In response to the recent corruption scandal surrounding NetEase Games, on the early morning of November 8th, NetEase's public relations personnel responded on WeChat Moments. On the same day, NetEase Games released an internal announcement regarding rumors of an anti-corruption investigation, stating that multiple individuals were suspected of fraud, corruption, and illegal activities during their tenure and have now been criminally filed by the public security organs.
According to the announcement, Xiang Lang, former head of the Battle and KK business units, Jin Yuchen, former head of the Interactive Entertainment Channel Distribution Center, Xu Ao, employee of the Interactive Entertainment Market Center, Zhao Shengnan, employee of the Interactive Entertainment Channel Distribution Center, Wu Yi, former employee of the Interactive Entertainment Market Center, Lu Chengwang, former employee of the Battle business unit, and Lin Jia, former employee of the Interactive Entertainment Market Center, were suspected of fraud, corruption, and illegal activities during their employment and have been criminally investigated by the public security organs. Criminal coercive measures have been taken in accordance with the law. The notice mentioned that 27 companies related to fraud, corruption, and illegal activities have been included in the list of entities that NetEase will never cooperate with.
Comment: The Battle Division mentioned multiple times in the notification is the department responsible for esports at NetEase. Xiang Lang, former head of the Battle and KK business units, graduated in 2008 and later joined Shanda Games. In 2013, he joined NetEase and has been responsible for many well-known products such as "Journey to the West", "Minecraft", and "Identity V". In addition, Xiang Lang is also responsible for the social marketing and live streaming business of NetEase Games. Earlier, in response to this matter, NetEase's relevant public relations personnel stated on WeChat Moments that NetEase's anti-corruption efforts have never stopped. As the case is still under investigation, specific information cannot be disclosed and will be reported at an appropriate time.
Digging out Meta's former AR hardware manager, OpenAI restarts robot team
On November 5th, Caitlin Kalinowski, who had previously participated in the Orion project and served as the leader of the Meta AR glasses project, announced on social platform X that she would join OpenAI as a leader in robotics and consumer hardware. This also means that OpenAI is restarting its robotics team. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have jointly invested in a San Francisco robotics startup called Physical Intelligence. Investing in self-developed technology, OpenAI has rekindled its old dream of robotics after many years.
Comment: OpenAI's biggest advantage lies in its intelligence and powerful computing power, which are crucial for improving its abilities in robot training, reasoning, and other areas in the future. However, humanoid robots are a highly coupled combination of software and hardware, and the development process of robots will involve many adaptation and coupling issues between software and hardware, which will be a significant challenge for OpenAI.
Wang Huiwen returns to Meituan and takes charge of the AI product team
On November 6th, it was reported that co-founder Wang Huiwen, who has returned to Meituan, will be in charge of Meituan's AI team. Insiders told First Financial that Wang Huiwen is currently the head of the GNO6 department, responsible for AI product research and development. Since the official announcement of his return to Meituan in April, he has been responsible for the AI direction, "said the insider.
Wang Huiwen was previously regarded by the outside world as the "right-hand man" of Meituan founder Wang Xing, and was responsible for key businesses such as group buying, food delivery, transportation, and the upstream and downstream of the catering industry within Meituan. Therefore, she is known as the "second person" of Meituan. It is worth noting that Wang Huiwen also pays special attention to the artificial intelligence industry. In 2023, she founded the "Lightyear Beyond" company to enter the field of big models.
Comment: In terms of layout, Meituan has successively launched AI related products. Last November, Meituan released the AI community app "wow" to the public, developed by the GN06 department and positioned as an AI friend community for young people themselves. At the end of October, Meituan launched the "Miaobrush" mini program, where users can upload materials to generate AI graphics and text. However, the above-mentioned products are not closely related to Meituan's main business, but more focused on content generation and social applications. The latest research report released by Sensor Tower, a research institution, shows that AI application revenue will rapidly increase in 2024. Global AI application revenue surged 51% year-on-year to $2 billion from January to August 2024, and is expected to reach $3.3 billion for the full year of 2024. Looking at the segmented tracks, from January to August 2024, the total in app purchase revenue of AI+image and video applications will be close to 1.1 billion US dollars, accounting for 53% of the total revenue of the entire AI application market.
The National Committee on Space Metrology Technology was established
On November 5th, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Space Metrology Technical Committee was officially established in Beijing, with its secretariat located at the Beijing Oriental Metrology and Testing Research Institute. The State Administration for Market Regulation stated that the National Space Metrology Technology Committee is mainly aimed at the needs of building a strong aerospace country and commercial aerospace development. In the future, it will gather cross disciplinary space metrology scientific innovation resources, build a large-scale collaborative technology innovation system, and create a source of space metrology technology, forming a number of international advanced metrology technologies and standard specifications, providing strong support for the construction of a strong aerospace country.
Comment: The current low altitude economy is in a rapid development stage, and there is a lack of unified standards for related technologies and products. In this context, the establishment of the National Space Metrology Technology Committee can promote the establishment of a metrology standard system applicable to the low altitude field as soon as possible, ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and comparability of metrology results for low altitude aircraft and related equipment in different enterprises and regions. This will help regulate market order and promote the healthy development of the low altitude economic industry.
