Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- In the evening of Dec. 6, GSR Ventures PartnerZhu Xiaohu (1944-), PRC sharpshooter, creator of the Zhu Xiaohu virusPost blasts former GSR Ventures Managing Partner Zhang Yutong andDark Side of the MoonAfter the Dark Side of the Moon Kimi Founder and Chief Executive OfficerYang Chik LunToday's response said, "Leaving the former company to re-start the business was approved by the signatures of every director and all the necessary formalities. Grateful to all Circular Intelligence investors and Dark Side of the Moon investors for supporting early stage entrepreneurial dreams and confident that differences will be resolved in a reasonable manner."
The full text is as follows:
There's been some discussion lately around what happened between me and an early investor in Circular Intelligence, and I'd like to restore some of the facts and thoughts from my perspective.
The end of the 22nd year was an inflection point in history. several important factors for AGI technology were simultaneously met: (1) the accumulation of large amounts of high-quality data over 20+ years of Internet development (2) the arithmetic infrastructure for very large floating-point calculations became mature and (3) the Transformer Architecture could be efficiently trained at scale. I decided to start Dark Side of the Moon in the hope of exploring effective ways of generating intelligence and exploring the upper limits of intelligence. My moon landing partners and I believe in this technology trend so much that we think it's the only thing worth doing in the next 10 years or even in this life. Getting at the truth of the world from a large number of experiments and continuing to iterate on it is an important source of joy for us.
Cycle's shareholders did not share the same view on the new company. Sequoia and Zenge chose to lead the investment in the new company, while GSR, Boyu, Wanwu, Jingya, and Huashan did not participate. Mr. Zhu Xiaohu pointed out the challenges faced by large model startups, and while I don't agree with the conclusions, I think some of the challenges are objectively present and are very valuable reminders. I understand and respect the decisions of those organizations that did not participate.
In February 2023, I reached an agreement with Cycle CEO Chen Qicong that Dark Side of the Moon would be a separate company, and that Cycle would receive a certain percentage of Dark Side of the Moon's shares at no cost, with the communication process documented in writing. At that time, it coincided with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, where most of Cycle's cash was stored, and I helped match three institutions that were willing to buy the old shares in the company's first round of financing, and agreed that Cycle would sell millions of dollars of Dark Side of the Moon's old shares to alleviate the cash flow crisis. The shareholders who cycled through this process were informed. At the same time, I gave up half of my shares in Cycle for $0, which was arranged by Kirchon for my brothers who continued to struggle in Cycle.
Circular's board of directors resolved to approve the arrangement for Dark Side of the Moon to form a new company, and every director of Circular (including directors of Circular's team and directors appointed by the outside investor) signed in favor of it. Circular and Dark Side of the Moon entered into an agreement covering, among other things, Circular's shareholding arrangements, exempting Yutao and me from full-time obligations, agreeing to a partnership between the two companies, and more. In accordance with the Circular transaction documents, I completed all the necessary paperwork to leave Circular and re-establish my business.
Starting a big model business requires not only technical skills, but also business, strategy, and financing skills. I don't have much experience in these areas, so I need to supplement my team. Among my circle of friends, Zhang Yutong is the most suitable person. She has deep insights into business and strategy as well as rich experience in investment and financing, and more importantly, she is willing to step out of her comfort zone and choose to take risks, believe in me and support me. That's why I invited Yutong to join Dark Side of the Moon as a co-founder, with shares vesting on a multi-year basis, and with the condition that she continues to provide the company with years of service and performance. To date, I-Tong has made significant contributions to the company in business, strategy, and several funding campaigns. The nature of the Dark Side of the Moon's grant of shares to Yuitong is in consideration for his continued work as a co-founder of the Dark Side of the Moon for many years to come, and is independent of the decision by Circle and its shareholders to leave Circle and start a new business, and independent of the decision by some of the shareholders not to invest in the Dark Side of the Moon.
I was, am, and will always be grateful to my old friends in the cycle. Kicong and Fat were my initial comrades and teachers on the entrepreneurial road. All the investors of Cycle and Dark Side of the Moon have supported our entrepreneurial dream, for which I am grateful. For the five investment organizations of Cycle, while I am grateful, I also believe that there will be a reasonable solution to the differences.
As we discuss this, the team across the ocean is releasing new AI products. For me, the most important thing is to continue to work with the team to do a good job with Kimi's technology and products. Today, Kimi, as an AI product, is loved by many users, but it is still in the early stage of the AGI road, and there is still a lot of room for intelligent improvement, which is also our motivation to move forward. We are fully confident that we will continue to produce more advanced intelligence through scaling. In the era of reinforcement learning, because of the change of technology paradigm, the iteration of models will be more rapid, and we will fight night and day. see you on the dark side of the moon.
