Li Zhifei won the "first AIGC share"! The stock price fell after listing, is the capital no longer interested in AI?

What is the hottest and most involuted industry right now? AI may not be the best, but it is definitely on the list.

Amid the rapid advances of various "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", a Nanjing AI unicorn that was favored by the "national team" fought its way into the market and was the first to win the title of "the first AIGC stock".

AIGC's first stock, listed at a discount

On April 24, Mobvoi Inc. successfully rang the bell and was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the stock code 02348.HK. Just half a month after obtaining the IPO filing from the China Securities Regulatory Commission at the beginning of the month, this AI company founded by former Google scientist Li Zhifei finally landed on the capital market after 12 years of hard work.

However, on the first day of listing, Chumenwenwen seemed to have encountered a "bad start" and had a bad start.

Mobvoi's initial public offering in Hong Kong was 84.57 million shares, with an offering range of HK$3.7-4.1 per share and a final price of HK$3.8 per share.

However, the opening price of HK$2.98 per share, a drop of more than 21%, fell below the issue price at the opening. Although it began to rise sharply in the afternoon, after a roller coaster-like ups and downs, as of 16:00, the stock price finally settled at HK$3.68, still below the issuance expectations, with an overall decline of 3.16% and a total market value of HK$5.489 billion.

On that day, Mobvoi's trading volume was 61.94 million shares, with a turnover of 206 million yuan and a turnover rate of 4.15%. The activity level was relatively high, and it is estimated that many "retail investors" were deceived.

Although they are not in the same field and cannot be completely compared, UBTECH Robotics, the "first humanoid robot " that was very popular last year, had a trading volume of only 1.6575 million shares on the day of its listing. Even on March 8, when the stock price soared by nearly 80% and reached a high of HK$328, which made everyone call it "crazy selling", the trading volume on that day was only 6.9667 million shares.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that it was "hard to get a subscription" during the offering period. The company closed with oversubscription of more than 100 times on April 19, setting a subscription record for Hong Kong stocks this year. Zhongguancun International Limited and Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Juzhi Science and Technology Investment Partnership, two "national teams", also served as cornerstone investors, with a cumulative subscription scale of approximately HK$95 million, which is enough to prove that investors have high hopes for it.

However, the first day’s results cannot tell us much. Whether it is gold or bubble depends on subsequent performance.

Friends who follow the Hong Kong stock market may have discovered that quite a few mainland companies that went public in Hong Kong recently have had a "catastrophic start".

Yesterday, the topic "Cha Baidao lost 3 years of net profit in one hour after listing" was on the hot search, with over 50 million views; the day before yesterday, Tianjin Jianfa opened below the issue price and fell by over 24.8%...

On one hand, highly valued stocks frequently “break the issue price”, and on the other hand, there are long queues waiting to ring the bell, which shows how “short of money” the companies are.

At a time when internal competition is serious and investment is becoming increasingly cautious, even if you hit the cusp of AI, the era of “even pigs can fly” has long passed.

Moreover, while many AI companies are still struggling to survive, Mobvoi has achieved profitability for two consecutive years. In terms of revenue from AIGC products and services in 2022, Mobvoi ranks 8th in the world and 1st in Asia. The company's future development is worth looking forward to.

Former Google scientist starts a business, targeting AI

In recent years, the "winter faction" and "carnival faction" in the field of artificial intelligence have been arguing endlessly. But it is undeniable that large language models represented by ChatGPT have indeed set off a wave of AIGC. From the initial battle of hundreds of models to the current updates in seconds, both technology giants and startups are vying for a piece of the pie.

Mobvoi is also one of the pioneers in China to enter the AIGC track early on.

The company's founder, Li Zhifei, obtained a bachelor's degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, and successively obtained a master's degree and a doctorate from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Nanyang Technological University. In 2010, after graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a doctorate in computer science, Li Zhifei joined Google as a research scientist, responsible for the development of language translation models.

Siri, the voice AI assistant launched by Apple, sparked Li Zhifei's strong interest in "defining the next generation of human-computer interaction." Relying on the connections and technical background he had accumulated during his time at Google, Li Zhifei left his job in 2012 to start his own business after receiving angel investments from Sequoia Capital and Zhen Fund.

