Chapter 123 A new round of financing for Light Armor Aerospace
To be able to meet the needs of China’s compound eye project, one must understand both radar and algorithms. This kind of person is really difficult to recruit.
You can’t recruit people if you don’t give them staff and money. A system without staff is worse than a dog.
Let alone talents, people don’t like to come, let alone those who work on algorithms.
Chen Yuanguang said: "In this case, you come up with a recruitment plan, what kind of people you want to recruit, and what are the specific requirements. We will recruit in the name of Guangjia Aerospace. After recruiting these people, we will send them to Chongqing and Yanjing. work.
We give housing subsidies. ”
Before, because Huaguo’s Compound Eye was not put into use, the need for algorithms was not so urgent.
Now that the edge radar has been installed, we are just waiting for the core radar to be optimized and installed. The entire The project is about to be put into production, and the overall subsequent use depends almost entirely on the level and team of the algorithmic personnel.
Mao Ke also seized the rare opportunity to communicate with Chen Yuanguang in person and raised the demand indirectly.
" That’s good, I’ll send you the recruitment requirements via email later.
In fact, the most important thing is to be proficient in computers and algorithms. It is difficult to recruit talents who can plug and play. There are too few such talents.
What we want to do is to recruit people and then train them slowly. Even if it is a little slower, it will be okay.
The recruitment of Guangjia Aerospace is very good. You are now very popular in China. When our masters and doctors mentioned Guangjia Aerospace, they all said that it is a good place.
Some PhD students in our group who are about to graduate want me to make an introduction to see if I can help them make referrals. "Mao Ke said.
Indeed, since Guangjia Aerospace successfully launched a bundled recyclable rocket this year, signed a contract with the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and won the China Space Station cargo transportation project, Guangjia Aerospace has become a The most handsome guy in the domestic aviation field
BYD single-handedly saved countless fresh graduates and became everyone's favorite. Offers were given away with just one click. It became the savior of materials science, one of the four major pitfalls. It received 100,000 yuan before, and 200,000 yuan after being successful, becoming No.1 in everyone's mind. .
The momentum of Guangjia Aerospace is even stronger than that of BYD. Although compared with other commercial aerospace companies, there is no essential difference in the salary of Guangjia Aerospace, except for the annual salary of 50,000 yuan.
But Light Armor Spaceflight has prospects, and the results are visible to the naked eye.
Especially this year, because of the success of Guangjia Aerospace, Guangjia Aerospace has become a national star. Many commercial airline rockets that originally wanted to take the recyclable rocket route are still in the laboratory.
They couldn't bear it one after another, and either went bankrupt or laid off employees. The first ones to be laid off must be the fresh graduates who have just joined the company.
This kind of thing has been fermented on Weibo and Xiaohongshu, and Guangjia Aerospace is the first choice, even higher than the priority of the Aerospace Research Institute.
Chen Yuanguang said: "Welcome, we are very short of people now. As long as there are no problems with character and ability, we will accept them.
If Mr. Mao can get a doctorate here, his ability must be OK. Take some simple personality tests and we will make an offer if you pass.
Let’s talk to HR and ask them to organize a special job fair at the Institute of Electronic Radar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. ”
Mao Ke nodded: "Okay, sorry for bothering you."
He felt that he had helped the students fight for opportunities. Mao Ke was an old-hearted person and understood the current market very well.
Only now can Chen Yuanguang make such a promise. In a few years, it will be difficult for even a doctor to want to go to Light Armor Spaceflight.
Because China’s most indispensable thing is people. SpaceX, for example, receives three million resumes from all over the world every year. Compared with SpaceX’s Light Armor Aerospace, there will only be more and more people in the future.
Mao Ke continued: "Yuan Guang, because of the radar array we designed this time, after the core radar is installed first, it can be continuously optimized in the future."
They adopted a unique design , that is, the radar is detachable and the core radar can be replaced without affecting the use of the entire radar array.
This is considered a semi-modular radar array.
“What we just talked about is the optimization strategy before the official launch.
In the long term, there are two main directions.
One is on the radar chip , the radar chip should use a radar chip with high computing power and high integration, which can be more adaptable to artificial intelligence algorithms.
The second is the system of distribution links and intelligent control, which must be continued in the future. Optimization.
