The Chip Landscape of the Trillion-Dollar Ant Empire

According to a report by Xin Dongxi on September 4th, recently, Ant Group has successively invested in chip companies. First, on August 26th, it invested in Shanghai-based ReRAM new storage startup Xinyuan Semiconductor. Then, on August 29th, it invested in Shanghai-based edge AI chip startup Yezhi Core Technology, which was founded less than 4 months ago.

Previously, through its subsidiary Shanghai Yunya, Ant Group had successively invested in Beijing-based AI chip startup Qingwei Intelligence, Shenzhen-based AI chip startup Moore Threads, Shanghai-based network chip startup Yunhe Zhinet, and Wuxi-based security acceleration and intelligent network chip startup Muchuang Integrated Circuit and other chip companies.

Ant Group also invested in Shanghai-based MicroLED micro-display unicorn Jade Bird Display through its Ant Unicorn Fund and Shanghai Yunyang.

1. Yezhi Core Technology: Edge AI Chips

On August 29, 2025, Yezhi Core Technology underwent industrial and commercial changes, with new shareholders Ant Group and Zhongke Chuangxing joining. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, holds 14.2857% of the shares and is the third-largest shareholder of Yezhi Core Technology.

Yezhi Core Technology was founded in May 2025, with its headquarters in Shanghai. Its registered capital is 1.296296 million yuan, and its legal representative is Li Zheng, the company's chairman.

The company focuses on the research and development of edge AI computing power chips and is committed to creating end-to-end solutions for extremely low-power, general-purpose AI chips. With its independently developed high-energy-efficiency NPU as the core, it covers scenarios from low computing power (4 TOPS) to medium computing power (40 - 80 TOPS), providing high-performance, low-power AI chips and software-hardware collaborative solutions for fields such as smart glasses, mobile phones, robots, and autonomous driving.

2. Xinyuan Semiconductor: ReRAM and AI Computing-in-Memory Integration

On August 26, 2025, Xinyuan Semiconductor underwent industrial and commercial changes. The original shareholder Shanghai Lianzhi Venture Capital Management Center (Limited Partnership) withdrew, and a new shareholder, Ant Group, joined. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, holds 1.8692% of the shares.

Xinyuan Semiconductor was founded in October 2019, with its headquarters in Shanghai. Its registered capital is 50.2973 million yuan. Its legal representative is Zhang Xiang, the co-founder and CEO, and another co-founder, Zhang Ke, serves as the chairman.

Xinyuan Semiconductor focuses on the research and development of ReRAM new storage technology and related chip products, covering three major application fields: AI computing-in-memory (Computing in Memory, CIM) IP and large model acceleration solutions, high-performance/high-reliability system-level storage (System-on-Memory, SoM) chips, and advanced process embedded storage (Embedded memory, eReRAM). It has achieved commercial shipments and deliveries in fields such as storage chips, computing-in-memory IP, and high-performance MCUs.

ByteDance participated in Xinyuan Semiconductor's Series B financing last year. Its subsidiaries Beijing Future Imprint Technology Co., Ltd. and PICOHEART (SG) PTE.LTD. are the fifth and sixth largest shareholders of Xinyuan Semiconductor, holding 6.8358% and 6.3294% of the shares respectively.

3. Jade Bird Display: MicroLED Micro-Display Chips

In August 2025, Jade Bird Display completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B1 financing, with investors including the Ant Unicorn Fund.

In June 2024, Shanghai Yunyang, a subsidiary of Ant Group, participated in Jade Bird Display's Pre-Series B financing. Since then, Jade Bird Display has become a unicorn enterprise.

Shanghai Yunyang holds 0.5874% of the shares.

Jade Bird Display (Shanghai Xianyao Display Technology Co., Ltd.) was founded in October 2015, with its headquarters in Shanghai. Its registered capital is 58.222825 million yuan, and its legal representative is Li Qiming, the founder and CEO.

The company has been focusing on the research and development and production of MicroLEDs below 0.3 inches, and has independent technologies in integrated circuit design, MOCVD material growth, MicroLED hybrid integration technology processing and manufacturing, packaging and testing, software and hardware driver design, and optical modules.

Nearly 50 AI glasses products, such as Rokid Glasses, INMO GO2 by INMO Technology, Xuanjing M5 by Weiguang Technology, Thunderbird X3 Pro, Leion Hey2 by Liangliang Vision, Alibaba Wow Quark AI Glasses, and Halliday, have adopted JBD MicroLED micro-display technology.

Alibaba Cloud, Geely Automobile, BYD, and Samsung are also shareholders of Jade Bird Display.

4. Qingwei Intelligence: Cloud-Edge-Endpoint AI Chips

In January 2025, Qingwei Intelligence underwent industrial and commercial changes, and Ant Group became a new shareholder. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, holds 3.9237% of the shares.

Qingwei Intelligence was founded in July 2018, with its headquarters in Beijing. It is a representative enterprise of reconfigurable computing chips in China. Its legal representative is Wang Bo, the founder and CEO, and the core team comes from Tsinghua University and well-known enterprises such as HiSilicon, NVIDIA, Apple, and AMD.

The company has mass-produced more than a dozen high-energy-efficiency intelligent computing chips in two series, which are widely used in fields such as intelligent security, smart office, intelligent robots, and aerospace.

Qingwei Intelligence's TX8 cloud chip series based on the reconfigurable computing architecture for training and inference integration has completed adaptation with the DeepSeek V3.1 model. The chip can natively support the MXFP8 format (E4M3, E5M2, and UE8M0 scale) and MXFP4, providing a native, clean, and efficient FP8 GEMM core, with fine-grained scaling capabilities, and achieving nearly lossless FP8 precision error and an MXFP4 inference speed at the forefront of the industry.

