civilwarnovels Chapter 356 : The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs (14)
Chapter 356 : The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs (14)
Ha Si-heon held a large press conference to explain his “CRISPR Moonshot Investment.”
All eyes around the world turned to this event.
His Cure Fund was a staggering 100 billion dollars in size.
Depending on where that enormous capital moved, the entire market landscape could be reshaped.
Ha Si-heon calmly opened his mouth.
“Biotechnology is now crossing a critical threshold. Just as the IT industry leaped forward through Moore’s Law, bio is now entering an era of exponential growth.”
“The key catalyst is CRISPR. The age of simply decoding genes is over. Now, we can directly design and reconstruct the code of life.”
“Healthcare is only the beginning. Agriculture, energy, the environment… the very foundations of human civilization will be redefined from the ground up.”
Behind him, a logo appeared on the screen:
“This technology must never become the possession of a privileged few. Just as Linux accelerated innovation by opening operating systems to all in the ’90s, CRISPR must open the operating system of life to humanity. I will invest to ensure this technology becomes a future shared by everyone.”
Ha Si-heon spoke firmly.
“Cure Fund will invest up to one billion dollars into every challenger in the CRISPR field. A moonshot is welcome. Even if the chance of success is only one percent, that’s fine. But there is one condition. If you take our investment, you must publish all research outcomes as open source. The results must become a shared asset of humankind.”
Yet there were those who felt a strange sense of déjà vu listening to this announcement.
It sounded far too similar to Ha Si-heon’s AI investment declaration just one year earlier.
Back then, he also spoke of a technological inflection point, sponsored moonshots, used open source as a competitive weapon, and triggered an unprecedented AI boom.
At first, many compared it to the dot-com bubble and worried it would burst at any moment.
But that bubble never burst.
Instead, it opened a new golden age for Silicon Valley and delivered unimaginable returns to early investors.
And now—
Ha Si-heon was making another open-source investment push with another transformative technology?
People in the hall murmured to each other.
“Here we go again.”
Wall Street reacted instantly.
Even before the announcement ended, CRISPR-related stocks surged across the board.
SNS was already in an uproar.
—Believers, He has descended once more! Saint Sean’s new revelation has been proclaimed!
—Those who missed the AI train are going to YOLO with their whole soul this time.
—AI can be slapped onto anything, but can gene editing really be slapped on too?
—Ye of little faith shall miss the Rambo…
—Innovation does not fall from heaven—it is pressed by Sean’s fingertips.’ WSB Gospel 12:07.
But beyond the retail investors, there were those with even more desperate hope.
Biotech startups around the world.
“A billion dollars? And even a 1% success probability is okay?”
In 2017, almost every biotech startup shared the same nightmare.
Capital was flowing only to a tiny handful of promising companies.
Most startups suffered from a severe lack of trust.
Venture capitalists said, “We can’t invest without solid data,” and kept their wallets closed.
But generating the data they wanted required immense time and cost.
To get money, you needed results. To get results, you needed money.
A vicious cycle—this was the reality biotech startups faced.
And then—
For them, Ha Si-heon’s announcement wasn’t just rain after a drought. It was a miracle.
They didn’t need to prove results immediately.
They didn’t need a famous name.
If they dared to challenge, they could receive funding.
Of course, there was a catch.
“We’re… not a CRISPR company…?”
Most biotech startups were focused on entirely different fields.
But the opportunity was too precious to pass up.
“This isn’t traditional ROI—this is Story ROI! If we can craft a compelling narrative…!”
He was investing not in proven profits but in “stories that could change the world.”
Biotech founders’ eyes lit up.
“If we say our technology will incorporate CRISPR…”
“Should we try pivoting?”
“Let’s put together a proposal first…”
Even without existing CRISPR technology, submitting a plan to acquire it was enough to apply.
Besides, CRISPR’s range of applications was enormous.
As Ha Si-heon himself said: medicine, agriculture, food, synthetic biology, environment, materials science.
It was a “universal technology” that touched virtually every life-related sector.
Even slipping CRISPR into a single step of a manufacturing process allowed a company to claim “CRISPR-based innovation.”
Of course, actually implementing it wouldn’t be easy…
But crafting a plausible story?
That was easy.
—Applying CRISPR to agricultural microbes to increase yield...
—-Optimizing plastic-degrading enzymes with CRISPR…
Everywhere, companies began force-fitting CRISPR into whatever research they were already doing.
“Will this… actually work?”
But startups that submitted proposal decks with half-doubt received shocking news.
“We’ve decided on a fifty-million-dollar investment.”
It was just a shot-in-the-dark pitch deck—
Yet they had actually secured funding.
“However, as stated, you must follow the open-source principle. All research processes and results must be disclosed.”
The funded companies immediately released flashy press announcements.
Investment news poured in.
The industry began to buzz.
“This actually works?”
Once the wind started blowing, CRISPR spread like a fashion trend—or a contagion.
Everyone began stuffing CRISPR into their business models, even if forcibly.
Soon, a new buzzword was born in the industry.
“CRISPRize it.”
It was a frenzy to redefine every problem through CRISPR.
If you did just this one thing, you could win Ha Si-heon’s billion-dollar blessing!
Countless headlines flooded the media.
