The Cambrian Listed AB Face: Fast Passing Will Be Boundless And Boundless, Where Is The Way Of Losing HUAWEI?

It took 68 days to get the application from IPO, which was accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. To succeed, it was the passing speed of the AI chip company in the Cambrian period.

This speed has set the fastest record for enterprises in this year. For a long time, the 68 day's record was ranked seventh in the science and innovation board, and the first 6 were listed companies.

As the forerunner of the domestic AI chip, Cambrian has many enviable Tags: chip unicorn, valuation of more than 20 billion yuan, founder of the "young genius", high-technology team, backed by a series of star shareholders, and early cooperation with HUAWEI...... At the door of the capital market, the Cambrian won the first battle.

However, in the past year, the Cambrian has suffered many doubts. Especially in the prospectus, the continuous loss, short time profit, IP business can not be sustained development, and the high degree of customer concentration, so that this once amazing AI chip company gradually revealed its true colors.

Unconditional meeting

The Cambrian period was originally a concept of time, referring to a geological time about 540 million years ago.

Now, when searching the word again, a lot of news about a company called "Cambrian" has sprang up. The forerunner of the AI chip in the Cambrian period is named after the epoch of the geological explosion of life to describe the future of artificial intelligence.

Since the establishment of the Cambrian era, the scenery has been boundless. In terms of its main business, it focuses on the research and development of AI chip products, and in recent years, it has caught up with the dual outlets of AI and chips.

The experience of the two founders "young genius" has added legendary colors to the Cambrian. The two brothers of Chen Tianshi and Chen Yunji are highly experienced. They are all young talents who graduated from the junior college of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The doctorate degree in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and two people have led the research and development of the world's first deep learning special processor prototype chip.

This has enabled the Cambrian since its establishment to win the popularity of a number of star investors, including the tens of millions of dollars in the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Angel round financing, and the Pre-A round financing of the yuan Wo origin, the HKUST's inf and Chung Huai investments.

In August 2017, it was only a year and a half after the establishment of the Cambrian period. It completed a A round of financing for the 100 million US dollars. The leading Party voted for venture capital venture, and Ali joined venture capital, Lenovo, national investment, and Zhongke Turing. The original Pre-A round investors, yuan he yuan venture capital and Yonghua investment continued to invest. This financing enabled Cambrian to become the world's first Unicorn company in the field of AI chips, with no scenery of two.

In June 2018, when the Cambrian was just two years old, Chen Tianshi, founder of the Cambrian, revealed to the media that he was considering listing on A shares. In the fifth year of its establishment in 2020, Cambrian officially opened a new chapter in the capital market.

In the first battle of the capital market, the Cambrian produced an excellent record.

In March 26th this year, the Cambrian entered the "examination room" of the "Chuang Chuang board". After two rounds of inquiries, it quickly passed, and lasted for 68 days to refresh the corporate record of this year's science and technology board.

At the meeting, the listing committee focused on the location and sustainability of the intelligent computing cluster system, and maintained the stability and continuous R & D capability of the core technicians, as well as the expected market size and commercialization of the products. It is worth noting that there is no need to implement the audit opinion in the Cambrian period.

Regarding the listing of the Chuang Chuang board, Chen Tianshi said in an interview at the beginning of the year, "our products have been making steady progress, and the market has been gradually expanding." It also said that the listing of the science and technology board could not "suppress the R & D" to enhance short-term profits.

R & D does occupy a higher cost in Cambrian: in 2017-2019 years, the R & D expenses of the company are 29 million 861 thousand and 900 yuan, 240 million 111 thousand and 800 yuan and 543 million 45 thousand and 400 yuan respectively, and the R & D rates are 380.73%, 205.18% and 122.32% respectively.

Other data also highlight the positioning of the company's hard technology. As of December 31, 2019, the company had 680 R & D personnel, accounting for 79.25% of the total staff, and 80% of the R & D personnel with master's degree or above.

As of February 29, 2020, the company has authorized a total of 65 patents, including 50 domestic patents and 15 overseas patents.

