Kuaishou-Linked Chip Firm Lingchuan Tech Raises 1 Billion Yuan in Series B Led by Qiming Venture Partners

启明创投启明创投··0·7

Focused on developing foundational computing chips for multimodal large models, including intelligent video and generative video applications.

Lingchuan Technology has closed a RMB 1 billion Series B round, co-led by Qiming Venture Partners. The proceeds will go toward next-generation chip R&D, mass production, and global market expansion.

Founded by the Beijing AI Industry Investment Fund and Kuaishou, Lingchuan traces its origins to Kuaishou's heterogeneous computing and chip division. It was formally spun off as an independent entity in March 2024, with a focus on foundational compute chips for intelligent video and generative video — multimodal large models.

Lingchuan's self-developed SL200 intelligent video chip has sold nearly 100,000 units and been deployed at Kuaishou, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, and Bilibili, covering 99.7% of Kuaishou's live-streaming operations. This year, the chip has also reached data centers, smart security, and entertainment and transportation applications through partnerships with China Telecom and others.

On the next-generation product front, Lingchuan's chip built on all-domestic 3D stacking technology taped out in April and has recently returned from fabrication. Mass shipments are expected next year. Targeting AI video production, it aims to dramatically cut generation costs and time, complementing the SL series to cover the full chain of video production, recommendation, moderation, and distribution.

Technically, Lingchuan is deeply embedded in the RISC-V open-source ecosystem, introducing its deterministic-latency DiPU architecture and pioneering a 3D near-memory architecture that enables heterogeneous integration of chips with different functions and process nodes through hybrid bonding and advanced packaging. On the software side, the company has built its unified compute platform LUCAS, which has been optimized for mainstream open-source and video generation models including Qwen, Tongyi Wanxiang, Hunyuan Video, and MiniMax. It has also launched Nebula, an AIGV platform covering the full pipeline from text-to-video and image-to-video, deployed in content production and cultural tourism scenarios.

Lingchuan has deep bench of industry talent. Founder, chairman, and CEO Lingzhi Liu holds a PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Washington. He previously served as VP at Kuaishou and held core technical management roles at Huawei and Intel, building Kuaishou's heterogeneous computing and chip team from scratch starting in 2018. The core team hails from Kuaishou, Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Arm, and other domestic and international companies, averaging over 15 years of experience in chip design, software algorithms, and infrastructure. Members have led the tape-out and mass production of more than 10 AI and video chips. The team includes multiple experts recognized in national and provincial talent programs — including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hubei — as well as several industry veterans with extensive commercialization experience.

Since the 2017 publication of Attention Is All You Need and NVIDIA's launch of the first Tensor Core-equipped Volta V100, AI compute chips led by general-purpose GPUs have enjoyed a golden decade. From 2027 onward, the industry will enter a new cycle of Makimoto's Wave, where specialized compute devices for vertical tracks like AIGV (AI-generated video) will see the greatest opportunities for innovation and growth.

At the industry level, as short dramas, interactive video, and AI-driven advertising explode, demand for video data processing and transmission is growing rapidly. AIGV is seen as a critical application scenario for next-generation intelligent compute, with effective compute requirements growing exponentially compared to traditional text models and accounting for a substantial share of token consumption across all large models.

"This track is currently in the tens of billions range," Lingzhi Liu said. "Over the next three to five years, it will explode to hundreds of billions and could break into the trillions."

With this funding round, Lingchuan will accelerate next-generation chip R&D and mass production, continue building out its full-stack "chip plus software stack plus platform" capabilities, and steadily advance global market expansion — providing efficient, low-cost domestic compute infrastructure for the era of video large models.

Alex Zhou, managing partner at Qiming Venture Partners, said: "At this inflection point of exponential growth in generative video and large-model compute demand, Lingchuan has chosen a differentiated path: entering with a 'deterministic latency' architecture, deeply integrating with the RISC-V ecosystem, and using specialized chips to address the inefficiency and high cost of general-purpose GPUs in multimodal large-model scenarios. This 'hardware as foundation, software-defined' approach aligns precisely with our 'efficiency first' thesis on AI infrastructure. We believe a team that combines the chip DNA of Huawei and Intel with Kuaishou's large-scale systems capability has the potential to hit a home run in this specialized compute track."

The round was co-led by Beijing E-Town International Investment & Development Co., Ltd. Yitang Shenghe Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, and Zhaohui Capital. Participants included Guotai Haitong Kaiyuan, Huakong Fund, China Life Yangtze River Delta Sci-Tech Fund, Beijing Industrial Investment, JianXin (Beijing), Peikun Capital, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation Venture Fund, CDH Bai Fu, Jinduo Investment, Xiamen Hengxing, Mingshi Capital, and industry investors ShiXi Capital, Loongson Venture Capital, and Anhui Cultural Tourism Investment. Existing shareholders Shunxi Fund, Waterwood Capital, and Jiuzhi Capital made additional follow-on investments.

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Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. The firm currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management of USD 9.5 billion. Since inception, it has focused on investing in outstanding early- and growth-stage companies in Technology and Healthcare.

To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies. More than 210 have listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 portfolio companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns.

Many Qiming portfolio companies have grown into the most influential players in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE: ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), Hesai Technology (NASDAQ: HSAI, 02525.HK), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD, 00800.HK), HyperStrong (688411.SH), Insta360 (688775.SH), Unisound (09678.HK), Biren Technology (06082.HK), Zhipu (02513.HK), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ: SDGR), APT Medical (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), AmoyDx (300685.SZ), Sinocelltech (688520.SH), Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, MediLink Therapeutics, Leads Biolabs, and StepFun.