Huayu: Director started with art films

Since Jerry Yang and David Filo founded Yahoo in 1994, this portal website has become popular in North American universities. Later, the two received financing from Li Yishu and successfully opened up the off-campus market.

In just less than a year, after the second round of financing, Yahoo began to sweep the North American market. Almost all Internet users would log in to the Yahoo portal first when they go online to search for news and websites that interest them.

To put it simply, a portal website is actually a supermarket, which displays various commodities, but the commodities are not created by the portal website. Instead, these commodities are placed on its own website through various links.

Because many netizens in this era have only a superficial understanding of the Internet, it is very difficult to ask them to remember so many URLs. However, as long as they remember the URL of Yahoo, they can find websites with various information.

Although Huang Renxun is not an Internet practitioner, many people in Silicon Valley are optimistic about the future of the Internet, and there are also many Internet practitioners.

Huang Renxun certainly knew the name of Yahoo. As the number one company in the North American Internet industry, its value is difficult to estimate.

So when he learned that Li Yishu was a shareholder and had invested tens of millions of dollars, his shareholding should be quite large, he suddenly became enthusiastic.

Huang Renxun's previous impression of Lee Yi-shu was that of a film company owner and an international director. However, because Lee Yi-shu invested in Yahoo, Huang Renxun discovered that Lee Yi-shu had another identity: an investor!
In 1993, Huang Renxun borrowed $4 from the bank and founded NVIDIA in February. It took a full year for Huang Renxun to reach his first strategic partnership with STMicroelectronics to manufacture a single-chip graphical user interface accelerator for the company.

It was precisely because of this business that Nvidia earned its first pot of gold and was able to develop its own chips.

In May this year, NVIDIA launched its first graphics chip product, NVIDIA NV1, which is the first commercial graphics processor capable of 3D rendering, video acceleration and integrated GUI acceleration.

Huang Renxun was full of confidence in this product, but his company did not have much money to promote it. It happened that Sequoia Capital and Sierra Ventures valued his company and were preparing to provide the company with the first round of financing.

However, Huang Renxun was not very satisfied with the financing price.

But there was no way out. Now it was a buyer's market. Huang Renxun originally wanted to grit his teeth and agree, but it happened that the Committee of 100 invited its members in North America to visit mainland China as an inspection team at the end of August, which aroused Huang Renxun's interest.

Although the gap between China's economy and that of the United States was very large at that time, Huang Renxun thought that if he could raise funds from here, he would not have to worry about being pressured by Sequoia Capital.

As it turned out, Huang Renxun made the right choice and he found a suitable investor that night - Li Yishu.

A layman investor is the best investor.

Huang Renxun was excited and asked tentatively: "Director Li, Yahoo is developing very fast now. I wonder when it will be listed?"

“It may have to wait until next year before it can be listed.”

Li Yishu said: "Sequoia is preparing to propose a second round of financing. After the second round of financing is completed, it will promote Yahoo's IPO plan."

"We need more financing? How much financing do we need?"

"I'm not sure about this. I don't usually manage the investment. I leave it to others to follow up, but it should be $100 million or $200 million."

Huang Renxun was envious when he heard this. His company Nvidia only raised 3000 million US dollars in the first round of financing, but Sequoia Capital and Siria Venture Capital wanted 40% of his shares.

Moreover, from Li Yishu's tone, it was obvious that she would not interfere in the company's affairs.

This is simply the best investor.

Thinking of this, Huang Renxun gritted his teeth and said, "Director Li, do you have any ideas for investing in chips?"

Li Yishu glanced at him. She had been thinking about how to approach the other party to invest in him, but now that he was offered the opportunity, it was a pleasant surprise.

"I don't know much about chips, but what Mr. Huang just mentioned are all high-tech products, and the future market prospects should be very good."

Li Yishu paused and continued, "If there is a chance, I will try to invest. I am very optimistic about emerging markets. When I went to the United States to make a movie, I saw Yahoo on the Internet and felt that it was a good website, so I invested in it."

"Then Director Li, do you have any interest in investing in NVIDIA?"

Huang Renxun said excitedly: "We at NVIDIA have now developed the first graphics chip product, which is the first of its kind in the world!"

