ByteDance is reportedly negotiating with Chinese GPU startup Tianshu Zhixin to procure at least 50,000 AI inference chips, primarily for large model workloads. The chips belong to Tianshu's ZhiKai cloud inference GPU series, while its TianGai series is used for training. If finalized, Tianshu Zhixin would become ByteDance's third domestic GPU supplier after Huawei and Cambricon. Neither company has officially commented on the deal.
NoonWake.AI, an AI emotional consumption startup, has raised nearly 10 million RMB in seed funding led by Yunqi Capital, with participation from Variable Capital under GeekPark and Duowei Capital as exclusive financial advisor. Its product suite includes the domestic AI companion app '万象有灵' (approx. 300,000 users, 50,000 DAU), the overseas app Starot, and the desktop AI companion hardware '好运日历机', with smart crystal bracelets under exploration. The software monetizes via subscription (25 RMB/month or ~200 RMB/year) and pay-per-consultation microtransactions, and features long-term memory, AI-generated content communities, and gamified interactions. The company emphasizes deep personal context accumulation and output consistency as competitive moats, while hardware increases switching costs.
MQTEK, a Chinese quantum computing upstream supplier founded in 2021, has completed angel and angel+ funding rounds from investors including Yunqi Capital and others. The company focuses on core components for neutral atom and ion trap quantum computing, offering a Quantum Gas Microscope, a high-precision current source with noise under 1 ppm (vs 5 ppm for overseas competitors), and a developing measurement-control system. Its products are sold to Tsinghua University, quantum startups, and national labs, with revenue projected to grow from several million yuan in 2025 to tens of millions in 2026. The team, led by USTC PhD Wang Xuankai, positions itself as a 'water seller' enabling modular quantum lab setups.
World model startup Physis (逆矩阵科技) has closed a seed++ funding round surpassing $100 million, led by Matrix Partners China, 5Y Capital, and光合创投, with strategic investment from Ant Group and continued support from existing investors Gaocheng Capital and Yan Yuan Capital. The company simultaneously released Physis-v0.1, a general world foundation model that aims to serve embodied intelligence, industrial simulation, game physics, and scientific prediction through one pre-training run, focusing on physical correctness, long-range consistency, causal action, and generalization. Physis states the window for a major leap in world base model capabilities has compressed to 18 months, and plans a flagship model by end of 2026 with open-source slices and technical reports. The team, founded by Peking University scholars Chen Boyuan and Ji Jiaming, combines young researchers and experienced engineers in a flat, AI-native organization, and argues that scaling in a "physical latent space"—not pixel space—is key to unlocking a scaling law distinct from language models.