Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 384 Commercial Quantum Computer Program

Ji Chenghe's speech during an interview with reporters at the science and technology conference once again attracted the attention of the science and technology community.

Many media outlets also reported on it.

After all, whether it is a virtual game or a quantum computer, it just sounds like sci-fi and high-tech stuff.

If other companies come out and talk about quantum computers, virtual games, etc., people will just take a look at them casually and subconsciously do not believe that other high-tech companies can develop such things for commercial use.

Especially quantum computers, this thing is not a new concept and has been touted for many years.

Previously, some companies or research institutions have claimed to have developed quantum computers, but these are laboratory products and lack practicality.

In addition, IMB also announced at the beginning of the month that its quantum computer will soon be put into commercial use, but it still did not attract much attention.

The main reason is that the quantum computers currently announced by various companies or research institutions lack practicality...and are difficult to commercialize.

Therefore, quantum computers are still just a concept of black technology so far. They have received some attention in the scientific community, but not much attention. As for ordinary people, not much is known about them.

However, when people like Ji Chenghe, senior vice president of Zhiyun Group, said that Zhiyun Group had made a technological breakthrough in the field of quantum computers and was about to launch the first generation of commercial quantum computers.

This has attracted the attention of many people... Not only those in the high-tech industry are paying attention to it, but even ordinary people have learned about it from the news.

So many people are looking forward to what kind of quantum computer Zhiyun Group can come up with... It can't be one with only single-digit or dozens of quantum bits (an important performance reference for quantum computers, the more quantum bits, the better the performance)... Such a thing does not have much practical value at present.

Given Zhiyun Group's style, it is impossible for them to launch some immature technological products... Although Zhiyun Group frequently launches various high-tech products, people who really understand Zhiyun Group will know that Zhiyun Group is often very conservative in the process of bringing products to market.

If the product is not good enough, or fails to impress many people, Zhiyun Group would rather delay the release.

This is an important strategy of Zhiyun Group to maintain its high-end attributes.

So we can see that although Zhiyun Group’s revenue is high and its profits are also high, its hardware product types are not many.

Zhiyun Group actually does not engage in many industries that seem to be more profitable... For example, Zhiyun Group has never touched ordinary laptops and desktops in the conventional sense.

People think that Zhiyun Group will do the same in the field of quantum computers. Either it will not produce any product, or once it does, the product will be a stunning one.

And in fact, it is true... Ji Chenghe was not bragging when he spoke to reporters outside, but the quantum computer research and development team under Zhiyun Group has already made the prototype of the first generation of quantum computers.

Its performance far exceeds that of quantum computers currently developed by other companies.

At the headquarters of Zhiyun Group, Xu Shenxue, Ji Chenghe and others saw the quantum computer that was under development.

The person in charge of the quantum computer project is introducing their latest research and development results to Xu Shenxue and other senior executives of the group: "This is the core of our quantum computer: the quantum chip, codenamed Quantum Core 04. This is the fourth generation of quantum chip we have developed, and its performance has been greatly improved compared to previous generations!"

"In the first generation of quantum chips, we could only achieve 12 quantum bits, the second generation increased to 68, and the third generation increased to 168. We have designed quantum computer prototypes based on the second and third generation quantum chips, but this prototype can only be used for computing tasks in some fields, mainly in the field of encryption. It lacks practicality and has poor commercial prospects!"

"To this end, we redesigned the architecture based on the third-generation quantum chip, adopted more advanced technology, and designed and manufactured the fourth-generation quantum chip!"

"The fourth-generation chip has achieved a performance of 468 qubits. While the performance has been greatly improved, the most important thing is to verify the feasibility of the technical route of our new generation quantum chip design architecture!"

"In our fourth-generation chip, we did not adopt the technology commonly used by other international manufacturers, but took our own technology route, which we call the LX architecture. We use artificial intelligence technology to control quantum bits and greatly reduce the error rate of quantum entanglement. When we performed computational simulations, we found that this architecture can support more than 100,000 quantum bits."

"Through the technical verification of the fourth-generation chip, we have completed the technical reserves. The next step is to officially develop commercial quantum chips, which are the fifth-generation quantum chips."

"The design goal of our fifth-generation quantum chip will be very ambitious. The initial goal is to reach the level of 10,000 quantum bits. After all, only quantum computers of this level have initial commercial value."

“But to achieve real large-scale commercial applications and gradually replace electronic computers, we need to reach more than one million quantum bits!”

