What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 469 The Real Storm

The Deep Learning Foundation's fundraising for stock trading will take time, but members are already returning to China one after another.

Yu Kai has his own entrepreneurial projects to attend to, so the normal operation of the foundation is handled by Chen Tianqi, who led the DMLC community to join. In other words, he asked his economist friend to consult on stock selection.

Chen Tianqi was not against the idea of ​​stock appreciation; in fact, he was quite interested in it.

Following Yu Kai, he also visited Mr. Yu when he went to Lingang to select a site, and raised some minor questions.

Yu Xing was not surprised and explained Alibaba's prospects to him.

After much deliberation, Chen Tianqi accepted Alibaba's perspective and then asked a more practical question: "President Yu, will the investors agree to us doing this?"

Yu Xing blinked: "Anyway, we're still in the planning stage, so we can just not tell them."

Chen Tianqi was taken aback, then asked, "Is this legal?"

Yu Xing succinctly stated: "It can be legal."

Chen Tianqi felt that the word "okay" was quite subtle, but when he thought about the other party's identity, he reconciled with himself. Isn't that how business people are? If President Yu had been more conventional, he probably wouldn't have gotten to where he is today.

Moreover, the foundation's budget is not spent all at once. Teams from different areas will arrive in the second half of the year, and funds will only be allocated after each team arrives. Rather than leaving it idle, investing is a reasonable approach.

However, it was a little too early to make a decision.

Chen Tianqi convinced himself, and then Yu Xing introduced him to the leaders in Lingang. The leaders were actually quite interested in what deep learning could do. However, just like they couldn't understand the range-extended vehicles of the Silicon Carbon Group, the exchange was destined to remain superficial.

But it's good that it can flow now.

Yu Xing, still thinking about the voice technology that Carbon Silicon Group had scrapped and started over after Chen Tianqi's visit, made a special trip to Cui Zhiyu the next day to try out the effect under the new model. It was indeed a great improvement.

"That's why they say science and technology are the driving force of productivity. I think the progress in voice technology is really impressive." Yu Xing said with some emotion, "This can not only be applied to our car infotainment systems. Whether we continue to expand it ourselves or involve silicon carbon data from other companies, there are good applications in this direction alone."

"For example, input methods convert speech to text."

"For example..."

Yu Xing's remarks were impromptu. He wanted to continue with more examples but suddenly stopped, realizing that the application scope of voice technology is indeed relatively narrow.

He noticed Cui Zhiyu's gaze, thought hard for a moment, and finally came up with a direction for expansion: "For example, the possibilities that voice technology brings to games. You can input voice here, and then use the characteristics of the voice to create the facial features of the game character. Wouldn't that be great?"

“The input method can be considered an ecosystem product of Silicon Carbon Data Company. If they have the resources, well, voice technology can indeed be combined with Silicon Carbon Data, which would save repetitive work.” Cui Zhiyu laughed. “This game-enabled technology, I’ll ask if there are any companies that can do it. It seems interesting. I used to really enjoy playing games.”

Yu Xing nodded, then said somewhat seriously, "There are aspects of this model that we can continue to refine. Deep learning can also have a synergistic effect with Linggang Company's lidar products. We can develop more competitive products quickly."

Cui Zhiyu has adopted a conservative approach to this direction for the time being. Although Linggang's lidar has been tested in vehicles, the target customer group for that product is not actually Silicon Carbon Group, but rather Google, Baidu, and other customers who are trying autonomous driving.

The difference between the two is still quite significant. If the Silicon Carbon Group is to adopt Linggang Company's products, they will need to be further iterated.

Cui Zhiyu listened to it for now. Anyway, it was a matter of Ling Gang and DLF, which was relatively routine support. At this stage, the most important thing was the mass production and sales of the first "Jiuzhou" model.

With the first half of the year drawing to a close, besides initially establishing a sales system, the most important tasks for Silicon Carbon Group in the second half of the year are twofold: first, to complete the application for automotive products with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; and second, to complete the trial production of the final assembly line, with a single-shift capacity of at least 500 vehicles per month. This will further ensure the stability of the supply chain and the testing of pre-production vehicles.

In comparison, there is much more "odd-and-ready" work.

