Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 568 The Jade Rabbit Interstellar Spaceship Officially Takes Off

The numerous products launched at the spring launch event, especially the Yun VW L1, a youth-oriented virtual reality device among the new generation of virtual reality devices, caused a shock to the industry chain, which was quickly reflected in the financial market.

In the two weeks following the spring press conference, Zhuyun Group's stock price rose by eight percentage points, and its Hong Kong stock market capitalization increased from more than US$3.6 trillion before the spring press conference to more than US$3.9 trillion... leaving only half a step away from the US$4 trillion mark.

The market capitalization of Zhuyun Group in the domestic A-share market is even more exaggerated... Zhuyun Group's domestic market capitalization has always been higher than its Hong Kong stock market capitalization, so Zhuyun Group's domestic stock market capitalization had already exceeded four trillion US dollars right after the spring press conference.

This attracted a lot of news coverage at the time... because it was the first super-corporation in human history with a market value of over four trillion US dollars, which was quite newsworthy.

After half a month of preparation, Zhuyun Group's Hong Kong stock market value gradually increased, eventually reaching US$3.9 trillion.

Now that they're almost there, Zhiyun Group is pushing forward by announcing some progress on its virtual device business through its spokesperson.

The cumulative order volume for all models of the new generation of virtual equipment has exceeded 2.5 million units, and the number of delivered units has exceeded 300,000 units.

In addition to the domestic, Japanese, South Korean, and European markets, we have also entered the markets of Russia, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, and ASEAN countries, and have gradually started sales and accepted large-volume orders from enterprises in these regions!
Neither of these two things are really news... Virtual devices are a product that receives a lot of close attention, and a lot of people are watching them closely. Some analysis and statistics agencies that serve large investment institutions have long collected a lot of relevant data!

Don't underestimate the intelligence gathering capabilities of these large investment institutions... that's how they make a living. Otherwise, you can't expect these investment institutions to play the stock market with billions or even tens of billions of dollars without sufficient intelligence support!
For investment institutions, the securities market is not played this way.

However, the spokesperson for Zhiyun Group also announced some important good news.

That is, the announcement that a contract manufacturing plant of Zhuyun Group in Dongguan City will start production in mid-April, with an expected annual production capacity of 500,000 units.

At the same time, it was announced that Zhiyun Group and JCET Group had reached a strategic cooperation agreement, under which JCET Group will provide some of its advanced packaging capacity to Zhiyun Group.

This collaboration will mark the first time Zhuyun Group has sought external support for advanced packaging technology capacity…

This means that the production capacity of various computing chips under the Zhiyun Group, especially the core APO series graphics cards, ZY chips, EYQ chips and other chips that use advanced packaging technology, will see a greater increase!

The reason why Zhiyun Group sought cooperation with JCET is actually quite simple: JCET has developed a 2.5D packaging process.

JCET is quite impressive. Its BGA packaging is excellent, and it is one of the world's leading companies in the packaging and testing field. Its long-term customers include semiconductor companies such as Zhuyun Semiconductor, AMD, and Apple.

Previously, they had already provided BGA packaging manufacturing services to Zhiyun Group. Part of the APO4500M/16GB graphics card was manufactured using BGA technology by them.

A few years ago, JCET Group saw the promising future of the more advanced 2.5D and 3D packaging fields and decided to enter this field.

Anyway, the equipment in the advanced packaging field in China is also very good. They can actually purchase all kinds of equipment needed in the advanced packaging field, and the only problem is that the delivery time will be longer.

Fairy Mountain Holdings, which deals in semiconductor equipment and consumables, primarily uses its production capacity to prioritize supplying Zhiyun Microelectronics, but it also provides some capacity to other domestic semiconductor companies. However, this requires waiting in line and has a longer delivery period.

SMIC even received its first HEUV-300B EUV lithography machine this year, and they are preparing to use the EUV lithography machine to develop their own equivalent 7-nanometer process.

The same applies to the field of advanced packaging equipment. Zhuyun Microelectronics' packaging plant naturally has priority in obtaining goods, but companies like JCET Group can also queue up to get goods.

After several years of trial and error, JCET Group has finally developed its own 2.5D packaging technology. Although the production capacity is still small, it's at least something.

Meanwhile, Zhuyun Group is currently searching the world for advanced packaging technologies.

Once they saw that a domestic company, and one with which they already had a good working relationship, had developed 2.5D packaging technology, they immediately approached them to place an OEM order, and the price they offered was very good...

