Author | Jia Liu, Rising BeatZ

The World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in December 2017 may have been the most lively one ever.

A group photo from a dinner party went viral on the internet at that time, with the table full of the top entrepreneurs in the internet industry. This gathering, known as the "Dongxing Dinner Party," was organized by Liu Qiangdong and Wang Xing.

In Wuzhen in 2017, the "Dongxing Gathering" became a highlight moment in the mobile internet with a group photo

The net worth of the group of tycoons present was a total of $700 billion. However, shortly after the "Dongxing Gathering," the internal strife within the internet industry officially began. This event seemed like the last group photo of the peak of the internet era, marking the beginning of the decline of the Chinese internet.

What many people do not know is that on the same day of the World Internet Conference that year, there was another small gathering during afternoon tea, where a "tech newcomer" made an appearance.

This person was Wang Xingxing.

Geek Afternoon Tea, from left to right: Chen Hua from Changba, Mi Wenjuan from VIPKID, Zhang Peng from Geek Park, Lei Jun, Zhou Yuan from Zhihu, Wang Xing, Wang Xingxing

It was a gathering organized by Zhang Peng from Geek Park held outside the venue. At that time, no one recognized Wang Xingxing sitting on the far right because his name was similar to Wang Xing's.

According to Zhang Peng's later recollection, Wang Xingxing couldn't even enter the main venue at that time. Zhang Peng called him over to show the elder attendees the robotic dog he had made. After a while of chatting, he finally let him come over to showcase the company's first robotic dog, Laikago. However, when the robotic dog tried to cross the threshold, it got stuck and crashed. Wang Xingxing had to restart it for a long time, causing an awkward moment.

"Xingxing was a bit shy at the time, it seems he didn't even add the WeChat of the big shots." At that time, Yushu Technology had just completed its first year since its founding, with less than half of the money left in the company's account.

However, with the surge of the tide of the times, waves upon waves, one generation passing to the next. Just as Huang Renxun said, in the next 5 years, the number of millionaires created by artificial intelligence will exceed the number of millionaires created by the internet in 20 years.

Nine years later today, Yushu Technology began its IPO on the STAR Market, with a market value exceeding $60 billion. Wang Xingxing directly and indirectly holds a total of 33.36% of the shares, corresponding to a net worth of approximately $20 billion.

Looking back at the bustling Wuzhen Internet Conference, it marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

$200 Homemade Robot

In March 1990, Wang Xingxing was born into an ordinary family in Yuyao, Zhejiang.

He later shared this story: "Contrary to what many people imagine, I was not a top student, especially in English. Although I have always worked hard, I only passed three times in my three years of high school. Some even said that this kid seems a bit slower than others. I have doubted myself and felt anxious because of this." During junior high school, his English teacher once said in front of his mother that this child was a bit dim.

Wang Xingxing spent all his free time creating things. At the age of 10, he made a wind-powered car out of scrap cardboard, and at 15, he built a miniature engine and aircraft model from scrap metal.

In 2009, Wang Xingxing enrolled in Zhejiang University of Science and Technology majoring in mechatronics. He said that because he attended an ordinary university, he felt very inferior for a time.

Early photo of Wang Xingxing

That winter, he first came into contact with a microcontroller, buying an Arduino board for a few tens of dollars with his pocket money. During winter break, he bought more than ten 9g servos to start building a bipedal robot.

Video uploaded by Wang Xingxing on Youku

Without proper equipment, he used manual drills, files, and scissors. With no budget, he bought $1.50 components and collected scraps that others didn't want. Without a grinding machine, he rubbed the parts on the ground by hand, making his hands very rough.

He finally built a 14-degree-of-freedom bipedal humanoid robot that could barely walk and perform a few simple actions. The total cost was only $200. The following summer, he spent another $300 to create a force feedback glove and dexterous hand, paired with a 3D virtual reality force interaction software. He continued to draw, cut, and polish everything by hand, without using any power tools throughout the process.

The XDog Priced at Less Than Twenty Thousand

In his final year of college, he took the postgraduate entrance exam, with his first choice being Zhejiang University's Mechanical Engineering program. Wang Xingxing's total score was enough for the cutoff, but because he did not pass the English section, which was required by Zhejiang University, he was transferred to Shanghai University.

Later, internet users jokingly gave his company a name: Yushu, because his "language and math" were good but his "foreign" language skills were poor.

Years later, in an internal review at Original Intent Capital, Tian Jiangchuan admitted that he first met Wang Xingxing in 2017 at Shanghai Hongqiao High-Speed Railway Station. However, he hesitated to invest due to factors such as "Shanghai University" and a "grassroots background" not matching the industry's needs and fund preferences. It wasn't until 2019 when he learned from Professor Yu Yang at Nanjing University that many AI labs were purchasing XDog, with demand outstripping supply. Original Intent Capital finally completed its Pre-A investment in early 2020.

