Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 646 A Sky-High Order and a Market Value of Ten Trillion Dollars!
The press conference for the superconducting quantum computer, hosted by Xu Shenxue, had just ended, and the guests hadn't even all left yet, when a large number of related reports had already appeared online.

Numerous media reporters at the scene had already released a large amount of information during the press conference, and the complete report was released immediately after the press conference ended.

Then major online media outlets were the first to report on it!

Some of the online media headlines were extremely exaggerated:
"590 million, the most expensive computer in human history: YCL-52!"

"Xu Shenxue has once again broken the price limit; the sky-high-priced quantum computer has been officially released!"

Is a quantum computer worth 500 million yuan?

Numerous news clips have also appeared on social media platforms, especially as many self-media bloggers who are chasing traffic are racing against time to release relevant information as soon as possible. In order to gain more traffic, many of the messages they release are exaggerated or even false.

Traditional television media tend to be more restrained. Although they may also talk nonsense, they will still say some basic things, unlike most self-media bloggers who start with a picture and then make up all the content!

The information about superconducting quantum computers is truly astonishing. At the same time, the 'Zhiyun Quantum Integrated Computing Power System' with the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer at its core is extremely expensive. A single computing unit with the recommended configuration costs more than 500 million yuan, and the high-end version costs as much as 590 million yuan... close to 600 million yuan.

Quantum computers, exorbitant prices... plus the fact that Zhiyun Group and Xu Shenxue were already the focus of media attention.

The combination of these factors directly led to a surge in the number of news items related to the press conference becoming the hottest topic of the day... Almost all news platforms, including video websites, social media platforms, and short video platforms, were filled with information about the quantum computer released by Zhiyun Group.

On a certain Q&A website in China, information about superconducting quantum computers released by Zhiyun Group occupied six of the top ten spots on the list, with the top three being all of them.

The top question is rather general: What is your opinion on the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer released by Zhiyun Group?
The second question is: What is your opinion on Zhiyun Group's quantum computing system, and what are its advantages?
The third question still revolves around quantum computers: What is the technological level of the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer? Why is it so expensive?

On another news platform, Weibo, topics related to quantum computers also dominated the top five of the trending topics list... The top five topics were all related to superconducting quantum computers, Zhiyun Group, Xu Shenxue, and so on.

The situation is similar on other news platforms; information about quantum computers is flooding the screen and dominating the charts.

Even top-tier users who don't usually follow the tech industry and only watch AI beauties on TikTok will inevitably come across information about the superconducting quantum computer released by Zhiyun Group during this time period!
Many tech-related self-media bloggers gain huge traffic by relying on their first-mover advantage, or by fabricating stories, using specific keywords to create sensationalism, etc.

The more common explanations are things like Xu Shenxue's groundbreaking announcement of a superconducting quantum computer, marking humanity's entry into the quantum computing era, and what impact and opportunities it will bring.

There are also discussions about what constitutes the most expensive computer in human history, and serious debates about how a quantum computer costing over 500 million dollars would perform if used for gaming...

Some bloggers take a different approach, saying that the emergence of quantum computers will lead to a significant improvement in artificial intelligence technology, and that robots will face the risk of rebellion in the future.

Then there are those who say that Xu Shenxue's quantum computer is a huge scam of the century, that it's not real at all, and that it's a scheme orchestrated by capitalists to fleece our wallets... and then many people will refute it!

However, this is the era of social media; if you reply to him, he wins...

Many self-media operators deliberately create topics that are obviously wrong or that can be refuted by ordinary people.

Do you think he's stupid? Does he really not know these basic common sense facts?

No... he just wants you to feel smart so you can respond and refute him!

As long as you reply, there will be more comments. Under the algorithm mechanism, such highly active posts have greater value, and will then be allocated more traffic, placed in higher-level traffic pools, gain greater exposure, and increase the account's weight.

