China leads world in number of generative AI start-ups to receive funding in first half of 2023, report finds
- China had 22 generative AI start-ups receive funding in the period, while the US had 21, according to Zhidongxi report
- The start-up that received the biggest round of funding in China was Light Year, which was established in February by Wang Huiwen
China has led a surge of global investment into generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the first half of the year, with the country reporting the largest number of start-ups in the sector to receive funding, according to a research report.
During the first six months of this year, 51 generative AI start-ups around the world raised about 100 billion yuan (US$13.8 billion), ten times the funding size the sector received in 2022, according to Zhidongxi, an AI-focused research firm in China.
China had 22 generative AI start-ups receive funding in the period, while the US had 21 and the UK had four, according to the Zhidongxi report. Although China had the most generative AI start-ups to receive funding, US firms received more funding, the report showed.
Eighteen generative AI firms received more than 100 million yuan (US$138,287) in funding in the first half, and of these 12 were from the US, while only three were from China, according to the report.
China’s Big Tech firms and start-ups are jockeying to catch up with their peers in the US after ChatGPT was launched by Microsoft-backed OpenAI last year. While tech giants including Tencent Holdings, Baidu and the Post’s owner Alibaba Group Holding are developing their own large language models (LLMs), they are also pouring money into start-ups.
During the first half, Tencent invested in three generative AI start-ups, DeepLang AI, Light Year and MiniMax, according to the Zhidongxi report.