During his first year of postgraduate studies, he first designed a high-dynamic mechanical leg. His supervisor, Jia Wenchuan, provided him with around twenty thousand yuan in research funding, and Wang Xingxing created the XDog.

During those years, when anyone mentioned a high-performance quadruped robot, it was always Boston Dynamics: hydraulic-driven, large in size, loud, and exorbitantly expensive, catering to military and government orders. Wang Xingxing took a different path, utilizing his own design of an outer-rotor brushless motor for a direct-drive solution. The entire robot cost less than twenty thousand yuan.

In 2015, he made this electric drive solution public, about a year earlier than Boston Dynamics' shift to electric drive.

Also in late 2015, he saw a report on a quadruped robot in IEEE Spectrum and casually shared the link to his XDog's YouTube video in the comments.

Wang Xingxing in the graduate school lab

After graduating from postgraduate school, Wang Xingxing interned at DJI. However, during this time, his XDog video on YouTube gained popularity, attracting many investors who encouraged him to start a business. So, after working at DJI for two to three months, he resigned.

After leaving his job, he spent a month in Shenzhen for fundraising, which he described as the most anxious month of his life. Although he had secured investment intentions, the funds had not yet arrived, the initial startup team consisted of only three to four people, and the company was not yet registered.

It was during this period that he received his first funding. The investor was Yin Fangming, who had previously worked as a product manager and director at MediaTek, Sohu, and Qihoo 360. In 2014, he co-founded an early-stage fund focusing on smart hardware. In November 2016, he personally invested 2 million yuan, acquiring a 15% stake in Yushu, valuing the post-investment company at 13.33 million yuan.

Wang Xing later recalled this investment in an interview with "LatePost," saying: "He approached me proactively. The terms he offered were very flexible. There was no agreement signed when the money was transferred."

In April 2018, Yin Fangming transferred part of his equity for 1.3105 million yuan to Shenzhen Anchuang Technology. In August 2020, he transferred the remaining registered capital to Tianjin Junwan Hongyi, effectively withdrawing from the shareholder list of Yushu from a business perspective. However, Yin Fangming himself is listed as a contributor in Junwan Hongyi's shareholder list, still holding approximately 16.62% of the shares through this indirect ownership.

Although transitioning from a direct shareholder to an indirect fund contributor, Junwan Hongyi is currently still the tenth largest shareholder of Yushu, holding about 11.17 million shares. Calculated at the issue price, the market value is approximately 1.684 billion yuan, with Yin Fangming's corresponding portion around 280 million yuan.

Binjiang, Wuzhen

In Wuzhen in 2017, the background color was Tencent's.

That year, the most high-profile presence was Tencent. Almost half of the company's shareholder lists on the table included Tencent, from JD.com and Meituan to Didi and Zhihu. The capital landscape of China's Internet at that time was basically laid out on that round table.

In July 2019, DeXun Investment, founded by Tencent's co-founder Zeng Liqing, acquired 4% of Yushu's shares for 4 million yuan.

The afternoon tea that followed was later proven to be the most cost-effective appearance in Wang Xing's ten years of entrepreneurship. Although Wang Xing's performance at the time was not outstanding, Lei Jun sitting at the head of the table still noticed him. Several years later, Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital led Yushu's Series A round in July 2021 and continued to support them in the subsequent Series B round.

Sitting next to him, with a name differing by only one letter, Wang Xing made Meituan System one of Yushu's largest external industry shareholders in February 2024.

The person who brought Wang Xing to Lei Jun and Wang Xing was Zhang Peng.

In September 2017, Yushu's Laikago was unveiled. The name was taken from the first dog to enter space, Laika. It was no longer a prototype in the research phase but Yushu's first commercial four-legged product aimed at real customers: joint, power supply, control, and reliability all needed to transform from a demonstration effect to the ability to deliver goods.

It was also in this year that Zhang Peng saw Laikago from an obscure public account article and some pictures and short videos. Zhang Peng had previously taken Chinese entrepreneurs to MIT and had seen the "robot cheetah" in the lab: the cheetah's head was on a massive body, full of cables and wires. Therefore, when he saw a machine dog made by a Chinese team that was smaller and closer to productization in posture, his first reaction was astonishment.

Wang Xingxing Showcases Laikago Prototype, Even the Sole Has Holes

Zhang Peng flew to Hangzhou and found himself in a nondescript building in the Binjiang District, with no sign on the door. Clearly, this was not a standard office building; next to it seemed to be a factory. "Upon entering, you couldn't see any workstations. It felt more like a garage, with various parts scattered around, unassembled robotic dog components, and two fully assembled robotic dogs."

Wang Xingxing gave Zhang Peng a demonstration, including some standard movements, such as kicking it but not being able to knock it down. After the demo, the two felt awkward as there was no place to sit inside the house. They ended up chatting for two to three hours on a sofa in the hallway outside the office.