Summer Glimpses | Z News

Z News is ZhenFund's news column.

As May draws to a close, we're looking back at the month's highlights and inviting you to witness the growth of our portfolio companies and the latest from ZhenFund. Double espresso — here's what's worth sharing.

ZhenFund angel project Momenta held a themed sharing session at the Beijing International Auto Show

On April 25, Momenta hosted a sharing session titled "Momenta R7: The Prologue of Physical AI" at the Beijing International Auto Show.

Marking the company's tenth anniversary, four partners took the stage together for an in-depth dialogue covering Momenta's technical philosophy, product capabilities, and global commercialization. They officially announced the mass production debut of the Momenta R7 reinforcement learning world model — a leap forward for intelligent driving from "seeing the world" to "understanding the world," and the moment physical AI formally moved from technical concept to scaled mass production.

At the event, Momenta Partner and CEO Cao Xudong broke down the underlying logic and evolutionary path of physical AI. Prediction, he explained, is the cornerstone of intelligent evolution: large language models rely on Next Token Prediction to compress commonsense knowledge of the digital world, giving AI the ability to comprehend text and natural language; world models, meanwhile, use World Model Prediction to forecast future states and interaction logic in the physical world, gaining understanding of objects' physical properties, the causal relationships of motion, and the potential possibilities of interaction.

To date, Momenta has successfully delivered over 70 mass production models, with cumulative design wins exceeding 200 models. At this year's Beijing Auto Show, more than 20 brands and over 60 models featured Momenta's intelligent assisted driving solutions, spanning both domestic and joint-venture brands — a powerful testament to what the company calls "the shared choice of global brands." Read more

ZhenFund early-stage project Accelerate Technology named to the "2026 Hangzhou Pre-Unicorn Enterprise List"

From April 22–24, the 10th Wanwu Shengzhang Conference — themed "Lush Seedlings, Intelligent Future" — was held in Hangzhou. As an annual highlight of the entrepreneurship and innovation calendar, each edition draws outstanding founders and investment elites, with its authoritative list releases closely watched by the industry.

During the conference, the "2026 Hangzhou Unicorn and Pre-Unicorn Enterprise List" was jointly released by the Hangzhou Venture Capital Association, Weilian, and Bank of Hangzhou. Accelerate Technology made the pre-unicorn list once again based on its strong performance, with this repeat recognition serving as authoritative validation of the company's resilience and growth momentum. Read more

ZhenFund angel project Enflame named a "Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters" and selected to give a representative speech

On April 28, the third batch of Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters was officially recognized at a ceremony in Shanghai. Enflame received this designation for its original innovation and independent R&D capabilities in AI chips.

Since the launch of Shanghai's Innovative Enterprise Headquarters recognition program in 2023, 133 companies have been designated across three batches, with clear clustering effects and significant industrial technology breakthroughs. This batch covered key strategic emerging industries including integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy.

In his speech as a representative of the recognized enterprises, Enflame Chairman and CEO Zhao Lidong said, "This recognition is both affirmation and motivation. We have always insisted on developing original innovative technologies and products, with fully self-developed chip architectures and software stacks, accelerating innovation iterations as the industry evolves and market demands shift."

Over eight years, Enflame has independently developed four generations of architecture and five cloud AI chips, building a full-stack proprietary technology system spanning underlying computing power, software platforms, and computing clusters. The company has established a 10,000-card computing cluster and achieved large-scale commercial deployment.

Going forward, Enflame will use this recognition as a springboard to continue building an independently controllable intelligent computing foundation, rooted in Shanghai and serving the nation, contributing to the development of domestic AI and integrated circuit industries.

ZhenFund angel project Black Lake named a "Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters"

On April 28, the third batch of Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters was officially recognized at a ceremony in Shanghai. Black Lake was designated as a "Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters (AI Sector)" for its technical accumulation and product innovation in industrial AI, with Founder and CEO Polo attending the ceremony.

As an industrial technology company that grew up in Shanghai, Black Lake is committed to building production management software powered by AI, big data, and cloud computing. The company has innovatively developed multi-scenario industrial AI agents that are deeply embedded throughout the production process, making traditional manufacturing more flexible and agile through new technology enablement. To date, Black Lake has empowered nearly 40,000 factories globally, holding a 52.7% share of China's cloud-based production management software market — ranking first in this segment.

