TikTok is still growing, earning 15000 times more from American investors, but preparing to withdraw one ⃣ In 2012, Zhang Yiming was not yet favored by the market At that time, the mainstream of the Internet was still portal, search and manual editing. He is talking about something else: machines understand users better than editors. The content doesn't need to be picked by people, the algorithm will naturally deliver it to everyone. It doesn't sound like much now, but back then, there weren't many people willing to pay for this idea. The SIG China team understood Zhang Yiming's ideas and became one of ByteDance's earliest institutional investors. SIG is an American financial group that started with options, quantitative trading, and market making, Based on an early financing of approximately $5 million, SIG's initial 15% stake, and ByteDance's later private transaction valuation, the book return is estimated to be close to 15000 times. This investment has become one of the most exaggerated cases in the global venture capital industry. Of course, this is not all the money that has already been pocketed. It is unknown to the outside world how much SIG later reduced its holdings and how much its equity was diluted. But even if this number is discounted, it is still a transaction that can be written into a venture capital textbook. two ⃣ Interestingly, Byte did not fall behind today. In 2024, ByteDance's revenue is approximately $155 billion, with a net profit of approximately $33 billion. In the second quarter of 2025, revenue increased by 25% year-on-year, reaching approximately $48 billion. The company is not only making money, but also has the ability to repurchase employee shares while investing more funds in AI and data centers. TikTok continues to be popular around the world, and Tiktok's cash flow has not stalled. From the perspective of business data, Byte is still one of the most profitable Internet companies in the world. Unfortunately, at this time, the American investors who first bet on it began to 'run away'. According to The Information, SIG is shrinking its Chinese venture capital team. SIG has been involved in venture capital in China for over 20 years, investing over $3.5 billion and completing more than 350 transactions. But since 2023, only 9 investments have been made. This is like an institution that has already won the biggest game at the table, starting to take back its chips. However, to be precise, SIG has not sold all of its shares in ByteDance, nor has it completely left China. It will still retain a small number of personnel to manage existing projects, and ByteDance will remain one of its most important positions. Market making and other businesses will also continue. three ⃣ SIG is not giving up on bytes, but continuing to search for the 'next byte'. At that time, when investing in Zhang Yiming, I mainly judged products, teams, and markets. Today, when American capital invests in Chinese technology companies, it also needs to calculate regulatory boundaries, technological restrictions, cross-border exits, and where the funds themselves come from. The US foreign investment rules for China's AI, semiconductor, and quantum technologies have come into effect in 2025. The fundraising and investment activities of Chinese dollar VC have also dropped to a ten-year low. The worst outcome of investing in the wrong startup company in the past was simply losing the principal. Even if the company sees it right now, it may not be able to smoothly add, exit, and cash in. It's not that there are fewer good companies, but rather that there are too many variables that investors cannot control between discovering good companies and truly making money. SIG did not cut down the tree that had already yielded fruit, it simply did not intend to continue planting another one. TikTok is still going global, perhaps this is the real reversal behind the 15000 fold return: The miracle continues, and the era of betting on miracles across borders is slowly fading away.