Just now, Shanghai’s latest unicorn was born!

Wuwen Xinqiong, which was founded just 16 months ago, announced today that it has completed nearly 500 million yuan in financing, bringing its cumulative financing amount to nearly 1 billion yuan. The company, founded by Professor Wang Yu of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, is rapidly emerging as a unicorn in China's AI infrastructure field.

Luxurious investment lineup supports Wuwen Xinqiong

The investment lineup of this round of financing is extremely strong. The joint lead investors include the Social Security Fund Zhongguancun Independent Innovation Special Fund (managed by Legend Capital), Qiming Venture Partners and Hongtai Fund. The follow-up investors include Lenovo Capital, Xiaomi, Softcom Hi-Tech and other strategic investors, as well as state-owned funds such as China Development Bank Science and Technology Innovation, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund (managed by Lingang Science and Technology Investment), and Xuhui Science and Technology Investment. In addition, Shunwei Capital, Dachen Capital, Detong Capital, Shangshi Capital, Senruo Yukun, Shenwan Hongyuan, and Zhengjing Capital also participated.

From Tsinghua Classroom to AI Battlefield

Professor Wang Yu, the founder of Wuwen Xinqiong, is the youngest dean of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University. He led a team to establish AI chip company DeePhi Technology, which was successfully acquired by Xilinx. In 2023, Wang Yu once again led the team to establish Wuwen Xinqiong, dedicated to building large-scale model infrastructure. The company's CEO Xia Lixue and chief scientist Dai Guohao are both students of Wang Yu, and most of the team members are from Tsinghua University.

Shanghai, where Wuwen Xinqiong was founded, is becoming a gathering place for China's large-scale AI model companies. Star companies such as MiniMax, Xianyuan Technology, Libulibu AI, and Mianbi Intelligence have been born here, showing a strong industrial cluster effect.

The future of AI infrastructure

Wuwen Xinqiong's technical advantage lies in its large-scale heterogeneous computing power software and hardware joint optimization technology, which has greatly promoted the development of the domestic heterogeneous computing power ecosystem. The company released the "Wuqiong Infini-AI" large model development and service platform in April this year, and launched a large-scale model heterogeneous distributed hybrid training system in July, becoming the world's first platform to achieve single-task kilocal-scale heterogeneous chip hybrid training.

Investor confidence

Li Jiaqing, president of Legend Capital, said that AI infrastructure is a key component of the national artificial intelligence strategy, and Wuwen Xinqiong has a rare team with profound academic accumulation and rich industry experience. Zhou Zhifeng, managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, believes that Wuwen Xinqiong has achieved the value transformation of core technology based on the core capabilities of "inference acceleration and multi-heterogeneity" in the AI ​​2.0 era. Yu Yang, executive director of Hongtai Fund, said that Wuwen Xinqiong's heterogeneous cloud platform provides developers with efficient computing power solutions.

Shanghai, a new battlefield for AI big models

Wuwen Xinqiong's headquarters is located in the Model Speed ​​Space in Xuhui District, Shanghai. It is the first large-scale model innovation ecological community in China, which has gathered more than 90 large-scale model companies. The Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Mother Fund also landed in Xuhui District in July this year, with a scale of 22.501 billion yuan, further promoting the development of the AI ​​industry.

Wuwen Xinqiong's vision is to make AGI (general artificial intelligence) within reach through excellent infrastructure. As the company's CEO Xia Lixue said at the 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference: "Excellent infrastructure is a kind of 'magic'. When the marginal cost drops to a critical value, more people will be able to embrace new technologies."

Across the country, the competition for big AI models is in full swing in major cities. Super first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen are all making full efforts to compete for the commanding heights of the AI ​​industry. A unique battle for emerging industries has begun.