Zhuyun Group has always treated its suppliers well, offering short payment terms, large order volumes, and competitive prices.

For small-batch orders, in order to maintain the supplier's profit, a premium is even offered to ensure that the supplier's profit can sustain continued research and development.

Most importantly, Zhiyun Group never defaults on payments to its suppliers... Zhiyun Group is not short of money; it has hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and marketable securities assets sitting on its books all year round, so it doesn't need to worry about suppliers paying for their goods!
The treatment of employees in the supply chain of Zhiyun Group is top-notch even on a global scale!

This is also the core reason why so many companies are scrambling to enter the Zhiyun supply chain... It's just extremely difficult, with very demanding technical requirements. If you can't be among the top three in the world in terms of technology, you can basically forget about it.

The massive packaging process orders from Zhuyun Group also brought a sigh of relief to JCET Group... Their target customer for advanced packaging is Zhuyun Group!
As for other target customers, they are just incidental. Whether domestic or foreign, there are some companies that make computing chips and have some products, but the market share of these customers is not very good, and you can't make much money from them.

In the field of computing power chips, Zhuyun Group is the dominant player, and in certain specific areas, it even enjoys a monopoly.

For JCET, the only way to recoup its huge investment in advanced packaging technology and even make a large profit is to seek packaging orders from Zhiyun Group.

After all, in the modern world, Zhuyun Group is the biggest consumer of advanced packaging technology...

Regarding the cooperation between Zhiyun Group and Changchang Electronics High-Tech, a spokesperson for Zhiyun Group stated that this move will further expand Zhiyun Group's production capacity in the field of advanced packaging in order to meet market demand to the greatest extent possible.

After the news was officially released, JCET's stock price rose rapidly... Now everyone knows that advanced packaging is profitable... The cost of 2.5D packaging alone is about five thousand yuan in the cost of an APO4600S graphics card.

Using 2.5D packaging technology to package an APO4600S graphics card is more profitable than producing an APO4600S GPU core!

JCET's newly built and operational advanced packaging plant is practically a money-printing machine.

Of course, JCET is just one company in the vast supply chain of the Zhiyun Group... They can only take a tiny fraction of the huge profits from the APO4600S graphics cards that JCET manufactures.

The real bulk of the profits are still taken by the Zhuyun Group!

Stimulated by several positive announcements from the spokesperson of Zhiyun Group, Zhiyun Group's Hong Kong stock market capitalization finally broke through the four trillion US dollar mark, reaching four trillion eight hundred billion US dollars.

This reflects the continued optimism of major global investment institutions regarding the future growth of Zhuyun Group's virtual equipment business and computing chip business.

Upon learning that the Hong Kong stock market capitalization had surpassed four trillion US dollars, Xu Shenxue did not react much. Just half a month earlier, when the market capitalization of Zhuyun Group was calculated based on the domestic stock market price, it had already exceeded four trillion US dollars... At that time, he even sent an internal email to all employees to celebrate the company's market capitalization exceeding four trillion US dollars and to encourage them to continue their efforts and create even greater achievements!

While Zhiyun Group continued its relentless pursuit of even greater heights, Xu Shenxue temporarily set aside his focus on the group... Zhiyun Group's core businesses have now entered a stable phase.

The smart terminal business remains unchanged, showing steady growth with a slight increase.

In the semiconductor business segment, conventional chips such as mobile phone SOCs, RAM chips, flash memory chips, consumer-grade computer CPUs, and server CPUs, as well as consumer-grade GPUs, have remained relatively stable... without much growth, but without a decrease in market share either.

In the computing chip sector, the only limitation to rapid growth is production capacity, not market demand... Many medium and large enterprises are eagerly waiting for the APO5000 graphics card from Zhiyun Group, and even the APO4600S graphics card is in short supply.

There are also some auxiliary semiconductor chip businesses. Although some auxiliary chips are important to the industry chain, the revenue is too low to be worth mentioning for the huge Zhiyun Group.

Finally, there's the semiconductor manufacturing foundry business, which mainly provides foundry services for major domestic and international semiconductor design companies. However, the revenue from the foundry business is not much... Although Zhiyun Microelectronics has a large production capacity, they also need to use a lot of capacity themselves, so the foundry capacity that can be freed up in advanced processes is actually not much!
As for mature processes... there are a lot of competitors. There are international giants like TSMC, Samsung, and UMC, and domestically, there are a bunch of second- and third-tier semiconductor manufacturers like SMIC and Huahong Grace Semiconductor!
Orders for mature manufacturing processes are not easy to obtain; sometimes it comes down to competing on cost-effectiveness. To be honest, given the corporate culture and business strategy of Zhiyun Group, cost-effectiveness has never been their strength. If they simply focus on cost-effectiveness, they simply cannot compete with SMIC and other second- and third-tier semiconductor companies in China.

