In a recent round of financing, Silicon Valley startup Perplexity reached a valuation of $9 billion, tripling its previous valuation. The funding amount was $500 million, marking Perplexity's rapid development in the artificial intelligence search engine sector and strong investor interest. Established in 2020, the company focuses on developing AI-based search engines aimed at enhancing user search experiences. Its technology enables users to obtain information more efficiently, especially in

Chinese AI video generation startup Aishi Technology recently announced the completion of its Series A2 to A4 financing, raising nearly 300 million yuan. Previously, the Series A2 financing was funded by Ant Group, while the recent Series A3 and A4 rounds were co-invested by the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Guoke Investment, and Guangyuan Capital. This round of financing will primarily be used to enhance technological research and development capabilities, expand computing power resources, build a talent team, and accelerate product feature iteration and market coverage, thereby continuously promoting the widespread application of AI video generation technology.

Recently, Zhipu Company successfully completed a new round of financing, raising 3 billion RMB, attracting participation from multiple strategic investors and state-owned institutions, with existing shareholders such as Guanjun Capital also increasing their investment. The funds will primarily be used for the research and development upgrades of Zhipu's base large model, further enhancing its capabilities in complex reasoning, multimodal task solving, and promoting innovation and development in the industry ecosystem. This marks Zhipu's second round of financing this year. Previously, in September, Zhipu received funding support led by Zhongguancun Science City, becoming the first large model startup to achieve a valuation exceeding 20 billion RMB.

Domestic artificial intelligence company Wenwen Xinqun has announced the open sourcing of its latest developed end-side full-modal understanding AI model — Megrez-3B-Omni. This model is the world's first open source project of its kind, marking the company's innovative development in the AI field. At the same time, Wenwen Xinqun also launched a pure language version of the model, Megrez-3B-Instruct, to further enrich its product line. Founded in May 2023, the founding team comes from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University. The company is committed to creating efficiency.

Beijing Mianbi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. recently announced the completion of a new financing round of hundreds of millions of RMB. This round was jointly led by Loongson Venture Capital, Dinghui Baifu, Zhongguancun Science City Fund, and Sequoia Capital. The Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and Qiming Venture Partners participated as co-investors, with Wanjia Capital acting as the exclusive financial advisor. Mianbi Intelligence plans to use this funding to accelerate the commercialization of terminal-side AI large models, aiming to provide high-performance, low-energy consumption, and faster large model services under the same parameters to deeply serve the industry and create tangible value for users.

Recently, Beijing Xiaoyu Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd., the first large model robot company invested by Xiaomi, announced the completion of its A round financing worth 100 million yuan. Xiaoyu Intelligent Manufacturing was founded in 2023 by the core founding team of Xiaomi Group. The founder, Qiao Zhongliang, was one of Xiaomi's initial members and served as the head of MIUI development; the co-founder, Wang Wenlin, previously served as the general manager of Xiaomi's software system platform department, leading the development of the 'Xiaomi Brain.' Source note: The image is generated by AI, sourced from Midjourney, which focuses on the industrial sector.

In the wave of integration between mining and technology, KoBold Metals, a startup, has recently attracted significant attention within the industry. The company successfully raised $491 million, aiming to complete a total financing round of $527 million. This funding will greatly enhance the development of their giant high-grade copper mine discovered in Zambia, while also accelerating the progress of the company's other exploration projects. Image source note: Image generated by AI, image licensed from service provider Midjourney as per KoBold Meta.

Recently, OpenAI is undergoing a critical transformation, planning to shift from a non-profit lab to a for-profit company and preparing for a new round of massive funding. However, the company has been facing internal turmoil, with several executives including the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Research Officer resigning, raising concerns about OpenAI's future direction. Reportedly, Apple unexpectedly decided not to participate in OpenAI's latest $6.5 billion funding round, leading to a cooling of the financing plan. Despite this, OpenAI expects revenue to reach $300 million this year, a 17% year-on-year increase.

The battle for funding in the field of artificial intelligence is unfolding dramatically in Silicon Valley. As a new player in the industry, Anthropic is actively negotiating with investors, aiming to increase its valuation to between $30 billion and $40 billion in the upcoming financing round. Meanwhile, its main competitor, OpenAI, is also planning a massive fundraising effort. According to existing investors of Anthropic, the company has begun preliminary discussions with potential supporters, targeting a valuation nearly double that of the beginning of this year. Anthropic primarily

Recently, AI startup 11x, which is dedicated to transforming the modern workforce, announced it has secured $24 million in financing, with the goal of changing how businesses operate through autonomous digital employees. CEO and founder Hassan Sukar stated, "We believe that within the next two years, digital employees will become an essential part of daily operations for businesses worldwide." Note: Image generated by AI, image licensed by service provider Midjourney. This funding will primarily be used to accelerate product development and expand the team.

Small businesses play an indispensable role in the U.S. economy, employing nearly half of the workforce and contributing 44% of GDP. However, when owners of these economic pillars consider exiting, they often face a dilemma of limited choices. OffDeal, a startup nurtured by the Y Combinator Winter 2024 accelerator, is dedicated to solving this issue through innovative AI technology. OffDeal is co-founded by former investment banker Ori Eldarov and former Meta engineer Alston Lin.