Reinventing the Millennium - Chapter 1453

c1450 Frontier and exhaustion (5k)

The change in Nasdaq’s short position data is just a small episode. What really makes the outside world pay more attention to Yike is that its press conference in the first half of the year is finally here.

Yike has held spring conferences in the first half of the past two years, but this year it has been postponed to summer.

It was May, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter. After withdrawing from the US market, Yike set the time for the 9th. However, when it was confirmed that it would be hosted by YMS President Qi He, the outside world’s expectations suddenly became lower.

It’s not that Qi He is not a high-level person. His resume and the YMS business group he is currently responsible for are quite good, but he is far away from the fields that are attracting much attention today, such as mobile phones, tablets, and hardware supply chains.

Many media believe that from this personnel arrangement, they can guess that Yike’s press conference will not respond to many of the thorny issues faced by companies today.

Some media hope that the host can be replaced by Mr. Fang, but if that doesn’t work, they can be replaced by Mr. Yu.

Qi He noticed this kind of remarks and felt a little annoyed, but he couldn’t say anything… This damn thing, this damn thing really made them guess right…

This press conference really cannot answer those questions…

I even don’t know if the next press conference, which has yet to be scheduled, will work…

Qi He originally didn’t want to host this press conference, but everyone else had their reasons in advance, and he was named by Mr. Fang, so he had no choice but to go out.

He only had one request, hoping that Mr. Fang could be present to support him. However, such a request was also rejected.

However, Qi He received another notification from Secretary Liu on the evening of the 8th that the boss would attend tomorrow.

“Mr. Fang won’t come tomorrow? Why did you change your mind?” Qi He was surprised.

“Some foreign guests came to watch the press conference. Mr. Fang felt that it would be impolite not to attend.” Liu Zonghong replied, “For example, Nvidia’s Huang Renxun also brought gifts. I don’t know if there is anything else.”

“Okay.” Qi He said angrily, “I thought Mr. Fang had a kind heart.”

Liu Zonghong pretended not to hear.

Yike’s press conference will still be held at the Yike Center, but there will be no formal media session.

Because Huang Renxun and others arrived in a hurry, Fang Zhuo did not entertain them late at night, but only exchanged pleasantries on the phone. He waited until the next morning to meet such a group of Silicon Valley visitors.

Yike withdrew from the U.S. market, encountered restrictions from Washington, and short-selling institutions were watching. The current situation is undoubtedly relatively sluggish, but not everyone is looking forward to the fall of Yike. On the contrary, many companies or executives in Silicon Valley are concerned about Yi Ke expressed dissatisfaction with this abnormal situation.

From music players to smartphones, from proposing the integration of software and hardness to promoting the development of Android, from challenging giants to becoming the most dazzling giant, Yike’s development over the years also has many fans, and they are enthusiastic about Yike’s development. The situation is rather sympathetic and regretful.

Of course, Huang Renxun has no such idea. The market value of his own company is less than 60 billion U.S. dollars. He is not in the mood to evaluate a company like Yike with a market value of more than 200 billion U.S. dollars. He just wants to do his job well.

Therefore, he came here with a personally signed commemorative version of DGX-1, hoping that Yike could purchase more and continue to develop artificial intelligence technology.

Nvidia just launched the DGX-1 system last month based on a hybrid cube grid based on the P100 GPU accelerator and NVLink ports, coupling eight GPUs into an essentially NUMA shared memory cluster.

Also last month, Huang Renxun once again shouted the slogan “NVIDIA will be an AI company” at GTC 2016.

To do AI, NVIDIA alone cannot do it. Moreover, NVIDIA is more about providing tools. Naturally, we hope that more companies and resources will be invested in this track. Yike has previously recruited a group of extremely cutting-edge people in Silicon Valley. R&D personnel have also been using Siri to collect data, and there is great potential for breakthroughs in this frontier field.

Although Yike is now in crisis, Huang Renxun believes that as long as it gets through such a difficult moment, it will definitely continue to invest in frontier fields.

This morning, Huang Renxun chatted a lot in the president’s office of Yike 23, and also saw Yike’s robot – a robot that has been named “Guard”.

Fang Zhuo continued to let Guard pour coffee for everyone as he showed to many visitors, and he still received praise from everyone.

“Mr. Fang, your algorithm and processing are really the best I have ever seen!” Huang Renxun praised.

