Sand AI
Sand.ai
Sand AI (Sand.ai, also known as 三代科技) is a Beijing video-generation startup founded in January 2024 by Yue Cao, a researcher-turned-founder whose track runs through a 2021 ICCV best paper, BAAI, and a Light Years Beyond co-founding stint before he started the company to work on video generation . Source Code Capital led its seed round in 2024 and has kept adding since; per a Source Code Capital piece, the company closed over $100M across two rounds in June 2026, with a syndicate spanning Capital Today, Matrix Partners, Sinovation Ventures, IDG and others — on top of a roughly $50M round earlier that spring . Its flagship product is VidMuse, a "Music in, Video Out" Video Agent that had passed $10M ARR within months of its early-2026 launch, while on the model side it open-sourced MAGI-1 in April 2025 and, in August 2026, released MAGI-2 Preview, billed as the world's first 100B+ open-source MoE video model (114B total parameters, ~6B activated per forward pass) . The pitch, as founder Yue Cao framed it to GeekPark, is a dual-track strategy — product plus model — aimed not at a better video tool but at a long-term "digital production team" .
AI-generated — may contain errors, please verify.
Coverage
MaHui | Sand.ai Releases World's First 100B+ Open-Source MoE Video Model
Going forward, we will continue scaling up model and data size, and explore video generation at longer durations.
MaHui | Sand.ai Raises Over $100M Across Two Rounds, Existing Investor Source Code Capital Continues to Increase Stake
Source Code Capital led the seed round of Sand.ai in 2024 and was one of the company's earliest institutional investors.
Code Moment | Sand.ai Closes New ~$50 Million Funding Round, Doubling Down on Product + Model Dual-Track Strategy
Audio-driven video, dual-engine monetization reaching eight-figure ARR.
Source Code Rhythm Closes Over $150 Million Fund, Focuses on AI and Globalization
Focused on early-stage investing, with independent fundraising, independent decision-making, and independent operations.
Source Code Rhythm has raised over $150 million for its first fund and has launched RMB fund fundraising.
Another oversubscribed early-stage USD fund.
The First USD VC Fund to Close in 2026
What comes after Aksu. *(Note: "阿克苏之后的故事" literally means "the story after Aksu." If this refers to a specific title or context I'm missing — such as a book, film, or article — please provide more details and I can refine the translation.)*
MaHui | Congratulations to MaHui Member Seeya Technology on STAR Market IPO, Becoming "China's First Domestic Silicon-Based OLED Stock"
Source Code Capital was one of the key investors in J&T Global Express's Series C round, providing continuous support throughout the company's growth.
Source Code Capital Co-Leads Pre-A Round in 3D AI Chip Startup Suanmiao Tech, Which Raised Nearly 1 Billion Yuan Across Two Consecutive Rounds
Source Code Capital has invested in more than 20 companies across the AI industry chain.
An Underwater AI Chip Company Raises 1 Billion Yuan, Targeting Large Model Inference
Walking between two "hands."
Code Brain | What Did 140+ AI Practitioners Talk About for 3 Hours?
Source Code Capital has gone deep on AI, building out a full-stack presence across foundation models, AI agents, vertical applications, and the underlying infrastructure that supports them.
Qiming Weekly | Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio News and Updates Vol. 42, 2025
Staying with you through the milestone moments of Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies.
Infinigence AI Closes Nearly 500 Million Yuan Funding Round to Build Infrastructure for the Agentic Era | Oasis Vitality
Councilor Vitality
Four years after its last close, Source Code Capital has raised another fund.
Dual-currency, $600 million.
MaHui Entrepreneur | Sand.ai's Yue Cao: A Decade from Researcher to Entrepreneur Traces the Evolution of Large Models
"After starting my own business, suddenly everything just clicked."
MaHui Spotlight | Over a Dozen MaHui Members Showcase AI Hardware Strength at WAIC
Unitree, Li Auto, Moonshot AI, Galaxy Universal, Mech-Mind, Keenon Robotics, Lynksoul, Biren Technology, and more than ten other MaHui member companies appeared at WAIC
"After Putting Down the Hammer Looking for Nails, We Made Our First Million Dollars" | A Conversation with Mootion Co-Founder Tong Chao on Product-Making, the AI Video Startup Landscape, and Going Global
Stop looking at the hammer and look at the nail.
MaKe | Dark Current Dialogue with MaHui Member Yue Cao of Sand.ai: Farther from Sora, Closer to the Endgame
A Conversation with Cao Yue of Sand.ai: Farther from Sora, Closer to the Endgame
An adventure that tried to break free from inertia.
The times have changed: VCs used to fight over talent, now VCs fight over…?
The World Hasn't Changed: In the End, It's Still a Scramble
Exclusive | Kathy Xu says she hasn't exited primary markets, and just invested in an AI company
The facts may not matter; what matters is the signal.