The first one must be cooperated with external suppliers. The second point is whether it should be done by Guangjia Aerospace or outsourced to other companies. "
Chen Yuanguang: "Let me think about it again. ”
After that, there was a silence on the plane. Chen Yuanguang did not ask any more questions because he felt that the other party was tired and he also needed to think carefully.
Get off the plane and go straight to Chongqing Longjiao Town, Yunyang County, accompanied by officials from Chongqing throughout the whole process
"Mr. Chen, Academician Mao, we in Chongqing attach great importance to this project, and we have three parties: the district, the Science and Technology Bureau and the Project Demonstration Administration. Supervise the entire process. ”
Guangjia companies have not invested in Yudu. Yudu attaches great importance to Chen Yuanguang's visit, mainly to see if they can attract investment.
All the companies under Chen Yuanguang are high-tech companies, and these companies are currently the favorite of local governments to attract investment.
Chen Yuanguang only responded to the enthusiasm of officials on the surface. The main reason was that he was not engaged in manufacturing and there were no projects that could be placed in Chongqing.
Unless Guangjia Aerospace also builds cars in the future, the problem is that the Yangtze River Delta or Pearl River Delta region has more advantages than Chongqing in building cars.
After arriving at Zhongzhou Island, I stood on the mountain next to it and watched the Huaguo Compound Eye Project. The appearance was somewhat of a technological wonder.
Multiple huge radar antennas are arranged on Zhongzhou Island according to certain rules, forming a vast radar array area, with a few vacant spots reserved for core radars.
Each radar antenna is a huge metal structure, tens of meters high and considerable width.
The surface is coated with special materials to better receive and transmit radar signals. These antennas are tilted at an angle.
“From the control center, these edge radars have begun to operate, and they have the ability to receive signals.
The core radar of the entire China Compound Eye project can be seen as China’s Compound Eye detection capability An indicator of
The amount of this indicator determines the detection range of the entire Chinese compound eye.
The current lack of core radar can be regarded as this indicator is zero. It affects the detection range of the entire China Compound Eye project is very small, but it will not be zero.
Because each radar antenna is also emitting radio waves in a specific direction.
These radio waves will be reflected back after encountering the target object, forming an echo signal.
Each radar antenna receives these echo signals and converts them into electrical signals.
The electrical signal is then transmitted to the control center of the radar array, which is where we are now.
The staff processed and analyzed the signals.
After the core radar is deployed, the entire system can operate at full power. "Mao Ke briefly introduced.
After visiting the progress of the compound eye project in China that day, Chen Yuanguang was very excited after returning to the hotel. This is a project he built alone, and it is also related to the success or failure of the entire asteroid mining in the future. .
He posted a Weibo post with photos of today’s visit:
"The Huaguo Compound Eyes project sincerely invites algorithmic talents to join. Those who are interested are welcome to send their resume to
Chen Yuanguang recruits directly online, and the efficiency of his Weibo posting is much faster than that of the company HR who goes to major recruitment websites.
The comments below were quickly flooded with comments from netizens.
"Can I go if I graduate from technical secondary school?"
"Can I go if I graduate from college?"
"Can I graduate from high school?"
These types of comments are accompanied by the graduation certificate of the corresponding school, which belongs to an institution that I have never heard of.
Of course there are also serious ones, Amerikan IP, and the picture is the student ID card of MIT:
"Brother, I am currently studying for a Ph.D. at MIT, and I will work in Guangjia Aerospace after graduation. Is that possible? I’m very interested.”
The comments in this comment are: “Brother, we are teasing God, are you serious?”
The recruitment mailbox of Guangjia Aerospace received thousands of emails that night, including many top talents.
This is the appeal of Light Armor Aerospace.
After visiting Yudu, Chen Yuanguang did not return to Pengcheng, but rushed to Shenhai without stopping, where he was going to hold a new round of fund-raising meetings.
The progress of Guangjia Aerospace is faster than expected, and the money is burning faster than expected.
The patent licensing fee for perovskite cells is a considerable amount of cash flow, but this cash flow is only 2 to 3 billion RMB a year at best.