Therefore, in order to maintain its competitive advantage in mature processes, Zhiyun Microelectronics continues to follow the path of technological innovation, and has successively developed the 40-nanometer process, an upgrade of the 45-nanometer process, and the 22-nanometer process, an upgrade of the 28-nanometer process.

Furthermore, they focus on some special processes to meet the chip production needs of specific fields.

Zhiyun Microelectronics outsources its mature manufacturing processes, which is a strategy to win orders by leveraging its technological advantages when it can't compete on cost-effectiveness. It has some effect, but it's hard to say how good it is.

However, although there aren't many orders for mature process manufacturing, the impact is minimal... Zhiyun Microelectronics never relies on mature processes; they use advanced processes.

The 12nm, 7nm, and 5nm processes that were just put into small-batch production this year are the core technological advantages of Zhiyun Microelectronics in the field of logic chips, and also the main source of revenue and profit!

The semiconductor business segment of Zhiyun Group, which comprises semiconductor design and semiconductor manufacturing, continues to maintain a high growth rate. Moreover, due to the persistent shortage of computing chips, its gross profit margin is very high.

In addition, the intelligent robot business, one of the two emerging core businesses of Zhiyun Group, is also maintaining rapid growth and has a very good prospect. The annual sales of several million robots can be considered stable.

After a year of groundwork and efforts to reduce costs, the virtual equipment business launched a youth version and, with the availability of readily available high-performance graphics cards like the APO4500M/64GB, experienced explosive growth in production and sales.

Smart terminals, semiconductor design and manufacturing, smart robots, and virtual devices are the four core businesses that form the core support of Zhiyun Group. Zhiyun Group's market value of four trillion US dollars is basically supported by these four businesses.

Although there are many other businesses, such as investment banking and insurance, aerospace (including Zhiyun Aviation and Zhiyun Satellite), and cloud computing and supercomputing (including Zhiyun Cloud Computing), these ancillary businesses basically serve the four core businesses. Some of these businesses may seem quite large, but they are still considered ancillary businesses...

There are also some peripheral businesses that are simply done incidentally.

Overall, the development of Zhiyun Group is rapid and stable, and Xu Shenxue doesn't need to worry about it too much for the time being.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue also focused more attention on Hailan Auto after entering April.

Hailan Auto is set to launch its entire new generation of models in May… most importantly, all models will simultaneously offer solid-state battery versions. Hailan Auto has been preparing for this full-line application of solid-state batteries for a full year, investing heavily in the construction of three major solid-state battery production bases. Small-batch production began last December, supplying the Zhuyun Group.

Starting this year, more production lines at the three major solid-state battery production bases have been put into operation. By May, although it may not be able to meet the huge annual sales volume of two to three million vehicles for Hailan Auto, it should be able to meet a portion of that demand.

Therefore, among the various models released this year by Hailan Auto, the new models of the four major series Hailan SLC, Hailan SEV, Hailan SEC and Hailan SR, which already had low sales, will all adopt solid-state batteries.

However, in the three major series of models with larger sales volume, namely the Ocean Blue SLMC, Ocean Blue MEV, and Ocean Blue YEV, semi-solid-state batteries are only equipped in the high-end models.

Unfortunately, current solid-state battery production capacity is insufficient. If all vehicles were to adopt solid-state batteries, the production capacity of solid-state batteries for automotive powertrains in the next year would at most be able to meet the needs of one million vehicles.

This is already the result of Hailan Auto's desperate efforts. The mass production technology of solid-state batteries is too difficult, and the investment in solid-state battery factories is huge.

To build these solid-state battery factories, Hailan Automotive has already racked up a huge debt with banks...

But we can't just sell one million cars a year. This year, Hailan Auto is hoping to reach three million sales.

Therefore, Hailan Auto adopted a strategy of equipping high-end or mid-to-high-end models with solid-state batteries, while continuing to use semi-solid-state batteries in mid-to-low-end models.

Given the high cost and limited production capacity of solid-state batteries, for the next few years, Hailan brand vehicles will likely use both solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries.