While handling the work of the silicon carbon group, Yu Xing was also somewhat excited, waiting for the next attack from Guoshanfeng.

However, before the mountain peak could even make its way to the public, news actually related to it appeared in many media outlets—Li Hanchun had been arrested.

Who is Li Hanchun?
When Yu Xing first saw the report, he had doubts about the name. Then he remembered that he was the CEO of Huaxia Forest Holdings who had absconded. Before that, Guoshanfeng had shorted Huaxia Forest, and before anything had happened, the CEO had directly absconded, which was an admission of guilt.

According to media reports, he was arrested at the Lithuanian airport after being found to be in possession of multiple passports, and his true identity was eventually confirmed.

Huaxia Forest falsified 90% of its revenue. After Li Hanchun absconded, the matter was not dropped. Subsequent investigations determined that he and his companies were involved in insider trading.

Lithuania has an extradition treaty with China, and this absconding CEO has now returned to China to face trial after being apprehended.

The aftershocks of shorting Renault by Guoshanfeng are still lingering, and now with the arrest of Li Hanchun, it's inevitable that people will revisit its history of short selling.

Every single case, every single incident, was handled flawlessly.

Japan, the United States, and France have failed to uncover the mastermind behind Guoshanfeng, but the truth has already been exposed on domestic social media platforms—Guoshanfeng's boss is Li Xunhuan.

Yu Xing felt that it made a lot of sense and was well-founded.

On May 14, four days before the reappearance of the mountaineering company, the French AMF announced another piece of news related to the mountaineering company, saying that it had frozen up to 20 million euros of funds suspected to belong to the company.

This news was truly astonishing, and it was indeed the most effective action ever taken in tracing the mountain peak.

Yu Xing even saw several questions on Bai Xiaosheng's website, and at first glance, he thought that Guo Shanfeng had been caught.

The 2000 million euros involved in market manipulation is equivalent to over 2 million Chinese yuan.

This money...

Yu Xing watched the news, pondering in his heart, feeling extremely saddened.

He didn't ask Liu Wanying directly, but instead brought it up casually when she called. "Oh, it's indeed frozen, but not that much, not 2000 million euros," Liu Wanying replied.

Yu Xing breathed a sigh of relief; AMF had boasted.

Liu Wanying added, "It's over 1900 million euros."

Yu Xing: "..."

Liu Wanying said calmly: "This is part of the cost. If it is exposed in the future, we may be able to get the money back. Their reasons for freezing the money are not that sufficient, but it is not convenient to fight for it through legal channels now. So, it can only be said to be part of the cost. Just consider it a handling fee. There were some losses when we shorted Mitsubishi before, but not this much."

She thought for a moment and then said, "It's possible that AMF is trying to force us to show our faces through this, but we're mainly targeting the general public right now. We can bring this up again if we have the chance."

Hearing this, Yu Xing felt it was better if they weren't meant to be.

However, just one day later, the thing that Yu Xing and Liu Wanying never expected happened.

They did not intend to pursue the frozen funds, but someone appeared under the name of Guoshanfeng, claiming responsibility for shorting Renault and demanding that the AMF provide more specific reasons for the freeze, stating that they would get the money back through judicial appeal.

On this day, many media reports were titled "Mastermind Behind Guoshanfeng Exposed," "Guoshanfeng Reveals Its True Colors," and "Guoshanfeng Goes from Darkness to Light"...

Yu Xing was taken aback and asked Liu Wanying, "What's going on?"

“I didn’t do this,” Liu Wanying guessed. “Someone probably got greedy for the money and saw that we were anonymous. It’s very likely that the middleman wanted to try to get the money… It’s possible that this middleman found someone to cooperate with to do this.”

Unlike the media, she didn't need to speculate on the truth. Once she confirmed that the other party was fabricating the story, she considered their motives: either fame or profit. The other party had openly mentioned freezing funds, so their purpose was self-evident.

As for whether there were any fraudulent procedures involved, we don't know the details yet.

Yu Xing and Liu Wanying both felt strange seeing this scene.

The AMF investigation team, which immediately contacted the French authorities, and many media outlets also expressed doubts about this "mountain peak."
The person in charge was a Polish man named Davenport, who actually gave an interview to the media and provided many seemingly plausible details about the Renault fraud.

