01.AI
零一万物
01.AI (零一万物) is the Chinese large-model startup founded by Kai-Fu Lee, the former Microsoft global VP, with a core team drawn from Google, Microsoft, IBM and Baidu; it ranked among China's "six little tigers" of foundation models, raised a multi-hundred-million-dollar round in 2024 backed by an international strategic investor and a Southeast Asian consortium, and Alibaba Cloud also took a stake as part of its sweep across the sector's leaders. Lee initially framed it as a would-be "trillion-dollar company" pursuing global ToC apps and APIs — but within about six months the strategy reversed: the pretraining and infra teams folded into Alibaba Tongyi and Alibaba Cloud via a joint "industrial large model" lab, the bigger Yi-X-Large model was dropped for smaller, cheaper ones, and the company pivoted to the ToB business Lee had once dismissed — its "AI 2.0 digital human" solution signed Yum China, and roughly 70% of its 2024 revenue (over 100 million yuan) came from ToB, as 葬AI recounted with some irony. A string of co-founder departures followed; for instance, Dai Zonghong left in March 2025 to found AlignBase, an industrial-AI startup. More recently, word of a possible Hong Kong IPO surfaced, with the company touting global expansion including talks with Kazakhstan's president, per elsewhere's reporting.
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Coverage
The Full Story of Alibaba's Investment in Moonshot AI
Game Changer.
Unity Ventures Early Bet Momenta Files for Hong Kong IPO, Over a Dozen Portfolio Companies Announce Funding Rounds | Unity Ventures Summer Review
From Embodied Artificial Intelligence and world models to controlled nuclear fusion and quantum computing, the frontier of exploration knows no bounds.
AlignBase raises hundreds of millions to build industrial AI foundation with "omni-factor large model" | Unity Ventures portfolio
Contract values have increased by an order of magnitude compared to six months ago.
The Unforgettable Series C Funding of Moonshot AI
A stroke of genius.
StepFun Closes New 5 Billion Yuan Funding Round: Racing for Endpoints, Crunching Numbers, and the Ultra-Marathon Ahead
StepFun has raised 5 billion yuan in fresh funding, setting a new single-round record for the sector over the past 12 months, as the battle for end-user devices heats up.
Eight Unity Ventures Portfolio Companies Announce Funding Rounds: AI Evolution, Biotech Surge, and Accelerated Globalization | Unity Ventures Autumn Update
Total funding raised exceeds 2 billion yuan.
Former 01.AI Co-founder Dai Zonghong's Startup "Basis Origin" Closes Angel Round of Over 100 Million Yuan | New Unity Ventures Portfolio Company
A 20-person team completes AI customization projects that previously required hundreds of people
Moonshot AI K2's Writing Ability Nears Qwen 3
Moonshot AI still has dreams (not a paid post 😭)
What's Changed and Where Are the Opportunities in AI Agents in the First Half of 2025? | FreeS Research
Model Wars, App Boom, Commercialization
StepFun has no news.
A Journalism Major's Finest Hour
Inconsistent Kai-Fu Lee
Media teachers care about you
Chuan Wang Can't Build a Doctor
Spending money on public welfare — that's greatness.
Zhipu AI's Existential Crisis
Everything for Existence
Interview with Nooka's Kai Tang: A Post-'95 Generation Rewriting Kant with AI, How New Platforms Will Redefine Creators | 100 AI Creators
Whoever can define the new creator will build the next-generation content platform.
The Clear Path, Hidden Path, and Rocky Path of AI Fundraising
Where does the money come from?
Shenzhen Event Countdown: Grab the Mic! Pitch Your AI Hardware Idea | Booming Hub
Let's make some noise.
Under the China-US AI Gap, To B or Not To B — Here's What Kai-Fu Lee Thinks
A condensed summary.
The Alibaba investment executive who bet big on Kimi has left, and she sent off her departure with a rock song
"To be part of the wave can't stop."
The First Batch of Robots Has Already Started Working at BMW's Factory
No rush. / Don't panic. / Stay calm.
I'm Zhilin Yang of Moonshot AI, and I'm here for Alibaba Cloud.
This endorsement is a little too salty.
ChatGPT Mac App Arrives | DingTalk to Open Up to All AI Large Model Vendors | Groq Valued at $2.5 Billion in New Funding Round
The power of intelligence comes from human complexity, not from a single, perfect principle.
Looking Back at AI's "May": The Five Most Important Little Things | Attent!on Tech Notes
The future is already here — it's just not evenly distributed.
A Conversation with Junjie Yan of MiniMax: AGI Isn't a Doomsday Weapon, It's a Product Ordinary People Use Every Day | Oasis Vitality
Counselor Vitality
Yunqi Capital | In Conversation with MiniMax's Junjie Yan: AGI Isn't a Weapon — It's a Product Ordinary People Use Every Day
MiniMax is already one of China's most highly valued large language model companies.
Standing at the AI Crossing, the Future Comes Roaring In | 16 Observations and Reflections from My Q1
The green mountains endure, the clear waters flow on — change never misses its cue.
China's LLM Funding War: The Quick Death of Romance
Do the investors regret it?
