Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 469 A new core pillar industry: Intelligent Robots

Xu Shenxue was quite busy throughout June, and visited many places for inspection in a short period of time.

On the one hand, he inspected the production bases of some supply chain companies, such as the production bases of smartphones, to check the S18's stock production and intelligent robot production status. He also looked at the capacity expansion of Hailan Automobile.

Smart terminals, smart robots and smart electric vehicles are the three core businesses that Xu Shenxue pays most attention to. Behind these three businesses, each of them focuses on an extremely large industrial chain.

Among them, the industrial chain of intelligent robots is what Xu Shenxue attaches the most importance to. He has visited many intelligent robot production bases and even supply chain companies.

Not to mention the smart terminals and smart electric vehicles that everyone is familiar with, the industrial chain behind new products such as smart robots is also very large.

Zhiyun Group now ships tens of billions of dollars worth of intelligent robot products each year, and there are many supply chain companies that rely on these new products for their livelihood.

Because the intelligent robots produced by Zhiyun Group are highly complex top-level industrial products, you can tell how complex they are just by looking at their subsystems.

The first is the body platform, including the body frame, limb joints, and the most important of which is the power system.

The power system requires high-performance top-level motors, roller screws, sensors, bearings, reducers and other components. Each component is of the contemporary top level and has very stringent technical requirements.

Many of them are made of new or even specially developed materials.

Only in this way can the stringent requirements of the Zhiyun robot power system be met, satisfying the robot's various maneuvers such as daily walking and running, and even high-power output in emergency power mode.

The entire aircraft platform, including the power system, requires not only high performance, but also controlled size and weight.

This is quite difficult, as each component can be said to be a comprehensive achievement in contemporary top materials, precision processing and other fields.

In order to obtain these parts, Zhiyun Group conducted a detailed survey across the country, and finally selected a number of companies in each field. Then it put forward its own requirements and asked them to make these parts. Some parts could not be found ready-made, so it was necessary to provide financial and technical support to assist them in development.

The above-mentioned body platform is actually just the subsystem with the lowest technical content.

The sensor system also has higher technical content!
The Zhiyun robot has a large number of built-in sensors, including traditional sensors such as high-performance cameras, depth cameras, torque sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, infrared or ultrasonic sensors, temperature sensors, etc., as well as the crucial high-performance lidar that can build a 3D model for the robot.

Among them, the "pressure sensor array" that provides precise sensing data for the robot's hands and feet is a black technology. Engineers from Zhiyun Group have developed a variety of micro sensors, integrating thousands of micro sensors at the ends of the tiny limbs to form a precise pressure sensor array, providing the robot with precise limb control similar to that of humans.

The hands and feet of the Zhiyun robot may look simple, but their internal structure is actually extremely complex.

Then there is the more conventional body control system, which includes a large number of various microcontrollers and specially developed control chips for specific purposes, each of which has a very high technical content.

Next is the energy system, the core of which is the top-level semi-solid-state battery supplied by Hailan Battery, a subsidiary of Hailan Automobile, combined with the robot power battery management system and the whole machine power management system developed by Zhiyun Group itself.

Then there is a relatively mature communication module, the only one with little technical content. This is mainly the WIFI protocol module, 3G/4G communication module and Bluetooth communication module, which mainly provide Internet data services for the internal artificial intelligence system.

All of the above are actually just common hardware configurations for conventional robots... Other manufacturers who make robots actually do the same, but their technology is not as advanced as Zhiyun Robotics.

The core of Zhiyun Robot is the 'intelligent control system'...which is also the brain of the entire robot!

The entire "intelligent control system" is composed of three computing chips: the core EYQ general terminal computing chip, the dedicated ZY34 data processing computing chip, and the ZY35 motion co-processing chip, providing abundant and efficient computing resources for the entire system.

Only an intelligent control system composed in this way can run the underlying core algorithms developed specifically for intelligent robots and form a robot control system in the conventional sense.

Looking at the various subsystems of this Zhiyun robot, behind each system are various top-notch spare parts.

Behind this lies a huge industrial chain including semiconductor design and manufacturing, chemical materials, machinery, and precision processing.

In the entire intelligent robot supply chain system, there are more than a thousand companies that directly provide Zhiyun robots with a variety of parts, not including indirect suppliers.

This is a supply chain system that is more complex and larger than smart terminals and even smart electric vehicles.

The intelligent robot developed by Xu Shenxue currently only has a market value of several billion dollars, but when it develops to a market size of hundreds of billions of dollars or even trillions of dollars in the future, the scale of the industrial chain it drives will be extremely large.

You should know that the automobile industry, which is known as the pillar industry of the economy, has a revenue scale of only about one trillion US dollars. At the same time, because the domestic automobile industry chain is almost 100% localized, the domestic automobile industry chain it drives is very large.

This is also the core factor why the automobile industry can account for about 10% of the domestic economy: localization of the industrial chain!
Similarly, the smart terminal sector, which is hailed as the core factor in the rapid growth of the domestic economy in the past decade, actually has a revenue scale of only one trillion US dollars.

