What happened to Bitmain after Wu Jihan returned to the full month?

November 29th marks a full month since Wu Jihan returned to Bitmain. What happened during this month?

On October 29, Wu Jihan sent an internal email to remove the former chairman Zhan Ketuan from all positions. Wu Blockchain learned that within a month after Zhan Ketuan was removed from all positions, Bitmain was undergoing a smooth transition, and the top management hoped to unite people and develop steadily.

Bitmain has launched a new round of salary increases and 360-degree employee performance appraisals. Currently, only a few employees who have had strong internal opinions have had their labor contracts terminated. These employees whose labor contracts have been terminated are basically from Huawei and 360, including mining machine sales, HR and cloud computing departments.

Steady development and stable people's hearts

Mining machines and AI are Bitmain's two core business units.

In the mining machine department, Wu Jihan no longer insisted on the absolute technical indicators priority principle required by Zhan Ketuan, but appropriately tilted towards cost-effectiveness and economy. In 2019, Shenma mining machine seized a large market share of Bitmain due to its cost-effectiveness, and Bitmain internal employees were dissatisfied with the high pricing of Antminer. Faced with the pressure of halving Bitcoin output in 2020, how to regain market share from Shenma should be Wu Jihan's top priority.

Wu Jihan handed over the AI ​​department to the head of Bitmain's government relations and an early R&D employee, and personally participated in the weekly AI business meeting. The AI ​​department is the base camp of Zhan Ketuan, with a large number of employees from Huawei. Wu Jihan repeatedly emphasized at the staff meeting that he was the first to propose AI and recognized the value of AI.

At present, there is basically no layoff in the AI ​​department. Wu Jihan's requirement for the AI ​​business is to develop steadily. For Bitmain's listing, the AI ​​business can increase investors' imagination, which is one of the reasons why Bitmain insists on doing AI.

However, some insiders pointed out that compared with Canaan's relatively small investment in AI chips, Bitmain, under the leadership of Zhan Ketuan, has invested heavily in AI business. The purchase of IP and tape-out of the next-generation Bitmain AI chip BM1686 will incur considerable costs. Zhan Ketuan's roadmap, which focuses on cloud chips, will require a large amount of investment in the early stages. It is unknown how long Wu Jihan, who comes from an investment background, will tolerate this situation.

On November 4, Wu Jihan launched a salary increase plan for all employees, covering no less than 80% of employees, emphasizing changing the evaluation mentality that superiors decide everything.

Many Huawei and 360 employees were laid off

Wu Jihan also emphasized at the staff meeting the need to change the company's past culture of "licking the superiors and trampling on the subordinates" and the culture of only making PPTs.

According to the information obtained so far, only employees with strong internal opinions have had their labor contracts terminated, and the number is only in the single digit. When Wu Jihan first took office, he sent an email to replace the head of HR. The original head of HR came from Huawei and 360, and brought a large number of confidants from Huawei and 360, distributed in various departments of the company. The employees whose labor contracts have been terminated are also from Huawei and 360, distributed in departments such as human resources, mining machine sales, and cloud computing.

Zhan Ketuan was gradually dismissed from his post

On the 15th and 16th, Bitmain's AI subsidiary Suanfeng Technology completed a new round of industrial and commercial changes. Bitmain's former chairman Zhan Ketuan no longer serves as the legal representative, and Xu Weiliang, an employee of the securities department under Bitmain's CFO, serves as the legal representative and executive director. The employee surnamed Li who serves as a supervisor is also an employee of the securities department. On the 28th, Zhan Ketuan was dismissed from his position at Bitmain's subsidiary Tianjin Diwei Digital Technology Co., Ltd.

Both Suanfeng Technology and Diwei Digital are 100% owned by Bitmain. Insiders told Wu Blockchain that there will be more industrial and commercial changes in the future. Bitmain exclusively responded to Wu Blockchain: These industrial and commercial changes are made during the company's normal business operations.

Currently, there are still more than 30 companies under Zhan Ketuan’s name, six of which are located in Fujian Province, Zhan Ketuan’s hometown. It is expected that these will be lifted one after another in the future.