news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Smart Things
Author: Li Shuiqing
Edit Heart

Zhidongxi reported on July 31 that at the end of July, a large model startup in CanadaCoherefinished$500 million(about 3.613 billion yuan) of Series D financing, followed by my country's large-scale model startupsBaichuan IntelligenceFinish5 billion yuanSeries A financing.

How is the overall "money-making" situation of the bustling large model industry in the first half of 2024?

According to incomplete statistics from Zhidongxi, from January 1 to June 30, 2024, the global investment in key links of the large model industry chain willOver 100 million yuan in financingReach Super120 casesThe total amount of financing is roughly estimated to exceed230 billion yuan。

inUSAandChina"Far ahead", respectively59 casesand35 casesAt the same time, the total financing amount of large model industry-related enterprises in the United States exceeded180 billion yuan, the total financing amount of enterprises related to China's large model industry is quite different in quantity, exceeding30 billion yuan, but still ranked second.

As shown in the table below, in the first half of 2024 and the period just past July, the number of large model industry-related companies that received financing coveredGeneral large model development, large model application, AI Infra, AI data servicesAnd other fields.Nearly halfenterpriseFounded in 2023-2024,Just carried outSeed round, angel roundorSeries AFinancing. In their official business introductions, these companies clearly stated that their main or key businesses are centered around large models.

Among all financing projects,Financial MaximumThe US GPU cloud service providerCoreWeaveThe contract was won in May54.4 billionFinancing.Musk's xAIMay's appointment43.5 billionFinancing, American Grand ModelAnthropicIn March20 billion yuanThe financing ranked second and third.

Focus on China's large model industryThe largest amount isDark Side of the MoonWon in FebruaryOver 7 billion yuanIn its Series A financing, investors included Sequoia China, Xiaohongshu, Meituan, Alibaba, China Merchants Fund, BlueRun Ventures, etc., ranking seventh in the world.

China's large-scale model financing is in the ascendant.Relaxed to 10 million yuan, this trend is more obvious.

According to statistics from Zhidongxi, from January 1 to July 31, 2024, my country's large-scale model financing of over 10 million yuan reachedclose90 cases, total financing exceeded32 billion yuan。

As shown in the following table,Beijing, Shanghai, HangzhouandShenzhenIt has become a hotspot for large-scale model financing. In addition to the industry's popularBig Model "Five Tigers of Entrepreneurship" (Dark Side of the Moon, Baichuan Intelligence, Zhipu AI, Minimax, Zero One Everything)Members have obtained large amounts of financing, and there are a lot ofLarge model application manufacturersAlthough the amount of financing for large model application manufacturersMost of them do not exceed 100 million yuan,butLarge numberThe new forces are so extensive and have a strong ability to attract money.

Judging from the financing situation in the first half of 2024, what is the capital market situation of the large model industry? Which types and fields of large model-related companies are more likely to "attract money"? This article discusses this in depth.

1. The total financing amount exceeded 230 billion yuan, 80% of which was won by the Americans, followed closely by China

Looking at the global large-scale model financing situation in the past seven months of 2024, large-scale model industry-related companies in the United States, China, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and other countries have become the main "money-making" forces, winning 59, 35, 8, 6, 4, 3 and 3 financing projects of over 100 million yuan respectively.

In terms of financing amount, it is roughly estimated that the total amount of financing of 120 projects exceeds 230 billion yuan.USAThe total financing amount of enterprises related to the large model industry reached about183.438 billion yuan, accounting for about80%。ChinaRanked second, with total corporate financing of approximately30.458 billion yuan。France, Canada, United Arab EmiratesThe total financing amount of enterprises ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively.7.565 billion yuan, 4.676 billion yuan, 3.6 billion yuan。

In terms of financing rounds,34Enterprises are inRound A (including Round A+)Financing status,24Enterprises are inRound B (including Round B+)Financing, we can see that these companies are in the early financing stage.Nearly half were founded in 2023-2024。

2. Large-scale model applications are concentrated, and AI Infra companies have the strongest magic of "attracting money"

Large model application,yesThe largest number of "money-making" enterprisesThe big model entrepreneurial field.

As Zhu Xiaohu, a major player in the primary market and managing partner of GSR Ventures, mentioned recently, despite his skepticism about large-scale model startups, AI application software is one of the investment directions he is most optimistic about. In a recent media interview, he said: "(AI applications) really have a lot of opportunities... This year we will focus on B-side applications, and C-side applications will be next year."

