BRIEF: Zhipu raises 3 billion yuan in new funding

AI large model unicorn Zhipu AI announced the completion of a new 3 billion yuan ($412 million) funding round, including participation by multiple strategic investors and state-backed entities. The funds will be mainly used to promote development of the company’s domestic large model technology.

According to financial media Caixin, the funding is Zhipu’s second round within six months. In September, Zhongguancun Science City Co. led a round with a pre-investment valuation of 20 billion yuan, positioning Zhipu as one of the most valuable large model companies in China.

Zhipu was founded in 2019 and incubated by the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University. The company has grown rapidly this year, with its commercial revenue more than doubling.

On the enterprise side, revenue for its MaaS platform grew more than 30-fold after API prices were significantly lowered. The platform has attracted 700,000 enterprise and developer users. On the consumer side, the company’s conversational AI model, Qingyan, launched in this year’s third quarter, and has already amassed 25 million users and is expected to generate more than 10 million yuan in annual revenue. 

By Lee Shih Ta

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