Once your account's authority increases, it doesn't matter if you have no followers. Just delete or block the previous nonsensical content used to attract traffic, and then publish normal content. In the algorithm's eyes, this normal content is high-quality content published by a high-quality account, and it will receive more traffic.

Once you have traffic and the content quality is good, your follower count will naturally increase, and then you can sell the account or continue operating it for product sales!

This is a common practice for self-media in the era of algorithm-based recommendations...

------

While domestic online media are having a blast, trying to report from all angles or ride the wave of popularity.

Overseas, the situation is no exception. Not to mention various online media, some traditional large television stations are also broadcasting related news.

Even overseas, Xu Shenxue and Zhiyun Group are magnets for attention, and any news about them attracts a lot of attention... Although Xu Shenxue rarely appears in public and rarely speaks or gives interviews.

However, Xu Shenxue remains the most well-known entrepreneur globally!
After all, Xu Shenxue has done too much. He is not just the world's richest man, but also a leader in multiple high-tech industries with enormous influence!
Xu Shenxue and Zhiyun Group are already very eye-catching, but if you add superconducting quantum computers, it will be an absolute bombshell in terms of popularity.

In a morning news segment on an American television station, the host interviewed five or six guests to discuss news about quantum computers.

The guests included scientists, including researchers working on quantum computers, professionals in the artificial intelligence industry, economic analysts, and people from the financial and stock market sectors.

They were talking about the basics of this superconducting quantum computer, what kind of impact it might have, and so on.

Similar news broadcasts from overseas television stations are taking place all over the world... so whether online or offline, a large number of people receive related information on this day.

Of course... most people are just watching for the spectacle!
This YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer is not a personal quantum computer, but a huge, expensive server-type computer that also requires a GTL server... A single computing unit costs more than 500 million.

This kind of thing is simply unaffordable for ordinary people, and even if they could afford it, it wouldn't be of much use. The most suitable way to use it right now is to train or run artificial intelligence, or it can be used to perform some specific large-scale tasks. In short, it has nothing to do with ordinary people.

Let alone ordinary people, even most ordinary companies can't afford it.

However, for many medium and large enterprises that have invested in or are preparing to invest in the field of artificial intelligence, this superconducting quantum computer is very important.

Of course... they don't need to get the relevant information from the internet or television media!
Globally, among the top 300 companies that have invested heavily in the field of artificial intelligence, almost all of them were invited by Zhiyun Group to participate in the press conference... They are all important customers of Zhiyun Group in the field of computing hardware.

After attending the press conference, these guests did not leave immediately... because starting the next day, Zhiyun Group arranged for these customers to visit and experience the 'Zhiyun Quantum Integrated Computing Power System', with the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer at its core, in batches.

We introduced them to more detailed performance data and application scenarios... Many things were not mentioned at the press conference because they involved too many technical details... It wasn't because we were afraid of leaks, but because there wasn't enough time to explain these technical details at the press conference, and not many ordinary people would be willing to listen.

Yesterday's product launch was a public event open to the world, mainly consisting of boasting...

In offline stores today, product promotions on a small scale are primarily pragmatic, as they are preliminary preparations for signing orders.

Customers can't just place an order based on your boasting. They need to see it for themselves, experience it, and then have their technical staff analyze the relevant performance data to see if it's worth buying and how much it's worth paying!

After all, this thing isn't cheap!
Meanwhile, the marketing and sales department is also in close contact with these company representatives to discuss various cooperation matters and finalize order contracts.

Of course, some strategic major clients are excluded from this recommendation!
Xu Shenxue had previously invited more than ten strategic clients to visit Zhiyun Group and introduced them to the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer.

So before the official press conference, Zhiyun Group had already reached cooperation agreements with more than ten strategic clients... They had already placed orders, but it just hadn't been announced yet.

Right now, we're only talking to regular clients.

Three days after the press conference, Zhiyun Group and Yihai Technology Group held a joint press conference to announce a strategic cooperation in the field of "Zhiyun Quantum Integrated Computing Power System". Yihai Technology will purchase a large number of quantum computers from Zhiyun Group.