Millions of qubits are a basic judgment of major high-tech companies on the future development of quantum computers. Only quantum computers of this magnitude can meet the basic requirements for large-scale general commercialization...

Many companies estimate that the time node for this level of computer is 2030...but this is a very optimistic time judgment, and a lot of various technical problems need to be solved for this. For example, if the superconducting route is adopted, it is necessary to solve technical problems such as refrigeration, integration of a larger number of quantum chips, and high-precision control of quantum bits by artificial intelligence.

Zhiyun Group's quantum computer initially used superconducting, atomic and photon routes in parallel, and finally achieved a technological breakthrough in the superconducting route.

Subsequently, the superconducting technology route was advanced towards a million qubits. After all, quantum computers before a million qubits could only be used for computing tasks in specific fields, were not widely used, and had little commercial value.

A quantum computer with millions of quantum bits is the goal that IBM, Google, and other companies, as well as Zhiyun Group, are striving for!
"Our superconducting technology route is subject to many limitations such as refrigeration technology and superconducting technology. At our current technological level, we are unable to reach the level of one million qubits."

"Of course, this is based on the fact that there is no breakthrough in existing material technology. If there is a breakthrough in material technology, especially superconducting material technology, then the technological advancement of our quantum chips will be even faster."

"At the current technological level, we use ultra-low temperature superconducting materials and large-scale cryogen technology, and the predicted technological limit is about 100,000 qubits."

"By the end of this year, we should be able to complete the research and development of the fifth-generation quantum chip, push the number of quantum bits to more than 10,000, and prepare to use this fifth-generation chip to design and build the first generation of commercial general-purpose quantum computers, which will be used to build supercomputers and small and medium-sized servers, and begin to provide computing power for computing tasks in some fields."

"Next year, it will be pushed to 50,000 level, and the year after, it will be pushed to 100,000 level!"

"That is to say, it will take us about three years to advance to the technological level of 100,000 qubits."

Xu Shenxue was in a good mood after hearing this: "The research and development progress is quite good. I heard from the intelligence department before that foreign manufacturers such as IBM and Google are still working on quantum computers with dozens of qubits. Our fourth generation can reach the level of hundreds, and the next fifth generation can reach the level of tens of qubits. This is a gratifying progress!"

The project leader of the quantum computer smiled and said: "It is mainly because we found that the chip architecture of the quantum computer we developed before has limited potential, so we adjusted the technical route in time. Our current LX architecture mainly takes the superconducting route. After all, our technical reserves in the field of superconductivity are not bad, and we are ahead of our foreign counterparts."

Ji Chenghe said, "I think we can hold a press conference in the near future to show the concept machine of our quantum computer to the outside world, so as to heat up the market in advance. When the fifth-generation chip is developed by the end of the year, we can directly release it to the market and put it into commercial use!"

Xu Shenxue said: "This is a good idea. First we need to build up the market's popularity, so that we can commercialize it better!"

Zhiyun Group had not released any quantum computers before, and even when it had achieved more than 100 quantum bits, which was already leading the world, it did not announce the news to the public.

It was because this thing had no commercial value at the time, or its value was very low, so people were too lazy to develop it... Besides, it was essentially unable to create an essential gap with the quantum chips of companies such as IMB.

At that time, there was a lot of debate on the technical route of quantum computers. People were working on the superconducting route, the atomic route, and the photon route...each one was extremely difficult.

However, Zhiyun Group has an advantage in superconducting technology, because two years ago, the material research project team under Zhiyun Group developed a new type of low-temperature superconducting material... Although the application temperature of this low-temperature superconducting material is still very low, it can barely be used in quantum computers.

Therefore, Zhiyun Group mainly focuses on the superconducting technology route in the quantum computer route.

Finally, based on this low-temperature superconducting material and the LX design framework based on artificial intelligence technology, Zhiyun Group developed the fourth-generation quantum chip, completed technical verification, and proved the feasibility of this technical route.

The next step is to make truly commercial products, that is, the fifth-generation quantum chip, which will directly reach tens of thousands of quantum bits.

Anyway, the technical route has been verified, and the manufacturing technology can support the manufacture of quantum chips with tens of thousands of quantum bits. Naturally, there will be no messing around in the middle, but a commercial product will be produced in one step.

Of course, this so-called commercial quantum computer still cannot be a personal computer... This thing is actually very similar to early electronic computers. It will be very large in size and consume a lot of power. Therefore, this fifth-generation quantum computer will be used as a supercomputer or small and medium-sized servers, mainly for calculations in some fields.