We're still a long way from completely phasing out semi-solid-state batteries... Not to mention semi-solid-state batteries, even lithium iron phosphate batteries won't be abandoned anytime soon!
It was first launched in overseas markets, and now it has also been introduced to the domestic market as a mid-to-low-end brand called 'Aila'. It is currently using lithium iron phosphate batteries... The reason is simple: these batteries are mature and cheap, and they are very suitable for use in low-end, high-volume models priced at just over 100,000 yuan at this stage.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

In addition to the large-scale adoption of solid-state batteries, Hailan Auto will also launch a brand-new model this year: Hailan HEV.

This is an entry-level SUV model that is improved and optimized based on the technology of the Hailan YEV entry-level B-class sedan, and even shares many parts.

This entry-level SUV from the Hailan brand is relatively inexpensive, with a post-subsidy price of around 270,000 yuan in China…

It should have been even cheaper, but subsidies for electric vehicles in China are being gradually phased out, so the price of the Hailan HEV after subsidies has not been able to be reduced much.

This new generation of models will also use solid-state batteries in its high-end versions, with the top-of-the-line model having a range of 1,000 kilometers.

Hailan Auto faces two major events this year: the large-scale application of solid-state batteries and the launch of a new SUV. Xu Shenxue is paying close attention to these events.

After all, these two matters are related to Hailan Auto's sales this year, as well as its revenue and profits, and even more so to its planned launch in the second half of this year.

The launch in May and the sales over the next few months must deliver a good performance to the market in order to secure a higher valuation. With a higher valuation, Hailan Auto will be able to obtain more financing.

Hailan Auto is currently waiting for a large amount of capital to expand the production capacity of its various brands of complete vehicles and the production capacity of many core components.

We also need to significantly and continuously expand the production capacity of solid-state batteries. These things are good, but the cost of investing in and building factories is too damn expensive, and expanding production capacity is not easy.

Hailan Auto's ambition is to become a giant automaker with annual production and sales of over ten million vehicles. To achieve this, it must rely on advanced technology.

For Hailan Auto to achieve annual sales of tens of millions of vehicles, large-scale application of L4 autonomous driving technology and solid-state batteries is essential, and they must also be affordable enough. These two technologies cannot be limited to high-end models, because the ceiling for high-end models is too low!
Hailan Auto's ambition is to apply solid-state batteries and L4-level technology on a large scale to its main mass-market models, which cost over 100,000 to 200,000 yuan... and then rely on these two technologies to crush major traditional automakers around the world and snatch a piece of the pie from their mouths!
To do that, a lot of money would be needed!
In addition, we will open up new business lines in robotics, promote the research and development of low-altitude flying cars, and continue to promote a series of new businesses such as driverless taxis and industrial robots for overseas markets.

These technological research and development investments are very expensive. In the next few years, what will be needed is not just a few hundred billion dollars, but a huge amount of hundreds of billions of dollars!

There's no way around it; high-tech, capital-intensive industries like Hailan Auto just spend money like that!
Therefore, a listing expected in the second half of this year must achieve a high valuation in order to obtain sufficient funds.

The launch event for Hailan Auto in May this year is crucial for achieving a high valuation!
Given the importance of this year's press conference, Xu Shenxue decided to personally host the May press conference for Hailan Auto once again after a hiatus of several years.

This heralds the arrival of the Hailan HEV model and announces the arrival of the era of widespread adoption of solid-state batteries!

Prior to the press conference, Xu Shenxue also visited Hailan Auto's headquarters multiple times to oversee operations and personally oversee the work.

However, in mid-April, a message from Nanmen Aerospace diverted Xu Shenxue's attention.

Nanmen Aerospace informed Xu Shenxue that the company's first, and also the first experimental reusable spacecraft in human history, was about to be launched from Earth and the Moon.

After several months of preliminary experiments at the Centaur space station, including unmanned automated docking with the space station, unmanned cargo receiving and unloading experiments, unmanned automated refueling in space experiments, routine maintenance and repair experiments with robots, emergency automated repair experiments with robots, and multiple short-distance interplanetary travel experiments!
In the middle, a simulated manned flight test was also conducted... The Yutu interstellar spacecraft is actually capable of carrying people, and its interior has the space and facilities to meet the long-term living needs of astronauts... One of the cargo compartments was designed as a manned cabin.

However, since the Yutu interstellar spacecraft is a new thing, no one dares to actually use it for manned flight for the time being, so it was just a simple simulation test.

