As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 84 Acquisition
Zheng Li has always been interested in Bluestar's semiconductor technology.

The magical civilization has developed a completely different technological route in information and communication equipment than Blue Star.

The mages discovered that the DNA chain of carbon-based life is a perfect carrier of information, and on this basis developed the biological computer defined by Blue Star.

After Zheng Li came to Blue Star, he found that the two technical routes each had their own advantages and disadvantages.

The biological computer route makes it easier to develop artificial intelligence, and its computing capabilities are more powerful than silicon-based chips.

But Bluestar's computers were easier to mass-produce, and even the simplest models could serve as productivity tools.

Unlike the Mage Civilization, the Mage Tower has a central biological computer that only provides entertainment functions to citizens within the Mage Tower's jurisdiction through transmission.

It is somewhat similar to the concept of cloud computers. The mages allocate a portion of the computing power of the biological cloud for civilians' entertainment, and the civilians only have information and communication devices in their hands.

"Cheng Gang, try to talk to SecondMind in England. Let's try to acquire them."

After Ke Chuang Bio completed its IPO and raised funds, Zheng Li gave instructions during a remote meeting with Cheng Gang.

Cheng Gang was a little confused: "Secondmind? Sorry, Mr. Zheng, I have never heard of this company."

Zheng thought for a moment and said, "You should first understand and then execute. Why did I choose SecondMind? Because I personally like their technology route. I think their technology route in the field of autonomous driving is correct."

“SecondMind is an AI chip company that focuses on the field of autonomous driving.”

"My vision for the future of brain-computer connectivity is that our main expansion of brain-computer connectivity in the past two years will be in the fields of mobile phones and assisted medical care."

"Regular MSC chips are sufficient for these two."

"After laying a solid foundation, we will consider applications with deeper technical content, such as autonomous driving."

"In the future, brain-computer connection driving will play an insurance role, and autonomous driving will be the main driving method. We want to combine brain-computer connection and autonomous driving."

“SecondMind is a great company.”

After Cheng Gang finished the remote video conference with Zheng Li, he asked his secretary to report the company's information to him.

"Secondmind? An AI chip company from England. Tencent also participated in its Series B round of financing two years ago?"

"Geely's reach is so wide that it has invested in little-known companies like SecondMind."

There are many AI chip companies in England, the two most famous ones are OneTrust and Graphcore.

Among them, OneTrust just received a C round of financing led by SoftBank this year, with a financing scale of 5.1 million US dollars.

OneTrust's customer base exceeds eight thousand institutions.

Another AI chip company called Graphcore has been cooperating with Ali and Qiandu and is a long-term partner of domestic public cloud vendors.

As for SecondMind, it has no highlights compared with the above two companies and is far behind. Cheng Gang does not quite understand Zheng Li's considerations.

OneTrust may be more expensive, but secondmind isn't much cheaper either.

Secondmind completed its Series B financing in 19, with a post-financing valuation of million US dollars.

Today it is much cheaper than OneTrust, but it is estimated to cost about 300 to 400 million US dollars.

Cheng Gang felt that it would be better to buy a leading enterprise. Buying SecondMind was expensive and had no special highlights.

Cheng Gang directly called the head of Tencent’s strategic investment department.

The other party took the initiative and said, "Mr. Cheng, how come you have time to call me? Your Ke Chuang Biotechnology Company has been very successful recently, and your market value is about to exceed one trillion yuan." Currently, there are only eight companies in the A-share market with a market value of over one trillion yuan.

"As Tencent's strategic investment department, what we regret most is that we did not invest in Kechuang Biotechnology. Shunwei Capital invested 50 million yuan and took 10% of the shares that year."

When people are proud, they should be humble: "Compared with Tencent, Kechuang Bio is still just a baby in its cradle, and it still has a long way to go."

"Our CEO Zheng had no other choice but to approach Shunwei Capital. After all, CEO Zheng was not a student of Pengcheng University back then. If CEO Zheng was a student of Pengcheng University back then, he would definitely have approached Xiao Ma Ge."

The story of Shunwei Capital's investment in SinoBio has become a legend in the investment circle after SinoBio went public. Investors are saying that they should take a closer look at alumni's projects, as they may be the next SinoBio.

Moreover, it is very easy for university professors and PhDs to attract investment for entrepreneurial projects that have sufficient technological content and are worthy of patents.

In the past, you might have to consider the universality of your patent and its advantages compared to products currently on the market.

The head of Tencent's strategic investment department complained: "We have recently looked at a lot of projects founded by PhDs, but none of them can make my eyes light up like Endorphin."

"I heard that it was Zheng Li who directly negotiated with Mr. Lei. Mr. Lei is indeed very courageous. He didn't even blink an eye at 50 million."

Cheng Gang didn't want to chat endlessly, so he interrupted and said, "If Kechuang Bio wants to grow in the future, it will definitely need a dedicated investment department and learn from Tencent's rich experience in strategic investment."

"If Tencent has good projects that it cannot handle alone, you can always come to us."

Zheng Li is not very enthusiastic about setting up a dedicated investment department.

Right now, there are too few people who have the magic coin, and only two people who have the magic brain, so his plan cannot be carried out yet.

Therefore, he devoted some of his attention to scientific and technological innovation and biology. A company with a trillion-dollar market value can leverage a lot of social resources.

Zheng Lixiang wanted to try out whether his idea of ​​AI silicon-based chips was correct.

Cheng Gang continued, "We want to learn more about the company SecondMind. I understand that you also participated in SecondMind's Series B investment."

“So I want to ask about the company’s more specific situation.”

The head of Tencent's investment department didn't think it was a big deal. Ke Chuang Bio's strength lies in research and development, and they are completely newcomers in the investment field.

Not to mention Ke Chuang Bio, even Cheng Gang and Shunwei Capital, where he previously worked, are not in Tencent's eyes.

The funds controlled by Tencent are much stronger than those of Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital.

"Secondmind? I seem to have some impression of it, but we usually look at too many projects. This company should not have gone public yet. We invested in the early rounds."

"Let me check the computer." After saying that, he started searching in the investment project management system on the computer.

"This company is an English AI chip company that specializes in autonomous driving. It has already spent 200 million yuan."

“We just recently signed an agreement with Mazda to license our active learning platform to Mazda.”

The function of the active learning platform authorized by secondmind to Mazda is not autonomous driving, but to optimize the ECU of Mazda engines through deep learning algorithms.

Secondmind Active Learning for Powertrain can help automakers reduce engine calibration time by 50% and reduce data acquisition and processing costs.

"Well, if you plan to invest, you can try to invest a little bit. I personally think this company still has potential."

"But in the long run, there are too many competitors, and it's hard to get enough data just through cooperation."

Thanks to book friend 20201222095310546 for the reward!
I would like to say that everyone thinks the recent plots are bland. It is because I want to write about technological research and development that is a little closer to reality, so these plots are definitely bland and there are not many exciting moments.

I will write about the magic side soon. The number of people who get magic coins will increase, and the technical routes of different countries will diverge. I will try to make it more exciting.
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(End of this chapter)