Canaan Creative's internal letter on its first anniversary of listing: the company's value has returned and new chips are in mass production

Original title: "One year after Canaan's listing, we are always on the road"

Original source: Canaan Creative

Since October this year, Bitcoin has soared to as high as $19,500. The rise in the price of the currency has directly led to a hot mining machine market. The mining machine futures of Bitmain, MicroBT and Canaan Creative have been scheduled to be after March next year. Recently, the price of Canaan Creative's stock CAN was close to $7, up 17.53% in 24 hours.

November 21st marks the first anniversary of Canaan's IPO. Canaan Chairman and CEO Zhang Nangeng published an internal letter. The following is the full text:

Dear Jianan students:

Soon, it has been one year since we went public. Entering the long tail of 2020, many people say that this year is finally coming to an end. Yes, while lamenting that the new coronavirus has no moral principles and has attacked the world, we have accidentally become the first-hand experience and witness of history. To be honest, 2020 is indeed "difficult to get on Canaan". The confidence that is almost broken, the self-mockery of the Che Guevara and the workers, the internal circulation and the toilet puzzle of the Internet, the twists and turns of the curves on the mobile phone screen and the anxiety that cannot be hidden, all of this has become our deep memory of this year.

Looking back at today many years later, you may recall those moments of loss and helplessness. To some extent, we are all passengers on the Economy Express in the past 30 years. We have seen pigs flying in the wind, surfers riding the waves, and experienced the joy of picking 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, perhaps there is a direction to the next stop.

The only thing we can be sure of is that we will make progress step by step. No matter if it is dark clouds or violent storms, as long as we take root, we can leave a piece of green mountains and say to ourselves who were once at the bottom of the valley that there is a long way to go. Since life does not allow you to lie down, and you can't even think about soaring into the sky, then take small steps to greet the rising sun. Today, I will try to use these five "cores" to share these footprints of growth with you, and I wish every Canaan student a solid and smooth future.

Working together

The epidemic at the beginning of the year disrupted everything. "Zootopia" went from the screen to the streets, and everyone became a otaku. While many people were repacking their luggage from their suitcases, or were stranded and looking out the French window at the flights that were all stranded, we, as a member of the industry, were also facing unprecedented challenges.

First of all, there is the problem of going to work. During the epidemic, everyone started the "cloud office" mode. Even if you work from home, you can't relax, because the customer's orders are still lying in the mailbox, and the problems in R&D are right in front of you. Secondly, in production, we are facing delays in the supply of raw materials for preparation. In sales, we are facing slow or even interrupted product logistics. Fortunately, with everyone's efforts, we have completed the mass production and shipment of multiple chips and mining machines.

We also donated 2 million in supplies and cash to the society at the first opportunity to express our respect for those who went against the flow.

Renew with the core

The epidemic has accelerated people's digital life. With a stroke of 40 trillion yuan, "new infrastructure" has opened up a new direction for the future. As a member of the chip industry, we see opportunities and understand that it is our duty to be "chip people" and "brick movers" to build digital infrastructure.

This year, we continue to advance in the two fields of "blockchain + AI". In the field of blockchain, the layout strategy of multiple wafer manufacturers has yielded results. The 8nm chip we cooperated with Samsung and the N+1 chip we cooperated with SMIC have been mass-produced and shipped. Orders for the two computing power tools A1166Pro and A1246 have been scheduled until March next year. Among them, the launch of A1246 means that we have the ability to develop machines with energy efficiency ratios in the 30J/T range, which can provide customers with better computing power.

We have also cooperated with many large-scale modern mining farms in Kazakhstan and delivered hundreds of thousands of mining machines. In North America and other regions, we have close business cooperation with industry leaders such as Minebest, Bitfury, CoreScientific, etc. In order to improve product quality and achieve faster delivery, we have developed a universal hardware model structure to shorten the R&D cycle, allowing customers to put machines on the shelves faster and facilitate the deployment and operation of mining farms.

In the field of AI, we have accelerated the development of software and hardware integration, independently developed algorithms such as face recognition models for people wearing masks and liveness detection models, and achieved optimal adaptation with chip performance. We are also pleased to see the role played by products such as smart meter reading and smart access control during the epidemic. These small changes are driving digitalization and intelligence into more corners of life, not just entertainment on mobile phones.

Digital infrastructure is taking off. In the fields of AI STEAM education, smart cities, etc., we are awakening more devices and using chips to lay a solid foundation for improving people's lifestyles.

Compare the core to the core

This year, our AI chips have received more recognition from the industry. In particular, the support of the Linux kernel means that we are compatible with the world's largest embedded operating system, making it more playable. In terms of performance, we can also stand shoulder to shoulder with edge computing products from first-tier companies such as Nvidia and Raspberry Pi, providing developers with a more cost-effective choice.

Thanks to the advantages of Kanzhi K210, we have also experienced the feeling of winning awards one after another. At the beginning of the year, our intelligent implementation cases were 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, we entered the "2020 China Artificial Intelligence Chip Enterprise TOP 50" list. At the High-Tech Fair held this month, our AI chip also won the Excellent Product Innovation Award again.

We also appeared on CCTV News Network, and a reporter experienced the smart follow-up gimbal equipped with K210. The key to photography lies in the chip, and we will bring more cost-effective advantages and smoother smart experience to more consumers.

Core Fire

From the earliest few geeks to today's R&D team of hundreds of people, we deeply understand that nothing can make developers feel more fulfilled than implementing an application by themselves. With this idea in mind, we are accelerating the construction of the developer community while achieving the commercialization of AI chips. We benefit from open source, grow from open source, and will also do our part to help the open source community grow.

At the same time, we are also very happy to establish cooperation with many leading players in AI STEAM education to create 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 and sprout in the increasingly abundant maker soil. We hope to become a bridge connecting the world of bits and the world of atoms.

Fire of the Core

Today, intelligent transformation is no longer just a slogan, and the chip industry is the key to driving this transformation. Without destruction, there is no construction. When cracks appear in the solid x86 and ARM ecosystems, and when turmoil and noise on the other side of the ocean disturb the global industrial chain, the opportunity of our era has just arrived.

We and more partners are witnessing this process. This year, our blockchain chips and mining machines have been put into operation in emerging computing power zones such as Kazakhstan. Our AI chip customers are spread across seven countries including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Israel, France and Vietnam. Application scenarios have also been further extended to smart cities, maker education, smart homes, public transportation epidemic prevention and industrial intelligent production and other fields.

The fire of the core can set the prairie on fire, and the intelligent connection of all things will give rise to the prosperity of all industries. We will no longer be confined to the unipolar world of computing architecture, and even the frequent mergers and acquisitions worth hundreds of billions cannot stop the rise and growth of a diversified ecosystem.

It has been a year since we shouted "Yes, We CAN." at 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 experiencers of the years. We strive to find our own place in the changes.

In a dangerous situation, no matter which direction you go, you are moving forward. Crossing the barriers of epidemics, the raging black swans and the fault lines of the global industrial chain, these unforgettable experiences have further strengthened our expectations for the next decade.

We are not ignoring difficulties, we just believe that there will be a rainbow after the rain. One year ago, we said that going public was just the starting point, and today, one year later, we are still on the road.