Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[Nerd Beautiful]

I don't recall the ins and outs of Steipps' time at Liquidmetal, but my sense is that by 2016 LM was a mess, simultaneously going everywhere and nowhere all at once. That's when Li was brought in to get the trains running on time and most importantly to develop what we all lovingly call "the maze."

It is possible, I think, that things happened in the other way. That is, it's possible that Li saw the mess and took the initiative—that he reached out to Apple with a plan, he bought controlling interest in LM with a plan, and he is the mastermind that Apple wanted to work with all along.

It's also possible that Apple thought they would need LM sooner than they did in reality. Apple got extra good at Aluminum and needed the battery space that Aluminum and SS could handle, and so Apple didn't follow through with initial plans, leaving Liquidmetal adrift in those early years.

We'll have to wait for the blockbuster novelization of these days to know for sure. Penguin Paperback, 2042.