***
“It’s begun.”
Meanwhile, among all those watching the situation unfold, there were a few who felt not hope but tension.
That was CRISPR Medical.
“The uproar… is getting louder.”
What they wanted was to quietly proceed with their plans until December.
So the current CRISPR mania sweeping the world was hardly welcome.
But their advisor, Pierce, remained relaxed.
“It’s fine. As I’ve said, Ha Si-heon’s goal is agitation. But agitation alone means nothing. The problem is the capital that follows him…”
In reality, huge sums of money were pouring into companies with the CRISPR label.
Editors and Intelligencia had already jumped more than 30%.
Meanwhile, CRISPR Medical’s stock had gained only about 5%.
This was because its tradable float was extremely limited.
Major shareholders were tightly holding onto their stakes, leaving almost no shares circulating in the market.
Without shares being bought and sold, the price couldn’t move—trading itself was sluggish.
This led the CEO and board members to sigh.
“That’s also a problem. Major investors are getting anxious. They’re saying, ‘Other companies are gaining value from this frenzy—are we going to be the only ones left out?’”
While other CRISPR companies kept hitting new all-time highs, CRISPR Medical’s stock remained stuck in place. Naturally, investors were frustrated.
But Pierce was firm.
“Frame that as a strength. Our stock isn’t failing to rise—there simply isn’t enough supply for it to rise. Everyone is holding, so no shares are trading. If it’s truly a blue-chip, of course no one would sell it.”
“Will that really convince them?”
“Keep pointing to December. Tell them that once December comes, they’ll understand why no one let go of CRISPR Medical. Convince them that their patience now will prove to be the best investment decision.”
If they were dealing with retail investors, such phrasing would've been meaningless.
But CRISPR Medical’s shareholders were institutional investors holding large stakes.
As long as they didn’t panic, everything would hold.
“Ha Si-heon’s intent is obvious. He wants to stir up shareholder anxiety so they sell, and then scoop up the shares himself. They must not fall for it.”
As advised, the board committed all its effort to investor relations.
Then Ha Si-heon made his move.
[Why don’t I invest in CRISPR Medical? Actually, I already offered. They rejected me. Said they didn’t need my help. A pity, really. They’re shutting themselves out of their greatest growth opportunity.]
He appeared in multiple interviews, spreading the message everywhere that CRISPR Medical was missing its chance.
But Pierce only smiled.
“He’s getting nervous because the shareholders aren’t moving his way. That means we must unite even more.”
“But some shareholders are wavering…”
“Hold the line. The founder must speak directly.”
In the end, CRISPR Medical’s founder held an emergency shareholder conference call.
“Our technology is the best in the field. Of course Ha Si-heon wants it. But what he wants is a free ride on our work. That’s why we rejected him.”
CRISPR Medical’s founder wasn’t just a business leader.
She was one of the pioneers who first discovered this technology—a scientific legend who would one day win a Nobel Prize.
“Our patents and know-how weren’t built by short-term speculation. And they aren’t something Mr. Ha can buy with money.”
It worked.
Shareholders accepted the explanation—for now.
All they needed to do was continue defending their position.
Meanwhile, the CRISPR boom only grew stronger.
New CRISPR projects were announced daily.
Ha Si-heon was spraying money in every direction, and the media headlined a new CRISPR breakthrough every day.
Amid this frenzy, CRISPR Medical’s silence became even more conspicuous.
[CRISPR Medical’s silence is strange. Competitors are going into overdrive, yet they alone have no new project announcements.]
[They can no longer call themselves one of the top three leaders. At this rate, they may even fall behind latecomers. Their silence means one of two things: they have a hidden trump card… or they have no card at all.]
[Even if they do have a trump card, hiding it now could be considered poor management…]
Analysts’ doubts grew louder.
Still, Pierce did not waver.
“Do not move. As long as the inside holds firm, that’s all that matters. Just endure until December.”
But then—
An unexpected message arrived.
“There’s a problem in the supply chain.”
It was an unforeseen report.
“Virogene contacted us. They said demand for AAV and LNP vectors has surged, and supply is running short. They want us to lock in our required quantities for the next six months.”
“Nucleonics is the same. They said their inventory of guide RNA and Cas9 protein has run dry. They’ll prioritize only their highest-tier customers.”
Core suppliers were sending similar messages all at once.
From DNA delivery vectors to synthetic oligos, to enzyme proteins—everything essential to CRISPR experimentation.
The recent investment boom had caused demand to explode, and the entire supply chain was buckling under the pressure.
“They’re asking us to confirm all clinical-grade Cas9 materials needed by November.”
On the surface, it sounded like a routine inventory request.
But Pierce’s expression gradually hardened.
A cold chill ran down his spine.
“No way…”
Was Ha Si-heon’s true objective really just agitation?
Why had he dragged hundreds of miscellaneous startups into a CRISPR race?
…—!
This was—
“He planned to disrupt the supply chain!”
He hadn’t been targeting shareholders at all…
If his real goal was to artificially create a shortage of essential CRISPR materials?
All CRISPR companies depended on these critical supplies.
Whoever controlled the supply chain would dictate everyone’s development timeline.
And the one controlling it would be—
“Check the shareholders and board members of every supplier immediately!”