Fang Zhuo did not conceal the true situation: “I heard them say that the current recognition methods are all static, and the dynamic recognition is much worse. It needs all-round improvement. I saw that you showed the results of autonomous driving at CES. It can be used in every situation.” Running complex deep learning programs at a speed of 184 frames per second is quite good. When will it be implemented?”

NVIDIA wants to transform into an AI company. In addition to hardware, it also conducts research on applications. Huang Renxun previously discussed the development prospects of assisted driving systems and even autonomous driving systems with Tesla’s Musk.

Huang Renxun smiled and pointed at the guard robot next to the door: “It can probably land at the same speed as this Guard.”

Fang Zhuo laughed, this indeed requires more work.

Seeing that the time was almost up, the group took a bus to Yike Center, and Fang Zhuo was still chatting with Huang Renxun about deep learning on the road.

Huang Renxun knew that Yike had established the “Kunpeng” electric vehicle project, and saw Yike’s robot research with seeing and believing, and he was more interested than when he came.

“Mr. Fang, I think whether it is autonomous driving on electric vehicles or revolutionary products such as robots, they all need to rely on a more core ‘brain’.”

“Without the brain, our research on ‘limbs’ will always be difficult to make leaps and bounds.”

“Of course, I’m not saying that projects like electric vehicles are not a good business. Tesla is actually doing quite well now.”

“I just think that if you want to see more exciting progress, you still need to…”

Huang Renxun pointed to his head.

“This progress is very difficult. Yike has not stopped investing in this area. We have given Professor Ng Enda and the others great support.” Fang Zhuo slowed down and spread his hands, “But it is true that it is not just me who says this. Professor Wu They also admitted that it is difficult and it will take time.”

Huang Renxun expressed his feelings: “I think the industry is already on the way to that singularity, and there will definitely be dazzling results in the future.”

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: “How far into the future is this singularity?”

“No matter how far it is, patience and determination are necessary.” Huang Renxun said here, changing the topic, “So, excellent hardware is also necessary, and our DGX-1 can definitely provide assistance to Yike’s research. ”

“So… how much does such super hardware cost?” Fang Zhuo laughed.

“The retail price is US$129,000.” Huang Renxun said seriously, “Mr. Fang, if Yike can purchase in large quantities, we can discuss the price.”

Fang Zhuo has already seen the DGX-1 signed by Huang Renxun in his office. He said that it was only officially launched in Q4 this year and its performance is comparable to that of 250 CPU servers.

But this is not only a matter of purchasing hardware in large quantities, but also a choice to use the CUDA ecosystem in depth.

“Nvidia’s hardware products are excellent, but you also know that Yike is experiencing some unfair treatment now.” Fang Zhuo said thoughtfully, “Of course Yike is willing to continue to invest in research and development in this field, and you also believe that there will be opportunities in this track. The Singularity is coming, but at that time, what will Yi Ke do if he is targeted by Washington again? ”

“I believe that Yike will definitely file a record after experiencing this incident in Washington.” Huang Renxun said frankly, “If that time comes, Nvidia will express its opinions, but just like Yike YMS has filled Google’s position in China. GMS is blank, Yike will also have its own team.”

He added: “Mr. Fang, I believe in Yike’s competitiveness. Don’t you?”

Fang Zhuo laughed: “I believe it too.”

Huang Renxun knows that Yike has its own server chips and has also purchased AMD’s core architecture. Coupled with the manufacturing capabilities of Ice Core International, he must have research and development in GPU.

But for both NVIDIA and Yike, the future is in the future, and we don’t know when we will see a singularity.

Huang Renxun hopes that the CUDA ecosystem will become stronger and a new platform can be built. He even frankly discussed this idea with Fang Zhuo.

The Yike Center was buzzing with people, and many media reporters came to participate this time. After seeing Mr. Fang and others enter, their enthusiasm for interviews was shown in their frantic movements.

Fang Zhuo just smiled and did not respond to the questions thrown in the air.

Huang Renxun looked at the formation and couldn’t help but said: “Everyone is very concerned about Yike’s situation.”

“Yes, everyone is dissatisfied with the restrictions that Yike has encountered.” Fang Zhuo said calmly, “This problem will be solved sooner or later.”

The second sentence Huang Renxun wanted to say was answered in the second half of the sentence.

