Source: IT Orange (itjuzi521)
Author: Li Xinxin Editor: Judy
Data tracked by IT Orange shows that Baidu has the most in the top 20 COMPANIES where Chinese AI company entrepreneurs have worked by the end of 2021 – 141 core founders of AI companies in China have worked at Baidu.
Compared with other domestic companies, Baidu has explored and laid out in the field of AI quite early. In 2010, Baidu established a "natural language processing department", in 2012 Baidu's AI strategy took shape, in 2014 Baidu began to set foot in the field of intelligent driving, and by 2016 Baidu has formed an ecological layout with AI as the core.
In the process, Baidu has cultivated a large number of AI talents. It is Microsoft that can compete with Baidu - there are currently 135 entrepreneurs with Microsoft backgrounds in China - as early as 1998, Microsoft set up Microsoft Research Asia, attracting a large number of AI talents. In addition, Chinese AI entrepreneurs from Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, IBM, Google, etc. also have more than 50 or even 100 people.
ACCORDING TO ORANGE DATA, as of 2021, there are 11 companies whose founding team is from Baidu and has developed into unicorns, namely automotive intelligent chip company Horizon, automotive autonomous driving system developer Wenyuan Zhixing, artificial intelligence software company fourth paradigm, autonomous driving solution provider Xiaoma Zhixing, artificial intelligence overall solution provider Aibee, autonomous driving technology developer Yinche Technology, Didi Woya, a spin-off autonomous driving business company Didi Woya, and autonomous driving technology developer Mimu Zhixing 2. Baidu Shengke, a serious precision life science platform based on biocomputing, Xiaoman Finance, an Internet integrated financial service provider, and Baidu Kunlun Chip, a chip designer and manufacturer under Baidu.
In this article, we introduce several entrepreneurs and their companies from Baidu, "China AI Whampoa Military Academy".
1
Horizon: Founded by the former executive director of Baidu Research Institute
Yu Kai, founder of AI chip company Horizon, was previously the executive director of Baidu Research Institute and senior technical director of Baidu, and led the development of Baidu Deep Learning Research Institute (IDL), autonomous driving and other businesses. After Yu Kai left Baidu in 2015, he founded Horizon, and with his personal influence and technical strength in the artificial intelligence industry, Horizon has attracted much attention from capital. As of 2021, Horizon has raised 11 rounds of financing, and has received investment from a number of top investment institutions including Yunfeng Fund, Wuyuan Capital, Hillhouse Investment, Sequoia Capital China, GSR Venture Capital, Zhen Fund, Innovation Factory, etc. According to it Orange records, Horizon currently has more than 35 announced investment institutions.
The horizon, which is both involved in chips and autonomous driving, became a unicorn in 2017 (about two years after its establishment) and is now valued at $5 billion. According to the introduction, Horizon has independently developed edge artificial intelligence chips and solutions with extreme performance and open ease of use, which can provide comprehensive and open empowerment services for intelligent driving and a wider range of general AI applications. It has always maintained close cooperation with domestic and foreign automakers and Tier 1 suppliers, such as Changan, Hongqi, Audi, SAIC, GAC, BYD, Ideal, Faurecia, Bosch, etc.
2
The fourth paradigm: founded by the former head of Baidu Fengchao System
Dai Wenyuan, founder and CEO of the Fourth Paradigm, is also from Baidu. Dai Wenyuan joined Baidu in 2009, but within two years he was promoted to the youngest senior scientist in Baidu at that time, and became the chief architect of the Fengchao system, with the rank of T10, in addition to being responsible for directing Baidu Brain and other Baidu core products.
In 2015, Dai Wenyuan founded the fourth paradigm, the company's co-founder and chief research scientist Chen Yuqiang, who worked as an architect at Baidu; co-founder and chief architect Hu Shiwei, who worked as a senior R&D engineer at Baidu. With the strength of the founding team, The Fourth Paradigm received millions of angel rounds of financing from Sequoia Capital China 5 months after its establishment.