Because it charges based on volume, major photovoltaic manufacturers have only begun to put into production one after another, and the production capacity has not increased, so the patent fees for Guangjia Aerospace are limited. Light Armor Aerospace plans to raise US$5 billion in this round of fundraising, which is considered the largest single fundraising in the past decade.
It is still in the Marriott Hotel conference hall that can accommodate 2,200 people.
Different from the first issue, this time Guangjia Aerospace does not need to invite one by one. It only needs to reveal the news, and these financial institutions will automatically come to their door.
And this time it is not only state-owned capital, but also foreign and private capital.
More than 700 investment institutions came, and the conference hall was not big enough, so we hired hotel staff to temporarily add some extra seats.
"Manager Chen, long time no see." Duan Zhizhong, senior project manager of Hefei Emerging Industry Development Fund, added the word "senior" to his title after handling the Guangjia Aerospace project.
Sitting next to him is Chen Jing'an, the investment manager of Shenzhen Venture Capital. Their two institutions are the two largest investors in the first round of financing for Light Armor Aerospace.
The two also became familiar with each other because of this project. Sitting together this time, Duan Zhizhong also wanted to find out how much Chen Jing'an or Shenzhen Venture Capital planned to invest.
"Manager Duan, long time no see, how much are you planning to spend on Hefei this time?" Chen Jing'an inquired about the enemy's situation as soon as he came up.
Everyone knew before coming here that this round of Light Armor Space Plan will raise 35 billion RMB. Considering that US dollars cannot be used, the price is directly calculated in RMB.
This is a huge number and should be the largest single financing in the past few years.
Duan Zhizhong smiled and said: "We would like to wrap it up directly.
The problem is that we don't have that much money, so we can invest up to five billion."
Because With such a huge scale of fundraising, there is no confrontation between the two parties.
But at a certain point, the two sides have a confrontational relationship, even a zero-sum game, and that is where the headquarters of Guangjia Aerospace is located.
Currently, the Guangjia Aerospace R&D center is in Pengcheng, and the functional departments remain in Shenhai, which gives Pengcheng major benefits.
The current stage alone has encouraged a large number of companies to rely on orders from Guangjia Aerospace to survive, and it is expected that the entire aviation industry will be driven to Pengcheng in the future.
Hefei is so greedy that we obviously invested in it.
Chen Jing'an lamented: "Hefei is still willing to spend money on investment, but none of us are so generous.
By the way, before you came here, you didn’t discuss it during your internal seminar?
When will this start? If the follow-up is really as Mr. Chen said, the first round will be 2 billion US dollars, the second round will be 5 billion US dollars, the third round will be 10 billion US dollars, and the fourth round will be 15 billion US dollars. .
The entire fundraising scale will be unprecedentedly large, and the relative risks will also be unprecedentedly large.
Do you really plan to keep following me?
The achievements of Guangjia Aerospace are amazing, and the speed of burning money is also amazing. ”
Duan Zhizhong sneered: "Do you know how much funds Weilai has raised in total?"
Chen Jing'an instantly understood that Weilai had raised more than 70 billion yuan in total. Although the unit of measurement is RMB, There were several rounds in between that raised only U.S. dollars.
Obviously full of gambling.
Chen Jing'an said: "That's right. You were right when Weilai hit rock bottom in 2019, when its stock price fell from US$10 to just over US$1, and it was on the verge of delisting. Hillhouse liquidated its positions and Sequoia Capital reduced its positions. We have also invested 7 billion in Weilai, you are really not afraid.”
Hefei is known as the most investment-savvy local government, and it is absolutely full of gambling when it comes to investment.
The most important thing is to win the bet.
Duan Zhizhong said: "We all dare to bet on NIO. Why don't we dare to bet on Guangjia Aerospace, which has such an outstanding performance?
Guangjia Aerospace is not listed on the market. Mr. Chen starts from The compensation received from Guangjia Aerospace is only in the millions, and he has no equity incentives.
We audit the entire financial situation every year. Even if the money is spent, it is spent on R&D, and R&D does produce results. , some large expenditures are very clear
Either it is a joint venture with YT City to build a space launch ship, or it is a joint venture with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yanjing University of Science and Technology. It is so open and transparent. There is no transfer of interests, and shareholders' rights are guaranteed
If there are results and the money is burned faster, we will follow suit. "
Duan Zhizhong continued: "If Pengcheng feels that the risk is too great and does not want to follow, they can transfer the shares to us. Our request is also very simple, that is, to transfer the R&D center to Hefei.
