Wang Huiwen's big model entrepreneurship "crazy" ended in 4 months

Lightyears away and Meituan, need each other.

Source: Lieyun Selection, text/Sheng Jiaying

From cheering up his arms and returning to bet on a big model venture with $50 million to leaving his post due to illness, Wang Huiwen's entrepreneurship has only passed more than 4 months.

After Wang Huiwen fell ill, there were many opinions about who would enter the house outside of Light Years, until yesterday the "boots" finally landed.

Yesterday evening, Meituan issued an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to acquire 100% of the equity outside of Lightyear for 2.065 billion yuan.

From a high-profile entry to now entrusting light-years away to his former good brother Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen's first career re-emerged, from his personal point of view, ended in illness, which is regrettable, but from the company's point of view, Meituan's entry into light-years is also a good strategy.

Big model entrepreneurship, Wang Huiwen "crazy" four months

Four months ago, ChatGPT was on the rise, and Wang Huiwen, who had been retired for two years, realized that this was a new wave of AI and that she "had to participate."

On February 11, Wang Huiwen wrote his artificial intelligence declaration in the circle of friends: 50 million US dollars, bring funds to join the group, and seek to form a team.

Only 2 days later, Wang Huiwen changed his mind, changed from "asking for a team" to "leading the team", and officially released the recruitment information of the "AI Hero List", Wang Huiwen reiterated again, "Invest 50 million US dollars, valuation 200 million US dollars." ”

This post "AI hero list" is almost regarded as the first shot to start the wave of large-model entrepreneurship in China, and Wang Huiwen has also become the trumpet-blower of the wave of large-model entrepreneurship.

At that time, he confessed: "I don't know AI technology at present, and I am trying to learn." But "even if it's just one person, I'm going to go." ”

To this end, Wang Huiwen used a previously registered company to start this venture, Beijing Lightyear Outside Technology Co., Ltd.

Just the next day, Wang Huiwen's "AI Hero List" recruited the first cowman, Liu Jiang, vice president of Beijing KLCII Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and less than a month, Wang Xing also participated in the Series A investment outside of Lightyear in his personal capacity and served as a director.

Immediately afterwards, Ma Zhankai, known as the father of Sogou input method, announced on social platforms that he would join Lightyear, saying that he would go to the great journey of AGI's general artificial intelligence.

At the same time, Wang Huiwen posted that three co-creations have been confirmed outside of light years, "one is a co-creation with an Infra background, a co-creation with an algorithm background, and me." ”

With the smooth progress of the team formation, in less than two months, it was officially opened light years away, and the office was selected in Beijing Sohu Network Building.

In order to further accelerate the process of large-model entrepreneurship, Wang Huiwen also acquired the first-class technology of AI architecture startups with "banknote capabilities". According to rumors, the final transaction amount of the merger is within $1 billion.

In mid-April, First-class Technology completed the industrial and commercial change, becoming the largest shareholder of First-class Technology outside Lightyear, and the legal person was also changed to Wang Huiwen.

In addition, there are two other AI startups Face Wall Intelligence and Shenyan Technology, which are caught in the merger rumors at the same time as first-class technology, but the rumors have not been followed, and only the capital level confirms that Wang Huiwen has indeed had contact with the two companies.

From releasing AI hero recruitment posts to forming a team, landing and opening, to acquiring first-class technology, and grabbing people and companies, Wang Huiwen took less than two months, which can be said to be running at the speed of light.

In early June, it was reported that a new round of financing of $230 million was completed outside of Lightyear, led by Source Code Capital, with a capital of $80 million, Tencent with a contribution of $50 million, and Su Hua, the founder of Wuyuan Capital and Kuaishou, with a contribution of $40 million. With a pre-investment valuation of $1 billion, it ranks among the unicorns.

Although this rumor, Wang Huiwen publicly responded that the financing amount and valuation were inaccurate. But he did not deny other information, and some market sources believe that the amount of financing may be $230 million higher.

But in this acceleration frenzy, Wang Huiwen fell ill.

On June 25, sources familiar with the matter outside Lightyear said that Wang Huiwen had recently suffered personal health problems and had now left his post for medical treatment after being diagnosed. The aforementioned informed source further revealed that Wang Huiwen developed some health problems in mid-May and was suspected to have depressive symptoms.

Light-years away, the pause button was suddenly pressed.

26 years of brotherhood, Wang Xing took over light years away

After Wang Huiwen fell ill, what happened beyond light years became a matter of public concern.

Some people think that Su Hua may take over, and some people think that Meituan will take over, until yesterday finally "boots" landed, light years away "flowers" Meituan.

