9:00 a.m., Wednesday. Meeting Room 3, City Hall.
David Chen arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule. After waiting in the corridor for a short while, Ethan ushered him inside, only to find Microsoft's team already at the door.
The two parties bumped into each other at the entrance, exchanged brief greetings, and said no more. The reason for their calm demeanor was that before flying to Pittsburgh, these two bitter rivals had already reached a private consensus.
Regardless of who ultimately secured the Federation AI contract, Pennsylvania's Computing Power Special Zone had to be built. They could share the infrastructure and cheap electricity provided by Leo. As for whose model would ultimately win the Pentagon's favor, they would compete purely on their respective technical merits.
Building a data center according to the Federation's requirements was too costly and too risky; neither of them wanted to bear it alone.
