Ex-Baidu AI Scientist Becomes A Billionaire After Shares Of His Self-Driving Tech Startup Jumps 16%

Science and Health

Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to LinkedinYu Kai, an AI scientist who started an autonomous driving project at Baidu, has joined the billionaire ranks after shares of his startup, Horizon Robotics, jumped almost 16% to a record high on Wednesday.

Yu, chairman and CEO of Horizon Robotics, is the company’s largest shareholder with a 13% stake through his family trust and a wholly-owned investment vehicle. Based on his stake, Forbes estimates his net worth to be just over $1 billion.

The 47-year-old entered the three-comma club less than a week after Beijing-based Horizon Robotics went public in Hong Kong. Last Thursday, the company debuted on the Hong Kong bourse after raising HK$5.4 billion ($695 million) in the city’s largest initial public offering so far this year.

Yu cofounded Horizon Robotics in 2015 with ex-Baidu chief R&D architect Huang Chang and associate director Tao Feiwen. The company develops both the software and hardware for assisted and autonomous driving systems. Its most advanced system is called Horizon SuperDrive, which as per the company is designed to achieve human-like autonomous driving in urban, highway and parking scenarios. Launched in April, the system “theoretically supports” Level 4 automation, one level below full automation and is capable of making decisions in specific conditions without human input, according to its prospectus.

Horizon Robotics’ other systems offer features such as automatic emergency braking and parking assist. The company also licenses its proprietary algorithm and software to its clients so that they can develop their own customized products. The customer roster consists of 27 carmakers, including Volkswagen, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, and China’s BYD, Geely, Li Auto and NIO, according to its prospectus.
Yu Kai, chairman and CEO of Horizon Robotics, attends the company’s listing ceremony at Hong Kong’s stock exchange on October 24, 2024.Shanshan Kao/Forbes Asia
Before it went public, Horizon Robotics attracted a slew of big-name investors. Those include investment firms like Zhang Lei’s Hillhouse Investment Management, Neil Shen’s HongShan (formerly Sequoia China) and Jean Salata’s EQT Private Capital Asia. It is also backed by strategic investors including Robin Zeng’s electric vehicle battery maker CATL, Wang Chuanfu’s Chinese EV carmaker BYD, as well as German auto giant Volkswagen, which in 2023 spent more than $2 billion and took a 60% in a joint venture with Horizon Robotics to develop self-driving technologies for Volkswagen’s vehicles sold in China.
Yu had already made a name for himself in academia for his works in machine learning before he turned entrepreneur. The son of an automotive engineer, he grew up in the Chinese transportation hub of Nanchang and studied electronics engineering before moving to Germany, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in computer science at the University of Munich. He later became head of media analytics at NEC Laboratories America, developing technologies on computer vision and machine learning.
Yu returned to China in 2012 and joined Baidu, where he established the Institute of Deep Learning, focusing on AI technologies. During his three-year tenure at Baidu, Yu was named the deputy head of Baidu Research. There, he initiated an autonomous driving project, setting the groundwork for the Chinese tech giant’s Apollo Go robotaxi business.
When Yu ventured out on his own in 2015, he experienced a bumpy ride at first. Yu disclosed to Chinese tech media GeekPark in a 2023 interview that, while he aspired to develop AI chips that could act as brains for everything from cars to home appliances so that they could have human-like capabilities, he had trouble pinning down the killer applications. Success eluded him until 2019, when Horizon Robotics launched its first assisted driving system equipped with its proprietary chip. That turned out to be good timing, as a year later China outlined a blueprint to achieve mass production of high-level autonomous cars by 2025.
Horizon Robotics is among the autonomous driving tech companies that went public. Chinese robotaxi startup WeRide last Friday debuted on the Nasdaq after raising $440.5 million in its IPO and private placement. Meanwhile, Black Sesame, a Chinese startup that designs chips for self-driving systems, started trading in Hong Kong in August after raising about $130 million.
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1st image of our Milky Way’s black hole may be inaccurate, scientists say

Science and Health

What does the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy look like?It’s a deceptively simple question. Although our local cosmic abyss, named Sgr A* (short for Sagittarius A*), resides just 26,000 light-years from Earth, it has proven to be a very difficult object to image. This is thanks in part to material whipping around it at near light-speeds. However, after years of trying, scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project succeeded in 2022.The black hole’s silhouette emerged from the shadows, appearing like a fuzzy orange doughnut.Yet now, an independent analysis of the EHT data suggests part of the image’s doughnut-like appearance may be an artifact due to the way it was put together. This discovery owes itself to  a trio of scientists at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).The ring-like structure, which really represents intense radio waves blasted from the brilliant disk of gas, known as the “accretion disk,” that’s swirling around the black hole, may in fact be more elongated than appears, the researchers argue.

