Recently, Xiangdixian Computing Technology (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., which claimed to become the "NVIDIA of China," has been caught in a "dissolution" storm. This domestic startup, established in a certain month and year, had just been awarded the title of "Unicorn Enterprise" by Chongqing City for the year. With RMB 1 billion in financing and a valuation of RMB 10 billion... In just a few years, is it really disbanding so abruptly?

Inescapable Fate Before the Emperor, a phrase from the "Before the Emperor" sentence in the "Laozi." It means that before the creation of the gods, the Tao already existed. The three words "Before the Emperor" reflect the poetic reverence of the company's founders for scientific laws. The founders of Xiangdi Xian Company are indeed not simple—Tang Zhimin (Chairman and CEO of Xiangdi Xian), Director Researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, founder of Loongson, and founder of Hygon.

Loongson was released in the year, being the first general-purpose high-performance microprocessor in China with independent intellectual property rights. Hygon was released in the year, following authorization, as a domestically produced server chip launched by Hygon Information. Loongson focuses on fully independent and controllable information security, while Hygon emphasizes on the compatibility of domestic chips with the existing ecosystem and performance improvement.

In the year and month, Tang Zhimin founded Xiangdi Xian, once again venturing into another pioneering technological field that has been choked by the United States: [specific field not provided in the original text]. Around the year, it was a period of surging domestic investment enthusiasm. However, this fervor cooled down approximately two years later. Additionally, the global semiconductor industry experienced a downturn cycle in , further exacerbating the market temperature.

On the date, at Huawei's Connect event in Shanghai, Huawei's Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman, Xu Zhijun, delivered a keynote speech, stating, "The sustainability of intelligence first and foremost relies on the sustainability of computing power, which in turn depends on semiconductor technology. This necessitates confronting the reality of long-term U.S. sanctions against China in the chip sector..." In the harsh reality, domestic industries experience the difficult coexistence of great opportunities and high risks.

Xiang Di Xian, despite launching two chips, "Tian Jun One" and "Tian Jun Two," faced signs of financing difficulties as early as 2018, culminating in a financial crisis by 2020. The direct cause of Xiang Di Xian's financial crisis was a "bet-on" agreement, where Xiang Di Xian promised to achieve a round of financing of RMB 1 billion. Failing to meet this target, the investors initiated legal proceedings, resulting in the freezing of Xiang Di Xian's company accounts.

The issue of "betting against" is not unique to Xiang Dixian. Niu Wenwen, Chairman of the Entrepreneur Black Horse, has been calling for attention since the month of the year, stating that Chinese technology innovation companies are undergoing a "calamity" of "betting against" buybacks. How large is the scale of this "calamity"? Niu Wenwen's estimate is: approximately 100,000 entrepreneurial projects and 100,000 companies.

The fundamental logic behind the crisis of "Xiang Di Xian" is that as our country is re-organizing the stock market, the secondary market has tightened, making it more difficult to exit through listing. This not only brings private capital investment in the primary market to a standstill but also directly "triggers" the buyback of "bet-on" agreements—without an exit route through listing, startups can only repurchase their shares with their own funds according to the "bet-on" agreements. The result is that it forces startups that desperately need funds to survive into a corner. Niu Wenwen's words still echo, and Xiang Di Xian has provided an illustration for this statement.

There is big news about the crisis of Xiang Di Xian, which also reflects the development process of the industry. After the hot initial venture capital investment and multiple companies squeezing through the first stage of the race, the market has entered the elimination stage. The elimination stage is brutal. Those who are at the top of the market receive more resources; those who deeply cultivate the market, can quickly implement and integrate with the industry ecosystem, will have more and better opportunities for survival.

Chinese companies currently include Cambricon, Enflame Technology, Horizon Semiconductor, CoreX Semiconductor, Iluvatar CoreX, Biren Technology, Moore Threads, and others. Cambricon has gone public on a specific date, but has been continuously losing money since its listing. By the first half of the year, its cumulative net loss after deducting non-recurring profits and losses reached . billion yuan. Enflame Technology (with a loss in its annual report) and Biren Technology are both striving to go public on the A-share market, with the results drawing attention.

HANBOT Semiconductor received a Series B financing round on a certain date (amount undisclosed), with participating institutions including Alibaba, Matrix Partners, Redpoint China, ZhenFund, Morningside Ventures, Yaotu Capital, and Mirae Asset. SkyStone Technology received RMB 1 billion in Series B financing in January, jointly led by Yunbo Capital and Dazheng Capital, with Guangdong Min Investment and China Unicom Capital as co-investors; on February 1st, it received an investment of RMB 200 million from Sichuan Dingxiang.

Moore Threads, with its Nvidia-background founder, has gained market favor, completing a round of financing within the year, with cumulative financing exceeding one billion yuan. As commonly described, Moore Threads is backed by a group of "luxurious" investment institutions: they have money and they have people. In contrast, CoreX Semiconductor has not seen recent financing news, but rather, negative events have surfaced in the year about the company's unfavorable financing and subsequent layoffs.

In this "burning money" competition, the situations of various enterprises differ, and it's hard to say who will emerge victorious. However, if Xiang Dixian encounters difficulties at this time, the likelihood of falling behind significantly increases. Nonetheless, big news also emerges at this juncture. On the day of the month, Premier Li Qiang chaired a State Council executive meeting to study measures promoting the development of venture capital.

The meeting emphasized the need to promptly address bottlenecks and obstacles in all stages of "fundraising, investment, management, and exit," support qualified technology-based enterprises in listing both domestically and internationally, vigorously develop the equity transfer and merger markets, promote the pilot program of physical stock distribution, encourage the establishment of market-oriented merger and acquisition parent funds or secondary market venture capital funds by social capital, and promote a virtuous cycle in the venture capital industry. It is also necessary to drive state-owned capital to become more responsible long-term and patient capital, improve policies and measures related to state-owned capital investment, assessment, tolerance for mistakes, and exit strategies. Additionally, it is essential to strengthen the institutional foundation for the healthy development of venture capital, implement key measures for capital market reforms, enhance the functions of the capital market, and further stimulate the vitality of the venture capital market.

The measures studied at this State Council meeting are aimed at venture capital, especially technology venture capital. The discussion covered many sensitive and important topics such as alleviating bottlenecks, mergers and acquisitions, funds, and state-owned assets, exemplifying the saying "few words, big impact." The "Xiangdi Xians" are precisely the targets of these measures. In other words, relevant enterprises still have policy opportunities. It is believed that with the release of more details, these enterprises will receive stronger practical support under the impetus of policies.