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South China Morning Post
15-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China AI unicorn Zhipu eyes IPO filing this year after DeepSeek's success
Zhipu AI, a Beijing-based artificial intelligence (AI) unicorn born out of China's prestigious Tsinghua University, has filed pre-initial public offering (IPO) documents with China's securities regulator as it eyes a public listing as soon as 2026 amid an increasingly competitive domestic landscape. Advertisement The 6-year-old company submitted the tutoring documents to the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau on Monday, a key compliance step before formally applying to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The start-up plans to finalise its IPO application preparation by October, with China International Capital Corporation (CICC) serving as the tutoring institution. This would set it up for a possible IPO next year, but the company did not specify which exchange it is targeting. Meituan , Zhipu – whose controlling shareholders are founder Tang Jie, a renowned Tsinghua computer scientist, and chairman Liu Debing – has attracted more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in funding. Investors include state-backed entities such as Beijing's Zhongguancun Science City, Beijing AI Industry Investment Fund and local government funds from the cities of Chengdu, Hangzhou and Zhuhai. Venture capital firms HongShan Capital Group, GL Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners, Lightspeed China Partners and Capital Today are also backers, as are a number of Chinese tech giants, including Xiaomi Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding , owner of the South China Morning Post, according to corporate database Tianyancha and company announcements. Zhipu has quickly risen to become a darling of China's AI industry and is considered one of its 'four tigers' , alongside start-ups Baichuan, Moonshot AI and MiniMax. It has recently made some strategic investments as it looks to expand. 05:00 Does the arrival of China's low-cost DeepSeek mean the end of Nvidia's chip dominance? Does the arrival of China's low-cost DeepSeek mean the end of Nvidia's chip dominance? Last year, Zhipu launched a 1.5 billion yuan venture fund called 'Z', targeting early-stage AI start-ups. The fund has backed dozens of companies, including AI infrastructure firm Infinigence AI, Siliconflow, Modelbest and multimodal AI developer Vidu.
South China Morning Post
25-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese tech giant Tencent joins latest investment round in Shanghai robotics start-up Agibot
China's video gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings has joined the latest round of investors in humanoid robotics start-up Agibot, in a fresh example of a China Big Tech firm betting on the robotics industry. Advertisement The Shanghai-based firm, also known as Zhiyuan Robotics, confirmed that the new financing round also included money from Lanchi Ventures, Longcheer Technology, Wolong and Zhuhai Huafa Group. It did not specify the investment amounts, but according to Chinese corporate database Tianyancha, the company's registered capital has increased to 80.46 million yuan (US$11.1 million) from 76.37 million yuan. Robots, particularly the humanoid kind, have become one of the hottest investment areas in China as venture capital firms, supply chain partners and deep-pocketed tech giants jostle to invest in leading start-ups. Agibot has become a rising star in China's robotics industry partly thanks to its strong founding team, which includes Peng Zhihui, a former recruit from Huawei Technologies' 'Genius Youth' programme, and Yan Weixin, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A robot from Agibot is seen during the Global Developer Conference in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. Photo: AFP The firm's CEO and chairman Deng Taihua, formerly vice-president and head of computing products at Huawei, recently took on the role of legal representative – a move described by the company as 'a routine change', without providing further details.
South China Morning Post
06-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Shenzhen boosts role as China's humanoid robotics base with Unitree local venture
Shenzhen has received a boost to its role in manufacturing humanoid robots after Unitree Robotics set up a new venture to leverage the supply chain and supportive policies of the southern tech hub. Advertisement Unitree, the country's hottest robot maker and one of the so-called six Little Dragons based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, established a wholly-owned venture called Shenzhen Tianyi Technology, which will handle development and sales of intelligent robots and manufacturing of service robots, among others, according to business registry platform Tianyancha. Unitree, whose robot dogs and humanoid robots have attracted global attention, set up similar subsidiaries in Beijing and Shanghai in late 2024, according to Tianyancha. Unitree's expansion in Shenzhen comes just days after the tech hub in southern Guangdong province introduced sweeping measures to achieve its ambition as a leader in the rapidly growing robotics field, as other Chinese cities including Hangzhou emerge as new hubs of innovations. The four legged Go2-W robot from Unitree Robotics interacts with an attendee during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 3, 2025. Photo: AFP This week, Shenzhen released an ambitious plan to build a 100 billion yuan (US$13.8 billion) humanoid robotics sector by 2027. It aims to cultivate an industry cluster of 1,200 human-shaped robotics-related firms by then, including over 10 companies with valuations exceeding 10 billion yuan. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
18-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
AI start-up DeepSeek expands business scope in potential shift towards monetisation
in Beijing Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek has updated its business registry information with key changes to personnel and operational scope, signalling a shift towards monetising its cost-efficient-yet-powerful large language models (LLMs). The Hangzhou-based firm's updated business scope includes 'internet information services', according to business registry service Tianyancha. The move is the first sign of DeepSeek's desire to monetise its popular technology, according to Zhang Yi, founder and chief analyst at consultancy iiMedia. With eyes on developing a business model, DeepSeek intends to shift away from being purely focused on research and development, Zhang added. 'The move reflects that for a company like DeepSeek, which managed to accumulate technology and develop a product, monetisation is becoming a necessary next step,' Zhang said. DeepSeek's previous business scope said it engages in engineering and AI software development, among others, hinting at a more research-driven approach. DeepSeek's LLMs – the technology underpinning intelligent chatbots such as ChatGPT – were developed and released as open-source models, allowing anyone to freely use and modify them. The company spun out of the hedge fund High-Flyer, which has bankrolled the start-up's rise.
