I asked you to save a bankrupt factory and you became the richest man in the world.

Chapter 458: 218-219: Gaoling's moat! (4000 words)
"The crown of high technology in today's world is the chip!"

"Graphics chips are the most monopolized sector in developed countries."

"It is also an area that China cannot even begin to catch up with at present."

"We also want our own chip company, Hillhouse Chip, and we also have a small chip factory."

"But our chip research and development has nothing to do with this field."

“We have almost zero foundation in the field of graphics chips.”

"We at Gaoling want to have what the world has! Even if it's a little bit worse than the best in the world!"

At this point, Feng Ji and Yang Qi on the side were stunned.

What?

Whatever the world has, we at Hillhouse also want to have?

What a big tone!

What a great generosity!
This gave them the latest understanding of China's uncrowned king of technology.

If someone else said this, even if it was their former boss Pony Ma, they would think it was a joke.

The technology tree of the technology industry is now spread out everywhere. If you don’t have strong R&D capabilities, you can’t even get started in the main business, let alone related side businesses.

Gao Huaijun's consideration of graphics chips was not a spur-of-the-moment idea, but the result of repeated consultations with the artificial intelligence team.

Graphics chips mainly involve two areas.

一个是图像渲染GPU，也就是传统的桌面端显卡，例如英伟达的RTX10/20/30/40系列，或者AMD的RX5000/6000/7000系列。主要服务于图形图像、游戏、视频等方面。全球主要玩家是NVIDIA、AMD.Intel。Intel凭借CPU优势占据集成显卡60%以上市场份额。

As for discrete graphics cards, NVIDIA accounts for 84% of the market share, while AMD accounts for 12%.

另外一个则是计算加速GPU，也称为数据中心显卡，例如英伟达的P40、V100、A100、H100、A800、H800，或者AMD的MI250、MI300，主要服务于AI模型训练和推理等新兴的算力需求。

The major global players are NVIDIA and AMD, with NVIDIA in a dominant position with a market share of over 97%.

With the popularity of AI, the training and reasoning of AI models require a lot of computing. Therefore, the future trend will be in computing-accelerated GPUs. Nvidia was able to reach a trillion-dollar market value in the future by relying on computing-accelerated GPUs, not desktop graphics cards.

Nvidia’s slogan is: “World Leader in Artificial lntelligence Computing”, while AMD’s slogan is “Together weadvance Al”, which are actually both closely following the Al hotspots.

Nvidia made its fortune in the gaming business, and later continued to make efforts in the fields of data center AI, automobiles, and the metaverse.

In 2007, NVIDIA launched the general parallel computing architecture CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), making GPU a general parallel data processing accelerator, namely GPGPU.

The CUDA architecture no longer needs to map general computing to the graphics API (application programming interface) like the previous GPU architecture, which greatly reduces the development threshold of CUDA. Therefore, CUDA has developed rapidly after its launch and is widely used in oil exploration, astronomical computing, fluid dynamics simulation, molecular dynamics simulation, biological computing, image processing, audio and video encoding and decoding, and other fields.

Therefore, if Hillhouse wants to achieve success in graphics chips, it must find an entry point.

There is no doubt that the gaming business that follows the same path as NVIDIA, especially high-end games, that is, the application of 3A masterpieces, is a very suitable entry point.

Now the liberation of productivity of various AIs has begun.

So now Gao Huaijun needs to use high-performance graphics cards to feed AI.

Otherwise, his current first-mover advantage would be lost due to the shortcomings of his graphics card.

So in a sense, having a high-performance game to match the graphics chip that Hillhouse is already developing and being able to run successfully is a good way to solve the gap in the commercial operation of graphics chips!
Other high-tech industries rely on demand to drive the counterattack of their own brands. If there is no demand, how can it drive the development of Hillhouse's graphics chips?
Nvidia is now a low-profile company, but in the future it will be a large company with a market value exceeding that of Pingguo. Naturally, Gao Huaijun now has to seriously consider the role of games.

Now that the idea that games are a waste of time has become deeply rooted in people’s minds, Gao Huaijun naturally hopes to use the cultural high ground to refresh the public’s impression of games.

If the banner of culture can be raised, it can break all chains of discrimination.

This is also the core reason why Gao Huaijun didn't know that "Black Myth: Wukong" would be a big hit, but still wanted to invest in this product like a prophet.

"After all that, you two should know that we have certain ideas about graphics chips, that is, in the field of GPUs."

"So, we have reached a certain level in the development of this GPU and have hit a bottleneck. That is, no game companies, especially large game companies, are willing to run data with this product."

"so..."

Gao Huaijun smiled and didn't say the rest.

Feng Ji and Yang Qi, who were standing by, understood and nodded at the same time.

So you are treating us as guinea pigs, running your GPU with the core code of Black Myth: Wukong, and making detailed adjustments for your GPU research and development and improvement, right?
The research and development of GPUs requires games to be fed out bit by bit, which requires the cooperation and purchase of game players, as well as the cooperation of game manufacturers.

Now they knew why Gao Huaijun took the initiative to ask them to make a 3A game.

What a big deal!

For the sake of a chip, a game was specially invested in.

But is it definitely worth it?

The two of them have been in the game industry for so long that they know the top three fundamental needs that drive the development of computer and Internet technology are:

1. Laziness;

2. Play games;

3. Engage in pornographic activities.

To put it another way: efficiency, entertainment and love.

In other words, these three can be combined into one, such as a fat otaku drinking happy soapy water while playing the 2D game of "Jin Ping Mei" at home.

However, the GPU field is now basically monopolized by NVIDIA and AMD.

For ordinary companies, just like 3A games, the entry threshold is extremely high.

Is it too confident to invest consecutively in two industries with extremely high entry barriers?

“You must have heard of our company’s slogan: ALL IN AI.”

