It is difficult for companies engaged in autonomous driving to obtain investment.
Because investors will ask you, why do you beat Tesla? Why should I win against Qiandu? Moreover, domestic new energy vehicle companies have their own autonomous driving departments.
How do you rely on to seize the market?
For example, Qiandu has been burning money in the field of autonomous driving for so many years, but there has been no commercialization results.
Not to mention startups, investors will wonder how much money I have to spend to see the results. What if I spend billions, but you still can't compare with other companies?
This kind of investment is very difficult.
Secondmind was able to attract investment and successfully survive the B round, mainly because they not only do autonomous driving algorithms and deep learning platforms, but also do more AI chip design.
There are few players in this field. Secondmind is based in England with Cambridge as its backing and has a strong talent team.
Moreover, the amount of their Series B investment was not large, so they were able to attract investment.
Cheng Gang asked: "When is SecondMind's C round? Will you follow in the C round?"
The person in charge of the investment department of Goose Factory took a sip of coffee:
"I guess it's coming soon~ They only raised 24 million yuan in Series B financing. It's been two years now, and it's probably almost gone."
"I personally prefer to invest a little bit to give it a try. We only invested 6 million yuan in round B. Even if the price of round C is doubled, it will only be only 12 million yuan. Just give it a shot."
"I will probably follow the investment, but I still have to make a decision later."
"To be honest, I don't expect SecondMind to make any achievements in the direction of autonomous driving, but its deep learning in some car performance tuning is still good."
"If you want to start a team from scratch in China, the price won't be much cheaper than investing in SecondMind. If you want to participate in Series C investment, I can help you connect."
"It just so happens that RB Capital, the investor in Series B, wants to exit."
The investment department of Xiange Factory looks at more than 200 projects every year, and the number of projects it manages is also in the triple digits.
The latest information on each project in their investment project management system will be updated simultaneously, making it clear to read.
Cheng Gang had already obtained the information he wanted, and naturally he had to reveal some information in exchange: "We plan to enter the semiconductor industry and want to acquire an AI chip company with a certain background in the industry and a good team."
"SecondMind is one of our goals."
The first reaction of the person in charge of the investment department of the Goose Factory opposite was:
"Are you going to enter the semiconductor industry? The stock price of Kechuang Biotechnology is going to rise again. I might consider buying a few lots and leaving it alone."
"Semiconductors burn money. Just a few billions can be burned away."
"You plan to make a brain-computer connection chip? That's right. If you want to have a deeper moat, you can only dig deeper in this area."
"I've always been curious about whether Director Zheng's brain structure is different from ours. Not only is he great at scientific research, but he also has a good vision for the company's strategic layout."
"If you come up with the brain-computer connection chip, it will be difficult for Musk's Neuralink to catch up with you."
From the perspective of a professional investor, he believes that Kechuang Biotechnology’s leading advantage in the field of brain-computer connection is not obvious enough.
Of course, the market share in the field of brain-computer connection is large enough to accommodate several players.
However, the valuation given by the market is different between a monopoly and a superpower with many powers.
...
St. Petersburg is cloudy all year round, and Perelman likes to think when the weather is cloudy and daze when the sun comes out.
When inspiration comes, I write it down. When I don’t have inspiration, I keep thinking about it. I often put what I have written together and think about it to see if I can string it together.
The more I think about it, the more I realize the subtlety of Heber's algorithm, which perfectly combines analysis, geometry and algebra.
Perelman found that it was almost impossible to develop a universal method to find a general solution.
If you simplify the problem, it's like you can't prove "1+1". You can start with "8+9" and slowly advance to: "1+2".
Perelman's idea is to use Heber's algorithm and Heber's constant to determine the existence of a set of coordinates that matches the magic coin.
The set is then compared and calculated with astronomical observation data to further reduce the set.
Finally, smaller sets are run through supercomputers.
Currently stuck on the first step.
Russian computer scientists are taking the final steps, developing suitable algorithms and writing programs.
They planned to start calculations first while waiting for Perelman's progress.
The cold wind blew in through the window, making him shiver. Winter was about to enter.
For example, there is no way to work together on mathematical problems, and basically there is no way to put pressure on researchers to speed up progress.
Therefore, in recent years, there have been news about tutors squeezing graduate students in other fields, but there has never been such news in the mathematics major.
Because if you don’t know it, you just don’t know it. If you can’t figure it out, you can’t figure it out no matter how much you think about it. It’s not a subject where you can definitely get results by spending time.
When it comes to problems in the most cutting-edge areas of mathematics, the gap between those who know and those who don’t can’t be filled in time.
On the contrary, the tutor is afraid that the students will suffer from some mental illness if they are too persistent.
Mathematicians from other countries have also thought of Perelman's ideas.
America's Clay Mathematics Institute simplified the problem and made it public, claiming that whoever solved the problem would receive a grand prize of 10 million yuan.
The Clay Mathematics Institute is the same institute that announced the Millennium Prize problem in 2000. Among the seven Millennium Prize problems, the Poincaré conjecture was proved by Perelman.
Although the Cray Institute of Mathematics has changed the face of the problem, an interested person can see through it at a glance that it is seeking a general solution to Heber's algorithm.
England also organized a number of top mathematicians such as Wiles and Gowers to try to pool their efforts to solve this problem.
The same goes for Russia. It's just that when Perelman's thinking reaches a dead end, he will listen to the ideas of his colleagues, but most of the time he stays alone and thinks quietly.
"The space is three-dimensional, and I introduce the Toeplitz operator of finite-dimensional space through the invariant orthogonal quantity of the operator under the canonical conjugate map."
"Can this form simplify the problem to a certain extent?"
"Then set the Toeplitz operator to be strongly continuous."
Perelman suddenly had an idea, and he kept writing on the paper, filling a thick pile of white paper.
The cloudy sky outside the window had turned into night, and he looked at his results in front of him.
Think repeatedly about whether there are any logical loopholes that have not been discovered.
"There's no problem here, there's no problem here. There shouldn't be any big problems in the certification process."
"In this way, the problem has been simplified a bit, but this can be regarded as an initial achievement."
"I can share the phased results with everyone and see if Driffield has any ideas."
Russia's mathematics is quite strong. In its heyday, it could compete with the entire West as a country.