Going forward, Black Lake will further push AI agents into the core business processes of factories, helping transform traditional, redundant production capacity into data- and AI-driven new-quality, flexible capacity, accompanying factories through steady intelligent upgrades and contributing solid strength to China's intelligent manufacturing. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage project StarDetect showcased at the 2026 China Space Conference Aerospace Achievement Exhibition

On April 24, the 2026 China Space Day main event — themed "Seventy Years of Space Exploration, Hand in Hand to Reach the Ninth Heaven" — kicked off in Chengdu, Sichuan.

StarDetect made a major appearance at the aerospace achievement exhibition with its next-generation space-based computing platform and ecosystem partnership results, announcing a strategic upgrade to its space computing and AI application services. During the event, StarDetect Co-founder and COO Dr. Cao Dezhi was invited to present at the "Satellite Data Application and Supply Chain Upgrade" sub-forum and participated in a roundtable on "Large-Scale Deployment and Development Trends of Space Computing Centers."

Currently, StarDetect's space-based computing has been deployed in scenarios including forest fire monitoring and power grid surveillance, and the company has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with CCCC Water Transportation Consultants. Going forward, StarDetect will continue expanding into diverse scenarios such as ecological environmental protection and financial risk control, deeply exploring the industrial value of space-based computing power. Read more

StarDetect integrated sensing-computing application demo

ZhenFund angel project Cardinal Operations featured on Xinhua Net's Face-to-Face with CEOs

Recently, Cardinal Operations Co-founder Wang Xi was invited to Xinhua Net's high-end interview program Face-to-Face with CEOs. With the "15th Five-Year Plan" period just beginning, Wang shared in depth how Cardinal Operations is leveraging its independently controllable "hyper-intelligent computing engine" in coordination with cutting-edge GPU heterogeneous computing infrastructure to tackle the deep waters of "AI+" implementation.

In the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," artificial intelligence is accelerating from technical concept toward the deep waters of industrial deployment. From breakthroughs in underlying technology to empowering hundreds of industry-leading enterprises, Cardinal Operations continues to inject strong momentum into digital transformation and industrial upgrading through high-precision, high-performance intelligent computing technology.

Wang noted in the interview that the essence of "AI+" is an industrial transformation with AI as the core driving force — one that is reshaping how enterprises approach digital transformation and intelligent decision-making, while also comprehensively empowering industrial development and profoundly influencing the global industrial and economic landscape. Cardinal Operations' mission, he said, is to build an independently controllable "hyper-intelligent computing engine" for China, pushing AI technology into practical applications in complex industrial decision-making and cutting-edge engineering research. Read more

ZhenFund angel project Moffett AI showcased at CIAI 2026

On May 6, the 11th China International Artificial Intelligence Conference and Shanghai International AI Computing Power and Algorithm Conference and Exhibition opened at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). This year's conference focused on promoting international AI exchange and cooperation, building a high-end docking platform covering the full AI industry chain.

At the exhibition, Moffett AI focused on the AI industry's demand for high-throughput, low-latency, and highly stable computing power, showcasing its full-scenario self-developed computing card products. Its complete computing power supply system drew attention from professional visitors, ecosystem partners, and industry customers.

The Moffett S40 computing card is designed for high-throughput, high-concurrency inference scenarios, achieving high computing density and energy efficiency through a quad-chip, high-density design. It is broadly compatible with mainstream scenarios including large language models, computer vision, and natural language processing, significantly improving data center computing efficiency and reducing overall deployment costs. Also on display was the Moffett S40AC active cooling computing card, featuring an active turbo cooling design that maintains low temperatures under full-load operation, effectively solving heat dissipation issues. With industrial-grade reinforced design for stable long-duration operation, it meets the demands of data centers and large-scale inference scenarios. Read more

ZhenFund angel project DeepGlint showcased at Create 2026 Baidu AI Developer Conference

On May 13–14, Create 2026 Baidu AI Developer Conference was held at Phase II of the China National Convention Center in Beijing. As a Baidu ecosystem partner, DeepGlint shared its latest AI-native visual intelligence products at specialized forums and open classes: the Visual Intelligence Workshop, and the new generation fully open-source multimodal large model LLaVA-OneVision-2.0.

DeepGlint also demonstrated multiple functions of the Visual Intelligence Workshop product at its booth. The system-level AI assistant DeepBot interacted with visitors on site.

From multimodal capability iterations to visual application upgrades, DeepGlint continues to deepen AI technology application and transformation, constantly refining and accumulating productization capabilities to build a self-evolving AI-native product matrix — bringing AI into real business scenarios and achieving scaled application deployment. Read more

ZhenFund angel project CrossWe showcased at the 22th ICIF

From May 21–25, the 22nd China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair was successfully held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center. This year's exhibition coincided with the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the year of APEC hosting — an important moment of close international economic, trade, and technological exchange.

