ByteDance: there is no plan to sell TikTok
On the evening of April 25, ByteDance sent a document saying that the news about ByteDance exploring the sale of TikTok by foreign media was untrue, and ByteDance had no plan to sell TikTok. Previously, The Information reported that ByteDance was exploring a plan to sell most of the equity of TikTok’s US business, preferably to companies outside the technology industry, and did not include algorithms that recommend videos to TikTok users.
Comment: Previously, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, responded to the ban on TikTok by stating that the ban placed the United States on the opposite side of the principle of fair competition and international economic and trade rules. If the so-called “national security” reason could be used to arbitrarily suppress excellent enterprises in other countries, then there would be no fairness and justice. When you see someone else’s good things, you have to find ways to take them for yourself, which is completely a thief’s logic.
Shen18, carrying three “80s generation” individuals, set sail for the first time to raise “pet” fish in space
On April 25th, the Shenzhou 18 manned spacecraft carried three “80s generation” astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu, into space. Shenzhou 18 will also focus on zebrafish and goldfish algae as research objects and implement the first in orbit aquatic ecological research project in China. The press conference of the Shenzhou-18 manned flight mission revealed that China will urgently research and promote the participation of foreign astronauts and space tourists in space station flights. At the same time, the construction of the Wenchang manned lunar exploration launch site has been fully launched and implemented. It is reported that the manned lunar exploration project’s lunar landing phase mission will be approved and implemented by the central government in 2023. The overall goal is to achieve Chinese landing on the moon by 2030, and various systems are currently being developed and constructed according to plan.
Comment: Building a Chinese space station and conducting long-term and large-scale space science and technology experiments with human participation can greatly promote the comprehensive development of space science, space technology, and space applications, and radiate and drive technological progress in related industries. The successful launch of Shenzhou 18 marks another significant progress in China’s aerospace field and a step closer to future moon landing plans.
Price increase of some storage products after the Taiwan earthquake
Since April, many earthquakes have occurred in Hualien County, Taiwan, China, China, causing the market to worry about semiconductor supply disruption and price fluctuations. The reporter visited Huaqiangbei and learned that the main cause of recent price fluctuations is storage chips. Some merchants have reported a 10% to 20% increase in storage product prices since April, which may be related to the impact of the Taiwan earthquake on supply. However, some merchants have also stated that the recent price changes of storage products have not been significant or even declined, which is due to the lack of a significant recovery in demand for electronic products.
Comment: After the previous round of semiconductor downturn, the overall semiconductor demand is still waiting to rebound. There are many market influencing factors, and supply side fluctuations may not be able to quickly transmit to terminal prices. Jibang Consulting predicts that the impact of the Taiwan earthquake on DRAM bit output in the second quarter of this year will be less than 1%. Due to the impact of the earthquake on Micron, which is mostly concentrated in advanced processes, it cannot be ruled out that the final transaction price of its server DRAM may increase. In addition. Recently, the semiconductor industry has also released some signals of a slowdown in recovery. Reduce the growth rate of the semiconductor industry, excluding memory, to 10% for the entire year of 2024, compared to previous expectations of over 10%.
95 game licenses approved in April
On April 26th, the State Administration of Press and Publication announced the approval information for domestic online games in April 2024, with a total of 95 games approved and an additional 47 game change approval information. Products worthy of attention include Tencent’s public welfare game “Carbon Island”, NetEase’s new shooting product “Broken Land”, Kwai’s “Endless Dreams”, Sony’s China Star’s focus product “Lost Soul”, etc. Among them, “The Broken Land” was originally a self-developed product by NetEase’s Beiluoshimen Studio, codenamed 56. It is understood that this project is NetEase’s flagship shooting product this year, focusing on the Chinese style wasteland themed PVE adventure shooting experience. The official will start a new round of testing in the near future, supporting multi port interoperability for iOS, Android, and PC.
Comment: Since the beginning of this year, a total of 428 domestic online game versions have been released, and the quantity has remained stable. In terms of the number of approved games, compared to the 107 batches in March, 111 batches in February, and 115 batches in January, the number of version numbers in the April batch has decreased, but there is still a significant improvement compared to the same period last year.
Microsoft’s new quarter financial report exceeded expectations, and artificial intelligence investments were reviewed
On April 26th, Microsoft released its financial report for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year (as of March 31, 2024). After the financial report was released, Microsoft’s stock price rose by over 4% after trading. According to the financial report, Microsoft’s revenue for the previous quarter was $61.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%. The net profit was 21.9 billion US dollars, an increase of 20%. The revenue of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud division was $26.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20%. The revenue from server products and cloud services increased by 24%, driving a 31% increase in revenue from Azure and other cloud services. Azure and other cloud service revenue have not yet recovered to the growth rate of fiscal year 2022, with growth rates of 50%, 46%, 46%, and 40% for the four quarters of fiscal year 2022, respectively. However, Microsoft’s investment in artificial intelligence has also been scrutinized. On April 24th, the UK competition regulator announced that it is reviewing Microsoft’s investment in French company Mistral.
Comment: Since 2023, Microsoft has partnered with startup OpenAI to increase its investment in large models and artificial intelligence technology, which has also boosted the company’s stock price. As of the release of its financial report, Microsoft’s stock price is $399.04, with a market value close to $3 trillion. Subsequently, Microsoft announced the progress of multiple artificial intelligence technology products. On April 23rd, Microsoft launched the small model Phi-3-mini, which will be available in the Microsoft Azure AI Model Catalog, Hugging Face (Machine Learning Model Platform), and Ollama (Lightweight Framework for Running Models on Local Computers).
Venture Capital Vanguard
According to Tianyancha data, there were a total of 60 investment and financing events this week; From the industry distribution of financing events, the number of events related to production and manufacturing, medical and health, and advanced manufacturing ranks among the top, with 16, 12, and 7 events respectively; From the perspective of the number of times investment and financing institutions have made moves, investment institutions are becoming increasingly diversified, including Shuimu Venture Capital and Yinggang Capital.
Among them, there were a total of 12 financing events in the medical and health industry; From the perspective of rotation, there are mainly 2 events, including Angel Wheel, Pre-A Wheel, A Wheel, and A+Wheel; In terms of financing amount, Shanghai Xinlv Pharmaceutical R&D Group, Xinyi Biotechnology, Nafei Health, Lannacheng Biotechnology, and Xiyuan Anjian have financing amounts exceeding 100 million yuan; From the perspective of investment institutions, including Chuanhua Group and Tailong Investment, all have invested.
This week, there were a total of 3 financing events in the artificial intelligence industry. From the perspective of rounds, angel+, A+, and B+rounds were all involved; In terms of financing amount, Aishi Technology and Mimo Zhixing have raised over 100 million yuan. Among them, the smart residential brand Habit @ Habitat announced the completion of angel round and Pre-A round financing, with a cumulative amount of 653 million yuan. The Pre-A round was led by Ideal Automobile, with investors such as Stone Technology and New Taipei Science and Technology Innovation Fund joining in. Founder Shen Yanan, as co-founder and CEO, led Ideal Automobile from scratch to a successful IPO.
This week, there were a total of 7 financing events in the advanced manufacturing industry; From the perspective of rounds, angel round and Pre-A are the main financing events, with two financing events each; In terms of financing amount, Renxin Technology’s financing amount is nearly 100 million yuan; From the perspective of investment institutions, Jinshajiang United Capital, Amara Investment, and others have all made efforts.
There have been a total of 2 financing events in the automotive transportation industry; From the perspective of rounds, both angel rounds and strategic financing are involved; From the perspective of investment institutions, Shunwei Shares and others have all made moves.