1 entry tagged hongshan. All writing.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2026 Four Hundred Million for a Model Nobody Has Seen Naive AI, founded in Beijing in February 2026 by Tsinghua professor Dai Jifeng, has raised about $400 million across three rounds at a $1.42 billion valuation, backed by Tencent, IDG Capital, MPCi and HSG. It has fewer than a hundred employees and has not released a model. Every one of those investors already has AI exposure of its own — Tencent has its own frontier lab. The interesting question isn't whether the company is good. It's why a corporate investor pays to stand outside its own building.