Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 1457 Dark Clouds Overwhelm the City (6k)

As October arrived, Yike entered the fourth quarter of this year.

Although it was a one-week holiday at the beginning, this did not make many employees feel relaxed. Without paying special attention, those comments that were pessimistic about the company's stock price would naturally come into their sight.

Yike collapses, more restrictions, and the Q3 financial report is the last straw...

The company will certainly not collapse, as it still has domestic business anyway, but when it will recover is a question, and the intense short selling that the company has encountered will inevitably have a result.

No matter how you look at it now, it doesn't look good. Among the three months of July, August and September, shipments were greatly reduced in July, and the European and domestic markets were completely exhausted in the following two months... Although some businesses have been sold, this will not necessarily save the financial report.

The situation was very bad and all the signals were very negative, but fortunately, Mr. Fang was back to get off work.

Perhaps the market will continue to be sluggish, and this time the short selling is inevitable, but Mr. Fang is the backbone. As long as he is there, the confidence within the company will be boosted.

On the morning of October 10, Fang Zhuo did not take a day off. Instead, he met Lu Qi, who had already resigned from Microsoft, in the president's office and planned to invest some money in him.

"Mr. Fang, Yi Ke has encountered some difficulties recently." After the greetings, Lu Qi talked about Yi Ke's current situation.

Fang Zhuo has become very familiar with discussing such topics with others recently, and nodded: "Yes, I have confidence, it will get better."

Lu Qi's question got stuck and he changed direction: "A few days ago, Nasdaq announced the latest short positions. Yike has indeed been targeted by too many people this time."

Nasdaq announced on September 9 that its short position in Yike was US$30 billion, which is an astonishing scale.

Lu Qi has experienced a lot in the United States over the years, but he also feels that Yike’s recent situation and the scale of short selling... I don’t know if there will be a repeat of this, but it is indeed unprecedented.

However, it was precisely for this reason that he thought it was a good time for him to join Yike.

Because Microsoft changed its CEO and internal ceiling, Lu Qi had long intended to leave, but there was no suitable position at Yike, so he had been waiting and watching to see if there would be a better opportunity.

As a result, DuJi, another domestic company that had been invited with great enthusiasm, became increasingly decadent and had been eliminated as a candidate. Other companies such as Alibaba and Penguin were also not to their liking.

Lu Qi originally did not want to force it and planned to be an investor and incubate the project. However, Yike suddenly started a game of AI and DL architecture discussion with Google, which made him itchy.

He changed his mind and thought that although Yi Ke was in trouble, it might also be an opportunity for him to display his talents. Since there was no position, he would create one. So, he came to visit and recommend himself.

"YiKe is always being shorted, and I feel helpless." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "Let them be."

Seeing the helplessness on Mr. Fang's face, Lu Qi consoled him, "Mr. Fang, setbacks are only temporary. Yike's short selling this time is a special case. However, I also want to talk about my thoughts on Yike's future."

Fang Zhuo smiled in surprise and said, "Boss Lu, I thought you were here to ask for money today."

He pulled out a document of contact between Yike Investment and Lu Qi. According to the document, Lu Qi wanted to set up a fund in China to incubate scientific and technological innovation projects.

This is not surprising, as many senior executives from companies have experienced such transitions.

"YiKe has been established for more than ten years and is definitely a respected company. It is not easy for so many companies in the world to achieve this." Lu Qi said his evaluation, and then said sincerely, "I have always paid attention to YiKe and have seen YiKe trying to make some transformation, but I think that at this point in time, YiKe has reached a very important stage."

Seeing that Mr. Fang was listening carefully, he continued, "Mr. Fang, will Yike be a robot company in the future? Or a tram company?"

Fang Zhuo smiled and replied, "Can't we sell them together? And the cell phone."

"Of course." Lu Qi pointed to the robot Guard standing silently in the office and shook his head, "But I think whether it is robots or trams, their core in the future is intelligence and deep learning."

After a brief thought, Fang Zhuo commented: "Mr. Lu, this statement is not new to me."

He asked back, "You should have noticed the 'Taebai' we announced some time ago, right?"

"It was after seeing this that I thought I should sit in front of Mr. Fang and express my feelings." Lu Qi said seriously, "I think Yike does not pay enough attention to deep learning DL."

Fang Zhuo took a sip of tea and said with a smile, "Isn't this enough? Yike should be considered one of the companies with the strongest R&D capabilities in the world. If even this is not enough, then what else can we do?"

He was satisfied with Taibai's performance.

Although the recent focus has been on the production capacity of Yike and Bingxin and the system operation of the semiconductor industry, the performance of "Taibai" has really made the previous research and development heard, which is good.

Lu Qi said seriously: "ALL IN AI!"

Fang Zhuo frowned slightly and motioned for Lu Qi to continue.

