As the organizer of such a high-level auction, it’s only natural for them to conduct a financial investigation of all invited guests before the auction begins. After all, they can’t possibly invite people without money just to add some excitement to the event!

Moreover, since Wu Hao had not been among those actively invited when the auction tickets were obtained through the AI Zero, the AI had to use the funds in its bank account to give Wu Hao the green light.

Naturally, the auction organizers were more than willing to accommodate a guest with $15 billion in cash deposits at a Swiss bank.

Additionally, after Wu Hao had purchased the ancient jade compass for $2 billion and completed the payment, the organizers had no reason to doubt his financial capability.

However, even though Wu Hao’s aggressive bidding was secretly pleasing both the organizers and the sellers, they didn’t want to offend the two major families—Will and Mede—by pushing things too far.

Thus, as long as it was within their capability, they would be very accommodating to Will and Mede.

Upon hearing this from Hill, Will and Mede decided to abandon their plans to continue bidding against Wu Hao. With the meteorite’s price having already soared far beyond the original base price, any further competition might push the price beyond $10 billion.

$10 billion is not a small amount. This sum could almost be used to build the most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the U.S. or purchase several F-22s.

After all, an F-22 costs $300 million each, and with this amount, they could buy dozens of them. As for other countries’ mainstream fighter jets, they could easily buy a hundred of them. For instance, the fighter jets from **** offer the best cost-performance ratio globally.

Even though the Dupont and Rothschild families are not short of $10 billion, spending this amount solely to acquire a meteorite with research value clearly does not align with their interests.

Although these two families are willing to invest heavily in various future technologies, spending $10 billion on a single project requires careful consideration of the pros and cons.

Otherwise, the two families would not have privately sought cooperation when their previous competition yielded no results. Even though $5 billion is also substantial, splitting it into two parts means each family only pays $2.5 billion, which they could accept for a project with uncertain value.

However, Wu Hao’s sudden intervention has caused the meteorite’s price to surge to over $7 billion, and based on Wu Hao’s attitude, he showed no intention of backing down.

Therefore, such a high price was not what the two families hoped for.

Even if Wu Hao were to give up now, they did not want to obtain the meteorite at such a high cost. Thus, after the price reached this level, Will and Mede both implicitly agreed to instruct their subordinates.

“Alright, no need to continue bidding. Let him have the meteorite for now.”

“Understood, boss. However, we can’t just let him have it easily. Based on their bidding pattern, every time we increase the bid, they raise it by $200 to $300 million. We can pretend to bid once more to make him pay a bit more.” The subordinate said with a scheming look.

“Very well, let’s do as you suggest!” Will and Mede did not oppose this plan.

Little did they know, Wu Hao had already overheard their conversation through his mental perception. Once he realized the situation, he merely curled his lips in a slight smile and prepared a countermeasure.

“$7.65 billion, the guest in Box No. 1 bids $7.65 billion. Is there any higher bid?” The auctioneer, seeing the new bid from Box No. 1, showed no surprise, clearly accustomed to it. Then, he stared at Wu Hao in Seat 66, as if saying, “Your turn to bid.”

Wu Hao, seated in Seat 66, did not immediately place a bid but instead sat with a frown, seemingly deep in thought. This expression did not go unnoticed by Will, Mede, and their team in the box.

“What’s going on? Is the other party planning to give up bidding?”

“That’s a possibility. After all, the meteorite’s price has exceeded expectations by a lot.” Originally, the meteorite’s starting price was just $2 billion. When it rose to $4 billion, only the Dupont and Rothschild families were left competing. At $5 billion, both families seemed to understand that neither wanted to abandon their plan, but further competition at such high prices did not align with their interests.

When Wu Hao intervened, the price of the meteorite had almost reached $8 billion. They initially thought Wu Hao would continue bidding till the end. However, seeing Wu Hao’s first sign of hesitation, they realized that if the price became too exorbitant, Wu Hao might indeed abandon the bidding.

Understanding this, the two decided what to do next.

“Once the other party places another bid, we will stop and not bid further.”

“Understood, boss!” The subordinate who previously suggested this now realized that if they continued bidding and Wu Hao dropped out at a critical moment, it would cause significant losses for the boss. If the situation came to that, he might end up being fed to the fishes.

Thus, after Wu Hao hesitated for several minutes and the auctioneer used every possible delay tactic, Wu Hao still showed no signs of continuing to bid, causing the auctioneer great anxiety.

The auctioneer had long been instructed by his boss that the final winner could not be from either the Dupont or Rothschild families. So, he was desperately hoping that Wu Hao in Seat 66 would increase his bid. If Wu Hao raised the bid, he vowed to start the countdown immediately.

After all, hosting such an auction was incredibly torturous.

Soon, Wu Hao, who was pretending to hesitate in the hall, realized the time was almost up. If he did not bid soon, the auctioneer would have no excuse to delay any further.

Thus, Wu Hao made a new bid, increasing the previous amount by $50 million, bringing his bid to $7.7 billion.