Yihai Technology also announced that it will invest heavily in building a quantum computing center to provide the highest quality artificial intelligence services to global customers, with an investment of over 500 billion yuan in the next three years.

This was just the beginning. Soon after, Xu Shenxue's Hailan Automobile Group also announced a strategic partnership with Zhiyun Group, investing 200 billion yuan to purchase and deploy a quantum computing system for artificial intelligence research and development in fields such as autonomous driving and intelligent robots.

Yihai Technology Group and Hailan Automobile Group are two major companies under Xu Shenxue's control... Moreover, Zhiyun Group also holds a certain number of shares in these two companies, so their cooperation is only natural and no one finds it strange.

People, especially investors, are more concerned about cooperation with other companies.

It's not just investors in Zhiyun Group who are concerned; many investors in high-tech companies are equally concerned: Will they purchase Zhiyun Group's quantum computing system? Will they increase their investment in the field of artificial intelligence? How large will the investment be? How high are the risks?

In the past few days, almost everyone around the world involved in artificial intelligence has been paying attention... not only to the client companies themselves, but also to related supply chain companies and investors in the securities market.

Soon after, Zhiyun Group officially announced its strategic cooperation plans with major American high-tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Tesla.

Google announced that it will invest at least $100 billion in the development of artificial intelligence technology over the next three years... Although not all of this money will be used to purchase quantum computers, at least half of it will be used to purchase quantum computing systems.

Despite facing immense pressure and having started relatively late in the field of artificial intelligence, Facebook, with its ambitious goals, has announced that it will invest more than $150 billion in artificial intelligence over the next three years, with most of the funds going towards the purchase of quantum computing systems.

Many other companies followed suit, announcing their own artificial intelligence plans one after another.

Although most companies have not disclosed details of their cooperation with Zhiyun Group, such as the specific purchase volume of the quantum computing system.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the combined orders from so many companies will amount to an enormous number!

Zhuyun Group did not release any sales figures, order amounts, or average unit prices. Fun fact: the prices presented at the press conference were just guide prices. In reality, the prices varied depending on the contracts signed between Zhuyun Group and different companies and the specific cooperation methods.

In addition to the hardware purchase price, these contracts also include a whole host of additional contractual terms such as technical support and technical training... You have to make sure the customer knows how to use it after buying it.

Meanwhile, some orders from American companies are quite unique. Their GTL servers use Intel or AMD server CPUs, and Micron or Quadstar memory or flash storage, which further complicates the contracts. The contracts with these dozen or so strategic companies are almost all different, with varying prices and cooperation details.

After all, each of these contracts starts at hundreds of billions, with the highest reaching a staggering seven or eight hundred billion yuan... Contracts of this level are very complex. It's not as simple as the customer paying and Zhiyun delivering the goods. It's not that easy!

The payment issue alone is very troublesome.

Payments involving hundreds of billions of dollars are not something that can be done with a simple transfer. Large-scale fund transfers require specialized support from international banks. In some cases, payments are not even made in cash, but rather in various securities or even shares of their own companies.

To a certain extent, this method of paying with private placement of shares is essentially a form of investment by Zhuyun Group in them...

Of course, assuming an investment of $10 billion in equipment, the actual cost for Zhiyun Group would be very low, around $2 billion, which is a manageable investment.

After all, Zhuyun Group's computing equipment is known for its high gross profit margin.

Then... this astronomical contract still needs to be approved.

For example, you can't just say that a company from a certain country can buy a quantum computer from Zhiyun Group for hundreds of billions of dollars. It's not that simple. Such contracts require special approval...

Similarly, this applies to Zhiyun Group as well... Every export order for the 'Quantum Integrated Computing Power System' requires special approval.

Because superconducting quantum computers are top-of-the-line and highly sensitive devices that can be used in the military field!

It's not something you can just sell casually!