Yike’s press conference did not go too far beyond the predictions of the media and the industry. This time it did not launch mobile phones and conventional tablet products. Instead, it updated the Y-Book and launched Yike TV that incorporates smart home. In addition, Qi He was in Taiwan It also introduced the business scope of further development of Yike Cloud business.

Huang Renxun listened with interest. Nvidia had tried to make products based on mobile phone chips and had cooperated with the entry-level mobile phones of the Yike series, but there was no response in the market.

Sitting in the front row now, feeling the struggle of this world-renowned mobile phone brand in difficult times… it is still very involving.

When the press conference was coming to an end, Huang Renxun saw Mr. Fang’s calm expression and asked a question: “What does Mr. Fang think of our company’s current transformation? I heard that MIGA Fund is very optimistic about our company’s stock?”

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly: “Yes, MIGA Fund has invested in many US listed companies, NVIDIA…like our Vice President of Technology Elder, he mentioned you at the meeting last month.”

Huang Renxun became interested and curious about Yike’s internal evaluation.

Fang Zhuo did not sell out, and continued: “Elder’s evaluation is very high, and he believes that Nvidia really wants to make a difference in the field of deep learning DL, instead of companies like AMD and Intel just paying lip service to DL. as the company’s main goal for the future.”

He smiled and said, “Elder also said that you can manage front-line engineers, assign tasks, and check progress. You are the one with the deepest understanding of the details of new technologies among the bosses of large factories. He called on me to learn from you.”

Huang Renxun laughed for a while, but did not deny this detail. He knew that Elder, the vice president in charge of Yike’s R&D strategy, was born at Stanford. He had made great contributions to Yike in the past few years and basically replaced Yike’s former CTO. Xu Keden’s position.

“I really think that the development of DL is accelerating. Of course, the current mainstream understanding still believes that artificial intelligence is still far from the singularity breakthrough.” Huang Renxun considered after laughing, “But when that day comes, we will look back. , this process of turning the impossible into possible is the charm of what we do.”

Fang Zhuo agreed: “I also like the challenge of turning the impossible into the possible.”

Huang Renxun knew that Mr. Fang had another meaning. The current crisis of Yike was seen as a desperate situation by many organizations. According to predictions, Ice Core International may run out of photoresist this month. What will happen next is this system Tough times to operate.

Fang Zhuo looked at Qi He on the stage and said, “Let’s give it a 50% discount. Yike can place a big order.”

Huang Renxun stopped his hand that was about to drink water, turned around and said: “Young Master? Mr. Fang, you mean Young Master??”

“If you calculate the actual material cost of 129,000 U.S. dollars, 11,000 is pretty good. Add in the R&D costs and the cost of your ecological platform. If you add 60,000 U.S. dollars, you will definitely make a lot of money.” Fang Zhuo said seriously.

Huang Renxun said angrily: “Mr. Fang, do you think this is possible?”

Fang Zhuo sighed: “Isn’t it the charm of what we do to make the impossible possible?”

Huang Renxun snorted, feeling that Mr. Fang was particularly unattractive at this time.

“Mr. Huang, you also know the current situation of Yike. I like NVIDIA’s CUDA ecosystem very much. Please let Yike contribute to this ecosystem.” Fang Zhuo advised.

He continued: “Just like when Yike joined the Android camp.”

NVIDIA’s CUDA ecosystem is a comprehensive environment built around CUDA technology, covering hardware, software tools, programming models, libraries, frameworks, applications and support services.

Seeing that Huang Renxun still didn’t respond, Fang Zhuo finally said: “Nvidia is the leader in the industry, and Yike is very willing to cooperate with you. Otherwise, would we have to hold our noses and use Intel’s Xeon Phi?”

Intel also has plans in the field of deep learning. In 2012, it launched Xeon Phi for high-performance computing. This year, it just launched the second-generation Xeon Phi coprocessor code-named Knights Landing.

That is to say, it actually launches a general-purpose computing card similar to the GPU, but reuses the software ecosystem of the CPU to compete with the GPU.

Judging from the current use of Yike, Nvidia has not widened the gap with Intel, and the latter can still compete with the former.

However, the DGX-1 brought by Nvidia this time uses P100 as the GPU, and the gap in parameters is already widening.

Of course Huang Renxun heard what Mr. Fang meant, and Yike had a choice.

He frowned and said, “Mr. Fang, it’s easy to make people hate you if you bargain too harshly.”

