Chapter 237 Financing
"Hornbill has achieved unprecedented success in the global market over the past two weeks. It marks the successful application of artificial intelligence in the field of search engines and will redefine the entire search engine market."

Amina's voice echoed throughout the venue, and many investors listened attentively, but none of them showed any surprise.

The reason why everyone chooses to come to Johor Bahru, which is not even considered a first-tier city in Malaysia, is because of the potential of Alpha Technologies and Hornbill.

For example, why Hornbill's members are allowed to share with different people, which is technically easy to prohibit, but Hornbill turns a blind eye to this behavior that obviously harms its interests, and even vaguely encourages it.

Investment institutions analyzed that Hornbill's payment is just a threshold, hoping to instill in consumers the idea that such services need to be charged, and to leave loopholes in order to break the circle and promote as quickly as possible to increase market share.

In Europe, Hornbill membership sharing is almost becoming a popular social method. If you have Hornbill membership, you will have many more friends who want to get it for free.

The analysis materials produced within investment institutions are more complete than what Amina said, and the depth and coverage of thinking are also broader.

They even took into account Samad's possible future business strategies.

Therefore, Amina's introduction was a bit tasteless and bland.

"Our total number of registered users has exceeded 200 million, and the number of paying users has exceeded million."

When it comes to the data released by Alpha Technology itself, the elites present began to take it seriously.

The number of users and the percentage of paying users indicate potential. Considering that multiple people may share an account, the paying rate is probably frighteningly high.

Amina was the one giving the entire morning introduction, introducing the basic situation of Alpha Technology and the purpose of their current round of financing. Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

At noon, Alpha Technology prepared a buffet for the guests at the Renaissance Hotel. This was a rare social occasion for everyone. To be honest, there had not been such a large-scale exchange and interaction between the financial and technology circles of China and America for a long time.

Naturally, Nader Shinander approached Haider Li, who is currently the president of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific. The two knew Haider Li when he was still working at JinkoSolar.

"As the old Chinese saying goes, money can move people's hearts, and princesses can also come out to endorse companies.

You know, Amina is known among the royal family members for not competing or fighting." Snander joked.

Li Haide did not comment: "This is not ordinary money."

Schnander lowered his voice and said, “You are right.

I feel like we're attending Google's funeral in advance."

Li Haide was a little surprised: "You don't think highly of Google either?"

"If Google falls, it will be good for everyone.

AlphaTech is obviously willing to share profits with everyone. Google falls and AlphaTech rises. How much benefit can we get in this process?
Not to mention the returns on investment, the opportunities created in the middle alone will drive the development of Malaysia's upstream and downstream industrial chains.

There are plenty of opportunities. If Google falls, only Google's shareholders will lose. If Alpha Technologies rises, all participants in the chain will receive generous rewards.

Wall Street will spare no effort to support Alpha Technologies. "Snander has been in Hong Kong for many years and can use all kinds of idioms at will.

"The only regret is that Alpha Technology is in Malaysia, and they are not willing to move to Silicon Valley. Malaysia is still too close to China." There was a hint of regret in Shi Nande's tone.

“What’s wrong with Malaysia, isn’t Malaysia part of your free world?

Isn't it also a constitutional monarchy?" Li Haide understood what Shi Nande meant after hearing this. It was nothing more than that the Federation's power in the Asia-Pacific region was already shaky.

The originally obedient younger brothers have become difficult to command. The consequence of a good dog being bitten is that everyone starts to get restless.

This is especially true for a country like Malaysia, which has always been leaning towards China.

So for Wall Street, they are a little bit worried about rebuilding a Google in Malaysia.

After all, TK is a piece of meat on the chopping board in America, and Alpha Technology may also be at risk of being bullied in Malaysia.

"Does Light Armor Aerospace have any intention to raise funds? We would really like to invest in you.

No matter what the conditions are, we can discuss them." Shi Nande changed the subject, obviously not wanting to talk about such a difficult topic.

Li Haide said: "Don't even think about it. The original investors have to withdraw their shares, so how can they let you in?

Light Armor Aerospace can even receive orders from Blue Origin, and it is a rare bridge between you and us."

