November 21, 2020 is the first anniversary of Canaan’s listing. Canaan’s chairman and CEO has something to say to all Canaan’s students! The following is the full text of the internal letter:
Dear Canaan students:
Soon, we have been on the market for one year. Entering the long tail of 2020, many people say that the year is finally coming to an end. Yes, they lamented that the new crown virus does not speak military ethics and attacked the world. At the same time, we have accidentally become witnesses of history. And witnesses. To be honest, 2020 is indeed “difficult to go to Canaan.” Nearly melted confidence, self-deprecating cheeks and workers, scrolling and Internet toilet puzzles, twists and turns on mobile phone screens, and anxiety about being invisible. All of this has become our concern for this year Deep memory.
Looking back on today many years later, you may think of those moments of melancholy and helplessness. To a certain extent, we are all passengers on the Economic Express in the past 30 years. We have seen pigs flying in the wind, wavers moving forward, and we have also experienced the joy of harvesting fruits as long as we run hard. Now, we are still running on this train, but as the speed slows down, we can see some problems clearly, and behind these problems, maybe the direction to the next stop is hidden.
The only thing we can be sure of is that the sun is over. Regardless of whether the dark clouds are over the city or the squally rains, as long as he takes root, he can leave a green hill and tell himself who was once the bottom of the valley. Since life doesn’t allow you to lie flat, and you can’t even think about it soaring into the sky, then take broken steps to meet the sunrise. Today, I try to use these five “cores” to share these growth footprints with you. I hope that every Canaan student will have a solid and smooth future.
Working together
The epidemic at the beginning of the year disrupted all the rhythms. “Crazy Animal City” entered the street from the screen, and everyone became an otaku clan. Just when many people reset their luggage from their suitcases, or when they are stranded, looking at the collective flight out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, as a member of the industry, we are also facing unprecedented challenges.
The first is the problem of going to work. During the epidemic, everyone started the “cloud office” mode, and home office work could not be relaxed, because customer orders were still in the mailbox, and the problems in research and development were at hand. Secondly, in terms of production, we are facing a delay in the supply of raw materials for preparation. In terms of sales, we are facing delays or even interruptions in product logistics. Fortunately, thanks to everyone’s efforts, we have completed the mass production and shipment of a variety of chips and mining machines.
We also donated 2 million materials and cash to the society as soon as possible, and used a small amount to express our respect to the retrograde.
Renew with core
The epidemic has pressed the accelerator key for people’s digital life. With a stroke of 40 trillion yuan, the “new infrastructure” opened a new direction for the future. As a member of the chip industry, we see opportunities and understand better that “core people” and “brickers” who do a good job in digital infrastructure are our duty.
This year, we continued to advance towards the two areas of “blockchain + AI”. In the blockchain field, the layout strategy of multi-wafer manufacturers has seen results. The 8nm chip we cooperated with Samsung and the N+1 chip cooperated with SMIC have been mass-produced and shipped. The orders for the A1166Pro and A1246 computing power tools have been scheduled until March next year. Among them, the launch of A1246 means that we have the ability to develop machines with an energy efficiency ratio of 30J/T, which can provide customers with better computing power.
We have also cooperated with many leading large modern mines in Kazakhstan, and delivered hundreds of thousands of mining machines. In North America and other regions, we have close business cooperation with leading industry customers such as Minebest, Bitfury, CoreScientific, etc. In order to improve product quality and achieve faster delivery, we have developed a general hardware model structure, shortening the development cycle, allowing customers to mount machines more quickly, and facilitating mine deployment and operation and maintenance.
In the AI field, we speed up the R&D process of software and hardware integration, independently develop algorithms such as face recognition models with masks and live detection models, and achieve optimal adaptation to chip performance. We are also happy to see the role played by products such as smart meter reading and smart access control during the epidemic. These small changes are pushing digitalization and intelligence into more corners of life, not just entertainment on mobile phones.
Digital infrastructure is riding on the wind. In AI STEAM education, smart cities and other fields, we are awakening more devices and using cores to lay a solid foundation for people’s lifestyle improvement.
Compare core to core
This year, our AI chips have received more recognition from the industry. Especially the support of the Linux kernel means that we can be compatible with the world’s largest embedded operating system, and the playability has become stronger. In terms of performance, we can also side by side with edge computing products from top stars such as Nvidia and Raspberry Pi to bring developers a more cost-effective choice.
Thanks to the advantages of Kanzhi K210, we also experienced the softness of winning the prize. At the beginning of the year, our intelligent landing case was selected into IDC’s first AI report. In the second quarter, Forrester rated us as a “hardware expert” in the “2020 Q2 China AI Chip Supplier Report”. In October, it entered the “Top 50 Chinese Artificial Intelligence Chip Companies 2020” list. At the Hi-Tech Fair held this month, our AI chip also won the Excellent Product Innovation Award again.
We also boarded the CCTV news network, and the reporter sister experienced the smart follower camera equipped with K210 on the spot. The camera artifact lies in the core. We will bring more cost-effective and smoother intelligent experience to more consumers.
Heart to Fire
From the first few geeks to today’s R&D team of hundreds of people, we deeply understand that nothing can make developers feel more rewarding than implementing an application by hand. With this idea in mind, we are speeding up the development of the developer community while realizing the strides of commercialization of AI chips. We benefit from open source and grow in open source, and we will also do our due obligations for the growth of the open source community.
At the same time, we are also very happy to establish cooperation with a number of AI STEAM education players to build a series of smart hardware products such as smart cars based on Kanzhi K210. From interpersonal communication to human-computer communication, we hope that the seeds of technological change will take root in the increasingly abundant maker land. We hope to become a bridge connecting the bit world and the atomic world.
Core core fire
Today, intelligent transformation is no longer a slogan, and the chip industry is the winner in promoting this transformation. Unbreakable and unreliable, when the invincible x86 and ARM ecosystems are cracked, when the turmoil and noise on the other side of the ocean disturb the global industrial chain, the opportunity of our time has just arrived.
We are witnessing this process with more partners. This year, our blockchain chips and mining machines have been put on shelves in emerging new areas of computing power such as Kazakhstan. Our AI chip customers are in 7 countries including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Israel, France and Vietnam. The application scenarios are also further extended to more fields such as smart city, maker education, smart home, bus epidemic prevention, and industrial intelligent production.
The fire of the core can start a prairie fire, and the wisdom of all things will give birth to prosperity in all industries. We will no longer be confined to the unipolar world of computing architecture. Even the frequent multi-billion mergers and acquisitions cannot stop the rise and growth of a diversified ecosystem.
It has been a year since we yelled “Yes, We CAN.” on Nasdaq. In this year, we have witnessed the great history of sudden changes and created our own small history. We are no longer bystanders and witnesses on both sides of the long river, we are also fortunate to be witnesses and witnesses on the scene of the years. We strive to find our place in change.
In a dangerous situation, no matter which direction you go, you are going forward. Through the barriers of the epidemic, the sky ravaged by black swans, and the faults of the global industrial chain, these unforgettable experiences have further strengthened our expectations for the next ten years.
We are not ignoring the difficulties, we just believe that the first time after the snow, the rainbow after the rain. A year ago, we said that going public was just the starting point. Today, one year later, we are still on the road.
Yes, We CAN!
