Business

Chinese Startup Raises $293 Million to Tackle AGI with World Model
By Reuters | 09 Apr, 2026

ShengShu Technology, which had challenged OpenAI's Sora with its Vidu Q3, raised 2 billion yuan to develop a general world model that processes sensory information to simulate human perception and interaction.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup ShengShu Technology has raised 2 billion yuan ($292.59 million) in a funding round led by Alibaba Cloud, the company said on Friday, as competition intensifies in China's AI sector.

ShengShu said the funding would support development of a "general world model" that processes sensory information to simulate human perception and interaction, which the company describes as a step toward artificial general intelligence in physical environments.

The company did not provide a timeline for when such a system would be commercially available.

Chinese companies ranging from industry giants like ByteDance to startups such as humanoid robot specialist Unitree have begun exploring similar "world model" technologies.

ShengShu said the funding round included investments from Andon Haitang, China Internet Investment Fund, TAL Education Group, and Luminous Ventures. Existing investors LINK-X CAPITAL, Delta Capital, and Baidu Ventures also increased their stakes.

Founded in early 2023 by Tsinghua University alum Zhu Jun, ShengShu became the first Chinese company to release a video generation model when it launched Vidu in April 2024.

The model was positioned as a competitor to OpenAI's Sora, which the U.S. company later discontinued.

ShengShu has since released several updated versions of Vidu, including the Vidu Q3 model announced earlier this year.

The company has also recently expanded into robotics applications.  In December 2025, it open-sourced Motus, a model designed to control robots by processing multimodal data including video and audio.

The startup faces competition from Chinese technology giants including ByteDance, Alibaba and Kuaishou, which have all launched video generation models.

Internationally, companies such as Google and startups including Runway are also developing similar technologies.

($1 = 6.8355 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Liam Mo in Beijing and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Jamie Freed)