Zhipu, one of China’s ‘AI Tigers’, raises US$210 million for venture capital fund

The Z Fund says it aims to take advantage of its parent’s leading position in China’s AI sector to discover promising early-stage start-ups

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The Zhipu AI booth at an industry conference in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00pm, 6 Nov 2024

Zhipu AI, one of China’s top generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) start-ups, has announced the initial closing of its venture capital vehicle, which aims to invest in related start-ups to strengthen the company’s ecosystem, borrowing a page from ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

The Zhipu Ecosystem Fund, also known as the Z Fund, raised 1.5 billion yuan (US$211 million) from its parent and a group of state-backed and private entities, according to a statement published Friday on its official WeChat account.

They include the Beijing municipal government’s investment unit Shijingshan District Modern Innovation Industry Development Fund, and Fuzuo Capital, which is affiliated with Hangzhou Industrial Investment Group, the investment vehicle of eastern Zhejiang province’s capital city.

Private equity fund Yanbei Capital, and Guangdong Aofei Data Tech, a cloud computing infrastructure provider based in southern Guangdong province, are also among the limited partners.

Zhipu is building up its investment arsenal as competition heats up in China’s crowded GenAI market, which has seen the launch of more than a hundred large language models (LLMs) – the technology underpinning products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.