Losing HUAWEI

Although it will be smooth sailing and high gold content in hard technology, Cambrian is probably on pins and needles in the first round of inquiries.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange put forward 20 problems in 6 major categories, including main business, core technology, accounts receivable, financial products, government subsidies, etc., all of them hit the key and were referred to by the media as the "20 questions of the soul" of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Among them, the most concern is the Cambrian business income change.

Because smart chip R & D requires a lot of capital expenditure, the product is still in the market expansion stage, and the Cambrian is not yet profitable and there is a cumulative deficit. 2017-2019 years, Cambrian business income 7 million 843 thousand and 300 yuan, 117 million 25 thousand and 200 yuan, 443 million 938 thousand and 500 yuan. Net profit attributable to -38070.04 million yuan, -4104.65 million and -117898.56 million.

To some extent, this explains why the Cambrian period, founded only 5 years ago, is so eager for listing. Although it has won the favor of investors in the primary market, it has invested a lot but has not made any profit. Looking back at Chen Tianshi's interpretation of the speed of listing, the power comes from the support of customers, diligent colleagues, solidarity of shareholders, and encouragement of innovation.

One of the more crucial issues that leads to performance change is the sustainability of performance.

"The Cambrian team is excellent, the AI chip has broad prospects, and the market has given great tolerance to this industry. But the AI chip technology is very difficult, and it is uncertain when to produce results. In June 3rd, an electronic industry analyst regrets to reporters.

In the initial prospectus, the Cambrian concealed HUAWEI's Hass and its related parties in the first five major customers, named A and B respectively. Especially in 2019, the sales of Cambrian to customer A dropped from 97.63% to 14.34% last year, making anonymity more obvious.

After the second round of inquiry in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Cambrian disclosed the identity of customer A as HUAWEI Hass, and admitted that the IP authorized business revenue of terminal smart processors in 2019 was 41.23% lower than that of last year. The main reason is HUAWEI Hass chose to develop the terminal smart chip and did not continue to cooperate with the company. In 2018, the IP authorized business contributed 99.69% of the company's revenue.

Cambrian expresses, because company and HUAWEI Hass did not continue to reach new cooperation, it is difficult for the company to develop large customers with the same business volume in the short term, so the authorized business income of terminal intelligent processor IP will continue to decline in 2020. In 2019, IP authorized business accounted for 15.49%.

Behind the loss of HUAWEI is a story of a friend changing his opponent.

In 2016, when the concept of AI broke out, the mobile phone industry began to contact the concept of AI. Cambrian became famous for its cooperation with HUAWEI. In 2017, the Cambrian AI chip product successfully entered HUAWEI's flagship mobile phone. HUAWEI Hass was the first largest customer in Cambrian in 2017 -2018.

But since 2018, HUAWEI Hass has chosen to independently develop artificial intelligence chips and launch a variety of products, and there will be direct competition with the Cambrian in the field of terminal, cloud and edge AI chips.

In addition to HUAWEI Hass, Cambrian is also facing greater competitive pressure. Integrated circuit giant NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc. have invested a lot of resources in R & D or acquisition of smart chips. The entry of IP giants such as ARM in IC industry has intensified the competition of IP market in terminal intelligent processors, and the potential market space of IP authorized business has been further squeezed.

The loss of HUAWEI directly led to the reduction of IP authorized business. In this case, in 2019, Cambrian expanded cloud smart chip and accelerated card business and intelligent computing cluster system business. Besides the dawn of Zhongke, there are also non related parties such as wave information and Jin Shanyun, but their business accounts for a relatively small proportion. The latter has become an important source to compensate for the loss of HUAWEI.

In 2019, the company's first largest customer was the intelligent computing platform (phase two) of the Zhuhai Hengqin New District Management Committee. The total price of the project was as high as 444 million, which directly brought 207 million revenue to Cambrian in 2019.

This brings an intuitive question. "Although I have opened up new businesses, I can not see clearly which track I want to dig deep after it wants to go, which is similar to those of artificial intelligence, such as Shang Tang and those who do face recognition." The analysts said.

For the Cambrian era, it will take time to answer a question after listing: how can we find our customers and go through a sustainable commercial road? This is also the core of the three issues raised by the listing committee.

?