I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 491 Capital Frenzy, Pinduoduo Takes the Lead, Estimated Market Value of 880 Billion US Dollars!
The next morning, Chen Yansen took Song Yuncheng to the Tencent headquarters by car. They had a pot of tea in Xiao Ma's office and also had lunch there. Afterwards, they took a car to the airport and flew directly to Luzhou.

At the same time, Lei Yijun announced that the company had completed its fourth round of financing on October 8, led by DST Capital, with Qiming Venture Partners, Temasek and Qualcomm participating, bringing the company's valuation to over 10 billion US dollars.

Subsequently, Chen Ou of Jumei announced on Weibo that he would submit an IPO application to Nasdaq in late October, planning to list in the United States.

All of these actions are due to Vipshop's market capitalization on the US stock market exceeding 100 billion US dollars.

This figure greatly spurred Chen Ou, Liu Qiangdong, and Ma Liyun on.

After all, in their view, Vipshop is barely considered to be in the second tier of Chinese e-commerce. The fact that even a company like Vipshop can achieve a market value of tens of billions of US dollars shows that overseas investors have extremely high expectations for the Chinese e-commerce industry.

The opportunity presented by the market boom is rare, and no one wants to miss it!
Especially in today's increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape, going public and raising funds can quickly replenish "ammunition" and leverage capital to widen the gap with competitors; no one is willing to fall behind.

Chen Ou was aiming to establish Alibaba's reputation as the "first beauty e-commerce stock" through an IPO, Liu Qiangdong was planning to use financing to accelerate the construction of its logistics system, and Ma Liyun, though not explicitly stating it, was also secretly laying out overseas business plans, attempting to further expand Alibaba's empire.

The entire industry has been swept up by this capital frenzy!

His mind was filled with thoughts of 'going public', 'making money', and 'achieving financial freedom'.

Huang Zheng had already set foot on New York soil ahead of time, and with the help of Goldman Sachs, he packaged Pinbei into the 'first social e-commerce stock in China'.

The fact that Pinduoduo's founder is the world's richest man has further fueled the enthusiasm of North American investors.

On Wall Street, a group of stock managers even emerged who specialized in studying Chen Yansen and Senlian Capital.

Many investment institutions are gearing up to raise funds and prepare to subscribe to Pinduoduo's depositary shares.

A total of 2.2 million shares were issued, priced at US$34 per share, representing 10% of Pinduoduo's total share capital, with an expected fundraising of US$74.8 billion.

The cake is only this big!

The five major underwriters, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, divided up the 2.2 million depositary shares without giving outsiders a chance.

Although Pinduoduo's market share is not as large as Alibaba's, it has instead stimulated the enthusiasm of North American investment institutions to subscribe.

They were attracted not only by Pinbei's unique "social e-commerce" model, but also by the business empire of its founder, Chen Yansen.

From Orange Technology's hardware ecosystem to the traffic pools amassed by Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, and Lingxi Search, as well as DeepBlue Battery's global influence, every step reveals a precise strategic vision.

This combination of "founder endorsement + business model innovation" has led many institutions to believe that even though Pinduoduo's current market share is slightly lower, its future growth potential is in no way inferior to that of Alibaba.

Moreover, Pinbei's user growth rate and conversion rate have consistently ranked among the top in the industry, and these two points alone are enough to support the potential for a high valuation.

As a result, those investment institutions that failed to secure a share turned to the secondary market, planning to wait for Pinduoduo's IPO before buying in, fearing they would miss out on this "Chinese wealth train" that was being hotly discussed on Wall Street.

For a time, Huang Zheng became a hot commodity in the capital circles of the United States.

He led Pinbei's finance, legal, and roadshow teams, starting from New York and traveling through Boston, Chicago, and then to the West Coast.

In the morning I was at JPMorgan Chase headquarters, at noon I had to rush to BlackRock for a lunch investment meeting, and in the afternoon I had to head to Tiger Fund.

The presentation slides included information on Pinbei's unit economic benefits, technological barriers, unique competitive advantages, and visual data dashboards.

After several days of practice, Huang Zheng is now able to explain some of the content without notes.

Faced with questions and challenges from various investment institutions, Huang Zheng remained calm and composed throughout the entire roadshow, thanks to his thorough preparation, and did not negatively impact the presentation.

Old Huang was working himself to the bone in the United States, busy with social engagements all day, while Chen Yansen moved into a villa in Baohe District of Luzhou, using the guise of a business trip to enjoy a leisurely vacation.

A year ago, at his instruction, Gao Weilin bought a total of five villas in Luzhou, and this villa was the first one that General Manager Chen moved into.

He gave Mengjie the key to a villa, but she never went to live there.

Chen Yansen sat on the sofa with a computer on his lap; he had just finished a video conference with Huang Zheng.

Pinbei's listing process went much more smoothly than he had imagined.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley recommend raising the offering price to $40 per share, as current subscription orders have already covered 13 times the offering size, indicating a supply shortage!

Only by raising prices can Pinduoduo's true value be reflected!
In other words, if the premium offering is successful, Pinduoduo's market capitalization on its first day will reach as high as US$880 billion, based on the opening price.

This is four times the valuation of JD.com and eight times the market value of Vipshop!
Based on his 68.8% shareholding, his net worth would exceed 600 billion US dollars from Pinduoduo alone.

Unfortunately, while Pinbei's valuation isn't high, its shareholding ratio is simply too high.

Just like Tencent, whose market value is as high as hundreds of billions of dollars, Ma Wenteng's shareholding ratio is only 10.2%, so his net worth is only tens of billions of dollars.

Pinbei's development speed is too fast. From its establishment to its IPO, it took no more than three years, and it is estimated to take 28 months.

This also breaks the record for the fastest Chinese company to go public in the US!