However, when the reporter's questions shifted from Renault to companies like Vania and Huaxia Forest, which had previously been targeted by short sellers, Davenport immediately became stammering and hastily ended his performance in front of the media.

This little farce of identity theft didn't last long. French authorities also noticed Davenport's odd behavior and, after a preliminary investigation, confirmed his forgery, as well as that some of the documents he provided were also forged.

The counterfeiting has reached the top of the mountain, while the only force investigating and cracking down on it is the regulatory authorities...

The Poles' boldness and roughness only added a touch of mystery to the mountain peaks.

The entire Davenport scam lasted only two days, and the real perpetrator could have easily exposed it with a simple update to the official website. However, the website remained completely silent, as if it were either dismissive or simply exhibiting the habitual silence that often follows successful short selling.

Every time he shorts a stock, regardless of regulatory investigations, media pronouncements, or calls from peers, Guoshanfeng never takes any unnecessary actions.

When it comes, new scams follow.

Given this mysterious approach, the recent farce, and the gradually fading Renault emissions data, the US produced a special program inviting equally famous short sellers to discuss the past.

This episode is packed with talent, featuring Ackerman, who suffered heavy losses in the Vania incident, Carl, who enjoys hostile takeovers, and Quadir, a rising star on Wall Street and an assassin, among others.

Ackerman and Carl have never had a good relationship and have even held diametrically opposed views on the same stock. They also had a verbal altercation over the recent public opinion regarding Vania, but their reputation, ability, and status are beyond question.

The leaders of this gathering are indeed very interested in the world's most mysterious short sellers and are willing to share their views.

"Over Peak is a very unusual short seller. Based on its track record, as long as someone is willing to step forward, he can quickly accumulate a lot of funds for his own use. I don't understand his thinking and actions at all." Ackerman once belittled the size of Over Peak, but he used his reputation to expand his funds. It's strange that he didn't understand Over Peak's huge potential in this regard.

"Renault's emissions scandal has caused a huge shock to the automotive industry. France definitely wants to convict them. The automotive industry is very interconnected, and it has a chain of alliances with Japanese automakers," Quadir said, sharing his thoughts. "They haven't even shown their faces yet, and 2000 million euros have already been frozen. Once they show their faces, there will definitely be more trouble. I can understand that."

Ackerman listened to this with a hint of disdain for this relatively unknown short seller: "What do you know? Do you know the wealth that a short-selling resume like Mountain Peak can bring? What can you possibly understand?"

Quadir didn't get angry, but instead retorted, "I can understand that Vania Pharmaceuticals has huge problems, Ackerman, can you understand it now?"

Caught off guard by this sudden attack, Ackerman roared, "That was a match between me and Guo Shanfeng, do you think you can laugh at me just by standing on the sidelines?!"

“I don’t want to hear you arguing,” Wall Street Wolf King Karl said impatiently. “Guo Shanfeng’s anonymity must be closely related to the person behind him. I suspect that person or team also has a very good reputation in other fields, which creates a dilemma and forces Guo Shanfeng to act in this way.”

He speculated thoughtfully, "There might even be official forces behind Guoshanfeng, but in any case, it is bound to be in great conflict with the public's status. I think we can think about it from this perspective."

Ackerman felt that this perspective made some sense. He himself was not famous before he successfully shorted a stock, but things might be different after he climbed the mountain.

He thought for a moment and mentioned Guo Shanfeng's short selling when he first started out: "Guo Shanfeng initially targeted Chinese concept stocks, so some people have been speculating that he is Chinese, or at least one of the core members is Chinese."

“This should be confirmed, including its naming.” Karl nodded and then smiled, “I wonder which company Over Peak will short next. Its moves are indeed very accurate.”

The three were discussing the conditions of crossing the mountain peak and short selling when, before the program was even halfway through, a piece of breaking news suddenly struck the world, leaving all the well-known short sellers present speechless.

Just two weeks after its short-selling attack on Renault, it has issued another almost identical short-selling report.

This time, the target is the Volkswagen Group.

In an instant, almost instantly, the official website of Guoshanfeng (a mobile internet company) ceased service, but the real storm also took shape in that instant, sweeping across the globe.

(End of this chapter)