---
title: "Weekly AI Worldview | YiZhu Chip Raise, DP Tech Funding, Hinton’s Nobel, Si Luo Joins Banma"
author: "Unique Research"
sourcePublication: "Unique Research (FFCAP English library)"
originalPublishedAt: "2024-10-14T19:50:00+08:00"
canonical: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20241014a08dv600"
source: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20241014a08dv600"
language: "en"
cnSourceUrl: "https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20241014A08DV600"
---

# Weekly AI Worldview | YiZhu Chip Raise, DP Tech Funding, Hinton’s Nobel, Si Luo Joins Banma

_Unique Research · Company / Weekly Digest · October 14, 2024_

## China funding

**DP Technology (深势科技)**: multi-hundred-million-RMB round from Beijing AI Industry Fund & Zhongguancun Science City — AI for Science / multi-scale simulation for biopharma, energy, materials (“Deep Potential · Yuzhi®”). Talent, full-stack depth, industry landing.

**YiZhu Tech (亿铸科技)**: multi-hundred-million-RMB raise led by a noted overseas fund (Shengshi Tech, Xingzhi Capital following; ex-overseas GPU co-founder follow-on) — compute-in-memory AI chips for data center, cloud, servers, AV, edge; break memory/power/compile walls.

**Deep Principle (深度原理)**: seed+ exclusive from Hillhouse Ventures — AI materials R&D (Jia Haojun, Duan Chenru); ReactControl / ReactBO / Reactify / ReactGen reaction-prediction stack. Founded 2024.

**91360** (pathology AI): new round led by Ivy Capital, Hangzhou Gongshu SOE following — cervical cytology AI (China’s first NMPA Class III pathology AI cert; MIIT/NMPA AI medical-device innovation winner Aug 2024) + digital pathology / telepathology.

**Tavi Tech (塔维科技)**: multi-million-RMB angel led by Singapore’s Tavistock Institute — psychology + AI for education, CDC, justice, public safety; UK Tavistock’s sole APAC psych+AI ops entity (founded Aug 2024).

## Overseas funding

**Numeric**: $28M Series A led by Menlo (IVP, Socii new; Founders Fund, Long Journey, 8VC, F&F, Fifth Down) — five months after $10M seed. AI agents reconcile accounting systems + Excel, flag/explain account moves; close month/quarter faster. Founder Parker Gilbert: actual close/calc still ahead.

**Relyance AI**: $32M Series B led by Thomvest (M12, Cheyenne, Menlo, Unusual) — scan apps/cloud/AI models/code vs policies → data inventory & maps. Customers: Coinbase, Snowflake, MyFitnessPal, Plaid. Headcount → ~90 by year-end.

**Distributional**: $19M Series A led by Two Sigma (a16z, Operator Collective, Oregon VF, Essence, Alumni) — $30M total. Ex-Intel AI software GM Scott Clark; automated statistical tests for non-deterministic AI risk before prod. ~35 staff + first enterprise deploys by year-end.

**KoBold Metals**: $491M (of ~$527M target) — AI mineral discovery (Cu/Li/Ni/Co); large high-grade Zambia copper find; plans ~$2.3B self-develop. Backers: Gates, Bezos, Jack Ma, a16z, Breakthrough Energy.

**EvenUp**: $135M Series D at >$1B valuation (unicorn) led by Bain Capital Ventures (Premji, Lightspeed, Bessemer, SignalFire, B Capital) — PI legal AI; $235M raised since 2019; ~20M U.S. injury victims/year.

**Perceptyne** (India): $3M seed co-led by Endiya + Yali — AI semi-humanoid industrial robots (PR-34D / PR-9D); weeks not months to deploy; industrial robotics → ~$41B by 2030.

**Suki**: $70M Series D led by Hedosophia (Venrock, March) — $165M total; ~$500M valuation. Voice AI assistant for clinicians; 300+ health systems; Epic/Cerner/Athena/MEDITECH. Founder Punit Soni (ex-Google/Flipkart).

## Industry moves

**Nobel Physics 2024:** John Hopfield & Geoffrey Hinton — foundational ANN / ML discoveries (Royal Swedish Academy, Oct 8).

**Khosla Ventures** disclosed $405M into OpenAI via SPV (not necessarily its own capital). Khosla put $50M into OpenAI in 2019 for a reported ~5%.

**Sierra AI** (Bret Taylor, ex-Salesforce co-CEO): Information reports raise that may push valuation above $4B; hundreds of millions from Greenoaks; SF HQ expanded.

**OpenAI investor side letters:** Reuters — Thrive & Tiger’s $6.6B deal asked investors to avoid Anthropic, xAI, SSI, plus apps Perplexity and Glean. OpenAI revenue goal cited: $3.7B (2024) → $11.6B (2025).

## People

**Si Luo** — ex-Alibaba VP / DAMO chief scientist (also ex-Salesforce EVP; Purdue tenured) joins Banma Network Technologies as CTO to drive LLM R&D and AIOS; Banma covers 150+ models / 7M smart cars shipped; new cabin brand “Yuanshen AI” at Yunqi.

**Yu Youping** — ex-Baidu AI Cloud VP (17 years at Baidu; HUST PhD; Guanghua EMBA) becomes president of Zhongguancun Kejin (conversational AI; 100+ LLM patents).

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Editorial English edition published on UniqueCapital: https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20241014a08dv600
On-site reading page: https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20241014a08dv600