Because of the special nature of quantum entanglement, quantum computers have huge advantages over traditional electronic computers in some computing fields... However, this requires new technologies, new algorithms and many other technologies to provide support so that quantum computers can surpass electronic computers in the calculation of conventional tasks.

Therefore, the research and development of quantum computers by Zhiyun Group is a very complex and comprehensive research and development process involving many fields such as materials, precision processing, underlying algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

Take the electronic computer for example. It is not enough to have transistors. You also have to combine the transistors in a certain way, and then design the corresponding underlying machine code and operating system before you can perform calculations. This is a comprehensive and systematic project.

Of course, the most critical core technology is still the number of quantum bits stacked on the quantum chip... Its importance is probably similar to the number of transistors in the chip of an electronic computer.

At the same time, the quantum particles in quantum chips are easily affected by external interference and may cause errors. The concept of quantum error is similar to the concept of leakage rate between transistors in electronic computer chips.

It is not good if the leakage rate of an electronic chip is too high, and it is not good if the quantum error rate in a quantum computer is too high.

To solve the problem of quantum error rate, we need very efficient quantum error correction technology to achieve effective manipulation of quantum... Only quantum that can be effectively manipulated can be used for calculations.

In this step, Zhiyun Group relies on its own powerful artificial intelligence technology to forcibly correct quantum errors, thereby achieving effective quantum control... This is a typical powerful flying brick model. When the traditional technology route reaches its limit and cannot be further advanced, they use the error correction algorithm constructed by artificial intelligence to forcibly correct it.

Its mode is very violent!
Only Zhiyun Group can use this method of forcibly correcting quantum states by relying on model algorithms. Any other company will be at a loss... After all, Zhiyun Group's artificial intelligence technology is so far ahead of other companies.

So to some extent, Zhiyun Group's technological breakthrough in quantum computers also relies heavily on the progress of their artificial intelligence technology.

Of course, low-temperature superconducting materials and other technological advances in engineering, such as the research and development of efficient refrigeration equipment and the integration and manufacturing of quantum chips, are among the most advanced technological issues in contemporary times, and each one of them has stumped countless high-tech companies.

Therefore, it is possible for other companies to develop quantum chips with dozens of quantum bits, or even one or two hundred quantum bits, but if you ask them to play with tens of thousands of quantum bits, they will be completely at a loss... They do not have the corresponding technical capabilities at all. Not to mention other things, they will not be able to solve the quantum error correction algorithm based on artificial intelligence technology.

After Xu Shenxue took a look at the quantum computer, he instructed Ji Chenghe to prepare a press conference and release a concept machine to hype it up, in order to pave the way for the large-scale commercialization of quantum computers by the end of this year or early next year.

It always takes a process to bring a product to market!

Especially the superconducting quantum computer developed by Zhiyun Group, even the quantum computer with tens of thousands of quantum bits expected to be launched next year, is very similar in nature to early electronic computers of mankind... The technology is complex, the size is large, the power consumption is high, and the computing field is limited to certain areas.

To be honest, it is still quite difficult to convince companies or institutions to purchase this kind of thing... After all, today's electronic computers are very useful and can calculate all kinds of tasks... They are simple, convenient, easy to use, and cheap.

After leaving the quantum computer project team, Xu Shenxue and Ji Chenghe discussed the commercialization project of this quantum computer.

Even though Ji Chenghe is a top master in the field of sales, he still finds the commercial application of quantum computers a bit tricky.

"I think we should still adopt the method of selling computing power. We will purchase superconducting quantum computers ourselves, and then after we build a quantum supercomputer, we will provide computing power to the outside world!"

"We have rich experience in this area. In the field of X86 servers and server chips based on SOP architecture, we also widely use the group's own purchases to build supercomputer rooms and then provide computing power to the outside world. This is also the main reason why we started the cloud computing business!"

"So far, our cloud computing business is doing pretty well, and it has also solved the sluggish external sales of server chips!"

Xu Shenxue said: "This is a feasible method. You can meet with the computing department and hold a meeting, and then come up with a feasible plan!"

Ji Chenghe said: "On the basis of purchasing superconducting quantum computers and providing computing power to others, we will also try to promote them to other companies or institutions to see if we can sell some!"

"After all, our quantum computers still have huge advantages in computing in certain specific areas!"

"Since it won't work for general computing in the short term, let's develop a market for specialized computing!"

