Ant and Baidu jointly invested in the AIGC track, and Shengshu Technology was valued at US$100 million after the first round of financing

Source: Titanium Media

Author: Lin Zhijia

Image credit: Generated by Unbounded AI tools

With ChatGPT triggering the global upsurge of generative AI (AIGC), domestic technology giants such as Ant and Baidu are ready to incubate and invest in the AIGC track.

Titanium Media App exclusively learned that on June 19, Beijing Shengshu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengshu Technology", Shengshu-ai) officially announced the completion of an angel round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan. This round was led by Ant Group. The BV Baidu Ventures initiated by Baidu and Zhuoyuan Capital followed up with the investment, and the current valuation has reached 100 million US dollars.

This round of funds will be mainly used for the construction of the core R&D team to accelerate the development of multi-modal large models and application products.

**This is the first AIGC project invested by Ant Group since the release of ChatGPT in November last year. It is also the third AI content generation-related project invested by Baidu Venture Capital. The first two are Xihu Xinchen and Morph Studio Inc. **

It is reported that Shengshu Technology was established in March 2023. It was jointly incubated by Tsinghua-based AI company RealAI, Ant Group and BV Baidu Ventures. It is committed to becoming the world's leading builder of generative artificial intelligence infrastructure and applications. Tang Jiayu, the former vice president of Ruilai Smart, became the chief executive officer. At present, Shengshu Technology is actively building the world's leading controllable multi-modal general-purpose large model, and is committed to enhancing the creativity and productivity of all human beings through generative AI technology.

The research team of Shengshu Technology is mainly from the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Tsinghua University, and has long been committed to the basic theory and efficient algorithm research of Bayesian machine learning. Tang Jiayu said that compared with the models and products on the market at this stage, there are still great uncertainties and uncontrollability in the generation results. Digital Technology mainly optimizes the underlying algorithm to make 3D generation effects, multi-modal textual graphics, and the first automatic generation of high-quality 3D content based on three views.

The company said that at this stage, Shengshu Technology is building vertical applications based on the underlying multi-modal general-purpose large model for image creation and subdivided scenarios for 3D asset creation. The AI image generation technology developed by it has exceeded the level of the latest version of the basic model of Stable Diffuion, and is expected to catch up with the latest version of Midjourney within this year.

BV Baidu Ventures, the investor in this round, was established by Baidu Group in 2017 and is an independent venture capital institution. It mainly invests in the field of scientific and technological innovation with artificial intelligence as the core, covering AIGC, autonomous driving, new energy, life sciences, enterprise services, semiconductors, smart industries, etc. At present, BV Baidu Ventures owns a USD/RMB fund with a total size of more than 700 million USD, and has invested in nearly 200 companies.

It is worth noting that since the release of ChatGPT, domestic Internet giants such as Tencent, Baidu, Ant, Kunlun Wanwei and other domestic Internet giants have made frequent moves, not only releasing large models, but also continuing to invest. , Acquisition of AI star enterprises.

• In March this year, AI content generation company Xihu Xinchen completed a multi-million dollar Pre-A round of financing, led by Baidu Ventures, followed by old shareholders Kaitai Capital and Westlake Education Foundation Sustainable Development Platform.
• At the end of May, Baidu Ventures invested in AIGC technology and community start-up "Morph Studio". The founder of the company graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a Ph.
• In June this year, Shenyan Technology completed a round of financing. Investors include Sequoia Capital China Fund, Tencent Investment, TAL, Inno Angel Fund, etc. Previous investors also included Qiji Chuangtan, Zero One Venture Capital, etc.
• In early June, it was reported that MiniMax, a general-purpose large-scale model start-up, had completed a new round of financing, with a total scale of over 250 million US dollars and a company valuation of more than 1.2 billion US dollars. It has become a "unicorn" in the field of large-scale models. Participated in the investment with US$40 million, and old shareholders such as Hillhouse Venture Capital, IDG Capital, and Mihayou followed suit.
• On June 14, Kunlun Wanwei (300418) announced that it plans to acquire the entire equity of Singularity AI at a valuation of 1.714 billion yuan through its holding subsidiary Star Group, and indirectly control the generative artificial intelligence star company "Singularity Zhiyuan" .

In response to the financing of Lunshengshu Technology, BV Baidu Ventures stated that a breakthrough in the development of large models requires a deep understanding of the underlying algorithm principles, as well as extensive professional knowledge and experience. Algorithm research has a deep accumulation, and the founding team has experience advantages in large-scale model research and development capabilities, engineering capabilities, and product innovation capabilities. It is also hoped that the team will make more breakthroughs in the direction of diffusion models and multi-modal large models and achievements.