Of course, five years later, Lu Zhengyao, who was known as a "Super Boy," became even more outrageous.

Luckin Coffee went from trial operation to its official listing on Nasdaq in May 2019 in just 17 months.

His trading skills are evident!
Chen Yansen pondered for a moment, tossed his computer aside, picked up an Ultraman cosplay outfit from the sofa beside him, and headed upstairs.

……

...The next morning, at the Luzhou International Conference Center.

A huge advertising banner hangs at the entrance: Orange Technology 2013 Autumn New Product Launch - Let Technology Change Lives!

The parking spaces on the ground were completely full, with more than 90% of them occupied by luxury cars worth millions of yuan, mixed with a few Hongqi, Audi and Coaster vehicles.

In terms of price, these cars certainly can't compare to the Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Ferrari next to them.

Upon seeing the license plate, everyone's first reaction is to take a step back, fearing they might accidentally scratch the paint on the car.

Chen Yansen stood at the door and, upon seeing Meng Yuanzhi and Tao Jingwen, immediately went to greet them: "Mr. Meng, welcome!"

"I arrived half an hour early on purpose because this is Orange Technology's first press conference in Luzhou. I have to witness the launch of the Tiangong A100 chip with my own eyes."

Meng Yuanzhi said with a smile.

Logically speaking, since Orange Technology's headquarters are still in Virtual City, this new product launch should also be held in Virtual City.

However, after learning that the Tiangong A100 chip would be announced at this press conference, Meng Yuanzhi, for reasons unknown, offered Xu Zhenhui some benefits and managed to change the venue of the press conference to Luzhou.

"I prefer to look at sales figures," Chen Yansen shrugged, joking casually.

Tao Jingwen stood behind Meng Yuanzhi and gave Chen Yansen a deep look. He had been overestimating the value of Senlian Capital, but in the end, he found that he had underestimated the speed of the other party's rise.

He appeared twice on the 7 PM news, and was personally visited by Li Qingsong. He was the world's richest man in 2013, the owner of lithium-sulfur battery patents, and his net worth exceeded 100 billion US dollars.

Any title bestowed upon a person is enough to make them the center of attention.

Now, all these titles have fallen on Chen Yansen alone.

As Meng Yuanzhi's chief secretary, Tao Jingwen had seen countless geniuses, but none of them were even worthy of carrying Chen Yansen's shoes.

"A good product is not afraid of not being able to sell. I believe in Orange Technology's R&D strength and I also believe in your ability."

Meng Yuanzhi praised without reservation.

"Mr. Meng, you flatter me. Please come in!"

Chen Yansen raised his hand to signal, leading Meng Yuanzhi and the others to the huge 2500-square-meter conference hall, and then they sat down in the first row.

He had just settled Meng Yuanzhi in when Meng Yun quickly stepped forward, leaned close to him, and whispered, "Boss, Mr. Ren from Huawei has arrived."

Chen Yansen nodded, apologized to Meng Yuanzhi, and turned to hurry towards the door.

Before he even got close, Ren Zhongfei had already waved and greeted him with a smile.

Yu Chendong grinned like a little follower.

"Mr. Ren, you must be tired from your journey."

Chen Yansen grasped Ren Zhongfei's right hand and shook it gently, a sincere smile on his face.

Ren Zhongfei patted the back of his hand and glanced at the poster at the entrance of the venue: "As the first fully self-developed domestic chip, Tiangong A100, if I don't come, I'm afraid I will be laughed at by people in the industry for being out of touch with the times."

That being said, Ren Zhongfei's performance estimate for the Tiangong A100 is at most at the level of the Snapdragon 600 or Tegra 3.

Because he understands chips, he is even more aware of how difficult it is to design a SoC chip that integrates modules such as CPU, GPU, baseband and DSP.

If Tiangong Technology could have accomplished this so easily, then what about HiSilicon's arduous journey of the past ten years?
Are Huawei's R&D engineers stupid?
"President Ren is flattering me." Chen Yansen stepped aside to lead him inside. With his keen observation skills, he naturally noticed Ren Zhongfei's distrust of Tiangong A100, but he didn't take it to heart.

After all, Ren Zhongfei's opinion is not important; market feedback will prove everything.

Chen Yansen escorted the other party to their seat in the conference hall, then returned immediately.

Zhou Shouzhi was on a business trip in North America, so he arranged for Wang Shixiang and Wang Teng, the remaining employees of Orange Technology, to be at the door to receive guests. Ye Qiuping also made a special trip from out of town to Luzhou.

The guests, scale, and caliber of this press conference far exceeded those of previous ones. Hundreds of people from domestic and international news media attended, including staff from the National Daily, Time Magazine, Fortune magazine, and CCTV.

Next, Hu Ruihui from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology Association, Ge Yue, President of Apple Asia, and He Dingyou, head of ZTE Mobile, arrived at the scene.

Representatives from mobile phone manufacturers such as Coolpad, HTC, Lenovo, Sansung, and Nokia also arrived at the scene in advance.

Suppliers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, Sony, and BOE also sent their top executives from the Asia region to attend the meeting.

The reason is simple: Orange Technology has the capability!
Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, Ding Lei, Jia Yueting, Wu Xinhong, and a host of other "juniors in the mobile phone industry" also came to show their support.

Representatives from nearly half of the world's mobile phone brands chose to attend the event after receiving the invitation.

Everyone wants to understand whether the "self" in Tiangong A100's self-developed chip truly refers to independent research and development, or whether it's technology bought or copied.

Although Tiangong Technology has launched the Tiangong T100 AI chip, the research and development difficulty of the two is not on the same level at all, which is why many people hold a negative attitude towards it.

　Gentlemen, Chapter 3 will be updated a little later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)