AI unicorn Going out to ask Google to go public in Hong Kong as the company's main shareholder

**Source: **Financial Association

Edit Ma Yijie

On May 30, the artificial intelligence company Mobvoi submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CICC and CMB International as joint sponsors. According to the prospectus, Mobwenwen is an artificial intelligence company with generative AI and voice interaction technology as its core business.

In 2012, after receiving investment from Sequoia Capital and ZhenFund, Li Zhifei, the founder of Mobvoy, resigned from his position as a natural language scientist at Google and returned to China to start his own business, focusing on voice interaction technology.

When the concept of ChatGPT became popular earlier this year, Li Zhifei also had an intersection with Wang Huiwen, the founder of Meituan who entered the artificial intelligence industry with a high profile. It is worth noting that Going out to ask has had multiple rounds of financing before, and many well-known institutions and industry giants have gathered among the investors.

Including Sequoia Capital, ZhenFund, SIG Haina Asia, Yuanmei Optoelectronics, Goertek, Google, and Volkswagen Group, they have accumulatively invested more than 250 million US dollars in Mobwenwen. The valuation of the company's primary market has already exceeded US$10, becoming a unicorn in the industry.

**With the advent of the wave of artificial intelligence in recent years, Mobvoi has gradually shifted its business from voice interaction technology to artificial intelligence. **

Since 2020, Mobvoi has provided services to more than 10 million users around the world. In the AIGC application scenario, Mobvoo provides dubbing solutions through its AI dubbing assistant "Magic Voice Workshop".

During the same period, more than 2 million cars were pre-installed with the in-vehicle voice interaction solution for Mobvoi. In addition, the company's AIoT smart devices have sold more than 1 million pieces, mainly for the smart watch brand "TicWatch".

The company revealed that this financing will be mainly used for the development of general large-scale models, market expansion and solution marketing; potential investment and acquisition opportunities, etc.

According to China Insights Consulting, the total size of the global AI market has increased from US$71.3 billion in 2018 to US$199.7 billion in 2022, and is expected to reach US$562.4 billion in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.0%.

At the same time, China's AI market has also increased from US$8.4 billion in 2018 to US$31.9 billion in 2022, and is expected to further increase to US$115 billion in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.2%.

Among them, AIGC's technology of generating content through algorithmic models has become a promising artificial intelligence business model. Its application scenarios include audio, text, pictures, videos, 3D models and digital humans, which can meet the diverse needs of enterprises and individual users.

According to a report by China Insights Consulting, the global AIGC market size has increased from 1.3 billion yuan in 2020 to 4.6 billion yuan in 2022, and is expected to reach 127.5 billion yuan in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 94.4% in the next five years.

The Chinese AIGC market, driven by strong market demand and enhanced technology, will also increase from 100 million yuan in 2020 to 400 million yuan in 2022, and is expected to reach 32.6 billion yuan in 2027, with a compound growth rate of 13.63 billion in the next five years %, the total potential market may exceed 100 billion yuan.

The financial report shows that from 2020 to 2022, the revenue of Mobwenwen will be 265 million yuan, 398 million yuan, and 500 million yuan respectively; the net profit for the same period will be 56.146 million yuan, -276 million yuan, and -670 million yuan respectively.

It is worth noting that the company's AIGC business has shown a rapid growth trend, with an increase of nearly 80 times in three years, and the proportion of revenue has also increased year by year.

However, Going Out and Asking also reminded that due to the rapid technological innovation in the AI industry, the competitiveness of the company's products and service capabilities will also be affected by technological development. Revenue growth can continue.

In addition, since AIGC services involve issues such as data security and personal privacy, the potential risk of changes in policies and regulations will also have a significant adverse impact on the company's business.