---
title: "Weekly AI Worldview | Aishi Tech ¥100M+ A2; NVIDIA Acquires Run:ai; Moonshot Yang Zhilin Controversy"
author: "Unique Research"
sourcePublication: "Unique Research (FFCAP English library)"
originalPublishedAt: "2024-04-29T15:15:00+08:00"
canonical: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20240429a05hc400"
source: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20240429a05hc400"
language: "en"
cnSourceUrl: "https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20240429A05HC400"
---

# Weekly AI Worldview | Aishi Tech ¥100M+ A2; NVIDIA Acquires Run:ai; Moonshot Yang Zhilin Controversy

_Unique Research · Weekly AI Worldview · April 29, 2024_

One week of funding, events, and people. Charts attach on ingest (19 images).

## Funding

-   **Aishi Tech (爱诗科技)** — over **¥100M** Series A2, Ant Group lead; Guangyuan Capital sole FA. Founded Apr 2023; AI video-generation models and apps; CEO Wang Changhu (ex-ByteDance vision lead). Jan 2024 launched PixVerse web (text-to-video); funds model iteration, team, and industry applications. (Aishi Tech)
-   **Exowatt** — **$20M** seed from Sam Altman with a16z and Atomic. Modular solar energy conversion/storage aiming at ~**$0.01/kWh** to address AI’s power hunger. (WSJ)
-   **Perplexity AI** — Apr 24, **$62.7M**; valuation **$1.04B**. Backers include Daniel Gross, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos. NL search / multi-layer Q&A; web + iOS; MAU past **2M** in months. (Perplexity)
-   **OpenAI Startup Fund** — new **$15M** into SPV “OpenAI Startup Fund SPV II, LP”; Ian Hathaway manager & sole partner; tech-independent affiliate focusing on education, legal, science AI startups. Cumulative commitments ~**$175M**; portfolio 10+ companies including Descript (val >**$553M**). (OpenAI Startup Fund)

## Events

-   **Alibaba Cloud × Meta Llama 3** — ModelScope listed all 4 variants immediately; Bailian first in China with limited-time free train / deploy / inference for Llama 3 (8B and 70B). One-click train/deploy/infer; “most open cloud in the AI era.” (Alibaba Cloud)
-   **G42 × Qualcomm** — Apr 22; Core 42 to integrate Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 into Condor AI platform for data-center AI acceleration. (G42)
-   **SoftBank GenAI R&D** — plan **¥150B** (~JPY 150B) by end-2025 to lift compute tens of times; already spent **¥20B** in 2023 on infra; buy NVIDIA GPUs (own use + possible rental). LLM path: 390B-param model in 2024; Japanese-dedicated ~1T-param model from 2025. (Nikkei)
-   **Moonshot / Yang Zhilin** — reports that CEO Yang Zhilin cashed out tens of millions of USD after fundraising; company denied specific amounts and said employee incentives are in place. Feb round: **$1B** led by Alibaba, with Sequoia China, Xiaohongshu, Meituan; valuation >**$2.5B** after prior large rounds. Flagship Kimi Chat known for long-context; spawned secondary-market “Kimi concept” names. (Moonshot)
-   **FPT × NVIDIA** — Apr 23, **$200M** AI factory in Vietnam; AI R&D for global services; auto and digital transformation focus. Jensen Huang flags Vietnam talent/infra investment; follows NVIDIA–Telkom AI center in Central Java. (FPT)
-   **NVIDIA acquires Run:ai** — Israeli GPU orchestration / AI workload platform; price not disclosed; reports put deal at **$700M–$1B** (Forbes). Partner since 2020; deepens NVIDIA AI infra stack. (NVIDIA & Forbes)
-   **Apple OpenELM** — open-source on-device LLM family on Hugging Face: 270M / 450M / 1.1B / 3B params; CoreNet training; offline on phone/tablet/PC. (Apple)
-   **SenseTime SenseNova 5.0 (日日新)** — ~**600B** params; claims parity/beats vs GPT-4 Turbo and Llama-3 on several axes; MMBench multimodal #1; partners Kingsoft Office, Xiaomi. 2023 revenue **¥3.4B**; GenAI project revenue +**200%**, share **34.8%**. (SenseTime)
-   **Webflow acquires Intellimize** — AI web personalization / CRO; no-code personalized sites; SenseAI co-creation invite for PMs/devs. (Webflow)
-   **NVIDIA → OpenAI DGX H200** — first DGX H200 delivered; exclusive NVLink Switch with Foxconn; Foxconn cloud/AI server upside; GB200 AI server also highlighted. (OpenAI)
-   **Tencent × Toyota** — 2024 Beijing Auto Show; Tencent SVP / CSIG CEO Tang Daosheng: deepen smart-car collab (AI models, cloud, big data; software-defined vehicle); WeChat ecosystem to link daily life with Toyota mobility. (2024 Beijing Auto Show)
-   **DeepL Write Pro** — AI writing assistant (grammar + live word/style/tone); EN + DE now, more languages later; office-suite integrations; TLS + text deletion; **€10/mo**. (DeepL)
-   **Astribot S1** (星尘智能) — home-care robot targeting 2024 market; near-human ops; large models + soft/hard stack; team from Tencent, Google, UBTECH. (Astribot)
-   **Tsinghua AI College** — founded Apr 27 (113th anniversary); first dean Turing Award winner **Andrew Yao (Yao Qizhi)**; talent + core tech + industry bridges; forum and exhibit on cross-AI research. (Tsinghua)

## People

-   **Jensen Huang** (Cadence Silicon Valley 2024): humanoid robots will go mainstream; manufacturing cost could fall to **$10k–$20k** (cheap-car range); AI + accelerated computing as efficiency levers. Also GTC themes on AI, robotics, data-driven methods, and empowering talent. (Cadence SV 2024)
-   **Sam Altman** (Stanford Enterprise Thought Leaders): next models more powerful; OpenAI mission AGI; AI startups still need business fundamentals; AI for education, disease, entertainment, space; society adapts fast. (OpenAI)
-   **Tim McDonough** — named CMO of Automation Anywhere (Apr 23); 20+ years; ex-Intel VP/CMO for AI & data center (~$14B+ unit transformation); joins as GenAI process automation accelerates. (Automation Anywhere)

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