Megvii has become the Huangpu Military Academy.

In the AI track, companies may be disposable, but people are assets. The 140 billion yuan you invested might not buy you an IPO, but it could secure you a "preemptive subscription right" for the founder's next entrepreneurial venture.

Three Founders, Three Distinct Paths

In the summer of 2026, in Zhongguancun, Beijing, if you stand at the foot of Megvii's former headquarters and look up, you will find that the building that once bore the sign of one of the "Four AI Dragons" is now nearly deserted. Less than a kilometer away, a company called "Dexmal Intelligence" is renovating its new workspace, preparing to double its workforce. 

The company's logo closely resembles X (formerly Twitter). Founder Tang Wenbin's workstation is located in the same open-plan office as regular employees, with no private office. The mug in front of him is printed with "Dexmal X" — "Dex" comes from Dexterity, and "mal" comes from Animal. From "Megvii", which means "giving machines vision", to "Dexmal", which means "innate dexterity", this Tsinghua University Yao Class alumnus and former CTO is completing the transition from "enabling machines to understand the world" to "empowering machines to change the world". 

Meanwhile, his long-time partner Yin Qi is sitting in the chairman's office of Qianli Technology (601777.SH), also serving as the chairman of StepStar. The predecessor of Qianli Technology was Lifan Technology, a traditional manufacturing enterprise that started with motorcycles. After Yin Qi took over in 2024, it was renamed "Qianli", symbolizing the lofty ambition of "AI + Vehicles". In January 2026, StepStar announced the completion of a Series B+ financing round exceeding 5 billion RMB, with Yin Qi appointed as chairman to drive the commercial deployment of large AI models on end devices. 

The third founder, Yang Mu, has kept a low profile, but in January 2025, together with Yin Qi and Tang Wenbin, he pledged all his shares in Megvii to the Chongqing Industrial Investment Parent Fund — a move widely interpreted by the public as the founding team's complete farewell to their old company. 

Three founders, three paths: Yin Qi moved into the automotive sector (Qianli Technology + StepStar), Tang Wenbin focused on robotics (Dexmal Intelligence), and Yang Mu faded from public view. As for Megvii — the top-ranked of the "Four AI Dragons" that once boasted a 300-billion-yuan valuation, accumulated nearly 140 billion yuan in financing, and employed over 2,000 people — it simply ceased to exist. 

What Did Investors Get for Their 140 Billion Yuan?

Let's start with a stark financial calculation. 

Since its establishment in 2011, Megvii has gone through 9 financing rounds, with a total disclosed financing amount exceeding 7.46 billion RMB (per prospectus data). Later rounds were not fully disclosed, but multi-source estimates put the total financing close to 140 billion yuan. The Alibaba ecosystem (Ant Group + Alibaba Group) collectively holds 29.41% of shares, making it the largest shareholder bloc. Other investors include top-tier institutions such as China Reform Investment, Qiming Venture Partners, Foxconn, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. 

What did these investors actually receive? 

In 2019, Megvii pushed for a Hong Kong IPO with a 300-billion-yuan valuation, poised to become "China's first AI stock". But in October, the US government added it to the Entity List, derailing its listing plan. It then shifted its focus to the Shanghai STAR Market, passing the hearing in September 2021, but got stuck in the registration phase for 38 months. During this period, ChatGPT ignited the generative AI boom, leaving Megvii unable to secure financing for transformation or adjust its business direction with new strategic narratives. In November 2024, Megvii withdrew its STAR Market listing application, failing for the second time to gain access to public capital markets. 

The financial figures are even more brutal: from 2018 to the first half of 2021, Megvii recorded a cumulative loss of 14.634 billion yuan, with accumulated uncovered losses reaching 16.596 billion yuan by the end of June 2021. This means that the 140 billion yuan invested by investors not only failed to yield an IPO exit, but also left the prospect of breaking even on paper nowhere in sight. 

Alibaba, as the largest external shareholder, found itself in a particularly awkward position. Ant Group holds 15.08% of shares via API, while Alibaba's wholly-owned subsidiary Taobao China Holding Limited holds 14.33%, totaling 29.41%. More subtly, related-party transactions existed between Megvii, Ant Group, and Alibaba — starting in 2014, Megvii provided facial recognition technology support to Sesame Credit, Alipay, and MYbank. However, revenue from the Ant ecosystem plummeted from 25.66 million yuan in 2018 to just 22,200 yuan in 2020. This "shareholder-as-customer" relationship triggered repeated inquiries from regulators during the STAR Market review process. 

Today, Megvii's listing dream is shattered, its business has shrunk, founder shares have been pledged, and its core team has scattered. Alibaba's investment has most likely seen its book value approach zero. 

Yet the Entrepreneurs Have Risen Again

If investors' 140 billion yuan went down the drain, the entrepreneurs pulled off a brilliant "golden cicada shedding its shell" escape. 

Yin Qi's path is the clearest. In July 2024, he indirectly acquired shares in Lifan Technology via equity maneuvers, became its chairman in November, and the company was renamed "Qianli Technology" in February 2025. He brought Megvii's AI DNA on board, recruited former Huawei Automotive BU president Wang Jun and Megvii co-founder Yang Mu to establish "Qianli Intelligent Driving". In 2025, Qianli Technology reported nearly 10 billion yuan in revenue, with intelligent driving beginning to contribute income; in 2026, the company submitted a Hong Kong IPO application, projecting 15.3 billion yuan in revenue. Yin Qi's annual salary rose from 500,000 yuan in 2024 to 3.316 million yuan in 2025 — a 2.816 million yuan increase, even higher than the president's. 

