not only did Link understand AI, but he also had a forward-looking vision and insights.

Musk immediately grabbed Link, wanting to introduce OpenAI's investment and research team to him, hoping he would join them.

With a slight smile, Link also persuaded Larry Page and Sergey Brin to join, as they are the founders of the world's largest online search engine, Google.

In the future, search engines will come with AI search tools, which compared to current search engines, will be able to find answers that are organized, summarized, and presented in a structured way, providing quick and timely answers from clear related sources.

If Google joined, the future AI features might be even more powerful.

Upon hearing him bring up the concept of AI search, the two expressed the need to give it some thought. Google is currently planning to restructure into the new holding company Alphabet with a new operational structure to separate their search, YouTube, other web subsidiaries, and R&D investment departments from one another.

The new Alphabet is divided into Google and other businesses.

Link nodded, Google currently has a market value of less than 380 billion US dollars. After restructuring into Alphabet Inc., the market value soared, with the future highest market value exceeding 2 trillion US dollars.

From this perspective, investing in Google is still very profitable.

After he had extra funds, Link decided to acquire some Google shares as well. Although the earnings wouldn't be massive, the nearly six-fold return was actually more cost-effective than investing in movies.

After chatting with Musk and others, Link then discussed with Jeff Bezos, who had taken the initiative to reach out. With a net worth of 34.8 billion dollars, Jeff ranked 15th on the latest Forbes Billionaires List and at 51, he was the youngest tycoon among the top 15 wealthy.

What Jeff Bezos wanted to discuss was the film company, hoping that Lionsgate Films would deepen cooperation with Amazon Studios to become a content supplier for the Prime Video division.

Link said it was worth considering. Amazon Studios was now the second-largest shareholder of Lionsgate, and with shared interests. Plus, in the future, Amazon Studios planned to acquire MGM Studios from Sony Corporation and join the competition in Hollywood, making it a worthy partner.

After the conversation with Bezos had ended, Link and Ivanka were once again introduced to a host of political figures by his father-in-law, leaving almost no time to rest at the party.

"All are political figures, could it be that Link is really considering entering politics?"

Leonardo watched Link from afar amongst the crowd; Link, the youngest and most handsome among them, really stood out at first glance.

"Isn't it good? Link is a very capable person."

Robert Downey Jr. said.

"Although what you are saying makes sense, I would feel very uncomfortable having such a guy as our boss. He is younger than me, more of a playboy, and not at all serious."

Leonardo said.

"Relax, if he really decides to run one day, it will be after twenty years. By that time, when we are in our sixties and seventies, whether we are used to it or not, we'd have to accept it."

Downey said with a laugh.

"If that day really comes, I will call many people to oppose him."

Leonardo retorted.

"Why? Aren't you an environmentalist, Leo? If Link took charge, you could use his position to introduce a series of policies that are good for environmental protection. Wouldn't that be great?"

Lady Gaga said with a laugh from the side.

Leonardo stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and felt it made a lot of sense. If Link had that ambition, he could support it. But once Link rose to power, if he did things that were unsatisfactory, Leonardo would also oppose him when necessary.

——

By March, the major Hollywood studios began operations and actors started to get to work. After taking a break for a while, Link also joined the "Captain America 3" crew for the filming.

Last year's "Captain America 2" had a good box office performance, grossing 860 million US dollars worldwide with a profit ratio of 6:1.

This year's "Captain America 3" was also highly valued by Disney and Marvel Studios, with a production budget of 240 million US dollars. Link's salary was 20 million plus 5% of the North American box office plus 3% of the global box office. Robert Downey Jr., playing opposite him as Iron Man, only had less than Link's global box office share.

The film also invited actors from The Avengers like Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen to participate.

In "Captain America 3: Civil War," Captain America and Iron Man split over the issue of whether to accept government leadership and supervision. Captain America advocates for maintaining member freedom, protecting the world without government interference, while surprisingly, Iron Man supports the government's regulatory and accountability system.

Within The Avengers, Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Falcon supported Captain America's fight, while Black Widow, War Machine, Vision, Black Panther, and others supported Iron Man.

This sparked a civil war.

Among the superhero movies shot this year, apart from The Avengers, DC Comics' Batman and Superman also ignited a civil war. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" was also a key project for Warner Bros. Pictures this year.

Both films had production budgets over two hundred million, and it would only be known which movie would be higher in the box office after their release next year.

The filming locations of "Captain America 3" were mainly in Los Angeles, USA, New York, Berlin, Germany, and other places. Link and the crew filmed in the United States for nearly a month before moving to Berlin.

As Link was highly valuable, his insurance amount was also high. During the Berlin shoot, more than ten people including bodyguards, assistants, and security staff were present at all times. Four stunt actors helped him perform most of the action and explosion scenes.

His workload during the shooting was relatively relaxed.

"Cut!"

"Prepare for the next scene!"

While filming in Berlin, Ivanka, Emma Watson, Marion Cotillard, Chris Liu, and Taylor, who was passing through Germany, along with Monica Bellucci who came quietly, all visited the set, brought some tasty treats, and stayed with him for a few days.

Together with Scarlett Johansson, who never seemed to be satisfied with being a substitute, Link's days in Berlin were fairly comfortable, without feeling too constrained.

However, he still had to participate in two heavyweight title defenses in May and June. During the filming, he couldn't neglect his training, spending no less than 30 hours a week on fitness and boxing training.

Under this schedule, his days were very fulfilling, with steady improvements in both acting and boxing skills. Although these improvements were very small—almost negligible—there was indeed progress.

This also illustrated that his persistence and hard work were meaningful.