Hefei happens to be also in the Yangtze River Delta region. In the future, Light Armor Aerospace can delve into the Yangtze River Delta region. ”
Chen Jing’an thought of Hefei’s glorious deeds and felt that this was indeed something they could do.
That year’s fiscal revenue was 30 billion, and Hefei dared to invest 9 billion to build a production line for BOE, a big gamble. The genes are still there despite the leadership changes.
He can't make the decision, and the attitude of Shenzhen Venture Capital in sending him as a representative is that he will definitely follow, but he's not sure how much.
If the Guangjia Aerospace R&D Center is moved to Hefei, Pengcheng can kill all the leaders of Chen Jing'an and Shenzhen Venture Capital.
Representatives of various investment institutions were whispering below. Everyone was chatting about projects and gossips with familiar representatives. As Chen Yuanguang walked from the small door on the side to the arranged podium, the sound suddenly fell silent.
The shadow of a famous tree.
Chen Yuanguang patted the microphone: "A lot of people came this time, even more than last time.
I have some social anxiety and get nervous easily when seeing so many people.
This time there is only one purpose, which is to raise funds. Guangjia Aerospace plans to raise 35 billion in this round, and then allocate corresponding equity to everyone according to the scale of fundraising.
Let me tell you in advance, equity is just equity, it has little to do with voting rights, and we will not pay dividends in the short term.
Our long-term goal is to realize asteroid mining. In the process of promoting light armor aerospace in this direction, a large number of valuable derivative technologies will be developed.
For example, perovskite batteries have become popular from last year to this year. This year, I read the financial news on Lin Jia’s computer. There are a lot of research reports on perovskite and photovoltaic companies. I believe that all the investment managers here have also written similar articles. Research report.
Perovskite battery technology was developed by Guangjia Aerospace, which will bring sustained and stable cash flow to Guangjia Aerospace.
Major photovoltaic companies and new energy vehicle companies that use perovskite cell technology need to pay patent fees to Guangjia Aerospace.
However, we will not distribute dividends on the income generated by derivative technologies during this process. Even if we achieve profitability, it will only be used for R&D investment in the second year.
We will not pay dividends until we achieve our ultimate goal. If you invest in this project and want to wait for dividends, you will have to wait until Guangjia Aerospace brings the ore from the asteroid back to Earth and then sells it, and this part of the proceeds will be used. Dividends.
Of course, as the founder of Light Armor Aerospace, I have full confidence that we can do this, but I still want to tell you in advance that this will be a long process.
It will most likely take ten years to see results.
Although once successful, the benefits will be amazing.
But everyone should fully consider their risk tolerance before investing. ”
Chen Yuanguang is very honest, but at this point he is not short of people who are willing to invest in him.
Since the successful launch of Trailblazer 2, he was originally not interested in the light armor space project. Foreign capital has also come to the door, such as Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan, and they have expressed their willingness to invest in this project to the financing department of Guangjia Aerospace.
In their view, the global commercial aerospace market can accommodate two companies. Considering the background of the confrontation between America and China, there must be two companies.
No company in the Western world can shake up SpaceX's position in the field of commercial aviation, not Blue Origin, let alone RocketLab and Bigelow.
In the east, it seems that light armor aerospace has the most hope.
As for whether Guangjia Aerospace can really go to asteroids and bring back ore, they don't care.
It can be the best, if not, Light Armor Aerospace is also a rare good project on the market, but it is a bit expensive.
"Our current round of financing will mainly be used for rocket research and development, large-scale rocket launches, and launching space stations.
This time we need to launch our own space station as a transit base for subsequent asteroid mining.
So the overall financing scale is 35 billion RMB.”
There was a lot of noise at the scene, and everyone couldn’t sit still.
Because building a space station is really a thankless task, and the economic benefits are horribly low.
By making recyclable rockets, you can take orders and make some money, not to mention repaying the cost.
But the income from the space station can only come from the rich who want to go to heaven and experience space life.
I should be able to make more than 10,000 yuan this week.
(End of this chapter)