However... due to the existence of the Zhiyun Group BUG, ​​the domestic smart terminal industry chain is also highly localized, and the core components such as semiconductor design and manufacturing, screens, batteries, etc. behind it are all domestic products.

This has led to a smart terminal industry chain, which has driven an extremely large scale of the industry chain. As a result, the proportion of the domestic economy affected by the smart terminal industry chain may be able to reach more than 10%.

The above two industries are currently the most core industries in the country, and their economic proportion is slightly lower than that of real estate... In the past few years when the real estate market was overheated, the proportion of the economy occupied by real estate was very large, reaching more than ten percent.

Real estate is not just a house. Behind it is a large-scale industrial chain that relies on the house, including construction, steel, cement, glass, furniture, etc.

However, the smart terminal manufacturing industry with Zhiyun Group as the core has also driven the development of the entire consumer electronics industry chain, especially the semiconductor and screen fields, and promoted the development of other consumer electronics fields such as home appliances... If all these are taken into account, then its economic impact will be even more exaggerated.

This shows how important it is to localize core pillar industries... Automobiles and smart terminals are the most typical examples.

If the smart terminal industry chain has not been localized and core components have to be imported, then we can only make a little money and it is impossible to drive such huge economic growth.

Hot news: the three major components of a mobile phone, namely the SOC (including communication baseband), storage chip, and screen, account for about 70% to 75% of the hardware cost of the mobile phone.

If these core components are all dependent on imports, even if other components are made, including OEM assembly and testing, we can only get leftovers...the bulk of the money will be earned by foreign countries.

This is the core reason why Xu Shenxue is so desperate to develop semiconductors and core components by himself...this is the core fat.

If it can be eaten, then the smart terminal industry will be the core pillar industry of the economy...

I can't eat it. It's just another processing factory.

The gap between the two is as big as the gap between Zhiyun Group and Weiku Electronics Group!

Zhiyun Group, which owns the core industrial chain, is a world-class multinational company. Any action it takes will lead to drastic economic fluctuations.

As for Weiku Electronics, which is just an assembly and design manufacturer, to be honest, apart from its shareholders, not many ordinary people pay attention to its business performance, and they don’t even care whether it will go bankrupt.

Because if Zhiyun Group goes bankrupt, after all, Zhiyun is not just selling mobile phones, it is also involved in core industrial chains such as semiconductors and screens.

If it fails, the entire domestic electronic consumption, semiconductor and other related industrial chains will be in mourning, and the domestic economy will be hit hard. If Vicoo Electronics goes bankrupt, it can't be said that there will be no big deal... but the impact is very limited. As long as the domestic supply chain of smart terminals with Zhiyun Group as the core is there, if Vicoo Electronics goes bankrupt, Zhiyun, Huawei, Dami and OV and other manufacturers will be able to take over all the market share of Vicoo Electronics with a smile.

It is nothing more than that the mobile phones used by many consumers have changed from Xiaolan mobile phones to Zhiyun mobile phones, Dami mobile phones, OV mobile phones and Huawei mobile phones...

The impact on the core industrial chain is limited!
This is the importance of mastering core technologies and spare parts!
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In the past year or so, the intelligent robots that Xu Shenxue has vigorously promoted have a highly localized industrial chain, from the most core computing chips to the body, motors, sensors and other core components, all of which are domestically produced.

Even though some of the spare parts are supplied by foreign companies, mainly some Japanese and German companies, it has to be said that they are still very strong in some mechanical fields such as bearings. However, the suppliers of these overseas companies also set up factories in China for production at the request of Xu Shenxue.

If intelligent robots can successfully achieve sales of tens of millions in the next few years and create a market of hundreds of billions of dollars, relying on their strong ability to drive the industrial chain, the proportion of the entire industrial chain in the domestic economy will quickly reach seven or eight percentage points, or even more.

This means that a new core pillar industry will emerge in the country, and it will be a core pillar industry at the level of automobiles, smart terminals, and real estate.

The economic impact will be huge!
Let’s not talk about these overly macro things for now, and for Zhiyun Group itself, the intelligent robot business is also the core business that carries the development of Zhiyun Group in the next ten years!

With the smart terminal business almost reaching its ceiling, Zhiyun Group urgently needs a new core business that can drive rapid growth in the group's revenue and profits.

And intelligent robots are such core business!

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Zhiyun Group’s new smart robot strategy has also received strong support from the top... Although this support is not directly reflected in large-scale subsidies like smart electric vehicles, other forms of support, both overt and covert, are actually very strong.

The reason why subsidies are not issued directly is that there is only Zhiyun Group in the current intelligent robot market, and directly issuing subsidies is likely to cause criticism.