"Although Yike needs to ensure the supply of mobile phone products due to special circumstances, I think it is also a high priority to find Yike's next 16 years." Lu Qi remained serious. "If, Mr. Fang, I mean if, if Yike's mobile phones really can't come up with enough matching competitiveness, Yike's only way to turn things around in the next 16 years is AI."

Yike has been in operation for 01 years since 16. These are 16 years of rapid development. How to ensure its competitive position in the next 16 years is a decision at the strategic level.

Lu Qi is not sure when Yike's mobile phone market will recover, but if it is really the worst case scenario, he believes that cloud computing, search advertising, technical service fees and other sectors alone will not be enough to make Yike prosperous again.

Taking this into consideration, we can only bet on Yike's leading deep learning DL research and development capabilities in the world, strive for breakthroughs, and reshape the ecosystem.

Yike has been very successful, defeating Nokia and leading the era of smart phones. Even if it dies this time, it will be a great success. And if it can survive in the next few years...

Lu Qi felt that with Yike's current configuration, it was worth his participation in the gamble.

If it fails, it means that we have done our best for the Yike brand. If it succeeds, Lu Qi will become another name in the textbooks.

"You are really ALL." Fang Zhuo murmured.

"Whether it's robotics, electric cars, or search, whether it's Google, Bing, or Duji, they will all be reshaped by AI, which will bring new market opportunities," Lu Qi said. "This is just like the smartphones of the past. At that time, everyone thought the mobile phone market was already a red ocean, and Nokia had occupied nearly 5% of the market. What innovative forces could grow?"

"But when new smartphones emerged, Nokia was defeated. Its huge market share was like snow under the scorching sun, which collapsed at the touch of a button."

"Mr. Fang, I believe that AI in the future will be the key to reshaping the market!"

“Mr. Fang, AI is the key to making Yike great again!”

"Boss Fang, if you don't have this level of awareness, even though Taibai has attracted a certain amount of attention, you will definitely find it difficult to take the initiative in the future!"

Fang Zhuo listened to Lu Qi's impassioned speech, thought for a moment, and said with a smile: "Mr. Lu, I really didn't expect you to have such a high opinion of AI."

"Mr. Fang, I respect the brand of Yike very much, and I also think Yike has a very good R&D foundation. Otherwise, I would not be here today." Lu Qi talked freely, "Maybe Mr. Fang thinks Yike still has a lot of talents and thinks Yike has its own R&D team, but what I want to say is that technological development is changing with each passing day at some point."

He gave an example: "Like the discussion jointly held by Yike, Google and NVIDIA, someone at Google proposed the self-attention mechanism at that time, believing that it could replace recurrent neural networks and provide a better choice for the NLP field."

"Before this, it was generally believed that recurrent neural networks were the best choice."

"But what happened after that? Google's Uskelter and several others worked together to conduct research in this area and published a paper in August titled 'Attention is All You Need', which quickly attracted attention."

"Mr. Fang, this model with self-attention mechanism as the core has been quickly verified, at least it outperformed all other models in translation tasks."

"Mr. Fang, that's all!"

“Also, the training time is significantly reduced.”

“In such a short period of time, could you have imagined the changes in technological innovation?”

Lu Qi said a lot of things and finally pointed at himself: "So, I am here because I think strategic cognition and technical acumen are what the top level of Yike lacks now."

After listening to Lu Qi's eloquent narration, Fang Zhuo pondered for a while and changed his address: "Dr. Lu, sit down, sit down, let's sit down and talk."

Just now, Lu Qi stood up when he was excited.

Fang Zhuo did not find this excitement and lobbying ridiculous. Instead, he was seriously thinking about this person's views.

At the very least, he captured Lu Qi’s opinion on search, which is a business that “will also be reshaped by AI.”

Lu Qi is extremely professional in search. He is considered the "Savior" of Microsoft's search engine and has also achieved the highest-level position that a Chinese can hold in an American technology company.

In addition, Lu Qi obtained a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, so his self-proclaimed "technical acumen" is not an exaggeration.

Fang Zhuo does not use filters when it comes to any senior management in the industry. On the contrary, sometimes he has to persuade them not to look at himself through filters, but he has great respect for technical professionals.

Because this is what I lack, and no matter how I make up for it, I can never be compared with these outstanding people.

Fang Zhuo just thought about his mentality. To be honest, he is quite satisfied with "Taibai". Its performance of defeating the human camp and narrowly beating Google's "Alpha" is already impressive enough.

Is it a problem if you are “fooled”?

As a result, YiKe’s stocks that were shorted were briefly stimulated.

However, Fang Zhuo has personally witnessed "technical acumen" and experienced "technological innovation", and he understands the power that can be unleashed at this level. Liang Mengsong is the best example.

He now knew what Lu Qi wanted to do this time, and was just trying to weigh whether his views were extremely beneficial to Yi Ke.

