On December 10, OpenAI officially opened the artificial intelligence video generation model Sora to users. This is also the third product released by OpenAI in its continuous live broadcast.

Dark Side of the Moon, one of the country’s leading large-scale model startups, is still deeply involved in disputes over former investor arbitration and Zhang Yutong’s “deception of shares”.

As Yang Zhilin said in a post on the evening of December 6 in response to the controversy, "While we are discussing this issue, the team on the other side of the ocean is releasing new AI products."

Yang Zhilin Source: Visual China

Although Yang Zhilin said that he has full confidence in continuing to produce more advanced intelligence through scale, the realization of so-called AGI still faces huge challenges before the controversy involved in The Dark Side of the Moon is resolved. variable.

There is not much time left for Yang Zhilin. As the first voice of this turmoil, Zhu Xiaohu, managing partner of Jinshajiang Venture Capital, said in an interview with the media, “The shareholders of Dark Side of the Moon requested that they obtain exemptions from the old shareholders of Circular Intelligence before December 15 this year. If they can’t get it or we file a lawsuit, they will reduce the valuation by 10%, which means returning 10% of the investor’s investment or issuing additional shares, which is a big penalty.” But according to people familiar with the matter, this is a huge penalty. False news.

On this basis, the Dark Side of the Moon team is also willing to reconcile with former investors such as Zhu Xiaohu, but Yang Zhilin cannot accept another condition proposed by Zhu Xiaohu, which is to untie Zhang Yutong. The situation also reached a stalemate. Some insiders pointed out that what is simultaneously affected is the possible merger and acquisition process of Dark Side of the Moon. However, Dark Side of the Moon denied the news of the merger to "Chinese Entrepreneur".

Previously, there was news that Alibaba wanted to acquire Dark Side of the Moon. Some industry insiders pointed out that around June was the best time, but due to various reasons, the merger and acquisition did not proceed.

As a popular star company, when will Dark Side of the Moon usher in its moment of light?

December 5 , Zhu Xiaohu’s two circles of friends once again focused the attention of the outside world on the dispute between Dark Side of the Moon and its former shareholders.

Zhu Xiaohu also accepted interviews from many media and talked about many details. Judging from what he disclosed, Dark Side of the Moon, a star company that seems to be simmering in flames and blooming with flowers, has actually fallen into the center of the storm.

In February this year, Dark Side of the Moon completed a new round of financing of US$1 billion, led by Alibaba, followed by Sequoia China, Xiaohongshu, Meituan, etc., with a post-investment valuation of more than 25 billion, directly entering the first echelon of large model startup companies.

But then, in April, media reported that founder Yang Zhilin had cashed out tens of millions of dollars by selling his personal shares. Although Dark Side of the Moon quickly denied the news, many industry insiders andWhen investors discussed this issue with "Chinese Entrepreneur", their attitude was ambiguous: young entrepreneurs have never made a lot of money. If they want to improve their lives and stabilize their lives, there is nothing wrong with selling a small part of their old stocks.

The "revelation" of the old shareholders of Circular Intelligence also confirmed the cash-out. Zhu Xiaohu said in a recent interview, "After Ali's round of delivery, they cashed out." Chen Yu, an angel investor of Circular Intelligence, also bluntly said: "We learned from the transaction documents that she had 9 million shares at the beginning, and Ali's After a round of financing, she Another 3 million shares were obtained from Yang, so Zhang Yutong owned a total of 12 million shares in Dark Side of the Moon, and he cashed out and sold some of his old shares to Alibaba. "

The cash-out crisis was in Dark Side of the Moon. After responding in person, he came over quickly.

At the end of May, news came out that Tencent would take a stake in Dark Side of the Moon. The company’s valuation directly climbed to US$3 billion, making it one of the “Six Little Tigers” of domestic large-scale models.

A large amount of financing has provided Dark Side of the Moon with ample ammunition, but Yang Zhilin and other management teams do not seem to have made a good plan on "how to spend money."

Source: Visual China

In terms of capital expenditure, Dark Side of the Moon seems to be an "alternative" to the large model industry - other companies are cautious in investing and more actively seeking commercialization. The distribution strategy of Dark Side can be called radical, on par with Doubao, which is backed by Douyin. AppGrowning platform data shows that since March this year, Kimi’s advertising has reached tens of millions of yuan almost every month. In October, Kimi’s advertising investment reached 220 million yuan. In November, when Dark Side of the Moon was deeply involved in arbitration, Kimi's investment did not slow down, with the amount reaching 200 million yuan.

In addition to betting heavily on its flagship product Kimi, Dark Side of the Moon has not given up on multi-modal models or products. Although it has been "delayed", at the press conference on November 16, Yang Zhilin said that several of their multi-modal capabilities are under internal testing. This also means that while ensuring Kimi’s monthly income, Dark Side of the Moon still requires a large amount of capital investment.

At present, the big model "Six Little Tigers" have reached the unicorn stage. When almost all major domestic Internet companies have ended (investment), some investors told "China Entrepreneur" that whether from Whether it is the economic development level or the national strategic level, the most likely thing in the future is that the national team will "take over" at the end of the game.

