There are two paths for the project.

One is paved with brilliance, with flags and applause filling the intersections. On this road, project teams rush to showcase parameters, flaunt benchmark scores, and demonstrate computing power, the bigger the numbers, the better. The stories are lively, audiences remember them well, and fundraising becomes easier. But this path is often superficial.

The other is underground. No one can see it, and it’s hard to tell a compelling story about it. Yet, the truly heavy-duty, valuable applications all ultimately pass through this route. This path is infrastructure, the fulfillment of real needs.

Many projects in the current ecosystem prefer the first path. They highlight more advanced models, stronger performance, and more impressive metrics—certainly eye-catching. But if they only tell stories under the spotlight and neglect to build the underground road, they will eventually find: after the applause fades, there’s no real traffic or vitality.

Projects that last longer are often not the ones who tell the best stories, but those who lay a solid foundation.