"is it?"

Li Yishu deliberately showed interest and said with a smile, "Mr. Huang, why don't you tell me in detail?"

"No problem, Director Li, let's find a quieter place to talk."

Huang Renxun quickly took Li Yishu to a corner of the banquet hall and began to talk about their company's development in the past two years, the future market prospects of graphics chips, and the company's subsequent research and development ideas and directions.

Li Yishu doesn't know much about high-end things like chips. He is a liberal arts student and works in the entertainment industry. He only knows that there will be a shortage of chips in China in the future and that the country will be strangled by the West. Nvidia will become a leading group in the global chip field in the future.

After pretending to listen to the other party's explanation, Li Yishu nodded slightly:

"Mr. Huang, I don't know much about chips, but as I just said, I am optimistic about the emerging market. If Mr. Huang is willing, I can invest some money, but I have to find someone to investigate. It's not that I don't trust Mr. Huang, after all, this is not an investment of tens of thousands of dollars, it may be hundreds of millions!"

Huang Renxun said excitedly, “No problem, Director Li.”

He didn't mention the matter of Sequoia Capital and Sierra Ventures. He was mainly thinking of bringing the three together for a talk when the time comes.

For a founder like Huang Renxun, having one more investor will definitely bring more benefits than disadvantages.

Because he will only put out so many shares in the first round, whether the three companies divide them equally or some get more and some get less, it will not affect the subsequent financing situation too much.

Huang Renxun has been in Silicon Valley for so many years, and he has seen too many founders being kicked out by the board of directors because they had too few shares.

Wasn't it because of the power struggle within the company that the famous Apple founder Steve Jobs was kicked out of the board of directors, and thus left Apple and founded the current animation studio?

With such a vivid example in front of us, Huang Renxun naturally does not want venture capital companies to take the majority of the first round of financing, as this would be detrimental to subsequent financing and his future control over the company.

After the welcome dinner, in the next few days, Bei Jinming and others visited the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Yanjing under the arrangement of their leaders.

This new district was approved for construction in 1992, and was only approved as a national economic and technological development zone in August last year. It can be said to be the core area of ​​Yanjing's economy and technology in the future.

Most of the members of the inspection team brought by Bei Jinming this time are Chinese and ethnic Chinese from the business community, and the leaders naturally hope that they will return to China to invest.

After visiting the Economic Development Zone, they went to visit various universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University. On August 8, the inspection in Yanjing came to an end, and the group set off for Hengdian World Studios to see the cultural industry, including the crew of "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" that Li Yishu was filming.

This is also what the leaders above mean.

There are Chinese people of cultural origin in the delegation this time, and Li Yishu is now a cultural business card for China to the outside world. "Red Cliff" is the first domestic blockbuster with an investment of up to 6200 million US dollars.

This amount of money would qualify as an A-level investment even in Hollywood, so we naturally hope that the delegation will come and take a look, take a walk around, and promote Chinese films in the future, as they have great development prospects.

After the inspection team arrived at Hengdian Film and Television City, they split into two groups.

One group of people went to the big lake to see the filming site of "The Battle of Red Cliffs", and another group of people came to the film and television city to visit the ancient buildings.

Among them, Bei Jinming, Yo-Yo Ma and other cultural figures naturally came to visit the antique buildings.

After arriving in Hengdian, Li Yishu accompanied the inspection team on a tour.

He didn't go to Qingxia's place because Qingxia had already returned to her hometown in Sichuan with her son, Mother Lin, and Zhao Xue.

In order to allow her eldest grandson to visit, Zhao Xue specially bought a house with a yard in the city so that Qingxia would not have to worry about her identity being exposed.

Han Palace Film and Television City.

Bei Jinming stood on the top of the antique city wall, looking at the two palaces of Changle and Weiyang in the distance, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "It's really spectacular!"

Li Yishu, who was standing nearby, asked with a smile, "Mr. Bei, what do you think of the Changle Weiyang Palace?"

"Very good. It seems Director Li has put a lot of effort into this. You can tell at a glance that this architectural design was created by a master!"