Will Dark Side of the Moon become the "darling" of state-owned assets?

At present, if the controversy over Zhu Xiaohu’s exposure of the “dishonesty” of Zhang Yutong and others is not resolved, it is unlikely that state-owned funds will end up investing in Dark Side of the Moon. Zhu Xiaohu went straight to the core of the problem in his WeChat Moments on December 5: "State-owned investors commented that if this happened in a state-owned fund, they would be taken away by the economic investigation the next day."

Once If there is no new capital coming in and the current strategy of investing high and high is maintained, how to manage the company's cash flow will become a challenge facing Yang Zhilin's team.

The previously reported acquisition of Dark Side of the Moon seems to be far away. There is newsIt is reported that around the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, Hu Xiao, the head of Alibaba’s strategic investment who led the investment in Dark Side of the Moon, resigned. She recently joined the Morning One Fund founded by Liu Xiaodan and joined by Zhang Yong. Some investors said that all the people in charge of the Dark Side of the Moon project in Alibaba’s investment department have left. The Dark Side of the Moon project is a "thunder of the previous dynasty" and basically no one will take it over.

The Dark Side of the Moon controversy is not without its twists and turns.

According to Zhu Xiaohu, they are almost at peace with the Dark Side of the Moon. The reason why he couldn't help but post on WeChat to criticize Dark Side of the Moon and Zhang Yutong was because there were large-scale trolls and marketing accounts that posted too many articles that slandered him and his organization, especially after seeing "A Letter to Entrepreneurs: From After writing the article "Moon Dark Arbitration Case, Learn Lessons Worth 100 Million US Dollars", Zhu Xiaohu couldn't bear it anymore and directly forwarded it to his WeChat Moments.

Source: Screenshot of Zhu Xiaohu’s circle of friends

But this is not the reason why Zhu Xiaohu and other former investors of The Dark Side of the Moon really “quarreled”. The cause of the matter still stems from interests.

At the end of November, industry insiders told "China Entrepreneur" that long before it was revealed that "Kimi founder Yang Zhilin was brought for arbitration by a former investor," Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Jingya Capital, and Boyu Capital The five former investors of Circular Intelligence, Huashan Capital and Wanwu Capital, were already negotiating with Dark Side of the Moon, requiring the founding team to give them a large amount of shares and cash compensation. At that time, Yang Zhilin and others could not accept the seemingly "lion's mouth." ” terms. As the major shareholder owning 40% of the shares of Dark Side of the Moon, Alibaba directly sent legal and public relations teams to take over the negotiations and subsequent arbitration between the two parties. But the final result was that the talks "collapsed", and a small shareholder subsequently broke the news to the media, directly exposing the conflict between the two parties to the public.

According to Zhu Xiaohu’s circle of friends, they are willing to reconcile with the Dark Side of the Moon, but only if the Dark Side of the Moon cuts off Zhang Yutong. In Zhu Xiaohu's view, on the one hand, Zhang Yutong completely violated his fiduciary responsibility, and the 9 million initial free shares were completely illegal gains; on the other hand, if Zhang Yutong is willing to apologize and give up these shares, it means that other people can get more shares. many.

Source: Screenshot of Zhu Xiaohu’s Moments

On the evening of December 6, under the pressure of Zhu Xiaohu and other old shareholders, Yang Zhilin had no choice but to come forward and post a response on social media. At the same time as the clarification, it was also interpreted as a rejection of Zhang Yutong's request to cut off.

Zhu Xiaohu also responded immediately and did not agree with Yang Zhilin's explanation. Some people in the public relations industry analyzed that Yang Zhilin's response may have been released directly, bypassing Ali's public relations, and the content of the response was "better not to reply at all." Because he not only "avoided talking" about the core of the controversy, but also defended Zhang Yutong's rhetoric, which also confirmed to a certain extent most of Zhu Xiaohu's accusations against Zhang Yutong.

According to Zhu Xiaohu’s idea, the moonThe easiest way for the dark side to solve the current predicament is to quickly cut off from Zhang Yutong.

But Yang Zhilin responded, "Yutong has made important contributions to the company in business, strategy and multiple financing battles." If it is really cut off, will doing so chill the "hero's heart" ”, triggering a greater chain reaction?

On the other hand, even if Yang Zhilin really wants to do the cutting, is he able to achieve it?

According to undercurrent reports, Zhang Yutong has long been deeply involved in Kimi's operations, "like the company's big housekeeper." At the end of 2023, the first person many investors met was often not Yang Zhilin, but Zhang Yutong. Even in personnel appointments and removals, Zhang Yutong also plays an important role. She is like "a resurrection card". "If the interview gets stuck, just contact Zhang Yutong and we can move forward quickly."

Some industry insiders told "Chinese Entrepreneur" that currently Zhang Yutong almost plays the role of CEO in Dark Side of the Moon, while Yang Zhilin basically only cares about technology. However, people close to Dark Side of the Moon denied this. This statement.

Judging from Yang Zhilin’s response throughout the dispute, as a technical talent, how to solve the company’s complex management problems is one of the huge challenges he currently faces. After experiencing such a huge negative impact, how will the AGI ideal of Dark Side of the Moon continue?