Where Did the Money Go? Who's Still Writing Checks? A 2025 VC Debrief with Jing Liu New Consensus and Undercurrents Among China's VCs

🚥 Is the money back? Where's it flowing? Who's making bold moves, and who's quietly positioning?

Following last year's year-end review, this week "Crossing" welcomes back Jing Liu for another crossover with elsewhere, as we unpack the surges, sentiment shifts, and undercurrents of China's AI venture market in 2025.

In 2025, VC sentiment swung from last year's "fragmentation" and pessimism to this year's "strong consensus" and fervor. The emergence of DeepSeek and Manus ignited FOMO among VCs for the next era; embodied intelligence and consumer electronics saw the rise of "city squads" and "China confidence"; and new species — Solo GPs, corporate venture capital, and novel incubators — entered the fray, jockeying for position amid the transition between old and new orders.

We hope this episode delivers value to AI founders — because understanding VC movements, tastes, and sentiment isn't for cocktail chatter. It's to help you make smarter fundraising decisions: at the right time, in the right way, telling your story to the right people.

🎬 Our video podcast is here! Now live on @Koji Yang Yuancheng's channels on WeChat Video, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and YouTube.

📒 The transcript will be published shortly on the @CrossingCrossing WeChat account.

🟢 01:12 "Strong Consensus" and "Marking the Boat"

2024's keyword was "fragmentation"; in 2025, VCs converged on "strong consensus." When AI became the whole village's hope, how did FOMO sentiment drive the entire primary market? From end-of-year pessimism to post-New Year frenzy, what impact did the DeepSeek and Manus explosions have on VCs? Last year everyone was anxious about PMF — why has that conversation disappeared? A rapid land grab for "China's top new-generation GP" is playing out among emerging managers.

🟢 09:48 The Shifting LLM Landscape

The rise and fall of China's "AI Six Little Dragons" — combined, their valuations don't even match one Thinking Machine? When your biggest "sugar daddy" internet giant becomes your direct competitor. The "dollar four fools" mega-funds of the mobile internet era have vanished. When models become the fastest-depreciating commodity, what happens?

🟢 15:55 AI Applications and AI Agents

Ignited "national confidence." How did Manus and Genspark inject a shot of adrenaline into the industry? Two roads lead to Rome: the prodigy and the veteran — both founder archetypes are winning. Was IDG's post-90s fund's success a victory for the post-90s generation, or a victory for mobile internet? What is today's frenzy for '97/'98-born founders replicating?

🟢 19:50 "Path Confidence" and Talent Anxiety

An A16Z China employee's verdict: "Hardware — that's what you [China] should be doing." Insta360's hundred-billion RMB market cap, Bambu Lab's five-year miracle, and Plaud's million-unit sales collectively lit up the market. DJI's talent anxiety. The "108 Arhats" of embodied intelligence: boom or bubble?

🟢 27:38 Who's Making Moves?

Mainstream fund profiles: HSG, Hillhouse, IDG Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Matrix Partners China, ZhenFund... CVC landscape: Meituan and JD.com's clear synergies; Baidu and Alibaba's "financial investments"; and how Xiaohongshu single-handedly stirred the investment circle. Market new species: why did Solo GPs rise, and what challenges do they face? FAs launching funds, Innox Shenzhen, Sparklab Startup Monastery... how are they changing the rules? Why do today's emerging investors face a brutal reality?

🟢 46:26 VC Talent, Luck, and Organizational Renewal

"VC requires some talent, and good luck." What kind of person is suited for VC? Why have most VC fund organizational structures "ossified"? The secret to VC's enduring success: finding the delicate balance between embracing change and staying true to one's core. VC and media relations: why, in the AI era, discourse power no longer belongs to institutional media but to KOLs with "human presence"?

🟢 01:00:22 Koji x Jing Liu: How Do We Position Ourselves in This Era?

Koji's identity shift: from founder to Venture Partner — what updated understanding of the VC industry has this brought? What is the most important quality for entrepreneurship? In this accelerated AI era, why is "resilience" more important than ever? As a KOL with industry influence, what values should one hold?

Subscribe to "Crossing": 🚦 We track the industry transformations and entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology.

🚦 "Crossing" is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and unite a new generation of AI founders and proactive actors in the AI era, exploring and embracing new changes and possibilities together.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I founded Crossing, launched AI Hacker House — a community space for the new generation of AI founders — and serve as Venture Partner at ZhenFund. I believe technology, especially AI, represents the greatest value-creation opportunity of our generation. Koji's Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: I co-founded Crossing, previously worked at a dollar-denominated VC, and spent five years as a Silicon Valley correspondent, tracking technology development and business stories. Feel free to reach out and chat. Ronghui's Jike