CrossWe presented its "AI + Commercial Services" integrated solution, with its self-developed DexForce W1 Pro general-purpose embodied intelligence robot as the core platform, comprehensively demonstrating the full-chain empowerment of embodied intelligence technology in cultural tourism and retail scenarios.

Facing the peak visitor flow at ICIF, the on-site DexForce W1 Pro ice cream robot operated fully automatically throughout, accurately recognizing online orders, relying on high-precision visual positioning to grab utensils, and quickly completing ice cream preparation and serving — high efficiency, stable operation, effectively shortening visitor wait times while delivering a convenient and novel consumer experience.

Through its "DexBot Inside" strategy, CrossWe uses its self-developed generative embodied intelligence brain as the core, breaking the single hardware sales model to output cross-category, cross-scenario empowerment capabilities to partners, continuously injecting new momentum into commercial retail and cultural tourism consumption scenarios, and driving embodied intelligence technology toward commercial value realization. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage project StarDetect's space-based integrated computing-storage-transmission intelligent payload successfully launched

At 12:33 PM on May 15, the Taijing-3 05A satellite (Rongcheng-1 01) and Taijing-3 05B satellite (Rongcheng-1 02) were launched aboard the Lijian-1 Y13 rocket from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone, achieving rapid and precise orbital insertion for a successful mission.

Both satellites carry StarDetect's co-developed space-based integrated computing-storage-transmission intelligent payload. Relying on highly integrated architecture, high-reliability on-orbit computing power, and open platform capabilities, it provides stable support for intelligent on-orbit processing of satellite remote sensing. The same product model was successfully first launched on March 16, with the number of products in orbit continuing to expand.

StarDetect has now accumulated 21 successful on-orbit deployments of advanced-process GPUs. Read more

ZhenFund angel project Chainway joins the Greater Bay Area embodied intelligence industry ecosystem

On May 15, the Foshan New Quality Productive Forces Conference and the unveiling ceremony of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Foshan) Embodied Intelligent Robot Data Training Center were held at the Foshan Talent Innovation Lighthouse Industrial Park. Relevant leaders from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and Provincial Administration for Market Regulation, Foshan Municipal Committee Standing Committee member and Executive Vice Mayor Liu Jie, and Municipal Committee Standing Committee member and Vice Mayor Xu Wei attended the event.

At the conference, the Lighthouse Sci-Tech Innovation Center, Lighthouse Enterprise Service Center, and Foshan Talent Port Lighthouse Port were simultaneously launched, with a batch of key technology enterprises completing centralized entry. As one of the first "Lighthouse Partners" in the park, Chainway officially joined, with Vice President Wang Ziyu representing the company at the event.

The conference gathered relevant government departments from Guangdong Province and Foshan City, high-tech zone platforms, industrial capital, university research institutions, and technology enterprises, focusing on core directions including "new quality productive forces," "embodied intelligence," and "AI+." With the embodied intelligent robot data training center now in place, Foshan is accelerating the construction of a nationally leading embodied intelligence industry ecosystem based on its deep manufacturing foundations. Chainway's entry also signals the company's further release of its strategic layout capabilities for "AI + energy." Read more

ZhenFund angel project Horizon Robotics releases and open-sources robot cerebellum large model HoloMotion-1

On May 18, Horizon Robotics officially released and open-sourced HoloMotion-1. This is a 400-million-parameter robot cerebellum large model developed by the Horizon Robotics Lab for humanoid robot whole-body control.

Compared with the more common million- or ten-million-parameter robot control models, HoloMotion-1 scales the robot "cerebellum" to a new order of magnitude, achieving approximately 300FPS real-time inference on the edge — bringing large model capabilities into the closed loop of robot motion control.

Through this open-source release, Horizon Robotics aims to lower the R&D threshold for humanoid robot whole-body control, helping developers more efficiently build, reproduce, and deploy high-dynamic whole-body motion capabilities, and pushing the robot "cerebellum" from laboratory algorithm validation toward real robot scaled application. Read more

Real robot zero-shot transfer results

ZhenFund angel project DataGrand co-releases indirect evaluation framework Teach2Eval

Recently, DataGrand collaborated with Fudan University and other top academic institutions to publish an important research achievement — Teach2Eval.

The research team proposed an indirect evaluation framework: rather than having large models directly "answer questions," it has them play the role of "teacher," instructing a weaker "student model," with the student's performance improvement serving as the core metric for measuring the teacher's capability.