For example, if a shell company with a military background in the United States wanted to purchase a large number of YCL-52 superconducting quantum computers, that would definitely not work.

Forget about superconducting quantum computers, we wouldn't even sell an APO6000 graphics card!

Of course, they don't want APO series graphics cards anyway; they all use AMD's computing cards... You might dare to sell them, but they wouldn't dare to use them. Who knows if there are backdoors in them?

They definitely want superconducting quantum computers, but they can't buy them... The superconducting quantum computers exported to the United States are all limited to civilian use.

However, in reality, after they buy it, they secretly train a big data model for the military field, and you have no idea...

However, the scientists at Zhiyun Group believe that even if some of the exported YCL-52 superconducting quantum computers are secretly used for training large military models, which will improve their military AI, they will still lag far behind their own and pose no threat.

Having a superconducting quantum computer doesn't automatically mean you can create better artificial intelligence... the two are not directly related.

One is in the hardware field, and the other is in the software field, or more precisely, in the mathematics field.

If your math isn't good, your algorithms won't be good either. And if your algorithms aren't good, even if you pile up computing power to the heavens, it won't work!
Professor Lin Andong and the team of scientists from the Zhiyun Group's Artificial Intelligence Research Institute have full confidence in this regard... It's not that they look down on their American counterparts, but rather that they are genuinely inadequate!

However, Professor Lin Andong and his colleagues believe that the third-generation computing system based on neuromorphic computers, namely the three-in-one 'YANC system' that Zhiyun Group is currently developing, should absolutely not be exported.

This system can significantly improve the ability of low-precision computing, achieving a breakthrough from 0 to 1, and greatly contributing to the direct improvement of artificial intelligence technology.

Therefore, we must not export until the other party achieves a major technological breakthrough.

The collaborations between Zhiyun Group and its strategic partners involve extremely complex and high-value contracts, which are not suitable for public disclosure.

Besides its own factors, many contracts also involve the other party's corporate strategic planning and business secrets. They also require Zhiyun Group to keep certain information confidential... so it cannot be disclosed indiscriminately.

At the same time, superconducting quantum computers are not consumer products for any individual, so there's no need for marketing or stimulating people to place orders... Therefore, Zhiyun Group will not release any related information.

Therefore, what the outside world can see is that Zhiyun Group occasionally reaches strategic cooperation agreements with some large enterprises, with the nominal cooperation amounts getting higher and higher, but the specific cooperation content is not very clear.

Even so, everyone knows that Zhiyun Group is going to make a fortune from this... although they don't know the production capacity, when these orders will be delivered, or what the gross profit margin will be.

But making a fortune is definitely the goal!
Indeed, that is the case... The gross profit margin of the 'Quantum Integrated Computing System' that Zhiyun Group is selling this time is astonishing.

The core of its GTL server is the APO6000 graphics card. The price of the eight graphics cards accounts for most of the value of this server, and the gross profit margin of the APO6000 graphics card reaches 85%.

The main cost of the TCL-52 superconducting quantum computer is its quantum chip... In the early years, when the fifth-generation quantum chip with 10,000 qubits was first produced, the cost of each chip was more than 30 million yuan. However, with the continuous advancement of technology, the continuous improvement of yield, the expansion of production capacity, and the gradual reduction of costs, the cost has been reduced.

Now, Zhiyun Group is producing its own 10,000-qubit fifth-generation quantum chip, and the cost has dropped to around 18 million.

The current production of the "monkey version," a fifth-generation quantum chip with a design standard of 5,000 qubits, is even cheaper, costing only around ten million.

Meanwhile, as orders increase, production capacity expands, and R&D and production line costs are further reduced, costs will decrease further. Perhaps next year we can control costs to seven or eight million.

Next comes the cost of the TK120 superconducting material and other subsystems, which together would cost over 20 million.

The manufacturing cost of a single YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer is approximately 30 million yuan, while the sales price of the complete set is approximately 200 million yuan.

The gross profit margin is quite astonishing!

