Late Evening News from Kr 81 | The DAU of Qianwen reached 73.52 million; Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, announced his retirement after the Spring Festival; Elon Musk is planning to build an AI satellite factory on the moon
Large Companies:
Qianwen's DAU Reaches 73.52 Million
36Kr learned that the latest data from QuestMobile shows that on February 7th, the DAU (Daily Active Users) of Qianwen reached 73.52 million. In addition, the free list of Apple App Store shows that the Qianwen App has topped the first place on the App Store free list for six consecutive days.
South Korean AI Startup Wrtn Plans to Enter the US Market and Aims for an IPO as Early as 2028
The founder of South Korean AI startup Wrtn said that the company has launched AI entertainment services in South Korea and Japan. It is expected that the annualized revenue will exceed $100 million this year. The company plans to expand to the US market before June and aims for an IPO as early as 2028.
Fat Donglai Founder Yu Donglai Announces Retirement After Spring Festival
36Kr learned that Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, announced in a post on a social platform on February 11th that he will officially retire after the Spring Festival and will become an advisor. The work of Fat Donglai will be presided over by the Fat Donglai Decision-Making Committee.
Elon Musk is Planning to Build an AI Satellite Factory on the Moon
On February 10th local time, Elon Musk outlined the blueprint of a lunar satellite factory at an all-staff meeting of his artificial intelligence company xAI. He said that the company needs to build a factory on the moon to manufacture AI satellites, and a huge space catapult can launch AI satellites into space. "You have to go to the moon," Musk said. This will help xAI gain more capabilities in building artificial intelligence than other companies and provide computing power support for xAI's artificial intelligence business. "It's hard to imagine what kind of intelligence at that scale would think, but it will be extremely exciting to witness its birth."
New Products:
36Kr learned that on February 11th, Meituan's LongCat released a native "In-Depth Research" Agent. Based on the original three-layer intelligent agent closed-loop architecture and the physical world data accumulated by Meituan for training, this product effectively alleviates the pain point that current AI is prone to hallucinations when solving real-world physical problems. User blind tests show that the "overall availability rate" of its guides reaches 61.1%, better than ChatGPT's 42.8%. Currently, this function is freely available on the LongCat website.
iFlytek Officially Releases the Xinghuo X2 Large Model Trained with All-Domestic Computing Power
36Kr learned that on February 11th, iFlytek officially released the Xinghuo X2 large model trained with all-domestic computing power. It is reported that while achieving a comprehensive upgrade of general capabilities, Xinghuo X2 focuses more on high-professional and high-experience scenarios such as education, medical care, automobiles, and intelligent agents.
Estée Lauder Sues Walmart for Selling Counterfeit Beauty Products
Estée Lauder has filed a lawsuit in a California federal court, accusing Walmart of selling counterfeit beauty products on its website and failing to take sufficient measures to ensure that only authorized and genuine products are provided to consumers. According to the lawsuit filed on Monday, Estée Lauder said that it had purchased, inspected, or tested several products marked with trademarks such as Le Labo, La Mer, Clinique, Aveda, Tom Ford, and "Estée Lauder" sold on Walmart's website, but all these products were identified as counterfeits.
Investment and Financing:
"Qingyun New Materials" Completes a Strategic C+ Round of Financing
36Kr learned that recently, "Qingyun New Materials" announced the completion of a strategic C+ round of financing, jointly led by Sinochem Innovation (Quanzhou) Industrial Fund under Sinochem Capital Venture Capital and Guoxin Venture Capital Fund under China National State-owned Capital Operation Corporation. This financing will accelerate the technological iteration, innovation, and upgrading of Qingyun New Materials in the field of flash-spun materials.
Refinancing Rules are Optimized, and Listed Companies Actively Study Policy Opportunities
On February 9th, the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing Stock Exchanges simultaneously introduced a package of measures to optimize refinancing, increasing support for high-quality listed companies, improving the inclusiveness and adaptability to science and technology innovation enterprises, and enhancing the flexibility and convenience of refinancing. Many listed companies said that refinancing plays an important role in supporting listed companies to become stronger and better and promoting the optimal allocation of resources. The new regulations are precisely tailored to the development needs of enterprises and are highly compatible with the business characteristics and strategic layouts of different types of enterprises. It is understood that many listed companies are actively studying policy opportunities and planning refinancing paths to empower the development of their main businesses and strengthen their core competitiveness under the premise of complying with regulatory requirements.
Today's Views:
After completing a huge deal in the United States, Alphabet is issuing bonds denominated in pounds and Swiss francs worth at least $9.4 billion, including extremely rare 100-year bonds. According to people familiar with the matter who wished to remain anonymous, the issuance scale of the pound bonds is expected to reach a record £4.5 billion (equivalent to $6.2 billion), with maturities ranging from 3 years to 32 years, as well as 100-year bonds.
Other Noteworthy News:
Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Improving the National Unified Power Market System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). The "Opinions" point out that: First, promote the optimal allocation of power resources across the country, optimize the implementation path of the national unified power market system, and improve the cross-provincial and cross-regional power trading system. Second, improve all functions of the power market, comprehensively build a spot market that can better discover prices and adjust supply and demand, continuously improve the medium- and long-term market that guarantees the safe and stable supply of power, accelerate the construction of an auxiliary service market that supports the flexible regulation of the power system, improve the green power market that can better realize environmental value, establish a capacity market that reliably supports the construction of regulating power sources, and create a standardized, orderly, convenient, and efficient retail market. Third, promote equal and extensive participation of various business entities in the power market, and further encourage power generation-side, user-side, and new business entities to participate in the power market. Fourth, build a national unified power market institutional system, unify the power market rule system, improve the power market governance system, improve the electricity price formation mechanism, unify the power market technical standards, and establish a national unified power market credit system. Fifth, strengthen policy coordination, strengthen the connection and coordination between power planning and the power market, strengthen the construction of the emergency response and risk prevention and control system, and establish a power market evaluation system.
South Korea Plans to Invest 1 Trillion Won in Developing AI Chips for Devices
South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that South Korea will launch a project worth 1 trillion won (about $687.8 million) next month to develop artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors for devices. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the government and private companies will invest a total of 1 trillion won in the project over the next five years, aiming to create about 10 types of AI chips that can be used in autonomous vehicles, smart home appliances, humanoid robots, etc.