In February 2022, Fourth Paradigm has submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to the prospectus, before applying for the IPO, the fourth paradigm completed a total of 11 rounds of financing, with a cumulative financing of more than US$1 billion, and the investors included Sequoia China, Songhe Capital, BOCOM International, Boyu Jingtai and other leading institutions. Among them, Sequoia China is the largest institutional shareholder before the fourth paradigm IPO, with a shareholding ratio of 7.37%. Large state-owned banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the China Construction Bank have also participated in the fourth paradigm of investment.
The fourth paradigm belongs to the decision-making subdivision in the artificial intelligence track, that is, providing big data analysis and auxiliary decision-making services for enterprises or individuals through knowledge graphs and machine learning technologies. The fourth paradigm focuses on to B, which mainly provides artificial intelligence solutions for enterprises by providing platform-centric artificial intelligence services. According to the prospectus, the fourth paradigm has covered the financial, retail, manufacturing, energy and power, telecommunications and medical industries, and in 2020, it served 47 fortune-500 companies and listed companies.
3
Baidu has created 3 unicorn companies by itself
In addition to those who left Baidu to start a business, their companies have grown into unicorn companies, baidu itself has also founded a number of artificial intelligence companies, and now it has become a unicorn enterprise. For example, Du Xiaoman Financial was originally Baidu Finance, and in April 2018, Baidu announced that its financial service business group had officially completed the signing of a split financing agreement, and Baidu Finance would use a new brand "Du Xiaoman Financial" to achieve independent operation. Zhu Guang, the current CEO of Du Xiaoman Financial, is the former senior vice president of Baidu. In 2018, Du Xiaoman received US$1.9 billion in financing from Strategic Investments from Carlyle Asia Fund, TPG Teccorp Taikang Life and ABC International. Du Xiaoman was named a unicorn company after winning the investment, and is now valued at $3.6 billion.
Led by Baidu founder Robin Li, Batu Biotech was established based on the ecological foundation of the original BV Baidu Venture Capital Bio-Intelligence Team and its 50 global investee companies. The company plans to invest tens of billions of yuan to build an autonomous and controllable biocomputing platform, using cutting-edge algorithms, intelligent sensors, smart chips, micro-nano robots and other AI capabilities to solve life science problems. The CEO of Baitu Shengke is Liu Wei, former vice president of Baidu and CEO of Baidu Venture Capital.
In 2021, Baekto Shengke received hundreds of millions of dollars in Series A financing from GGV Jiyuan Capital (lead), Baidu, Legend Capital, Xianghe Capital, Lanchi Venture Capital, Zhenzhi Capital and Robin Li. After winning the investment, Batu Shengke was named a unicorn company and is now valued at $1.2 billion.
Another unicorn company in Baidu is Kunlun Core (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., which is a new company that was spun off from Baidu's Kunlun chip business and independently established, and the CEO of the company is Ouyang Jian, chief architect and technical director of Baidu Chip. Established in March 2021, in the same month, it received hundreds of millions of yuan of financing from the strategic investment of CPE Yuanfeng (led investment), IDG Capital, Legend Capital, Yuanhe Holdings, and China Renaissance Capital (financial advisor), and the valuation of the company after the investment was about 13 billion yuan.
In addition, there is also a listed company from the founding team from Baidu. Medical artificial intelligence company Yidu Technology, which focuses on medical big data, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 15, 2021, and the co-founder and CTO of the company, Deng Kan, served as the senior director of Baidu search; the co-founder and co-CTO Xu Jiming, who worked at Baidu, was awarded Baidu's most valuable employee, Baidu's best manager and many other honors. As of March 11, 2022, the total market value of Yidu Technology was HK$9.414 billion.
For Baidu, AI is its long-term strategic layout, and AI is still in the middle and early stages of development, and this industry still has a long way to explore. Then, the gathering, training and departure of talents, and then create important companies in the AI industry after leaving - even if they are competitors, the current stage is not much of a drawback for Baidu - to build a lush industrial forest, so that every family can live better and longer.
According to the official introduction, as of now, Baidu has trained more than 1 million artificial intelligence talents. Robin Li said at the Baidu Create 2021 conference that Baidu will continue to promote the cultivation of AI talents in the future and cultivate 5 million AI talents for the society within five years. In Robin Li's view, "The creators are the fellow travelers of our scientific and technological dreams, and they are also the great forces that promote human progress."