Then add some supporting subsystem hardware with relatively low gross profit margins.

In the entire 'Quantum Integrated Computing Power System', the gross profit margin of each computing power unit can reach about 80%.

As black as ever!

Zhuyun Group has always been this shady when it comes to selling computing hardware products, whether it's the previous GT series APO servers or the current 'Quantum Integrated Computing System'!
Extremely high gross profit margin!

After all, its computing hardware products have no real competitors... Of course, there are nominal competitors, such as AMD, which has a computing card business.

There are also other high-tech companies, both domestically and internationally, that develop their own computing cards or conventional AI chips.

Many of them are for their own use. They have the chip design capabilities and want to produce and sell their own chips to reduce the cost of playing with artificial intelligence.

They can design GPU computing cards with mediocre performance, but building an ecosystem is a different story... At least they can't use the bunch of free underlying algorithms that Zhiyun Group has released; they have to painstakingly develop their own underlying algorithms!

Developing algorithms is also quite difficult, and the algorithms that are developed are generally inferior to those that Zhiyun Group releases for free!
This explains why many large companies, while developing their own computing cards and AI algorithms, simultaneously purchase large quantities of AI chips from Zhiyun, represented by APO graphics cards… because they need to deploy free and publicly available big data models from Zhiyun Group, represented by GTAI, to meet the ever-increasing demand for AI market services.

Many large high-tech companies typically develop their own or collaborative research and development while simultaneously purchasing APO graphics cards from Zhiyun to deploy GTAI.

Developing our own algorithms is to avoid being held back by technology in the future, and also to surpass Zhiyun Group in the future... You always use Zhiyun Group's free algorithms, it would be a miracle if you could surpass Zhiyun Group. Even a fool knows that the free algorithms released by Zhiyun Group are several generations behind the algorithms used by Zhiyun Group itself.

Purchasing APO graphics cards to deploy GTAI is to maintain the current market share in artificial intelligence... You may not use GTAI, but your competitors will.

For example, Yihai Technology Group in the internet industry uses GTAI on a large scale and then launches a large number of artificial intelligence services to assist its various businesses such as short videos, e-commerce, and games!

If you don't use GTAI and don't provide corresponding AI services at the same level, your core product competitiveness will decline, and you will be overtaken by Yihai Technology's products... and then things won't end well.

This is also the main reason why Zhuyun Group's various computing cards have been selling better and better in recent years... These high-tech manufacturers are also in fierce competition.

This intense competition has led to a continuous shortage of APO series graphics cards!
The emergence of superconducting quantum computers has further exacerbated this situation.

These changes, in turn, have had a positive impact on the capital market.

Zhuyun Group, which has always had high revenue and high profits, but also maintains high investment, has had a relatively low price-to-earnings ratio in the capital market for many years...

Many investors believe that while it's true that Zhiyun Group makes money, it spends all of it, and most of it is invested in research and development, which is a bottomless pit. If you invest in semiconductors, at least you'll have a semiconductor factory. But if you invest in research and development and it fails, it's all for nothing.

In this situation, what benefits would I, as an investor, gain?

No dividends, no stock buybacks... Am I just going to watch you spend money?

Moreover, the high-revenue, high-profit, and high-investment business strategy is too risky. If Zhuyun Group's profitability were even slightly weaker, it would be difficult to maintain this business model.

Many investors think: "I know you, Xu Shenxue, are amazing at making money, but you're even more amazing at spending it... I'm afraid you'll ruin yourself one day!"
However, even if Zhiyun Group's price-to-earnings ratio is not good, its size is so huge that its market value is still terrifying, having reached the level of eight trillion US dollars a long time ago.

And now, in mid-December, the market value of Zhuyun Group also ushered in a historic moment after fluctuating for half a month.

On the eve of Christmas, Zhuyun Group's market value surpassed ten trillion US dollars!
It became the first company in human history with a market value of ten trillion US dollars!
The news shocked the world!

(End of this chapter)