Teach2Eval is not only a high-precision, low-cost, fully automated evaluation tool, but can also provide actionable scientific guidance for large model training, optimization, and iteration. Read more

Teach2Eval vs. traditional direct evaluation methods comparison diagram

ZhenFund angel project MenuSifu showcased at 2026 NRA Show, reshaping the future dining ecosystem

On May 19, the NRA Show — North America's premier annual foodservice industry event — concluded at Chicago's McCormick Place, with MenuSifu making a major appearance with its new "Future Dining Full Ecosystem" solution. During the exhibition, MenuSifu launched a new automated milk tea solution in partnership with OLOSO at its tea beverage experience zone. The solution creates a closed-loop system from intelligent ordering to back-of-house automation, allowing visitors to experience a seamlessly connected operational flow. Read more

ZhenFund angel project Hyde Hydrogen Energy presented at China Energy Week, sharing green methanol scaling practices

On May 20, the 4th China Energy Week opened in Beijing. At the conference's "Green Fuel Future Forum," Hyde Hydrogen Energy Deputy General Manager Hu Junming was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on "Green Methanol: How to Move Toward the Future?"

As a pioneer and industry leader in green fuel solutions, Hyde Hydrogen Energy has been deeply involved in the world's largest green methanol project, with solutions deployed across multiple industrial carbon reduction scenarios. Going forward, Hyde Hydrogen Energy will continue focusing on strategic scenarios including green methanol, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and deep industrial decarbonization, driving the scaled global application of green fuel solutions. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage project XtalPi showcased at TIDES USA 2026, drawing international attention with cutting-edge multi-track results

Recently, XtalPi — a global leader in AI + robotics drug R&D — was invited to TIDES USA 2026 (Oligonucleotide & Peptide Therapeutics 2026), a top-tier industry conference covering peptide, nucleic acid, and gene editing drug development. The company shared breakthrough results and industrial applications from its two core technology platforms: the AI peptide drug design platform PepiX™ and the generative AI-driven small nucleic acid drug development platform Kodexia™.

Building on its success in small molecule and antibody drug discovery, XtalPi's AI drug R&D platforms in peptide and small nucleic acid fields have also entered full commercial成果转化, with its intelligent drug R&D platform spanning multiple drug modalities entering a new stage of scaled development. Read more

ZhenFund angel project Laiye named to Feifan Industry Research's "2026 Global AI 100" list

Recently, Laiye was selected for Feifan Industry Research's "2026 Global AI 100" list, recognized for its continued accumulation in agent technology, enterprise-grade product capabilities, global deployment practices, and industry influence.

The "2026 Global AI 100" is an authoritative global AI selection focused on native globalization capabilities, using AI-native technology attributes and globalized business development effectiveness as foundational criteria, with comprehensive evaluation across four dimensions: technology leadership, product competitiveness, commercial growth potential, and globalization progress. This recognition reflects the industry's high regard for Laiye's long-term commitment to technology innovation, scenario deep-diving, and global development.

Focusing on cumbersome processes, document backlogs, and customer service bottlenecks in core enterprise and government scenarios including finance, legal, HR, operations, and supply chain, Laiye has launched a digital employee AI Agent platform, building out a series of agent products including APA, ADP, and ACX. The platform can precisely reconstruct business logic and deeply integrate into daily operations, seamlessly compatible with existing system architectures while helping enterprises and government agencies achieve intelligent leaps in business processes — creating measurable, replicable, and scalable value. Read more

ZhenFund founding partner Anna Fang ranked on Forbes' 2026 Midas List of world's best venture capitalists

On May 27, Forbes unveiled its 2026 Midas List of the world's best venture capitalists. ZhenFund founding partner Anna Fang ranked 41st. This marks her eighth consecutive year on the global list since 2019.

ZhenFund managing partner Yuan Liu named to Rongzhong Caijing's "Rongzhong U45 China's Best Young Investors"

On May 4, Rongzhong Caijing released its "Rongzhong U45" China's Best Young Investors list, with ZhenFund managing partner Yuan Liu making the cut. Through this list, we see those young faces finding certainty amid uncertainty and creating value amid challenges — they are defining the next decade of Chinese venture capital. Read more

ZhenFund honored with multiple awards including Diyixinsheng's "China's Most Active Early-Stage Investment Institution TOP30"

On May 13, Diyixinsheng released its Q1 2026 China's Most Active Institutions series of lists. ZhenFund received both "China's Most Active Early-Stage Investment Institution TOP30" and "Most Active Investment Institution in Consumer Technology TOP5." Read more

Written by Nuohan Edited by Cindy