The Second-phase National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund is the fifth-largest shareholder of Qingwei Intelligence, holding 5.3855% of the shares.

SK Hynix and GigaDevice are also among the shareholders of Qingwei Intelligence.

5. Yunhe Zhinet: High-End Network Chips

In December 2024, Yunhe Zhinet underwent industrial and commercial changes, introducing new shareholders including Ant Group. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, holds 3.6765% of the shares.

Yunhe Zhinet was founded in November 2020, with a registered capital of 43.1865 million yuan. Its legal representative is Chen Qinghua. Its main founders and key technical backbones come from Fortune Global 500 companies in the high-end chip and network technology industries.

The company is engaged in the design of high-end network and computing power communication chips and the research and development of network cloud-native software. Its headquarters was initially established in Hangzhou and was moved to Shanghai in 2024.

Yunhe Zhinet has developed two series of high-end ultra-large-capacity chip products, established an advanced and mature large-scale chip research and development and testing platform, and has an independently developed network operating system, CuOS. It has successfully applied for nearly 150 patents.

Tencent Mobility Limited, a subsidiary of Tencent, is the fourth-largest shareholder of Yunhe Zhinet, holding 6.7010% of the shares.

6. Moore Threads: Cloud AI Chips

In April 2024, Moore Threads announced that it had completed Series B financing led by Ant Group and Series A+ financing led by Jinpu Investment Shanghai Financial Technology Fund in the past six months, totaling hundreds of millions of yuan. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, holds 6.0976% of the shares.

In 2018, Moore Threads was founded in Silicon Valley, with its headquarters in Shenzhen. Its registered capital is 43.9039 million yuan, and its legal representative is Wang Wei, the founder and CEO. Its founding team consists of top AI scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and core high-volume chip R & D teams from world-leading semiconductor companies, with experience in mass-producing dozens of products and over 5 billion mainstream chips.

Moore Threads is a representative enterprise of sparse computing, committed to providing cloud and endpoint AI computing platforms and services. It has a globally leading, independently developed sparse algorithm and is the inventor of the dual-sparse algorithm, holding more than 40 global patents.

Its first dual-sparse chip, Antoum, is designed for cloud AI inference scenarios and supports a sparsity rate of up to 32 times. The Moore Threads AI computing cards S4, S10, and S30 are equipped with the Antoum chip, providing AI computing acceleration with ultra-high computing power, ultra-low power consumption, and ultra-high energy efficiency.

7. Muchuang Integrated Circuit: Reconfigurable Security Acceleration and Intelligent Network Chips

In November 2023, Muchuang Integrated Circuit completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B financing. Investors included Ant Group and Xinshang Capital under Taihu New City Group. Shanghai Yunya, a subsidiary of Ant Group, is the third-largest shareholder of Muchuang Integrated Circuit, holding 11.0000% of the shares.

Muchuang Integrated Circuit was founded in December 2018, with its headquarters in Wuxi. Its registered capital is 1 million yuan, and its legal representative is Zhu Min, the founder and general manager. The core members come from the Reconfigurable Computing Team of Tsinghua University. Zhu Min graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degree in microelectronics and serves as the technical director of the Wuxi Research Institute of Tsinghua University and the System-on-Chip Laboratory.

Relying on the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University and cooperating with the Micro-Nano Electronics and System-on-Chip Laboratory of the Wuxi Institute of Applied Technology of Tsinghua University, Muchuang focuses on the development of reconfigurable and programmable system-on-chip application systems, front-end chip design, and testing services. It already has two major product series for cryptographic security and network control, and is committed to becoming a provider of reconfigurable security acceleration and intelligent network chips for the cloud, network, and endpoints.

Conclusion: Ant Group's Intensive "Buying Spree"

Optimistic about AI Computing Power, Large Models, and Embodied Intelligence

In March this year, a relevant person in charge of Ant Group's investment department responded to and interpreted Ant Group's current investment logic and market signals.

Under the trend of a new round of technological revolution, Ant Group hopes to support the growth of the next generation of technological innovation forces, invest the recovered funds in more forward-looking fields, such as large models, embodied intelligence, and AI computing power and other cutting-edge technology fields, to achieve a positive cycle of "investment - support - exit - reinvestment", continuously promote technological innovation, and bring more innovative value to society.

In addition to chip companies, Ant Group has also invested in several AI companies and embodied intelligence robot companies.

The invested AI companies include Beijing-based large model startup Shengshu Technology, Beijing-based large model startup Aishi Technology, Beijing-based large model unicorn Zhipu (with a total shareholding of 4.4403%), Shanghai-based AI search startup Mita Technology (with a shareholding of 16.0000%), Xiamen-based AutoML-style AI large-middle platform startup Deep Empowerment (with a shareholding of 20.0000%), Shanghai-based AI software startup Hyper Dimension Electronics (with a shareholding of 12.0567%), Shanghai-based L4 autonomous driving technology startup Hello Robotaxi (with a shareholding of 50.00%), etc.

The invested robot startups include Beijing-based humanoid robot startup Force Aggregation (with a shareholding of 15.0802%), Beijing-based humanoid robot startup Stellar Map, Shenzhen-based humanoid robot startup Stardust Intelligence (with a shareholding of 2.9336%), Shanghai-based humanoid robot startup Titan Tiger Robot (with a shareholding of 8.3627%), Beijing-based dexterous hand startup Spiritual Heart and Skillful Hands, and Beijing-based warehousing robot leader Geek+ (with a shareholding of 0.9348%), which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Xin Dongxi”, author: ZeR0, editor: Moying. Republished by 36Kr with permission.