"The investment in cutting-edge research and development is too high. We need to set up the semiconductor company's structure in the fourth quarter of this year. We expect to spend 1 billion RMB just on hiring."
The salary of a regular MCU engineer with some work experience is over 300,000, the salary of a senior architect starts at 1.5 million, and the salary of a top-level architect is at least 2 million.
The salary mentioned here is the minimum; the actual amount may be higher.
The good thing is that these tech companies are now industry giants and at the forefront of brain-computer interface technology, so they don't need to pay too much of a premium.
If it's a chip startup and the founder doesn't have a strong background, the premium might have to be 50% to 100%.
As for engineers working on AI chips, they are even more expensive; a senior engineer with a little experience costs close to one million.
In the chip industry, the government has been leading the way by investing money in recent years; otherwise, most companies simply wouldn't have survived.
Li Miaomiao continued, "Ten billion is just for setting up the framework. It is estimated that ten billion will be spent next year. The patent licensing fees for brain-computer interfaces will basically all be invested in next year."
"As the person in charge of finance, I feel heartbroken when I see the amount in the budget."
There are very few companies in China that can afford to burn money to make chips. Apart from specialized semiconductor companies, only a few, such as Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, have been able to persist.
It's not something that giants can afford to play.
Li Shuyao reminded:
“11 billion sounds like a lot, it’s a quarter of your 40 billion in fundraising, but if you’re willing to set up a company specifically for brain-computer interface chips.”
"With Zheng Li's industry standing, it wouldn't be a problem for this company to attract external investment, bringing in 2 billion US dollars easily." "Do you know about Kunlun chips from Baidu? It's the first AI chip in China, announced in 2018 that it had completed its development, and it uses Samsung's 14nm process."
"It's been more than three years now, and the production volume is less than 30,000 pieces. Most of them are bought back by Baidu and used in their Apollo self-driving cars."
"Kunlun chips are said to be AI chips, but their biggest application is actually in autonomous driving."
"Is it possible for Baidu to overtake others in the field of autonomous driving by relying on the data accumulated by Baidu Maps, without manufacturing its own cars?"
"They want to develop self-driving chips, but can they beat Tesla? Let alone Tesla, even domestic new energy vehicle startups like Baidu might not be able to compete."
"Even so, Kunlun Chip, a subsidiary of Baidu, was spun off into a separate company and completed a financing round in March of this year, with a valuation of 2 billion US dollars."
"You guys are really raising money for brain-computer interface chips, you could easily raise this much."
Baidu has had a tough few years. It missed the mobile internet wave, and its PC business is becoming increasingly difficult.
The rise of private domain traffic has weakened Baidu's function as a traffic portal.
Baidu is hoping to overtake its competitors in the fields of autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, and it has invested a huge amount of money in this area.
During her internship at CICC, Li Shuyao reviewed many similar cases and can readily recall recent capital operation cases in the market: "IDG Capital was one of the investors in Kunlun Capital, a subsidiary of Baidu."
"If you want to invest, Shunwei Capital, IDG, Temasek, and Goldman Sachs would all be willing to invest, but BOCOM International might not."
Li Miaomiao's position meant that she could see a higher level than Li Shuyao:
"We can afford to burn through 10 billion RMB ourselves."
"Qiandu brought up Kunlun because their chips have no revenue source, and Qiandu has been declining year by year in recent years."
"It's somewhat beyond our capabilities to develop AI chips that can be widely deployed on our own."
Do you think Tencent, Huawei, and Alibaba would bring in external investment for their chip companies?
Will Huawei's Kunpeng and Ali's Pingtouge be offered for funding?
Pingtouge is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AliDamo Academy.
"If one day Kechuang Biotechnology really raises funds for its semiconductor company, it must be because we have encountered great difficulties."
"Currently, the patent licensing for brain-computer interfaces alone is enough to support a chip company."
"Once the brain-computer interface technology for English majors is developed, we might even be able to support two companies."
Li Miaomiao's tone was full of confidence and arrogance.
Li Shuyao's eyes conveyed only two words: envy.
"They're incredibly wealthy; no wonder they say monopolies are the easiest business to run."
“When we discussed it internally, we all said that if you were willing to do some customized development in the field of brain-computer interfaces, the valuation could be higher and the revenue could be greater.”
Li Miaomiao didn't understand what customized development meant.
"Customized development?"
Li Shuyao explained, "It involves collecting data on the neural signals of users browsing different web pages and then selling this data to internet companies."
"Currently, you are the only company that can do this business. When we discussed it internally, we all said that Kechuang Bio has mastered the channel of human brain neural signals."
"With the Strait of Malacca holding the reins of the human brain, it's no wonder that Kechuang Bio's overseas R&D center is located in Singapore."
Li Miaomiao: "Lei Jun mentioned this to us before, because the technology we provided to them in terms of the licensed algorithms was a complete black box."
"Dami wanted to collect users' brain neural signals in a customized way but couldn't, so Mr. Lei came to ask us if we could open up this function to them."
"Technically, it is certainly possible, but opening up this functionality will introduce some uncontrollable factors."
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