Tencent joins US$300 million financing for China’s AI unicorn
Summary
TENCENT Holdings has contributed to a US$300-plus million round Chinese generative AI startup Moonshot just closed, emulating its arch-rival Alibaba Group Holding in fostering several hopefuls in the highly contested sector.The fundraising propelled Moonshots valuation to US$3.3 billion and attracted other investors including Gaorong Capital and existing backer Alibaba, people familiar with the matter said, asking to not be identified discussing private information. Tencent and Alibaba did not respond to emailed requests for comment.The deal is the latest among a flurry of investments into Chinese AI enterprises, as local big-tech firms and venture capital powerhouses alike have sunk billions of US dollars to bankroll a costly battle to fill a ChatGPT-shaped hole in the worlds biggest Internet arena.Among some of the more prominent deals this year, Alibaba in February led a record US$1 billion round for Moonshot. Both Alibaba and Tencent have invested in the majority of the group, dubbed the Six Little Dragons, which include Baichuan and MiniMax.OpenAI cut off access to its widely used development software and tools in China from July. At the same time, Washington has moved to deny Chinese access to critical technologies including the most advanced AI chips from Nvidia, citing national security concerns.Moonshots Kimi chatbot is among the ChatGPT-style tools most popular with Chinese smartphone users, along with ByteDances Doubao and Baidus Ernie.Founder Yang Zhilin is a serial entrepreneur with a doctorate degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He helped create Chinese enterprise software firm Recurrent AI prior to Moonshot.Chinas large language model startups are selling their services to developers at rock-bottom prices to grab market share.