Money flows into Chinese AI startups to challenge OpenAI's SoraMoney flows into Chinese AI startups to challenge OpenAI's Sora

Venture capital investors pour hundreds of millions of yuan into China's burgeoning video generation startups to build a rival for Sora, OpenAI's text-to-video model.

Two of the top generative AI firms in China revealed this week that their most recent investment rounds have closed successfully, with each raising over 100 million yuan ($14 million). In the upcoming months, both want to catch up with Sora.

A recent fundraising round garnered several hundred million yuan. Beijing-based generative AI firm Shengshu Technology will fund research on multimodal big models, product innovation, and market development. Qiming Venture Partners led the investment, with participation from Baidu Ventures, Zhipu AI, and Delta Capital.

Shengshu, which was founded in March 2023 by a team of experts from Tsinghua University Institute for Artificial Intelligence, is dedicated to the study and creation of multimodal big models, which include 3D, video, and photos. Products from it include the ability to generate text from images, generate text from images jointly, rewrite text from photos, and convert flat images into three-dimensional, multi-angle viewable information.

Ant Group, Baidu Venture, G&O Venture Capital, and Jinqiu Capital have all contributed more than 100 million yuan to the company's two successful fundraising rounds.

The US software behemoth OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, unveiled the Sora text-to-video software in February. With the help of user inputs, this new AI model may produce videos up to one minute long, enthralling viewers and rekindling interest in the sector across the globe.

Investors used to place a lot of emphasis on funding big language models. But, the individual close to Shengshu claims that since Sora's publication, they have increased their support for multimodal investments.