(Original title: Qualcomm Strategic Investors Tang Technology, Mobai)
Li Na
Despite being "interfered" by Broadcom and Apple, Qualcomm's investment projects in emerging areas did not slow down. On November 15th, Qualcomm announced risk investment in 9 Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence company Shang Tang Technology and smart shared bicycle company Mobike.
Quinn Li, vice president of Qualcomm and Qualcomm Global Managing Director, said: "Qualcomm is accelerating the deployment of 5G technology on the terminal side and improving the AI ​​computing performance of the chip. Qualcomm strategic investor Tang Technology will help increase its investment in AI research and development. The cooperation between the two parties will create an integrated solution to reduce the cost of deploying AI technology from terminal equipment manufacturers such as mobile phones, shorten the research and development cycle, and promote the rapid upgrade of the entire terminal equipment industry."
Dr. Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of Shang Tang Technology, said that with the integration of the resources of both parties, the superiority of Shang Tang's original AI technology on Qualcomm's Technologies chip platform will be fully utilized, allowing more terminal equipment to benefit from AI technology. Accelerate the development of terminal intelligent ecological.
As for the investments made by Moipai, Qujing's managing director Shen Jinzeng told reporters at the First Financial Technology and Innovation Conference that AI and the Internet of Things will be the hottest areas in cutting-edge technology. He believes that artificial intelligence has a very wide application scenario in the IoT field. Before this, Qualcomm, Mobike and China Mobile have jointly conducted multi-mode testing.
In the previous cooperation, Qualcomm applied the LTE-IoT modem for Internet of Things (IoT) applications to Mobike's smart locks. Through connection and satellite positioning and navigation functions, users can find bikes more accurately and accelerate unlocking speeds. Monitor bike status.
In addition, among the nine companies, there are wireless connection market provider Chuangtong Electronics, terminal-side artificial intelligence solution provider, endurance, unattended convenience store operator zero element, and innovative education solution provider Metco. Technology, content provider AI and VR/AR technology content fantasy technology, "full immersive" English learning environment provider Aile Qi, and agricultural big data and intelligent service company Orpheme.
Qualcomm stated that all capital injections came from the $150 million China Strategic Investment Fund announced by Qualcomm in 2014.
AI spawns more vertical applications
From "mobile Internet" to "Internet education, Internet medical care" and now to the "frontier technology" on the air, Qualcomm is also looking for opportunities that are more suitable for its investment.
Shen Jin told reporters that computers and mobile phones have such a large scale. In fact, many of the core technologies are scaled, miniaturized, and low-cost, so that they can be used by today's drones and VRs. These technologies are now extended. To the cutting-edge technology, there are five representative areas: VR/AR, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, robots, and drones.
“The numbers are here. In the next five years, there will be 8.5 billion smart phones going to this market. This year is actually the first year that artificial intelligence is reflected on smart phones. R11S uses Qualcomm’s artificial intelligence technologies, such as Image processing, including face authentication, many flagship high-end mobile phones will have artificial intelligence capabilities starting this year, and these capabilities will be reflected first in photo camera processing and then in the performance of your intelligent human assistants. Help you manage memory, manage your clerk, and of course you can manage your smart home around the phone,†Shen Jin said.
In a sense, the performance of smart devices in the past largely depended on the computing power of the chip, but today smart phones, cameras, robots, IoT and other devices need to process massive amounts of data in real time, and the application of AI algorithms in terminals is also It will become a new driving force for the intelligent development of terminal equipment.
Shang Tang said that the "algorithm + chip" collaboration is redefining the terminal intelligence ecosystem, and Shang Tang is China's largest supplier of artificial intelligence algorithms. From this logical point of view, Qualcomm's investment is focused on Shang Tang’s algorithmic capabilities and its explosiveness in the vertical field in the future. Qualcomm has the ability to cooperate with these investment partners.
For example, among the companies that have been invested, there is a company called Aokimei, which has established the nation's largest farm management network and provides industrial management agencies with intelligent industrial services based on big data.
Prior to this, Qualcomm had also invested in a similar company in Israel. The project was to apply artificial intelligence technology to more than a dozen farms worldwide. “At present, this company has collected data on more than 5,000 farms, because with such a large amount of data, it has attracted many buyers, including fresh e-commerce and supermarket buyers. Many agricultural resources are also gathered in this company. On the platform, there are now more than 10 billion transactions on this platform, and with such a data platform, the company can quickly advance its development in artificial intelligence." Shen Jin said that agriculture, security, such as vertical There are plenty of opportunities in the market.
China and the United States cannot blindly replicate their experiences
Since 2015, Qualcomm Venture Capital has expanded its investment focus to cutting-edge technology, focusing on investments in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, VR/AR, and robotics.
Qualcomm currently manages nearly 40 portfolio companies in China. When talking about what kind of investment target will be selected as the target, Shen Jin told reporters that Qualcomm will invest in companies and areas that can see more clearly.
"We were more focused. Many VCs could not focus so much because of the focus, so we were flexible in the round. Although 70% was A round, there were some investments in the Pre-A round, in the B round, C There are also some investments in the round. Moreover, Qualcomm will invest in companies and areas that we can see clearly as the upstream of the industrial chain." Shen Jin said.
Shen Jin believes that most venture capitalists are concerned with the one that is closer to consumers, such as games or application stores. This is at the relatively downstream end of the industry chain, and at the upstream end, Qualcomm’s insights. It is relatively clear.
“Everyone said that this year is a VR winter and nobody would dare to cast VR. Suddenly this industry has changed from very hot summers to cool winds in winter, but the change is really fast. But we are still optimistic. This is mainly due to technical needs. There are some breakthroughs that require the precipitation process of closed-door work. This is not to say that the industry is not or is not in the right direction. We will also vote for VR, which is a reverse operation.†Shen Jin also stressed that investment is not like stocks It needs to base its judgment on the industry and the investment options based on all information.
For the current valuation of the company is very high, Shen Jin stressed that it will pay attention to 5 years, 7 years later there is no potential, whether it can grow into a unicorn company. "Maybe some companies have already had a unicorn rating now, but it depends on whether it can become a tenfold or a hundredfold unicorn company in the future."
In addition, Shen Jin thinks that there is a big difference in artificial intelligence between China and the United States. He said that in the field of artificial intelligence, China rarely refers to the United States. First of all, the basic principles of artificial intelligence are relatively clear; second, artificial intelligence has more application scenarios in China. For example, the following two application scenarios are relatively weak in the United States: The first is security, and security is the main source of income for Chinese companies such as Shangtang and Face++, but installing cameras in the United States is more troublesome. The second is internet finance. The development of offline financial institutions in China is relatively weak, and as soon as Internet finance appears, it requires users to “sweepâ€â€”that is, to complete identity authentication, ensure that people use their own ID cards, and these companies’ second source of income. Is the online authentication.
If it comes to income, China's two application scenarios have already surpassed the United States. The third application scenario is a mobile phone, and the United States has an Apple company, but many of its contents are not open to the public. Shen Jin told reporters that China can provide a better environment for the application of these startup companies in mobile phones. The same applies to IoT applications. In particular, Shenzhen has a lot of smart hardware companies. The function of their products is mainly connected, whether it is Wi. -Fi is still connected to 3G and 4G, and they have joined artificial intelligence technology.
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