“However, whether we sell computing power directly or provide servers, I’m afraid the revenue won’t be too great, and the revenue from the entire project won’t be able to cover the cost!”

Xu Shenxue didn't take it seriously: "When doing high-tech business, you have to take your time in the beginning. Many of the fields we have been involved in before suffered losses in the early stages, but we made money later!"

"When we were engaged in semiconductor manufacturing, we spent tens of billions of dollars but we were able to hold on. Now the semiconductor business has begun to provide us with a large amount of revenue and profits!"

"As for the robot business, the R&D costs were also very high before, and the business is now in a loss-making state, but we are not afraid of losing money for two or three years. After two or three years, we can make back all the lost money in one go!"

Ji Chenghe laughed when he heard this and said, "Only you, Boss Xu, have the guts to do this. If it were any other boss, they would have run away long ago when faced with such a huge loss."

"But this is also the core competitive advantage of our company!"

"We have sufficient funds, technology, and patience to make arrangements in high-cost, high-tech, and high-risk fields, and then wait for success!"

Xu Shenxue also nodded!

Ji Chenghe is right. The core competitiveness of Zhiyun Group is not the organizational structure, corporate culture or other messy things. It is actually two things: sufficient funds and scientific research system.

With these two things, Zhiyun Group can enter fields that require a lot of money, have very high barriers to entry, and have very few competitors... At the same time, the scientific research system can invest money, and more or less achieve some R&D successes, which can then be transformed into commercial products, and then profits can be made by selling commercial products at high prices.

The robotics business is a very typical one among them...it is capital-intensive, technology-intensive, and extremely risky!

Similarly, there are no competitors in this field... Once the robot is made, Zhiyun Group can completely carry out market layout and pricing according to its own ideas, and then monopolize the entire market.

This is also why, although Zhiyun Group's robotics business is still suffering huge losses, external investors are extremely excited about it.

Zhiyun Group’s market value has reached one trillion US dollars, not because of its success in the smart terminal or semiconductor fields... It has been very successful in these areas, and investors have also given their own valuations.

The main driving force that ultimately allowed Zhiyun Group to reach a market value of one trillion US dollars and is still continuing to grow is actually from the robotics business!
Although the robot business is still making losses, anyone with a little scientific knowledge and understanding of Zhiyun Group's business philosophy can guess what Zhiyun Group wants to do!
Zhiyun Group wants to open up a new market worth hundreds of billions of dollars!

Moreover, in this new robot market, Zhiyun Group has no competitors... By then, it will be able to make money without doing anything.

Investors are not stupid, so after seeing this possibility, even though the machine business is still losing billions of dollars a year, they still make crazy bets.

Finally, Zhiyun Group's stock price was pushed all the way up. After breaking through one trillion US dollars, Zhiyun's stock price continued to rise and has now reached one and a half trillion US dollars!

It's crazy!

You know, Zhiyun Group is not an asset-light Internet company, and its price-to-earnings ratio will not easily reach 40 or 50 times.

Zhiyun Group is a traditional manufacturing company, and its price-to-earnings ratio is actually relatively low. In addition, it has a semiconductor manufacturing business that requires huge investments all year round. At the same time, various miscellaneous scientific research expenses are too large, which further drags down Zhiyun Group's price-to-earnings ratio, which has been only about fifteen times for many years.

There's no way around it. Every investor knows that Xu Shenxue particularly likes to spend money on scientific research... He spends money lavishly, often spending tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars on large projects, which makes a lot of investors feel heartbroken.

That's all the investors' money... How painful it is to use it for scientific research... Unfortunately, Xu Shenxue has absolute power in Zhiyun Group, with more than 90% of the voting rights. Other investors have no way to interfere in the company's operations and can only make a few remarks at most.

Of course, on the other hand, they also know that huge R&D expenditures are necessary to maintain the company's future development, so sometimes they endure it.

Now that its market value has reached 1.2 trillion US dollars, based on last year's profits, the price-earnings ratio has reached 17 or 18 times... This is actually a relatively high price-earnings ratio for Zhiyun Group.

Therefore, most investors do not want to give Zhiyun Group a too high P/E valuation.

The current price-to-earnings ratio is 17 or 18 times, thanks to the subsequent growth potential of the robotics business.

The success of the robot business is the best embodiment of Zhiyun Group's business model...

This business model is enough to make other high-tech companies despair.

This high-risk, high-tech, and high-investment field is enough to stop countless people in their tracks!
(End of this chapter)