An entrepreneurial mastermind is leading the charge towards an IPO, and both Wang Xiaochuan and Shen Yuanqing have made investments.
After many years, the founder of PPTV stood in front of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a new identity.
Recently, PPIO, an independent distributed cloud computing service provider, submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, aiming to become the "first AI infra (artificial intelligence infrastructure) stock in the Hong Kong stock market", which also pushed its founder, Yao Xin, into the spotlight.
Yao Xin is a serial entrepreneur. In 2004, he founded PPTV in his university dormitory, even one year earlier than YouTube. Since then, Yao Xin has gained fame. In 2014, PPTV was sold to Suning, and Yao Xin went to Silicon Valley for further studies, gradually fading out of the public eye. Later, Yao Xin experienced a period as an investor.
In 2018, Yao Xin reunited with Wang Wenyu, the co-founder of PPTV, and jointly founded PPIO. The company is committed to providing cost - effective, ultra - elastic, and low - latency one - stop intelligent computing, model, and edge computing services for new - generation scenarios such as artificial intelligence, audio - video, and the metaverse.
According to data from CIC, as of December 31, 2024, in terms of the number of computing nodes, PPIO operates the largest computing power network in China. In terms of 2024 revenue, it ranks first among independent edge cloud computing service providers in China.
From PPTV to PPIO, can this entrepreneur, who takes Bill Gates as an example, achieve his first IPO after years of precipitation?
Alumni from Huazhong University of Science and Technology Reunite, and Yao Xin Aims for His First IPO
Yao Xin also has another name, "Bill Yao", because he has regarded Bill Gates as his idol since childhood.
Yao Xin was very smart during his school days. In junior high school, he won the third prize in the Henan Provincial Computer Olympiad. In high school, he won the first prize in the Henan Provincial National Youth Computer Olympiad for two consecutive years and was admitted to Huazhong University of Science and Technology without taking the college entrance examination. Under normal circumstances, Yao Xin might have continued his studies, taught at a university, or joined a large company to engage in technology. However, he is not an ordinary person. In 2004, after finishing his first year of postgraduate studies at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Yao Xin made the same choice as Bill Gates: he took a leave of absence from school to start a business.
The reason for his first venture was very simple: he wanted to watch football in his dormitory. So he began to focus on researching P2P streaming media technology. After taking a leave of absence from school, he founded Shanghai Julei Media Technology Co., Ltd. with his junior schoolmate Wang Wenyu. Soon after, China's first online TV software, PPLive (later renamed PPTV), was launched.
PPTV quickly became popular in the Internet field, and Yao Xin's popularity also soared. In the first ten years, PPTV went through six rounds of financing, with a total of $710 million, attracting the favor of domestic and foreign investment institutions such as SoftBank, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and BlueRun Ventures. In 2014, however, Yao Xin sold his stake in PPTV to Suning for $420 million.
After selling the company he founded for 10 years, Yao Xin faded out of the public eye for a while. According to the information on PPIO's official website, from 2016 to 2018, during his study in Silicon Valley, Yao Xin jointly initiated China's first non - profit organization focusing on technology entrepreneurship, the AI Entrepreneurship Camp, with several entrepreneurs. At the same time, he served as an investment partner at BlueRun Ventures China, responsible for project due diligence, investment, and management. It was this experience as an investor that gave Yao Xin a deeper understanding of AI.
For Yao Xin, between his two entrepreneurial endeavors, he witnessed China's Internet evolve from the PC era to the mobile era and then to the new artificial intelligence era. So in 2018, Yao Xin changed his identity again, from an investor to an entrepreneur.
When talking about his second venture, Yao Xin once publicly stated, "In 2018, I thought the time was right. A series of technologies such as AI and the commercialization of 5G were highly relevant to my experience in distributed computing and distributed systems accumulated during my time at PPTV. So I told my team members that I thought we were about to enter a new era. This time, we wanted to build the digital foundation for the new era and establish a company focusing on infrastructure."
That year, Yao Xin reunited with his junior schoolmate Wang Wenyu and founded PPIO.
In 2019, PPIO launched its edge cloud service, pioneering a business model of aggregating distributed computing resources in China. In 2020, PPIO achieved its first commercialization, and its first customer was one of China's largest online video platforms.
In terms of business model, PPIO combines big data, cloud - native, and distributed computing technologies to pool professional server resources at the edge of the network, constructing the first distributed cloud service covering all provinces, municipalities, and counties in China to serve next - generation edge computing scenarios with low latency, high bandwidth, reliability, and security.
This approach has also been recognized by investment institutions. According to the prospectus, since its establishment, PPIO has gone through five rounds of financing.
