The ridiculously high price of the Bugatti Veyron immediately scared off about half of the potential buyers. The remaining ones, like the Crown Prince of Dubai and other second-generation heirs from the wealthiest families in the UAE, had no problem with the price and decided to buy one on the spot.
"I'll take three Bugatti Veyrons! One convertible and two with hard tops," the Crown Prince of Dubai declared, fully supporting the car. He wanted to show the people who had backed down that the car wasn't too expensive for the price, but that its development and manufacturing costs were simply higher than other supercars. Therefore, the price was perfectly reasonable.
"I want to reserve one too," another one said. Following the Crown Prince's lead, many other wealthy Arabs decided to shell out $10.4 million to buy a Bugatti Veyron. After all, this was the only car that could race against a fighter jet. As for the Koenigsegg, it wouldn't be developed for another ten years.
Mavi, who was standing outside the venue, saw all of the Crown Prince's good intentions. He quietly took out his phone and called Baptiste.
"Hello, Chairman Mavi! I'm currently at the Dubai International Motor Show for the Bugatti Veyron launch event. Our sales are pretty good, with 12 customers already reserving the new car on the spot," Baptiste excitedly told him as soon as he answered the phone.
"Mhm, I know, I can see it all. You've done a good job. By the way, please tell the Crown Prince of Dubai that Russia will not sell the Smerch rocket launcher he's so concerned about to countries like Yemen and Iran," Mavi said. Yemen and Iran were very close to the UAE.
Both countries were politically unstable, making them fertile ground for terrorism. If Russia sold its long-range rocket launchers to their governments, some corrupt officials could easily sell them at a high price to local terrorist organizations. This could throw the entire Middle East into chaos. With a range of 650 kilometers, many countries would worry about being hit by these rocket launchers, as these armed groups were capable of anything.
"The Smerch rocket launcher? Oh, okay, Chairman Mavi, I understand! Wait, you said you saw everything? Are you at the Dubai International Motor Show?" Mavi's casual revelation startled Baptiste. He hadn't expected the chairman to attend the event himself and immediately started looking around while on the phone. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find Mavi. The reason was that Mavi had already left the main exhibition area and blended into the crowd.
This was the first time Baptiste had been involved in Mavi's arms deals. After he got off the phone, he repeated the message to the Crown Prince of Dubai word for word. "Your Highness, Chairman Mavi asked me to let you know that he won't be selling the Smerch rocket launcher to unstable countries like Yemen or Iran. You can rest assured."
Upon hearing the Bugatti president's words, the Crown Prince, who was picking out a color for his car, stopped and looked at him.
"Really? Mavi said that himself?" The Crown Prince's face broke into a relieved smile. With Mavi's assurance, he was confident that the Russian military would also be considerate toward the UAE and not let them live in the shadow of rocket launcher threats.
"Yes, Your Highness. Actually, the chairman was here a moment ago. He just left, probably because he didn't want to attract attention." The chairman's low-key demeanor was a stark contrast to the Crown Prince's flashy public presence.
When he heard that Mavi had been there, the Crown Prince, just like Baptiste, quickly scanned the area but couldn't find him.
"Ahem! Well, I'll call your chairman later to thank him personally." The Crown Prince also noticed the sharp contrast. However, he preferred to be flamboyant and extravagant. Being low-key and mysterious like Mavi wasn't his thing.
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The Bugatti Veyron's launch, with its shockingly high price, redefined everyone's understanding of the world's most expensive luxury car. On the day of the launch, Bugatti sold 21 Veyrons, almost recouping Mavi's initial investment.
This was a completely different result from the previous timeline, where Volkswagen sold the car for only $1 million. In this timeline, Bugatti didn't lose $3.5 million on every car sold, a loss they would have never made back, even with inflation.
After the launch, the Veyron's exorbitant price appeared on the homepages of car news websites worldwide. The video of the Bugatti Veyron racing against a MiG-29 fighter jet was also uploaded online.
The car's outrageous price and the amazing video shocked netizens, who were watching with their jaws on the floor.
"Holy cow... I must be seeing things. $10.4 million? That's insane!"
"This car is so incredible. It went head-to-head with a third-generation fighter jet. It only lost by 1.7 seconds at the finish line."
"My dad asked me why I was kneeling in front of the computer watching this video, and I had no words. I wonder if I'll ever be able to own a Bugatti Veyron. Ah, I guess I'll just keep kneeling in front of the computer."
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Thanks to Mavi's investment and intervention, Bugatti, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was now thriving. Furthermore, the smartphone Mavi had invested in two years ago was now in its final stages of completion.
The entire Google company had poured significant resources into it. They were developing the Android operating system with all their might and maintaining strict control over the hardware, trying to execute Mavi's mission perfectly.
"Chairman Mavi, we estimate that the first-generation Google phone will be officially released in about two weeks! As you instructed, we've already built 796 Google smartphone experience stores in major cities in the US, Russia, China, and Ukraine. Once the first batch of phones is produced, they will be sent to these stores immediately for customers to try out," the Google president reported over the phone. When Mavi first proposed developing a smartphone and having Google enter the field, the president, Sergey, was a bit worried. After all, old-school phone companies like Nokia and Motorola dominated most of the global market.
It would be extremely difficult for a new company to get a piece of the pie from them, especially by taking a different approach and developing a smartphone, which was completely against the direction Nokia and Motorola were going.