With angel investments from top VCs such as Sequoia and a core team of big names, Mobvoi's starting point is very high.

However, with the dramatic changes in market conditions and investor expectations, from being regarded as a "gateway to the Internet" strategy to being a highly anticipated new platform for future human-computer interaction, Mobvoi seems to have always been given overly advanced imaginations, but its actual commercialization process has not been smooth, and can even be described as bumpy.

In the first few years, Mobvoi focused on the development of voice search software and was committed to creating a "Chinese version of Google Now". It launched a voice assistant app and consumer-grade smart hardware products such as watches, smart speakers, and smart headphones.

Although the company's smartwatch TicWatch series has gained a certain market share, with the entry of leading manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, and Baidu, the industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce. At the same time, Mobvoi's offline retail channels are also expanding, but heavy asset investment and subsidy wars make it difficult for it to continue, and its performance is squeezed.

The company immediately adjusted its business and shifted its focus to the B-side, providing voice interaction solutions for enterprise-level customers. Among them, Volkswagen is its largest customer, and Mobvoi is closely tied to it.

In 2017, Mobvoi's in-car hardware product "Mobvoi Magic Mirror" attracted Volkswagen's investment. According to the prospectus, Mobvoi established Mobvoi JV with its automotive subsidiary A in the same year, focusing on in-car AI technology. This A company is Volkswagen.

According to the prospectus, Mobvoi's largest customer in the first half of 2022-2023 was Volkswagen, which "contributed" 213 million yuan and 138.8 million yuan to the company respectively, accounting for 42.6% and 53% of the company's total revenue.

However, what is strange is that Volkswagen, which has cooperated with Mobvoi for many years, suddenly sold its shares in June 2023, not long after Mobvoi first submitted its application, and the joint venture was also split. Volkswagen's name is no longer on the list of shareholders for this listing.

In 2020, after seeing the amazing performance of the GPT-3 model launched by OpenAI, Li Zhifei regarded the big AI model as the "steam engine of the new era", and the company began to enter the AIGC field.

In the same year, Mobvoi launched its first AIGC product, “Magic Sound Workshop” and the large model “UCLAI”.

In 2023, the company released the large language model "Sequence Monkey" one after another, and Mobvoi's generative AI layout has become increasingly perfect, covering a cross-scenario full-modal AIGC product matrix, including writing (Qimiaowen), dubbing (Magic Sound Workshop), digital humans (Qimiaoyuan), painting (Yanzhihua), etc.

While AIGC is hot, the company's AI enterprise solutions and traditional smart hardware are also continuing to make progress. But there is no doubt that AIGC has become the core strategic direction for the future development of Mobvoi. Data shows that from 2021 to 2023, the company's AIGC solution revenue will have an annual compound growth rate of more than 300%, reaching 118 million yuan in 2023.

In the 12-year development process, Mobvoi has experienced several transformation pains. But finally, under the guidance of the tide of the times, it has stepped onto the AIGC fast lane.

However, in order to continue to promote the R&D iteration of AIGC technology and the implementation of products, the replenishment of financial ammunition is the top priority. Obviously, the AIGC industry has broad prospects, but it also requires continuous large-scale investment.

According to a report by CSI Consulting, the global AIGC market will reach RMB 127.5 billion by 2027. In this field, giant competitors such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are eyeing the market; domestic leaders such as Baidu, iFlytek, and ByteDance, as well as unicorn companies such as Zhipu AI, Baichuan Intelligence, and Dark Side of the Moon have also emerged.

Faced with the anxiety of continuing to "burn money", Mobvoi urgently needs to leverage the capital market to inject fresh blood.

According to the prospectus, as of June 2023, the company will have only approximately 202 million yuan in cash and cash equivalents, which is difficult to support the rapid development needs of an AI company.

The shareholder lineup is luxurious and capital injection is imminent

Previously, Mobvoi completed seven rounds of financing, and the financing reached the D round. The company's shareholder lineup is also very luxurious, including Sequoia Capital, Zhen Fund, SIG Haina Asia, Google Ventures and other well-known institutions, with a total financing of US$233 million. Volkswagen Group invested US$180 million (about RMB 1.3 billion) in the D round of financing.