According to the announcement, Meituan acquired 100% of the equity outside Lightyear for 2.065 billion yuan, and the acquisition included two parts of assets outside Lightyear: overseas and onshore.

The consideration for the offshore acquisition was approximately US$234 million, including zero consideration to AI Age, US$5 million to Qimai, US$28 million to Sequoia China, and approximately US$201 million to other sellers.

The consideration for the onshore acquisition included a payment of $1 to Wang Huiwen and $367 million in debt other than light-years. During the announcement period, the unaudited book value outside of domestic light-years (excluding first-class technology) was 348 million yuan. In April 2023, the acquisition of First-class Technology was completed outside of domestic light-years, and as of December 31, 2022, the audited book value of First-class Technology was 15.585 million yuan and the net asset value was 570,000 yuan.

Light-years away from almost no operating activity still has $284 million on the books, which means that the purchase price is almost at parity with net cash.

Wang Huiwen also did not cash out his shares abroad, after Wang Huiwen's $50 million capital into the group was actually lent to light-years away in the form of convertible bonds. Wang Huiwen's exit method was to get 366,924,000 yuan of debt payment, which translates into 50.71 million US dollars.

This time, it is undoubtedly logical for Meituan to take over Lightyear.

The brotherhood between Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen has always been a good story in the Internet circle.

Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen first met in 1997, from four-year bunk roommates at Tsinghua University to intranet and Meituan entrepreneurship, Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen have been accompanying each other at important nodes in life.

Especially in almost every important battle of Meituan, Wang Huiwen is present. For a long time, the outside world has called Wang Xing the planner of Meituan's "top-level design" strategy, and Wang Huiwen is the executor of the strategy.

From the initial Thousand Regiments War, Wang Huiwen personally opened the city to expand, and adopted the method of "expanding while settling accounts" to help Meituan break through the Thousand Regiments War; By the time of focusing on Meituan takeaway, Wang Huiwen personally grasped the refined operation, and made a number of investments or acquisitions in the B-end field of catering to help Meituan takeaway establish a moat; Then to Meituan's taxi business, Wang Huiwen is still the "main general", helping Meituan to carve out a bloody road under the crowd of enemies and occupy a place in the online car hailing market.

Several times they fought side by side, and the feelings between the two kings are self-evident.

After Wang Huiwen chose the big model to start a business, Wang Xing soon invested in a series A outside of his personal light years and became a director. On the day of the official announcement, Wang Xing said: "The AI big model makes me excited about the huge productivity that will be created, and worried about its impact on the whole world in the future." Lao Wang and I have been walking together on the road of entrepreneurship for nearly 20 years, and since he is determined to embrace this big wave, then I must support it. ”

Emotionally, Wang Xing is bound to continue the unfinished business for his old friend.

And rationally speaking, Meituan does need to be light-years away. Judging from the timeline, Meituan's internal preparation of the big model and investment light-years outside of the same period.

Meituan wanted to make a vertical large model related to its own business, but due to its many landing directions, it has not been able to finalize a suitable route.

It was not until May that Meituan began to release recruitment dialogue large model application products, multi-modal large models and other positions, the landing direction of Meituan's large model technology gradually became clear, and conversational AI is likely to become the first stop for Meituan's large model landing.

Some voices of Meituan's emphasis on large models have also begun to appear in the market. A Meituan insider revealed that Wang Xing would ask the head of the algorithm team about every week or two about the relevant progress. In the Meituan model internal sharing meeting on May 18, Meituan's top decision-making body, S-team, also participated.

On May 25, at the earnings call, Wang Xing talked for the first time about the potential role of large models on Meituan's business, and officially disclosed that Meituan is researching and developing basic models and applications, and said that he is open to external technical cooperation and investment opportunities.

Wang Xing believes that in the long run, AI may have a fundamental impact on all aspects of society.

But this advance rate has been slightly later than other large manufacturers.

According to public information, Lightyear completed the team building based on product and technical talents within two months, attracting a number of experts and entrepreneurs in the field of artificial intelligence to join. The current team size is about 70 people. As mentioned above, Liu Jiang and Ma Zhankai, who were the first to join Lightyear, are also from the Meituan family.

As for the reasons for the acquisition, Meituan explained in the announcement that acquiring leading AGI technology and talents through the acquisition has the opportunity to strengthen its competitiveness in the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry.

Meituan also said that after the completion of the merger, it will support the Lightyear team to continue to explore and research in the field of large models.

Wang Huiwen's first career has ended in illness from his personal point of view, which is regrettable, but from the company's point of view, the future beyond light years will continue.