Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

Boston Dynamics has a significant presence on the internet, both now and in the future.

Most ordinary people have never heard of those companies, whether it's Shadow Robotics, Salco, Qingjing, or Aldebaran, including Chen Yiran in his previous life.

But Boston Dynamics is different; the company is too famous. They initially gained a lot of attention by posting videos on YouTube, and now they have accounts on both YouTube and Duck Video, with a large following.

After all, from today's perspective, what they showed in their videos best fits the definition of robots in movies.

First, there's the insane ability to maintain balance. Whether it's a humanoid robot or a robotic dog, it can maintain its balance even after being pushed and shoved. Further, videos of it performing backflips and cross-country running have surfaced.

Their reputation is still quite good, and the comments section is mostly filled with things like "The Terminator is coming."

After Chen Yiran's Aurora was established, they were one of the companies that were immediately mentioned.

However, from then until 2026, the company's reputation plummeted. First, it seemed like the company was constantly burning through cash, without ever releasing a single truly good product.

Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Mark Reiport, a professor at MIT's Leg Lab and a leading figure in control theory. From its inception, the company has received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its projects have all been military projects.

Each generation is more dazzling and more expensive than the last. But they have absolutely no practical value.

They've been abandoned by the military and are now begging everywhere. Later, they were bought by Google, then sold to SoftBank, and finally to Hyundai.

They failed at commercialization, and they also failed to maintain their technological foundation.

By 2026, Chinese robot manufacturers had begun to move towards an interconnected model, but Boston Dynamics was practically nonexistent.

This is not to say that Boston Dynamics is undeserving of its reputation; in fact, their technology is absolutely top-notch.

From the perspective of 2012, their dynamic balance control algorithm was at least five to ten years ahead of its competitors. No other company in the world could make a bipedal robot run so steadily and regain its balance so quickly.

But this wasn't particularly appealing to Chen Yiran. Because of Jasmine's existence and the development of deep learning, these technological advantages were easily negated.

What's more, they were incredibly stubborn and insisted on using hydraulics.

All of Boston Dynamics' robots are hydraulically driven. The advantages of hydraulics are high torque, fast response, and high power density, allowing them to output greater force from the same volume. This is why their robots can run, jump, and do somersaults.

However, the disadvantages of hydraulics are also obvious: it requires a hydraulic pump station, consumes a huge amount of electricity, and generates tremendous noise. Looking at the situation in 2026, this approach, even if not flawed, will not be the mainstream one.

Moreover, their patents are also problematic. They started developing too early, and their early core patents will expire one by one within the next ten years. The technological barriers of their new patents are not as high as those of the early ones.

Competitors don't need to copy their hydraulic solutions; they can go straight to the electric route, train their control algorithms using reinforcement learning, and catch up in just a few years.

The information provided by Chase specifically noted that, influenced by Reibert's personal style, Boston Dynamics was a bit stubborn; to put it bluntly, even after selling themselves, they wanted to maintain their independence.

They firmly adhered to Reibert's words: a robot that hasn't been refined over 25 years isn't worth commercializing.

While Chen Yiran may not necessarily want to commercialize, this statement is still too romantic. It sounds beautiful to academia, but for a company, Chen Yiran can only send them to their doom.

Afterwards, Chen Yiran directly emailed Grace Zhou, who had been sent by Chase and was now the head of the strategic office at Aurora Group.

We can acquire all four small companies: Shadow Robotics, Salco, Qingjing, and Aldebaran.

The acquisition of iRobot was handled by Bain Capital.

They are established funds with deep connections within the military. Their involvement will expedite the military's review process.

Furthermore, with the Ultron launch event scheduled for March, iRobot could quickly release a prototype that closely resembles the Ultron system. This would also allow iRobot to lower its perceived value.

Having handed over these trivial matters to his subordinates, Chen Yiran was going to California to keep his appointment. He had previously said he would visit SpaceX, but this had been delayed for nearly two months.

When Aurora was founded, Musk sent him a text message to congratulate him, and then started complaining that he had been waiting for him for a long time.

SpaceX is still in its early stages. Although it was the first private rocket company to reach orbit, it is still far from being able to recover its payloads. It is far from the powerful, dominant tech giant it later became, which accounted for 90% of the world's launch payload mass.

In Hawthorne, south of Los Angeles, SpaceX's headquarters is located at 1 Rocket Road, which doesn't look like a place that builds rockets at all from the outside.

There were no grand gates, no towering launch towers, just a cluster of low industrial buildings surrounded by a wire fence.

There wasn't even a proper sign outside the fence, just a small sign that said SpaceX.

If someone passing by didn't know better, they might mistake it for a warehouse or logistics center.

Chen Yiran's convoy arrived at the gate and was immediately led inside by Musk, who was waiting there. The cars drove all the way to the main factory gate.

The factory area is quite large. The main factory building is a huge white building that looks like a super-sized aircraft hangar.

After getting out of the car, Musk immediately introduced to Chen Yiran, "How is it? Not bad, right? This used to be a Boeing factory, where 747s were assembled. Now it has been upgraded to a rocket factory. It can be considered a product upgrade."

Chen Yiran laughed and said, "To be honest, I thought it would be more high-tech, but I found that it's not much different from my company in Silicon Valley."

"That's normal. It's pointless to spend money on technological features. It's better to have a bigger factory. Tesla is over there too. You can go and take a look later if you're interested. The area on the right is still Boeing's territory, but as SpaceX and Tesla grow and expand, we can gradually take them over."

This is already pretty good; the place we were in before was much worse. Before 2007, the only place we could stay was a warehouse. I heard that after we moved out, that place is now rented to a logistics company to store seafood.

The two chatted and laughed as they entered the factory. Musk then pulled a man over and introduced him to Chen Yiran, saying, "Come on, this is Tom Mueller, our SpaceX's first employee. He is in charge of the engines. Without him, SpaceX would not have been able to succeed."

I think he's a genius just like you! You know, he built a rocket engine in his own garage!

Chen Yiran politely shook hands with the person who came, and then looked at the rocket lying behind him.

I have to say, the Rockets are really cool.

Seeing that Chen Yiran was interested, the two men took him on a tour.

Then, in Musk's office, Chen Yiran was given a lesson on the now-famous "idiot index."

Chen Yiran discussed with Jasmine in his mind: What do you think? Do you think we can just copy it and handle it ourselves?

[I'm not sure, I feel it's a bit difficult unless we poach Tom Muller.]

Chen Yiran felt that Musk was really lucky. His first employee was that girl Catherine, who could easily find a wild engine genius.

Is it possible that you hired her because you were lusting after his wife?

Ignoring Jasmine's complaints, Chen Yiran decided to go straight to the point. He interrupted Musk and asked, "I'm very interested in the reusable rocket technology you mentioned. I know there will be a lot of research and development costs involved, and I can invest in it. Simply put, how much money do you need?"

Musk paused, walked from the blackboard to the sofa, sat down, and thought for a moment before saying, "It's not just about money. I feel like we have many similar ideas. I don't just want money. I want a deeper collaboration with Aurora Group."