Unlike the smart electric vehicle market, in addition to Hailan Automobile, there are also a large number of domestic automobile manufacturers such as BYD, BAIC, GAC, SAIC, etc., and subsidies are given to everyone, which not only demonstrates fairness... In fact, this subsidy is more advantageous for other automobile manufacturers.

Because HaiLan car models are expensive, consumers who can afford a HaiLan car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan do not mind the tens of thousands of yuan in subsidies.

However, the new energy vehicle models of other domestic automobile manufacturers are generally priced at around 100,000 yuan, so these tens of thousands of yuan in subsidies are very important.

For example, a car worth 200,000 yuan can be purchased for 140,000 yuan after subsidies, and a car worth 120,000 yuan can be purchased for 80,000 yuan after subsidies. This will obviously stimulate the sales of these mid- and low-end cars.

In the intelligent robot market, Zhiyun Group is the only one playing, and directly issuing subsidies will not stimulate healthy competition.

Therefore, support can only be provided through other means, mainly in the areas of tax incentives, factory construction incentives, etc.

The factory established by Weiku Industry in Sichuan City, which specializes in producing intelligent robots for Zhiyun Group, is a typical example. The land used to build the factory was almost given away for free by the local government, at a symbolic price, and the three connections and one leveling were also provided free of charge.

The funds for building the factory and purchasing equipment were provided by several local banks in the form of low-interest loans. Even the interest was reduced through subsequent tax incentives.

The local government can be said to be paying money to help Weiku Industry build an intelligent robot factory locally!

Of course, Wecoo Industrial will make money, but the local area will not lose out either... A large-scale intelligent robot factory will directly employ tens of thousands of people, and will bring a large number of supply chain companies to form an entire industrial park around this intelligent robot factory.

Then, around this industrial park, a variety of huge service industries will be driven.

Such a large industrial park means huge employment and tax revenue!

So in this kind of thing, it seems that the local government is paying money to help Weiku Industry build a factory, but for such an opportunity of paying money, other places will fight for it.

Whenever Weiku Industrial was planning to expand production and select a location to build a large-scale production base, it would attract local representatives from all over the country to build relationships and connections, and sometimes the phone calls would even reach Xu Shenxue.

Because as long as a large-scale production base of Weiku Industrial can be introduced, it will be enough to make the economy of an ordinary place take off directly.

Of course, Weiku Industry does not choose its production base blindly, they have their own way.

In the past two years, Weiku Industrial's production bases have tended to be located in inland areas with low labor costs, good transportation and good business environment for cost control and other considerations.

It doesn’t even matter if there is no relevant industrial chain in the local area... Weiku Industrial will bring a large number of supply chain companies there anyway, and the supply chain companies will bring their own supply chain companies there, and they will go there in a long list!

There is no industrial chain in the local area now, but once Weiku Industrial moves there, there will naturally be a corresponding industrial chain.

To a certain extent, Zhiyun Group, Weiku Electronics, Hailan Automobile and other core industries under Xu Shenxue are also undergoing a certain degree of industrial chain transfer as costs in the eastern coastal areas continue to rise...but this is different from other companies considering moving overseas, especially to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and other regions in Southeast Asia.

Xu Shenxue chose to move to the inland areas of the country.

On June 29, Xu Shenxue returned to Shenzhen after completing a series of external inspection trips.

However, just after I came back and had not even had two days of rest, I received a call saying that a drone subsidiary of Liuhe Investment would soon receive an inspection and even an order from the top.

After reading the report carefully, I found out that this subsidiary, which was spun off from the Xiaozhuang UAV and is engaged in the research and development of AI UAVs in the defense field, has made great technological progress in the swarm UAV system it has been working on. This has also attracted the attention of the higher-ups, who are planning to come and see for themselves. If the product is really well made, they are planning to purchase a batch.

Xu Shenxue has always been interested in swarm drones. After he made a promising AI small drone, he split the project out and established this AI drone subsidiary to continue subsequent research and development.

After a few years, it seems that there are results.

Xu Shenxue was very interested in this, and he had nothing to do when the other party came to inspect, so he went over to accompany the inspection and chatted with the other party about the follow-up status of several other AI ground mobile terminal projects.

So many ground terminal projects based on artificial intelligence technology have been going on for many years, but the progress of some ground terminal projects has been relatively slow.

Xu Shenxue had to urge the other party to pay the money... otherwise the research and development progress could not be guaranteed.

Look at those flying in the sky next door, they are so generous in giving money, hundreds of billions are being given out. Now project X has been finalized and is about to enter small-scale mass production and intensive test flights, while you are so stingy with your few billion.

As a result, when I went to meet the people that day, they and Xu Shenxue started complaining about their complaints. The rich guy next door even lost his X project, but I don’t even have enough money to buy new shoes this year. My life is so hard... I held back the words that Xu Shenxue was about to say to ask for money!

After complaining, he added, "Isn't the price of your swarm drone too expensive? It doesn't look like this little gadget costs that much. How about we negotiate the price?"

It just silenced Xu Shenxue...

(End of this chapter)