Revenue and net profit have both increased, and SMIC and Huahong Company have submitted their third quarter reports for this year
On the evening of November 8th, Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and Huahong Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the "twin giants" in mainland China's wafer foundry industry, respectively released their financial reports. SMIC's revenue for the third quarter was $21.71, the highest in a single quarter, with a net profit of $1.488 billion, a decrease of 9.6% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 58.3% year-on-year; Huahong Company's third quarter revenue was $526 million, up 10% month on month and down 7.4% year-on-year. The net profit attributable to the parent company was $44.81 million, up 222.6% month on month and 571.6% year-on-year. The industry recovery is relatively mild, but we see that the consumer market is recovering, the demand for upgrading consumer goods is increasing, and exports need to remain strong, "said Zhao Haijun, CEO of SMIC, at the financial report conference.
Comment: In the third quarter, the performance of the two major wafer foundries in Chinese Mainland was good, both improved month on month, and significantly improved in revenue or net profit. However, the recovery of the industry is relatively slow, and the recovery of consumer electronics is faster in other fields. At the same time, due to the expansion of production capacity, there is a phenomenon of oversupply in some wafer foundry fields, resulting in some loosening of related foundry prices.
After Trump's election, the 'chip bill' may be blocked
On November 6th, the results of the 2024 US presidential election were announced, with Trump winning. Recently, Trump stated in an interview that the "chip bill" is a bad plan, and Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Johnson, has also expressed the need to improve and optimize the bill. Some professionals predict that as a bill enacted by the Democratic Party, the "Chip Act" may be hindered in its implementation after Trump takes office due to its inconsistency with his and the Republican Party's political beliefs. At the same time, he also believed that tariffs should be imposed on the chip industry in Taiwan, China.
Comment: The arrival of the Trump 2.0 era has added another layer of uncertainty to the semiconductor industry, which is of great concern to the world. However, some professionals believe that the United States will further restrict the export of semiconductor technology to China by its partners within the semiconductor industry chain. Some professionals believe that the US government will not only restrict the supply chain of advanced processes, but also restrict the supply chain of mature processes in the future.
The central bank has named the internationalization of the home appliance industry
On November 8, the People's Bank of China (hereinafter referred to as "the People's Bank of China") released a report on the implementation of China's monetary policy in the third quarter of 2024, stating that, looking forward to the future, the home appliance industry is an important engine for China's steady growth and consumption promotion, and will continue to accelerate its transformation towards quality and internationalization. Firstly, the policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods continues to be strengthened in terms of subsidies and publicity, which is conducive to further activating the existing market and promoting consumption and industrial structure upgrading. Second, the "the Belt and Road" initiative urges household appliance enterprises to actively expand the international market, integrate advantageous resources in the global industrial chain through mergers and acquisitions, accelerate global layout and technological innovation, and expand international influence and competitiveness. The third is to take advantage of the integration of information technology and manufacturing industry to continuously deepen the process of domestic substitution, make up for shortcomings, forge long plates, and consolidate the industry's advantageous position.
Comments: It is expected that the country will continue to expand domestic demand with household appliances as an important focus, and encourage enterprises to "go global" by expanding the "the Belt and Road" market and other ways to cope with the possible tax increase in China by the United States in the future. In addition, enterprises are encouraged to improve quality and efficiency through the integration of information technology and manufacturing, which will promote the application of AI technology. In the first three quarters of this year, China's home appliance industry maintained a good growth momentum in exports. It is expected that home appliance exports will continue to improve in October and the entire fourth quarter, and the annual home appliance exports will reach a new historical high. At the same time, due to changes in the international environment, home appliance companies are actively laying out and preparing for potential tariff risks. One of the industry trends in the future is for home appliance companies to integrate the advantageous resources of the global industrial chain through mergers and acquisitions.
Venture capital trendsetter
According to data from Qichacha, there were a total of 5 financing events in the biopharmaceutical industry this week (11.2-11.8), an increase of 5 investment and financing events compared to last week. Among them, Bailinko Pharmaceutical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. completed an A+round financing with the participation of Shenzhen Venture Capital, and Shandong Renrui Biotechnology Co., Ltd. completed a 15 million RMB A round financing with the participation of Shandong Caijin.
There were a total of 5 financing events in the field of artificial intelligence, the same number as last week. Among them, Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. completed the C+round with the participation of China Merchants Group Venture Capital, Optics Valley FiberHome Technology Investment, Shunxi Fund, and Junlian Capital. Shenzhen Yuanrong Qixing Technology Co., Ltd. has completed a $100 million Series C financing round in which Great Wall Motors participated.
There were a total of 8 financing events in the semiconductor industry, an increase of 4 compared to last week. Among them, Nanjing Houmo Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. completed the A+round financing with the participation of Lenovo Venture Capital and Zhongshan Financial Holding, and Wuxi Huachen Xinguang Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. completed the A+round financing with the participation of Hechuang Capital.
There have been no financing incidents in the manufacturing industry, with a decrease of three incidents compared to last week.