The prospectus shows that in March 2021, PPIO completed its angel round of financing, with a post - investment valuation of $46 million. It is worth noting that the angel - round shareholders supported the company at its inception. The investors include Tang Binsen, the founder of Yuanqi Forest; Li Shanyou, the founder of Hundun University; Wang Xiaochuan, the founder of Baichuan Intelligence and the former CEO of Sogou; Shen Yuanqing, the former president of Microsoft Azure China; and Cheng Hao, the co - founder of Thunder.
After that, PPIO successively completed its Series A financing from April to November 2021, Series A - 1 financing in November 2021, Series A - 2 financing in February 2022, and Series B financing in April 2025. After the Series B financing, the post - investment valuation of the company was $469 million (approximately RMB 3.362 billion).
Through five rounds of financing, PPIO has attracted many well - known institutions such as Millennium, IMO Ventures, CCV, BlueRun Ventures, Huaye Tiancheng Capital, Yuanwang Capital, Feidian Capital, Panlin Capital, and Harvest Fund. In addition, on May 27 this year, PPIO announced that it had received investment support from a Hong Kong investment management company.
In terms of equity structure, Yao Xin and his wife hold a total of 50.61% of the shares, making them the largest shareholders. Wang Wenyu, the co - founder and CTO, holds 11.41% of the shares through JayaSkypiea. The investment platform Millennium holds 6.28% of the shares, CCV holds 3.79%, and Panlin Capital holds 3.23%.
Source: Prospectus
The AI Cloud Computing Service is in Its Early Stages, and the Company is Still Making Losses
PPIO's business started in the field of edge cloud computing services because it found a significant mismatch between the massive demand for computing power and the scattered and under - utilized supply of computing power. So PPIO built a computing power scheduling platform to pool and manage the idle computing power of heterogeneous resources and deploy them to customers in the optimal way, thereby accelerating content transmission and enhancing the low - latency computing experience.
In 2023, with the rapid development of large - scale AI model technology, the demand for GPU computing power and AI inference soared. PPIO leveraged the distributed GPU computing resources integrated into its computing power network to launch its AI cloud computing service. In 2023, when PPIO started its AI cloud computing business, it signed a contract with a domestic large - model company.
In terms of performance, in 2022, 2023, and 2024, PPIO's revenues were RMB 286 million, RMB 358 million, and RMB 558 million respectively; its gross profits were RMB 46.16 million, RMB 63.52 million, and RMB 68.85 million respectively; its net losses were RMB 85 million, RMB 189.4 million, and RMB 293.5 million respectively, with a cumulative loss of approximately RMB 568 million; and its adjusted net losses were RMB 39.13 million, RMB 37.08 million, and RMB 61.62 million respectively, with a total net loss of approximately RMB 138 million.
Source: Prospectus
Regarding the reasons for the losses, PPIO stated in the prospectus that it was mainly due to the company's heavy investment in R & D and the expansion of its service network. According to the prospectus, in 2022, 2023, and 2024, PPIO's R & D expenses were RMB 41.4 million, RMB 67.8 million, and RMB 86.3 million respectively, accounting for 14.5%, 18.9%, and 15.5% of the same - year revenues respectively.
The prospectus shows that as of December 31, 2024, PPIO's computing power network covered more than 1,200 counties and cities around the world, including more than 4,000 computing nodes. As of the same date, its AI cloud computing service had more than 120,000 registered developers around the world. According to data from CIC, in May 2025, PPIO's daily token consumption reached 141.9 billion times, ranking among the top two independent AI cloud computing service providers in China.
In terms of revenue composition, PPIO's revenue mainly comes from edge cloud computing and AI cloud computing services, with edge cloud computing services still accounting for the vast majority. In 2024, PPIO's revenue from edge cloud computing was RMB 548 million, accounting for 98.1% of the total revenue, while its revenue from AI cloud computing was RMB 10.387 million, accounting for only 1.9%.
Source: Prospectus
In addition, in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the revenue from PPIO's top five customers accounted for 86.1%, 92.5%, and 89.5% of the total revenue in the same period respectively. The revenue from the largest customer accounted for 8.2%, 44.1%, and 35.2% of the total revenue in the same period respectively.
With the current popularity of the AI cloud computing market, the AI cloud computing business is undoubtedly a key direction for PPIO. Through this IPO, the funds raised by PPIO will be mainly used to enhance the technical capabilities of its distributed cloud computing services and upgrade its multimodal API platform; consolidate its business position, expand its business scope, and increase its market share; expand overseas, especially in mature markets and emerging markets with untapped potential; and be used as working capital and for general corporate purposes.
After seven years of development, PPIO has reached the door of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. For Yao Xin, his first venture ended hastily without going public. This time, leading the team again, can Yao Xin achieve his first IPO?
This article is from the WeChat official account "Lieyun Selection". The author is Shao Yangang, and it is published by 36Kr with permission.