在校大学生与应届毕业生看过来！扫码上方二维码订阅，获取商论学生优惠史低价！《经济学人·商论》2022-12-01
After the party
派对过后
After the party
FTX的失败和软银的挣扎指向了科技投资狂欢后的宿醉
FTX’s failure and SoftBank’s struggles point to a tech investing hangover
经历了几年的强势增长后，风险投资家们可能要面对问题浮现
After the turbocharged years, problems may be emerging for venture capitalists
据说已经有编剧开始着手把FTX的故事写成电影，这次会议正是他们梦寐以求的那种情节。2021年，大型风险投资公司红杉资本（Sequoia Capital）对FTX做出了第一笔投资，如今这家加密货币交易所已经破产。为了宣传这笔交易，红杉资本在其网站上公布了这场线上推介会的部分文字记录。FTX的创始人萨姆·班克曼·弗里德（Sam Bankman-Fried）解释说，他希望自己的公司成为一个“超级应用”，“在FTX，你的钱你做主，你想做什么就做什么”。红杉的投资者神魂颠倒。“我爱这个创始人。”一人在聊天窗口中写道。“是的！！！！"另一个附和。一名在推介会上坐在班克曼-弗里德旁边的FTX高管注意到了另一个细节：“那个二逼居然整场会议都在玩《英雄联盟》。”THE MEETING is a dream come true for the screenwriters who are already said to be at work on the film version of events. In 2021 Sequoia Capital, a large venture-capital (VC) firm, made its first investment in FTX, a now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. To publicise the deal Sequoia published part of the transcript from the virtual pitch meeting on its website. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, explained how he wanted the firm to be a “superapp” where “you can do anything you want with your money from inside FTX”. Sequoia’s investors swooned. “I love this founder,” said one in a chat function; “Yes!!!!” declared another. An FTX executive who sat close to Mr Bankman-Fried during the pitch noticed another detail: “It turns out that that fucker was playing ‘League of Legends’ throughout the entire meeting.”事实还表明，FTX并没像它当初保证的那样不拿客户的钱去做别的事情。它的败落迫使红杉资本减记了2.1亿美元的投资。另一个处境艰难的投资者也将受损。11月11日，由企业集团转型为科技投资者的日本公司软银（SoftBank）报告称，其专注于风险投资的愿景基金在截至9月的三个月中损失了约100亿美元。预计它将从自己在FTX的投资中减记约一亿美元。It also turns out that FTX was doing more with customers’ money than it had promised. Its demise has forced Sequoia to write down its $210m investment. It will also hurt another embattled backer. On November 11th SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate turned tech investor, reported that its Vision Funds, which focus on VC investments, had lost about $10bn in the three months to September. The firm is expected to write down around $100m from its investment in FTX.科技投资者先前就已经收到一连串的坏消息了，这又多了一个。自去年12月科技低潮开始以来，许多硅谷宠儿纷纷破产，包括在线结账公司Fast和发薪日贷款提供商LendUp。在加密王国中还出现了另外一大波失利，比如对冲基金三箭资本（Three Arrows Capital）和贷款机构Voyager Digital的垮台。This adds to a string of bad news for tech investors. Since the tech downturn began last December plenty of Silicon Valley darlings have gone bust, including Fast, an online-checkout firm, and LendUp, a purveyor of payday loans. There has been a flurry of other blow-ups in cryptoland too, such as the failure of Three Arrows Capital, a hedge fund, and Voyager Digital, a lender. ......【想要继续阅读付费文章？】欢迎订阅《经济学人·商论》继续读完本文双语版