As shown in the figure below, among the nearly 120 global big model financings, big model application companies accounted for69%，AI Infra, general large model, large model data serviceRespectively16%, 11% and 3%。

In the field of large model application，AI healthcare, vision/video generation, office assistantandProgramming AssistantThe enterprises that received financing were the most concentrated, accounting for15%、15%、13%、11%At the same time, companies in the fields of chatbots, content creation platforms, AI search engines, embodied intelligence (large models), marketing assistants, and speech synthesis tools have also received a lot of financing.

butThe most powerful force of "attracting money"of companies, but appeared inAI Infrafield, followed byUniversal large modelfield.

CoreWeave, xAI, Anthropic, Scale AI, Xaira Therapeutics, Dark Side of the Moon, Baichuan Intelligence, Figure, Mistral AIIs a single financingAmount ranked in the top tenEnterprises.

Among them, the American AI cloud service "dark horse" founded in 2017 and backed by NVIDIACoreWeaveIn the past 7 months, it has received two large financings, approximately54.4 billionStrategic financing and8 billion yuanof Series C financing, rankingFirst Placeandfourth place。

Musk's big model startupxAIWon43.5 billionThe company was founded in 2023 and has raised nearly 100 million yuan in Series B funding. It ranks first in the world in terms of funding pace.secondname.

China's large model enterpriseDark Side of the MoonWith super7 billion yuanThe A round of financing of , ranked seventh, and its large model application product Kimi has become popular in the market;Baichuan IntelligenceWith5 billion yuanFinancing, accounting forEighth, which focuses on the development of open source and closed source general large models and super applications.

3. China Market: The Big Five Model Companies Earn More Than 10 Billion Yuan, and 70+ Application Providers Earn Money

Finally, let us focus on China's large-scale model industry, which is characterized by the emergence of small-scale financing like mushrooms after rain.

In the previous global large-scale model financing summary table, we mainly counted the financing of 100 million yuan, and the domestic trend is not obvious enough.Million-dollar levelWe found that at least89Large model industry-related companies received financing in the first half of 2024 and July, with a total financing amount ofOver 32 billion yuanThis means that China's primary market has a positive attitude towards large models.

In the field of general large models, a member of the "Five Tigers of Entrepreneurship" of domestic large-scale modelsDark Side of the Moon, Baichuan Intelligence, Minimax, Zhipu AIAll of them have obtained financing, with a cumulative financing amount ofOver 10 billion yuanHowever, in terms of numbers, there are not enough large-scale model companies that have received financing, but this does not mean that the domestic large-scale model capital market is not active.

In the field of large model application，More than 70The companies have received financing, covering multiple application categories such as chatbots, text creation, and visual/video generation, and covering many industry fields such as marketing, e-commerce, medical care, education, media, creation, law, and government affairs, showing a fragmented feature. The total amount of financingOver 1.5 billion yuan。

In the field of AI Infrastructure, my country's enterprises are in the ascendant stage. Among them, the former founder and CEO of OneFlow, Yuan Jinhui, foundedSilicon-based flow, is a well-deserved "darling of capital", and wonTwo rounds of financing, respectively50 million yuanAngel round financing andNearly 100 million yuanAngel+ round of financing.

at the same time,Ruilai WisdomAs a leader in the field of AI security, it also seized the opportunity of the big model trend and launched AI security base and other infrastructure, which supported it to obtain hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic investment in April.

In addition, theSuanchang Technology, Qingcheng Jizhi, Guanglun IntelligenceBoth are new companies founded in 2023 and have received tens of millions of yuan in financing.

Conclusion: The big model outperformed the market, and its ability to attract money was verified

In the first half of 2024, the overall market situation in my country's primary market did not recover very quickly. According to IT Orange data, in the first half of 2024, there were 2,682 private equity financing events in the domestic primary market, a year-on-year increase of 4.56%; the estimated total investment amount was about 374.577 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.35%.

The large model industry has become one of the hottest tracks to outperform the market. In addition to large model star companies such as Dark Side of the Moon and Baichuan Intelligence, which have made a splash by raising billions of yuan in financing, nearly 100 large model application manufacturers and manufacturers in the AI ​​Infra field have emerged and also gained initial recognition from the capital market.

my country's large-scale model industry has the ability to attract money in the world. However, compared with the United States, which accounts for 80% of the global financing, my country still has a large gap. The global competition for large-scale models is becoming more and more intense, which requires the domestic large-scale model industry to combine domestic national strategies, industrial policies, technological breakthroughs, market demand and other factors to seek a development path suitable for my country's large-scale model industry.