Fang Zhuo thought slowly and was now certain of one thing, that is, Lu Qi must have misjudged Yi Ke.

"Mr. Lu, to be honest, Yike's third quarter performance was terrible." Fang Zhuo spoke up. He did not talk about his opinion just now, but talked about Yike's current situation. "I thought you wanted to continue to be an incubation fund, but I didn't expect you to be so interested in Yike at this time."

"Although Yike was founded 16 years ago, it is still young. Moreover, Yike has a brand advantage in the Chinese market. No matter how the revenue declines, as long as we can come up with competitive products, we can make it back." Lu Qi said sincerely, "Yike's current situation is not good, and it may decline in the future. However, as I said just now, if we can focus on the innovative field of AI, we will surely be glorious again in the future."

Fang Zhuo looked at Lu Qi and asked, "Dr. Lu, are you so sure?"

"I have been paying attention to Yike and have seen Mr. Fang talk about Yike's future on different occasions. I think you are right to regard robots and electric cars as carriers of artificial intelligence." Lu Qi gave another example, "However, artificial intelligence is not an unpopular term in Silicon Valley. For example, Nvidia is now really working hard to be the shovel for the development of artificial intelligence. Everyone is shouting, but Huang Renxun is really pushing it forward."

During the American Gold Rush, many people went panning for gold, but some people also made a fortune by selling gold panning shovels.

"The level of attention determines the company's investment, and thus determines the development in this field. Mr. Fang's understanding is correct." Lu Qi paused and said, "It's just not great enough."

Mainstream but not great enough cognition.

Fang Zhuo was not angry, he was someone who could discuss things.

This was the last time he met Lu Qi, and his expression was the heaviest since then. "Mr. Lu, since we've come to this point, I'll be more honest. It's hard for me to say what Yike's future revenue and competitiveness will be like. This restriction from BIS has shocked everyone."

Seeing Mr. Fang's frankness, Lu Qi also said frankly: "Mr. Fang, it is better to help people in need than to add icing on the cake. I think I have the opportunity to play my ability in Yike. Duji, Alibaba, and Penguin have all contacted me, but I still prefer to come to Yike, even if there will be a difficult period in the future."

Mr. Fang stood up excitedly: "Mr. Lu..."

Lu Qi responded: "Mr. Fang..."

Fang Zhuo and Lu Qi shook hands firmly to confirm each other's intentions and sincerity.

"Mr. Lu." Fang Zhuo sat down again and talked about the current situation. "Although it is very difficult now and Yike needs to transform, the most urgent task now is to restore our main business. It is impossible to kill ourselves directly. Moreover, artificial intelligence still needs time to develop, and it is not something that can be achieved overnight."

He was sure of it.

Lu Qi nodded slightly, agreeing with this point.

"Yike has already established an emerging industry division, which is responsible for the transformation of cutting-edge technologies, including the 'Kunpeng' electric car." Fang Zhuo slowed down his speech and said carefully, "If Mr. Lu is willing to come, Yike will set up a deep learning division and assign all research and development in this area to it. Any..."

He emphasized: "I can provide any resources that Mr. Lu thinks are needed. In addition, the cooperation between DL and other businesses of the company can also be promoted as a priority."

Originally, deep learning was under the Emerging Industries Division, but now it has been separated out and given sufficient resources and the highest priority.

This certainly doesn't count as ALL IN AI, but Yi Ke really isn't at the point where he needs to take that kind of risk.

In addition, the resources required for deep learning at this stage are actually limited, and this promise will naturally be fulfilled with breakthroughs in research and development.

Lu Qi thought about it briefly and agreed readily.

"Okay, Mr. Fang, I'm happy to work with the world's best DL R&D team. I think we can create even more dazzling sparks!"

Fang Zhuo was very happy and admired Lu Qi's decisiveness. He smiled and asked, "Mr. Lu, what if I don't agree with your point of view today?"

"That could be Yi Ke's loss." Lu Qi said confidently.

Fang Zhuo shook hands with Lu Qi again.

Lu Qi finally asked something that everyone was very concerned about: "Mr. Fang, when will Yike's Q3 financial report be released?"

Fang Zhuo did not give an exact time, but only replied: "It will be sent when it is supposed to be sent."

This is undoubtedly the issue that the outside world is most concerned about Yike at the moment. Even Lu Qi, who was seeking opportunities in Yike today, couldn't help but ask it. However, he was a little confused by Mr. Fang's answer.

However, Lu Qi has already prepared himself for Yike's continued decline and will not be surprised by what is about to happen. He came to Yike to restore its glory.

To quote a popular phrase in the United States, let’s make Yi Ke great again!

The National Day holiday in October brought about some changes in YiKe’s organizational structure. Lu Qi quickly joined the company and became a member of YiKe as senior vice president and president of the deep learning division.