Before the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft can carry out a true manned flight, more experiments and tests are needed to ensure its safety!
After completing numerous experimental projects, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft will embark on its most important first scientific experiment: a round trip between Earth and the Moon!
According to the plan, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft will refuel and replenish some supplies at the Centaurus space station, then separate from the space station and set off, eventually using its own power and gravity to travel to the moon.

After entering lunar orbit, it will conduct unmanned automated docking with the Sirius unmanned space station and deliver multiple space maintenance robots, various types of probes, and a batch of fuel to the Sirius unmanned space station.

After completing its mission of transporting supplies, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft will also use its powerful various detection devices to conduct a wider range of explorations on the lunar surface!
We also need to collect a batch of lunar soil and mineral samples to return to the Centaurus space station!
Nanmen Space began lunar exploration last year, sending numerous unmanned probes to land and collect samples.

With the Sirius unmanned space station in place, it was used as a transit station to provide fuel for lunar sampling equipment and to receive and store various mineral samples.

To this end, Nanmen Space, together with Zhiyun Satellite and other aerospace agencies, combined various technologies to design a dedicated reusable transport vehicle for the moon.

This lunar transport vehicle, compared to the traditional lander and ascent combination, seems to have a smaller carrying capacity, but it is reusable... As long as the Sirius space station can continuously refuel it, its designed service life reaches twenty times!

This significantly reduced costs.

The lunar transport vehicle can carry various samples collected by the probe back to the Sirius space station, and then return to the lunar surface with the probe or more equipment and fuel.

In fact... after the Sirius space station was launched and began operation, Nanmen Space had already simultaneously launched the lunar base project.

Various probes and sample collection projects have been launched, and even a dedicated lunar transport vehicle has been sent there!
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After the Yutu interstellar spacecraft arrives at the Sirius space station, it will deliver various supplies and equipment to the Sirius space station, and take these soil and mineral samples with it on its return trip.

After these soil and mineral samples arrive at the Centaurus space station, they will be returned to Earth aboard the White Dragon space shuttle and handed over to a team of scientists for various studies.

The study of these samples will be crucial to the future strategy of building a base on the moon and mining helium-3.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to collect so many samples...

It is worth noting that, unlike other space agencies that collect lunar soil samples, which are measured in grams and only add up to a few kilograms, this sample is different.

The batch of lunar samples collected by Nanmen Aerospace weighed a full 100 kilograms... otherwise, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft wouldn't have needed to make this special trip.

Upon learning that the Yutu interstellar spacecraft was about to embark on its journey to the moon, Xu Shenxue personally flew to the Nanmen Aerospace Headquarters on Qiongzhou Island early the next morning to personally oversee the Yutu interstellar spacecraft's first interplanetary flight between Earth and the moon!
Xu Shenxue not only went himself, but also took Bao Yongyan from Hailan Auto with him... because Hailan Auto was actually one of the suppliers for the lunar base project.

The lunar base also needs various automated lunar transportation vehicles, and what is the most core technology required for these so-called automated transportation vehicles?
Autonomous driving!

When it comes to autonomous driving technology, Hailan Auto is the real expert... They can handle autonomous driving on Earth or on the Moon.

Therefore, Hailan Auto is the supplier of 'lunar automated transportation vehicles' in the lunar base project... Previously, Hailan Auto had also joined forces with many partner companies to develop several small 'lunar unmanned experimental vehicles' and sent them to the moon for testing.

When Bao Yongyan heard that Xu Shenxue was going to Qiongzhou Island to see the spaceship, he simply went along with him.

To be honest, he wasn't particularly interested in spaceships or anything like that...

He was concerned about how his company's unmanned lunar rover would perform and whether it would have a market in the future.

What kind of lunar base is Nanmen Aerospace building? How many unmanned lunar rovers will it need in the future? How much revenue and profit will it generate?
Could the concept of a 'lunar unmanned vehicle' be used this year to drive up Hailan Auto's valuation and secure more funding?

After Xu Shenxue and Bao Yongyan arrived, around noon that day, they saw images transmitted from the Centaur space station and the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft in the command center of Nanmen Aerospace.

In the footage, the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft slowly detached from the Centaurus space station. After a series of preparations, including attitude adjustments, the main engine of the Yutu interplanetary spacecraft ignited, emitting a dazzling light!

The Yutu interplanetary spacecraft has officially set sail for the moon!

(End of this chapter)