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Couple’s travelling hack saves them £50k on holidays from Thailand to Iceland

Travel

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Scientists develop novel ink to curb document duplication

Science and Health

New Delhi: A team of scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has developed a novel ink with enhanced security features to stop counterfeiting in currency, certificates, branded goods and medicines, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Wednesday. Even as counterfeiting has been growing around the world, researchers are trying to find unique ways to prevent it.
 They focussed on rare earth ions with luminescent properties and were long known to possess the characteristic emissions of bismuth (a chemical element). Using the property of rare earth materials, the team synthesised a first-of-its-kind security ink based on luminescent nanomaterials with rare earth doping. This enables excitation-dependent luminescence (under both ultraviolet and near-infrared light it gives visible emission). The ink can overcome the limitations of current covert tags, which are security features usually visible only under UV light and can be easily duplicated. “The new ink offers enhanced security features through its ability to display different colours under various light wavelengths. Specifically, the ink appears vibrant blue under 365 nm light, pink under 395 nm light, and orange-red under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light and remains effective under a range of light, temperature, and humidity conditions,” the ministry said.
Using a simple co-precipitation method, the scientists synthesised the luminescent nanomaterial at 120 degrees Celsius, after which the nanomaterials were dispersed into commercially available PVC ink. The mixture was then used to create patterns and letters through a screen-printing technique. When the printed patterns are exposed to different wavelengths of light, it shows the desired colour changes, proving the effectiveness of the ink. Further, the team also was able to enhance the encryption and decryption capabilities of the ink, by combining rare earth ions with well-known luminescent properties and bismuth with characteristic emissions.
This improved its security potential. Besides helping combat counterfeiting, the luminescent ink made from these nanomaterials can also be applied to fake-proof various items, including currency, certificates, medicines, and branded products. This allows both consumers and manufacturers to easily verify the authenticity of their items, providing a simple yet powerful tool to detect counterfeits, the scientists said.
(IANS)

Scientists develop novel ink to curb document duplication

Science and Health

New Delhi: A team of scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has developed a novel ink with enhanced security features to stop counterfeiting in currency, certificates, branded goods and medicines, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Wednesday. Even as counterfeiting has been growing around the world, researchers are trying to find unique ways to prevent it.
 They focussed on rare earth ions with luminescent properties and were long known to possess the characteristic emissions of bismuth (a chemical element). Using the property of rare earth materials, the team synthesised a first-of-its-kind security ink based on luminescent nanomaterials with rare earth doping. This enables excitation-dependent luminescence (under both ultraviolet and near-infrared light it gives visible emission). The ink can overcome the limitations of current covert tags, which are security features usually visible only under UV light and can be easily duplicated. “The new ink offers enhanced security features through its ability to display different colours under various light wavelengths. Specifically, the ink appears vibrant blue under 365 nm light, pink under 395 nm light, and orange-red under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light and remains effective under a range of light, temperature, and humidity conditions,” the ministry said.
Using a simple co-precipitation method, the scientists synthesised the luminescent nanomaterial at 120 degrees Celsius, after which the nanomaterials were dispersed into commercially available PVC ink. The mixture was then used to create patterns and letters through a screen-printing technique. When the printed patterns are exposed to different wavelengths of light, it shows the desired colour changes, proving the effectiveness of the ink. Further, the team also was able to enhance the encryption and decryption capabilities of the ink, by combining rare earth ions with well-known luminescent properties and bismuth with characteristic emissions.
This improved its security potential. Besides helping combat counterfeiting, the luminescent ink made from these nanomaterials can also be applied to fake-proof various items, including currency, certificates, medicines, and branded products. This allows both consumers and manufacturers to easily verify the authenticity of their items, providing a simple yet powerful tool to detect counterfeits, the scientists said.
(IANS)

Armenia to Significantly Increase Scientists’ Salaries in 2025

Science and Health

Armenia plans a substantial salary increase for workers in the scientific sector, Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan announced during a speech at the National Assembly on October 29.According to the minister, salaries will rise by up to 300%. “For instance, if a lead researcher currently earns around $356 (138,000 drams), as of January 1, 2025, their salary will be approximately $1,423 (552,000 drams),” Andreasyan stated.The minister emphasized that this increase only applies to basic funding. Researchers participating in thematic and grant-funded projects will be eligible for additional bonuses and rewards under those programs.Andreasyan noted a positive trend already underway, with specialists beginning to return to the scientific field from the private sector.

Armenia to Significantly Increase Scientists’ Salaries in 2025

Science and Health

Armenia plans a substantial salary increase for workers in the scientific sector, Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan announced during a speech at the National Assembly on October 29.According to the minister, salaries will rise by up to 300%. “For instance, if a lead researcher currently earns around $356 (138,000 drams), as of January 1, 2025, their salary will be approximately $1,423 (552,000 drams),” Andreasyan stated.The minister emphasized that this increase only applies to basic funding. Researchers participating in thematic and grant-funded projects will be eligible for additional bonuses and rewards under those programs.Andreasyan noted a positive trend already underway, with specialists beginning to return to the scientific field from the private sector.