Bei Jinming himself is a master of architecture and has done extensive research on ancient Chinese architecture. He can tell at a glance that the Changle and Weiyang palaces are definitely the work of a master.

"Mr. Bei is right. These two palaces were designed with the help of academicians from the Yanjing Architectural Design Institute. They are 1:1 replicas of the Changle Weiyang Palace as recorded in historical books."

Li Yishu said: "However, since there are no photos handed down, there are many discrepancies in the information on many places, so we can only simulate the design based on the ancient buildings of the Tang and Song dynasties."

"In order to build this Han Palace, the crew spent a lot of budget!"

The biggest investments in "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" were in two areas: the construction of the Han Palace and various weapons, armor, warships and other props.

Li Yishu spent a lot of favors to invite academicians from the Architectural Design Institute to design this Han Palace. Also, it was all built by state-owned enterprises, so the quality is absolutely first-class.

To this end, a total of more than 2 million yuan was spent on it.

Such a huge price is of course not just for the film effects, but mainly for the tourism industry.

Li Yishu holds a considerable share in the Hengdian Film and Television Group and also owns half of the shares of the Han Palace. Naturally, he has to do his business well in order to attract a large number of tourists.

“Already great!”

Bei Jinming said: "I have been studying ancient architecture for a long time, but unfortunately I have never had much opportunity to put it into practice in North America."

"If Mr. Bei wants to design an ancient building, I have a job for you."

Li Yishu thought of his company's headquarters and couldn't help but say, "I intend to build a group headquarters in Yanjing, but it hasn't been finalized yet. If Mr. Bei has any ideas, why not help me design it?"

Bei Jinming readily agreed: "Since the Xiangshan Hotel, I have not tried to integrate ancient architecture into modern architecture. If Director Li has any ideas in this regard, I can help with the design."

"Haha, that's exactly what I was thinking. I want to combine the company with the exhibition center..."

Li Yishu talked about Gong Li's cultural exhibition center in Jinan. He also wanted to add a cultural exhibition center to his company building in Yanjing, a high-rise building and a low-rise exhibition center.

Nowadays, most buildings are the same, pursuing only one goal: height, and the style is rectangular bricks.

Li Yishu naturally didn't want to build such an ugly headquarters building. He would either not build it or build one that would last for decades and make people impressed and applaud.

Bei Jinming pondered and said, "If that's the case, it will probably take quite a while."

According to Li Yishu's requirements, the design drawings are not so easy to make. First of all, the main building must be a combination of Chinese and Western styles, and it must also echo the adjacent auxiliary building. In addition to the design aesthetics, issues such as the safety of the building structure must also be considered.

"Don't be in a hurry, Mr. Bei. It will probably take another one or two years for the company to build the building."

Li Yishu shook his head. He didn't have enough time to deal with the group's affairs for the time being. He had to wait for Amy to reorganize the group's resources and conduct the first round of financing early next year.

The financial pressure is not that great. Although he acquired Asia Television and Ming Pao this year, and will participate in Yahoo's second round of financing at the end of the year, and Nvidia is expected to invest 10 to 20 million US dollars, all these expenses are the US dollars he earned abroad.

In the past few years in China, not to mention the money earned by Art Entertainment Company and Jingyi Film and Television Company, the dividends distributed by Pioneer Electric Company alone are almost several hundred million.

The Hefei local government has already intended to arrange for Pioneer Electric to go public.

Once the company goes public, Li Yishu will be able to come up with a lot of money.

Even if you can't come up with more than 1 billion RMB, you can still come up with 300 or 400 million RMB. It's more than enough to get a piece of land in Yanjing and build a building.

The inspection team only stayed in Hengdian for two days before flying to Shanghai to continue the inspection. This time, their inspection team will successively visit Yanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the four cities with the fastest economic development in China.

Yang Xuelan had already contacted Shanghai early on, preparing to start discussions and cooperation on the joint venture with General Motors Group.

As soon as the inspection team left, Li Yishu said a few words to Director Xie Jin and the crew, then hurriedly took a plane to Venice, Italy.

This year's Venice International Film Festival will open on August 8th. If Li Yishu wants to win the Golden Lion Award again, she will have to come here early to participate in public relations activities. (End of this chapter)