"AI has now reached a crossroads of destiny and needs more powerful GPUs with more computing power to keep going."

"So now I need a game to drive the upgrade of our products." "It is your luck, and our luck, to be born in this era."

Gao Huaijun smiled and continued.

"Although making big games can bring prosperity to AI, I am not just a diode or a tool for desire."

“Even if games have no benefit to the AI ​​industry, games are human nature to have fun. Playing games is not for the development of AI or the improvement of computing power. There is only one purpose for playing games, and that is to have fun.”

"As for the empowerment of artificial intelligence, I think it is just the blossoming of human creativity in a suitable growth environment."

"And video games are part of that environment."

“The rapid advancement of science and technology has always required the liberation of human nature.”

“So I still hope you can make a game that can make people happy, and can be a classic game like GTA ten years later.”

"I hope you will not let me down for the money I gave you."

Gao Huaijun suppressed his smile at the end and spoke seriously.

Feng Ji and Yang Qi nodded and shook hands with Gao Huaijun excitedly.

As game developers, they naturally know about the 500 million yuan given by Gao Huaijun, and they have a sense of tragedy that although I know you may lose all your money, I still invested.

Five hundred million!
At least 350 million copies of the game must be sold to make a profit!

Even Feng Ji and Yang Qi felt that sentiment accounted for at least 80% of the making of this game, and helping Gao Huaijun run Hillhouse's GPU was at most just a side job.

What Gao Huaijun played this time was indeed a bit big.

On the way back to Xicheng, Tang Ying couldn't help but ask on the plane, "Boss Gao, aren't you being too willful this time? Investing 3 million in a A game is almost like throwing it away."

Morgan Stanley has also monitored the single-player game industry.

Although now because some niche players need to play games with exquisite graphics, game manufacturers need stronger computing power to do these renderings, and hardware manufacturers are slowly squeezing the toothpaste.

However, stand-alone games, especially 3A stand-alone games, have always been a niche field.

In other words, who the hell can afford a computer that costs more than 10,000 yuan!

Therefore the track is very narrow.

Only a few giants can survive.

Even now, Ubisoft, one of the giants, needs to try to develop online games. After all, the homepage does not make much money!

This landlord has no surplus food!
Although Gao Huaijun's prestige is enough to convince the public in a niche field like Hillhouse Capital's investment, it still hurts a lot in the long run.

At this moment, Li Yinxin on the side was also looking at Gao Huaijun curiously, wanting to see what he said.

"As my secretary, you must have a global perspective!"

"If you take away the game now and want to go through this R&D path again in another parallel universe, you will find a problem: the R&D funding you spend every time is hundreds of millions or even billions. And before reaching a certain level, it is completely unable to cover the normal use needs of AI computing power. In fact, if you want to fully reach the commercial level, you need an investment of tens of billions."

"This is just a matter of money. Another function of the game is that a large number of players can help you verify whether the product is mature. Every progress you make will be seen by everyone, and any problems can be corrected in time, so you won't go crazy and end up making a bunch of electronic garbage."

"That is to say, in our world, it is actually the vast majority of game users who ultimately pay for this upgrade. The 600 million yuan investment may seem like a lot, but when spread out among millions of players, it can actually greatly reduce our costs."

“If we can make a profit, that would be wonderful!”

"You have to learn to look at the big picture. Investing in games is a small amount of money, but the research and development and use of GPUs used in artificial intelligence are the key to building a deep moat in the technology field for us at Hillhouse!"

Gao Huaijun said this at the end in a very decisive tone.

Li Yinxin and Tang Ying, who were standing by, looked at Gao Huaijun in horror.

For the sake of a GPU, an investment of 500 million yuan can be sacrificed.

Moreover, GPU has become Hillhouse's moat and winning factor.

This is indeed a very horrifying thing!

However, it is normal for them to have doubts due to the limitations of this era.

What is industrial upgrading? Industrial upgrading is the process of supply-side adaptation to demand-side. Players are the main demand side of hardware manufacturers, including graphics cards. When the player group puts forward endless demands for the advancement of hardware technology for the ultimate gaming experience, technological iteration and industrial upgrading appear. It's that simple.

same.

Currently, Hillhouse’s application of artificial intelligence computing power is still at an early stage.

And all the high-end GPUs are in the United States.

How could Gao Huaijun leave his artificial intelligence egg there and let it get stuck by the neck?

Now Hillhouse's new energy, electronic technology, and chips are all sensitive industries, and he doesn't know whether they are subject to the scrutiny of the United States or not. He doesn't know when they will bring down divine punishment!

Therefore, we must and must be prepared now!
What is five hundred million?
Even if he had to invest 5 billion yuan, Gao Huaijun wouldn't frown even once!
"The winning hand? It's hard for me to imagine how advanced the application of artificial intelligence will be in the future world, so that you, Mr. Gao, will invest more than 30% of your research and development capabilities in the research and development of artificial intelligence."

"But I think our layout is too complete. The industry chain is so complete now. I don't think we need to do so many of these things."

Tang Ying replied.

Gao Huaijun was speechless for a long time.

He couldn't tell her about some of his concerns in his previous life.

If this kind of thing didn't happen, and you told Tang Ying and the others, they would probably laugh their heads off.

There are two biggest beneficiaries of globalization. One is the top class, whether developed or developing countries; the other is the middle and lower classes in developing countries, while the middle and lower classes in developed countries are in decline.

China is the biggest beneficiary!
What Hillhouse is trying to do now is to complete everything in one go, which is indeed very puzzling.

"The times make individuals, and individuals also make the times! The present era is an era of great changes that have not been seen in a thousand years. I, a small ant, have to be prepared!" Gao Huaijun couldn't help but sigh after being silent for a long time.

(End of this chapter)