"Of course, everyone can see the potential of Light Mech Aerospace. Light Mech Aerospace's cost control ability is no less than SpaceX, and its labor costs are even lower than SpaceX.

The prospects of light armor aerospace and the goals to be achieved are easier than those of SpaceX."

Going to Mars is more difficult than space mining.

Although both are moving up higher branches on the existing technology tree, going to Mars is an extension of landing on the moon, and space mining is an extension of existing C-class asteroid mining.

But obviously going to Mars is a much longer journey.

What the outside world does not know is that Chen Yuanguang’s goal is to achieve profitability through space mining. It is not as simple as just space mining. Profits need to be realized in a positive cycle, which is more difficult than going to Mars.

The limited difficulty of space mining is based on the premise that it is simply a scientific research activity regardless of cost.

The conversation between Snyder and Li Haide was full of tentative meanings. Goldman Sachs is the representative of Jewish capital, and Guangjia Aerospace is, in a sense, a technology giant that resists Jewish capital. What Snyder proposed implies whether the two sides can make peace.

"What conditions does Guangjia Aerospace intend to offer for Alpha Technology's financing this time?" Shi Nande asked curiously.

"We can provide some help to Alpha Technologies in artificial intelligence. As you know, Wright is a top scientist and he has a unique understanding of artificial intelligence.

We have recently made breakthroughs in artificial intelligence that are no less impressive than Hornbill's.

I believe that as long as Samad is willing to talk to Wright, he will definitely choose us. "Li Haide thought that since it was a scam, he might as well brag to death.

Schneider was obviously frightened. Google had already fallen by 30%. If what the other party said was true and Chen Yuanguang had achieved a breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence, then who knows how many Nasdaq technology companies would collapse, and the entire index would also collapse.

"What breakthrough?"

Information is gold, and Schneider even wanted to pry open Li Haide's head to see what the breakthrough was.

Li Haide said: "This is a trade secret.

I can only tell you that we at Guangjia Aerospace are determined to win this round of financing." Obviously, Guangjia Aerospace is not the only company that is determined to win. Li Haide's determination is just a smokescreen. Some companies have no choice but to be determined.

A company like Baidu is a typical example.

Because at the end of the morning's introduction, Amina made it clear that in this round of financing, the financing target needs to be able to provide assistance at the market level, and Hornbill's target is the global market.

This sentence is telling Baidu directly that they will not give up the Chinese market.

If Hornbill enters the Chinese market openly, what else is Baidu doing?

Therefore, for Baidu, it has no choice but to win. Otherwise, Baidu will be ruthlessly eliminated by the times.

“Everyone, our internal valuation of Alpha Technologies in this round of financing is $500 billion. This round is expected to raise $50 billion in funds to expand data centers and increase market share.

You can provide us with your planned investment share, the percentage of shares you hope to obtain, and what kind of compliance assistance you can provide for Alpha Technology's global business development.

For example, by lobbying the White House, Hornbill will not be blocked from America, and by getting Yanjing to not ban Hornbill.

The more detailed this type of compliance assistance is, the better.

You can also write about other aspects of help. The selection of financing targets is a very subjective process. We need to choose partners who can truly help Alpha Technology's future global strategy.

So I hope we can become fellow travelers in the near future.

We will give you a clear answer based on the help you can provide and the amount of funds raised. You need to send me your investment intention by email before 5 pm tomorrow, and the answer will be given to you within this week. "

Amina felt her blood boiling. Was this the feeling of being the boss?
"Haifeng, what do you think?" After returning to the hotel, Robin seemed very anxious because there were too many people coming and he was not sure he could grab the project among so many competitors.

Baidu hasn’t won since 16, and Robin, who lost, has lost confidence.

He doesn't think Baidu's luck will improve this time.

“The 500 billion valuation is based on the fact that Hornbill has 50 billion Nvidia computing resources.

In addition, they recently spent more than one billion US dollars to buy a brand new data center and Hornbill from GDS, so this pricing is not too surprising.

This pricing is on the higher side of the reasonable valuation range based on our internal assessment.