Meanwhile, in January 2026, Yin Qi also became chairman of StepStar. This large model company founded in 2023 just completed a Series B+ financing round exceeding 5 billion RMB, sending its valuation soaring. Yin Qi now helms both a public listed company and a unicorn, spanning the two hottest tracks: "AI + Automotive" and "Large Models". 

Tang Wenbin's story is equally remarkable. In March 2025, he founded Dexmal Intelligence, securing 200 million yuan in angel round financing; its Series A was led by Nio Capital; and Alibaba made a sole multi-hundred-million-yuan investment in its Series A+ round. In June 2026, Dexmal Intelligence completed a new financing round with an all-star AI investor lineup: Zhipu AI, StepStar, SenseTime, Alibaba, Huaqin Technology, and SAIC Hengxu. Just over a year after its founding, it has accumulated nearly 1.2 billion yuan in financing with an estimated 5-billion-yuan valuation. 

Even more impressively, in July 2024, Tang Wenbin spun off Megvii's logistics robotics business into an independent entity called "Atomix", which generates nearly 1 billion yuan in annual revenue and ranks second globally in pallet four-way vehicle sales. In June 2026, Dexmal Intelligence acquired Atomix, forming a closed loop of "model + scenario". This means Tang not only brought his team out of Megvii, but also took the business, customers, and cash flow with him. 

The most thought-provoking part is Alibaba's role. As Megvii's largest external shareholder, Alibaba almost certainly lost its entire investment in Megvii. Yet Alibaba led Tang Wenbin's new company's Series A+ round alone, and also participated in subsequent rounds. This is not "investing in a project" — it is "investing in a person" — investing in Tang Wenbin himself, in Megvii's technological lineage, and in embodied intelligence, the "next big trend". 

The Cruel Dialectic of the AI Industry

Megvii's story reflects the harshest dialectic in China's AI industry. 

Investors bet on companies, while entrepreneurs accumulate personal capital. Megvii collapsed, but Yin Qi became chairman of Qianli Technology and StepStar, Tang Wenbin became CEO of Dexmal Intelligence, and the low-profile Yang Mu also joined new strategic layouts. Their personal brands, technical networks, and industry insights have appreciated on the ruins of Megvii. Meanwhile, the shares held by investors are turning into worthless paper as Megvii's listing fails and its business shrinks. 

Companies can die, but entrepreneurs always have a next chance. This is not a phenomenon unique to China. Silicon Valley's "serial entrepreneur" culture has long proven that failure is a badge for entrepreneurs, not a stain. In China's AI industry, this "founder privilege" has been amplified to the extreme — because technological iteration is too fast, track shifts are too frequent, and top talent is too scarce. A founder who has experienced a full AI cycle is worth more than any business plan. 

The dilemma for Alibaba and its peers is: if they don't follow up, they fear missing out; if they do follow up, they fear losing again. Alibaba lost money on Megvii, but if it didn't invest in Tang Wenbin's new venture, what if Dexmal Intelligence becomes the "DJI" of embodied intelligence? This FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) mentality drives investors to repeatedly bet on the same founder. As a VC friend put it: "We don't invest in companies — we invest in the life options of founders." 

The deeper contradiction is: the AI industry's "infrastructure" nature determines that it is destined to be a game for giants, while the value of startups lies precisely in being acquired or having their talent poached. Megvii failed in its attempt to become a "platform AI company"; but Megvii alumni are reshaping the industry in other ways — Yin Qi works on intelligent driving within the Geely ecosystem, Tang Wenbin focuses on embodied intelligence in logistics scenarios, and Zhang Xiangyu (author of ResNet) builds foundational models at StepStar. They are no longer kings of independent kingdoms, but key pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of industrial giants. 

Conclusion: A New Continent on the Ruins

In 2026, Beijing's AI industry is undergoing a new round of reshuffling. The IPO race for large model companies has reached a fever pitch — Zhipu AI and MiniMax have listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Moonshot AI's valuation has exceeded 10 billion US dollars, and StepStar has raised over 5 billion RMB. The embodied intelligence track is flooded with hot money, recording over 600 financing events in 2025 totaling more than 500 billion yuan. 

Amid this boom, Megvii's former employees are re-emerging in different forms. Tang Wenbin's Dexmal Intelligence is renovating its new workspace less than a kilometer from Megvii's old site, Yin Qi shuttles between Qianli Technology and StepStar, and Yang Mu continues to deepen his work in logistics automation via Atomix and Dexmal. 

Megvii is gone. But Megvii's people are still here. 

For investors, this is a bitter lesson: In the AI track, companies may be disposable, but people are assets. The 140 billion yuan you invested might not buy you an IPO, but it could secure you a "preemptive subscription right" for the founder's next entrepreneurial venture.

For entrepreneurs, this is a harsh revelation: the company is not your end point — your personal brand is. Megvii collapsed, but the stories of Yin Qi and Tang Wenbin have only just begun. 

For the entire industry, this is an inevitable cycle: The "Four AI Dragons" of the AI 1.0 era (SenseTime, Megvii, CloudWalk, YITU) have either listed or faded, but their legacy is flowing into the AI 2.0 era — large models, embodied intelligence, intelligent driving. Old kings fall, new kings rise, and the faces under the crowns are often the same group of people.

This time, however, they have learned not to rule alone, but to stand on the shoulders of giants. 

Megvii is gone. But the story of AI will never end. 

This article is from the WeChat public account "Coopetition AI", authored by Coopetition, and published with authorization from 36Kr.