How did three anime and gaming nerds turn a cash-strapped dorm hobby into a multi-billion-dollar global empire? This episode explores the fascinating history of miHoYo, the powerhouse studio behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Honkai Impact 3rd. Driven by their iconic philosophy, "Tech Otakus Save the World," founders CAI Haoyu, LIU Wei, and LUO Yuhao navigated a relentless journey. Long before capturing astronomical revenues and establishing themselves as China's third-largest gaming giant behind Tencent and NetEase, these Shanghai Jiao Tong University engineering students bonded over their love or Neon Genesis Evangelion, survived on mere thousands of downloads and faced harsh interrogation from a skeptical investment community.

This episode traces how the studio survived critical, high-stakes milestones. From winning initial funding through entrepreneurship competitions to securing their one and only angel investor, they repeatedly went "all-in," reinvesting every cent of the company's income into their next game in development. Bypassing standard mobile gaming strategies, they leveraged a crucial partnership with Bilibili during China’s 2013 smartphone explosion and splurged on premium Japanese voice actors to completely capture the core otaku demographic.

We also examine miHoYo's hyper-productive live-service culture, flat organizational structure, and the dramatic split that saw CAI Haoyu step down to pursue a 2030 vision of a virtual reality world powered by emotional AI large performance models.

modern mobile game development and live-service success.

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📖 Episode Chapters

00:03:12 Introduction & Gathering of the Three (but Actually Four) Otakus

00:16:00 The Spirit of miHoYo: Cai's Manifesto & the Debut Project: The Legend of Saha

00:23:10 FlyMe2TheMoon: Another Tribute to Neon Genesis Evangelion

00:40:57 Houkai Gakuen 1 (Zombiegal Kawaii) & 2 (Guns Girl Z): How Gacha Made a Real Difference

00:53:49 Honkai Impact 3: The 3D Bet That Paid Off

01:03:19 Genshin Impact: Zelda Crisis and Liyue Triumph

01:22:18 Never Underestimate Fans: Genshin 1st Anniversary Review-Bombing 01:26:42 Genshin Impact Economics Explained: Gacha

01:30:22 Investment Bucket I: Expanding The Game Portfolio, Pipelines & Failure Graveyards

01:37:55 Investment Bucket II: Philosophically Interesting Technology Bets

01:45:05 Splitting Paths: Gaming Development vs. Frontier Cutting-Edge AI Research

01:55:26 Company Culture and Our Final Thoughts on the Future of miHoYo

🚩 Correction

1:28:48 50/50 mechanism halves the chance of a time-limited 5 star character is drawn, not double

Bambu Lab is a Shenzhen-based desktop 3D printer company founded in 2020 by former DJI engineer Dr. TAO Ye. In just five years, Bambu Lab went from an unknown startup to the world's largest 3D printer manufacturer, capturing an estimated 35–43% global market share and shipping over 1.5 million units in 2025 alone. This episode tells the full story: how a team of five DJI engineers — including Dr. Tao Ye, known internally as "Dr. Turbo" — applied drone-grade robotics to solve 3D printing's oldest problem (speed and reliability), and turned a stagnant hobbyist category into a multi-billion-dollar consumer electronics business.

We trace the technology's full backstory — the 1980s origins of SLA, SLS, and FDM printing, the open-source RepRap and Prusa community that seeded the entire desktop 3D printing industry, and the cautionary collapse of MakerBot — before diving into how Bambu Lab's 2022 Kickstarter launch of the X1 printer upended an industry that had assumed consumers would never adopt 3D printing at scale. We also unpack the engineering behind Bambu Lab's core innovations (CoreXY motion systems, the Automatic Material System/AMS, Lidar-based print monitoring) and the controversies now defining its second act: a cable recall, a Pop Mart/Labubu IP dispute, ongoing Stratasys patent litigation, and a bitter clash with the open-source community over OrcaSlicer and firmware lockdowns.

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📖 Episode Chapters

00:01:45 Introduction & Dr. Tao Ye’s Achievements at DJI

00:17:15 The Founding Five: Walking Out of DJI to Build Bambu Lab

00:22:05 A Short History of 3D Printing: The Birth of SLA, SLS and FDM

00:30:22 Open Source Roots and the Patent Expiration That Changed Everything

00:47:30 The Lost Decade: MakerBot's Collapse and the Rise of Creality, Elegoo & Anycubic

00:55:10 Stealth Mode to Kickstarter: Launching the X1

01:01:04 Making a Game Changing 3D Printer: CoreXY, AMS, Lidar, and DJI-Grade Engineering

01:11:01 More Product Lines and the MakerWorld Community

01:17:30 New Challengers: Snapmaker, HeyGears, and a DJI-Backed Rival

01:34:25 Growing Pains: Recalls, IP Infringements, Litigation, and the Open Source Revolt

01:56:25 Final Thoughts: Why We Think Bambu Lab Ascended

🚩 Correction

1:52:29 legal fees to cover Jarczak if he gets sued, not Bambu

How did a kid from a small mountain village in Fujian end up building the company that powers one in every three electric vehicles on the planet? This episode explores the rise of CATL (aka the “TSMC of batteries”) and its founder, Robin Zeng.

It begins with CATL’s predecessor, ATL, and a risky $1 million bet on a flawed battery patent that nearly destroyed the company — until it unexpectedly led to a breakthrough deal supplying Apple iPods.

CATL was later spun out amid government policy shifts and EV subsidies, and scaled into the world’s largest battery maker in just six years. Its first major test came with BMW, where passing an 800-page technical audit proved it could meet strict automotive standards—unlocking global partnerships.

Today, CATL continues to push its limits, expanding into grid-scale energy storage, aviation batteries, and next-generation technologies like sodium-ion and solid-state systems to stay ahead in the global energy race.

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📖 Episode Chapters

00:00:00 The Battery Giant You’ve Never Heard Of

00:02:30 Robin Zeng’s Origins and Early Career at TDK

00:06:26 Robin’s Mentorship Trio and the Birth of ATL

00:18:27 The $1 Million Gamble: Surviving the Bell Labs Patent Crisis

00:25:09 Path Back to the Old Employer TDK

00:35:18 Early Signs of EV’s Rise and the Scientist Who Saw the Future

00:42:42 Birth of CATL: A Spin-off Out of Necessity

00:54:57 The BMW Trial: Decoding the 800-Page German Blueprint

01:00:20 China’s Underdog Strategy: Start With Buses and LFP

01:07:11 CATL’s Breakout Era: Higher Standards, Industry Consolidation and Tesla Deal

01:22:22 The Battery King: Market Dominance and Leverage Over Automakers

01:35:27 Europe’s Failed Attempt at Creating Its Own CATL: Northvolt

01:41:50 Final Thoughts: Why We Think CATL Ascended