It is normal to use the 50 billion US dollars raised in this round to expand data centers and increase market share. Such a purpose is an open conspiracy, and the approach is to rely on product strength to crush the past.

To be honest, this is a huge threat to Baidu. Hornbill is a Malaysian company, not an American company. Unlike Google, they do not have data concerns and are constrained by Washington, which prevents them from providing data to China for review.

Hornbill has no such concerns, which makes it inevitable for them to enter the Chinese market.

Honestly speaking, if there is no global access function, I think Baidu can rely on habit to compete with Hornbill, but with the global access function, it is difficult for Baidu to compete with Hornbill.

We all know that Baidu is no longer able to compete with mobile apps like Xiaohongshu and WeChat official accounts in terms of searching for specific content. If there is a search engine that integrates all mobile app content, it will be a real dimensionality reduction blow to us.”

Wang Haifeng tried to persuade Robin to accept Hornbill's price, but Robin interrupted and said, "Haifeng, I understand what you said. What I want to ask is what conditions we should offer.

And if Hornbill enters the Chinese market in the future, how will Baidu change its direction? "

Wang Haifeng hesitated for a moment and said, "Give a 500% premium on the valuation of 20 billion US dollars, we will give 700 billion, and we will fire all the bullets in this round.

Equivalent to 70 billion, obtaining a 10% stake.

The conditions we offered were that, first, we had a very close cooperative relationship with the Chinese government and we could help Hornbill enter the Chinese market.

At the same time, Baidu has a long history and a deep user base in China. Hornbill can rely on Baidu to quickly expand its market size without starting from scratch.

I think these are the points.

As for the future, Baidu needs to accelerate its transformation towards autonomous driving. Only this direction can support Baidu's market value of hundreds of billions.

Or it could be commercial aerospace, but in commercial aerospace, it is difficult for us to compete with the light armor system. Boss Chen’s dominance in this area is too strong. If we enter, we will most likely only be able to provide upstream and downstream supporting services for the light armor system.

These businesses are not enough to sustain Baidu’s size.”

After listening to Wang Haifeng, Robin frowned and said, "Let's do it this way. Prepare yourself and show me the letter of intent after you write it.

In addition, we will have to start another round of layoffs after we return. If we don’t catch the Hornbill wave this time, our strategic shift cannot fail again.

Haifeng, is there really no way for us to replicate Hornbill's global access function?"

Wang Haifeng smiled bitterly and said: “Even if we can copy it, our user experience cannot be as good as Hornbill’s.

You also heard them say this morning that the number of users has exceeded 10 million, and the number of paying users has exceeded 2 million. The peak number of simultaneous online users of Hornbill's global service must have exceeded one million. At this scale, they can provide millisecond-level response services.

We certainly can’t do it without understanding how the underlying algorithm is designed.”

What Wang Haifeng didn't finish was, if I had this ability, would I still be in Baidu? I would have left and started my own business long ago.

In the past, China's entrepreneurship had no shortage of ideas, funds, or technology, but only a shortage of qualified entrepreneurs. Now China's entrepreneurship has no shortage of funds, ideas, or entrepreneurs, but only a shortage of technology.

Technology owners who truly have a market never worry about lack of funds when starting a business.

"Mr. Samad, I have carefully looked at it and found that investment institutions from various countries are very sincere. Have you made up your mind?

If they haven't made up their minds, I can tell them to wait." Amina was very respectful. This is the power of wealth.

She knew that after completing this round of fundraising, the relationship between her and Samad would be reversed, and she would completely lose the initiative in the relationship between the two parties.

Malaysia may not care about the lives of its own entrepreneurs, but it absolutely dare not ignore the interests of global capital.

But Amina doesn't care. After all, these financial institutions don't even blink an eye at a company with a valuation of 500 billion, and none of them values ​​Alpha Technology at less than 500 billion US dollars.

Even if her 30% stake is diluted, her net worth has exceeded 100 billion US dollars. Amina has completely surrendered to the power of money.

Instructions came from the other end of the phone: "BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, SoftBank, Temasek, Tencent, and Guangjia Aerospace."

(End of this chapter)