Fang Zhuo smiled slightly: “There are too many people who hate me.”

Qi He on the stage completed the first half of Yike’s press conference and bowed to the guests and the media. The audience burst into applause, and many media began to get ready to move again.

“Let’s go, Mr. Huang, there are many people who love me, and they are about to rush up with cameras.” Fang Zhuo said with a smile, “Both hate and love are driving Yi Ke forward. I hope to turn the impossible into possible as soon as possible. ”

At this time, Huang Renxun finally asked Yike about the most difficult situation at the moment: “Mr. Fang, can Yike solve the photoresist problem?”

He didn’t get an answer, but he saw Mr. Fang’s indescribable, probably calm look.

Huang Renxun thought about the look in his eyes and the atmosphere he felt when he came here, and he felt that it could probably be solved.

The group did not accept interviews with media concerns, but Huang Renxun gave his price on the way back: “Mr. Fang, Yike can purchase a batch for trial use, and Nvidia will give priority to supply before Q4 at a price of US$80,000. ”

“$80,000, yes.” Fang Zhuo agreed immediately, and then put forward a condition, “DGX-1, plus the P100 computing card you use for it.”

Probably less than 40% off the price.

Huang Renxun sighed and blessed: “I hope Yike can become world-famous again on DL.”

Fang Zhuo shook hands and blessed: “Let’s go together, MIGA Fund has bought your stocks.”

He gave another suggestion: “You can go to Google to sell, and tell them that Yike has also purchased a large number of your computing cards, and has firmly rejected Intel. They are also very considerate in their investment in this area. ”

Huang Renxun could only laugh, this was indeed his plan.

That evening, Fang Zhuo entertained guests from Silicon Valley, and later in the evening, he listened to the General Office meeting’s review of today’s press conference.

Yike’s Y-Book notebook is actually very powerful. It is equipped with Intel’s latest I7 and I5, and the performance ratio is pretty good.

Because of this, as soon as the announcement was made, there were voices in the United States criticizing Washington, believing that it gave Intel the green light to export to Yike.

BIS really responded quickly, claiming that it would consider the changing technical situation and constantly evaluate how their control measures can better protect local security and policy interests.

This is not to immediately cut off Intel’s temporary license, but it proves that BIS is still paying close attention to Yike’s situation.

The General Office meeting discussed this reaction for a while and felt that the future situation is still not optimistic, but it seems that we are getting used to being unoptimistic.

At the same time, Qi He also reflected on his performance at the press conference. He mentioned on stage that Yike TV will not have ads, and believed that TV ads are far more annoying to users than mobile phone ads.

However, this statement has been criticized a lot on social media platforms, and some friendly companies have complained that it is not necessary to be so implicit whether Yike does ads or not, and whether the YMS you manage promotes ads or not.

Qi He listened to his colleagues’ feelings and suddenly asked his boss: “Mr. Fang, if you want to introduce it, how should you say it?”

The boss is a battle-hardened person at the press conference, and it must be great to learn from him.

“It’s good to speak from the user’s perspective. I’m almost the same as you.” Fang Zhuo replied.

Qi He: “Ah?”

Fang Zhuo said calmly: “You said that someone scolded you, but what I said may not scold me.”

Qi He: “…”

Liu Qiangdong beside him laughed: “What Mr. Fang said may still scold Mr. Qi. Mr. Fang has good intentions, but Mr. Qi, who is responsible for YMS, has problems with execution.”

YMS is in charge of advertising revenue. This year, it still does not accept medical advertisements, but it did add some advertising content to recover blood, which is relatively simple.

Qi He helplessly: “Okay, I will share your worries.”

Fang Zhuo nodded, tapped the table with his fingers, and said the biggest worry at the moment: “Bingxin’s photoresist will be consumed within a week.”

Bingxin, who worked overtime, will eventually use up the photoresist.

The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly condensed.

Fang Zhuo seemed not to notice this, and continued: “Bingxin will maintain and calibrate the production line, do some non-photolithography processes, turn to the research and development of new materials and new processes, and optimize the existing processes. Experiments, as well as quality control and reliability tests of some processes.”

This is what can still be done after losing the photoresist.

Fang Zhuo calmly told these things and finally said: “Then we just need to wait for the return of our photoresist and the recovery of production capacity, is that okay?”

The atmosphere in the conference room was restored first.

“No problem.”