This piece of news caused a small stir, and many people were puzzled as to why Lu Qi joined Yike at this time. The ship was about to sink, so why would he jump on board?

But it was just a minor ripple, and everyone's attention was still focused on Yike's Q3 financial report.

The third quarter has ended, when will the financial report be released?

YiKe's lack of action was seen as a negative signal, adding another $10 million to the short position disclosed on October 15.

Russell, the short-selling pioneer of RC Hedge Fund, called on Yi Ke on TikTok, calling for the early disclosure of the Q3 financial report that has attracted public attention.

"It doesn't matter if you die early or late, Yi Ke, hurry up, I can't wait!"

"Mr. Fang, Mr. Fang, are you there? Please stamp it quickly!"

Similar opinions were heard by many of his peers.

Fang Zhuo did not respond to this, nor did he think there was anything to respond to. In addition to paying attention to the news from Bingxin and SMIC, he was also paying attention to the heated election campaign at Amei's side.

Just recently, on October 10, candidates Achuan and Ashley held their second televised debate at the University of Washington. The economic and trade policies involved in the debate are worthy of attention.

For Yi Ke, this is bad treatment and worse.

As a hot topic, Yi Ke's name has been frequently mentioned by various candidates this year, which has become a microcosm that everyone is willing to win votes in a more radical way, at least verbally.

On October 10, Fang Zhuo saw Achuan mention Yi Ke in the newspaper again, but this time it was very brief.

"I have no interest in talking about Yike anymore. It is effectively dead."

"I'm more interested in creating more of these deaths, which can serve as our nutrition."

On October 10, Fang Zhuo received a call from Lu Qi.

After reporting on the work he had taken over, Lu Qi asked a curious question: "Mr. Fang, I heard that there will be a press conference for Yike next month? What is this press conference about?"

"Yike will hold a press conference in the fall, Mr. Lu, don't you know?" Fang Zhuo asked back.

“I know, but…” Lu Qi hesitated to speak, but what else could Yi Ke release now?
Or a laptop? Or a smart home product?
Fang Zhuo thought for a moment and replied, "It's just the launch of a regular product."

Yike usually releases mobile phones in autumn.

This press conference involves many things, and the level of confidentiality in all aspects is extremely high. Even the very few senior executives who know about it remain silent.

Lu Qi roughly understood that it was similar to the last press conference.

He didn't ask any further questions, as he would see it soon anyway.

On October 10, Fang Zhuo received news from SMIC that the 28nm process has entered the stage of small-scale mass production and is expected to be put into large-scale mass production in December. However, the yield rate still needs to be improved and the production capacity must also be gradually increased.

With only three days left until the end of the month, the media's attention to Yike's Q3 financial report has once again reached a fever pitch. According to regulations, the latest release date is approaching.

However, when it came to October 10, Monday, the first thing that happened was the announcement of Nasdaq's short positions. As expected, Yike broke the historical record four times in a row, reaching a landmark $31 billion, and its market value also reached a new low of $225 billion.

Just as everyone was waiting with bated breath for YiKe to release its Q3 financial report, YiKe submitted Form 12b-25 to the SEC, obtaining a brief 15-day grace period on the grounds of "significant changes in the company's business operations."

In other words, Yike’s Q3 financial report will be released on November 11 at the latest.

Russell received the news immediately and commented: "Yi Ke has delayed for another 15 days. Please, can I see Yi Ke's Q3 financial report before I die?"

The longer Yike delays, the more powerful this Q3 financial report will be. Victory is just around the corner, and all that’s missing is the final conclusion.

Russell felt a visceral thrill when he thought of the collapse of Yi Ke's stock price, and became increasingly dissatisfied with Yi Ke's delays.

It's not just Russell. This time, people like "Short Master" Chanos, "Hedge Jordan" Cohen, and "Short King" Paulson all mocked the company because of the failure of the Q3 financial report release.

Hyenas gather together, chasing the weakened lions, and vultures circle, waiting for the death of their prey.

Domestic media used the phrase "dark clouds covering the city" to describe the unprecedented pressure Yi Ke is facing.

It is November 1st, the traditional Western Halloween.

Fang Zhuo, who has not updated for a long time, has new updates on Twitter, sharing joy with the short sellers.

But he didn't say anything, just a funny grimace as if he was about to open his eyes.

Lulu, I'm about to open my eyes.

However, Fang Zhuo's casual update seemed to have suddenly restored the confidence of the domestic media. Sina Finance conducted an informal analysis - when Mr. Fang, who had not been seen for a long time, appeared, it was like seeing a ray of golden light in the dark clouds covering the city. Was it what I imagined?

Even the people at Sina didn’t dare to think about it, nor did they dare to include it in a formal analysis. They just asked the question silently with expectation.

is it?

Mr. Fang, is that so?

Is it the golden scales that shine towards the sun?