Linear Capital AIGC Tech Salon Recap: AIGC Is Evolving by the Day — Has the Nature of Technology Changed?
At the end of May, Linear Capital co-hosted an AIGC tech salon in Hangzhou with portfolio company Manycore Tech. The event drew an overwhelming number of registrants — our thanks to everyone who signed up. The session ran for roughly three hours. Zeren Bai, Vice President of Investment at Linear Capital, kicked things off with an introduction to the firm, its investment focus, and standout portfolio companies, before diving into Linear Capital's existing AIGC investments and strategic approach to the sector.
At the end of May, Linear Capital co-hosted an AIGC tech salon with portfolio company Manycore Tech (Kujiale) in Hangzhou. Registration was overwhelming — thank you to everyone who signed up. The event ran for about three hours. First, Zeren Bai, Investment VP at Linear Capital, introduced the firm, its investment focus, and standout portfolio companies, then dove into Linear Capital's existing AIGC investments and strategy.
To date, we've made early-stage investments in Mindverse, which provides the underlying operating system MindOS for AI-native applications; Tiamat, an AI image generation technology service provider; BoolVector, an AI video generation SaaS company; SeeReal, which uses augmented live video to empower organizations and individuals to express and communicate visually; and Fasion.ai, an intelligent video content production platform. Additionally, several Linear portfolio companies including Manycore Tech (Kujiale), Tezign, Whale, BaoXiaoHe, and ZaoWuYun are leveraging AIGC to enhance their existing businesses.
In his opening talk, "What Changes and What Doesn't in AGI Development," Zeren Bai traced the history of AI development and the story of ChatGPT and OpenAI behind it, comparing discriminative AI with generative AI. He then focused on the emergent capabilities of ChatGPT and analyzed the opportunities it creates — we believe ChatGPT is redefining artificial intelligence in the digital world, what we call Digital AI. Beyond that, we propose the concept of Physical AI: in the future, as more intelligent sensors, hardware, and robots emerge, they will complement what Digital AI currently lacks — the ability to continuously receive and output information about the physical environment.
Next, Dr. Zihan Zhou, Chief Scientist at Manycore Tech and head of Kujiale's Frontier Technology Research Institute, shared his exploration and application of spatial AIGC general models.
Qinggan, founder and CEO of Linear portfolio company Tiamat, discussed how designers can meet the challenges of the AIGC era.
Xiang Ying, co-founder and AI lead at Linear portfolio company Mindverse, shared the thinking behind MindOS.
Following these presentations, Zeren Bai, Dr. Zihan Zhou, Qinggan, and Qi Su, VP at Manycore Tech and GM of Modai Cloud, joined a panel discussion on "The Boundaries, Exploration, Implementation, and Outlook of AIGC."
The panelists agreed: AIGC-related technologies and products are evolving rapidly every day, but the fundamental nature of technology hasn't changed. From a product-building perspective, while underlying capabilities matter enormously, the core still lies in productizing technology — that is, creating meaningful connections with people. Finally, thank you again to everyone who supported Linear Capital's AIGC tech salon. We'll be hosting similar events in other cities — stay tuned.
About Linear Capital
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Linear Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on "frontier technology + industry" — frontier technologies such as data intelligence, digital infrastructure, next-generation robotics, and new technological transformations in traditional sectors (biomedical, materials, energy, etc.), applied across vertical industries to dramatically improve efficiency, solve pain points, and enable industrial upgrading. We capture outsized returns through substantial increases in industrial value. We currently manage ten funds with approximately $2 billion in total AUM.
Our investment stage focuses on leading angel to Series A rounds, with typical check sizes of $3–8 million or RMB equivalent.
We've made early-stage investments in over 120 teams including Horizon Robotics, Kujiale, Sensors Data, Tezign, Rokid, Guandata, and Agile Robots. The combined valuation of Linear's portfolio companies is approximately $20 billion.
In the near term, Linear Capital is working to become the premier Data Intelligence Technology Fund, with a long-term vision of building the most influential Frontier Technology Application Fund.