In - depth analysis of the champion company in domestic AI financing in 2025: Embodied intelligence has won big.
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Through the recording of entrepreneurship and venture capital data, IT Juzi can clearly see the emergence of startup companies and the flow of funds. Through this data, we can also foresee the new possibilities of various markets in advance.
It is now the middle and late September 2025, and three - quarters of the year has passed. Let's focus on "the investment situation of venture capital funds in the primary market in the AI field".
In this article, IT Juzi will focus on 20 AI companies that have received the most funding, take them as samples, and see the latest trends in the capital market - who they are and what the capital situation behind them is like.
This article is a speech and sharing at an offline salon event of IT Juzi.
As of now this year, 764 AI companies have received venture capital investment, and a total of 83 billion yuan of venture capital has entered this track.
The fact that 764 AI companies have received investment is a new high in the past five years. However, this does not mean that the primary market has improved. The fact is that there are not many investable tracks in the market, and money still prefers to be invested in AI, so it presents a situation where this area alone is prosperous.
The distribution of funds is still highly uneven. If we single out the top 20 companies that have raised the most funds, they have taken 30% of the money in the market. The company that has raised the most funds received 3 billion yuan in financing in 2025 alone, the least was 650 million yuan, and the median was 1 billion yuan.
In addition, 11 of these companies are unicorns.
They took this part of the money, and the remaining 744 companies shared the other part.
On average, each of the top 20 companies in the market received 1.26 billion yuan, and the average for other companies was more than 78 million yuan.
Let's focus on the top 20 companies in the market, the companies that have received the most funding this year. Who are they?
Among these companies, there are some that you are very familiar with, and there are also some new faces. Looking around, robots appear most frequently.
Let's take a look at the profiles of these financing champions:
Nearly half of them are robot companies. The second most prominent are autonomous driving companies. Then there are two each in large models, AI healthcare, and AI chips, as well as one comprehensive AI company.
Most of them were established after 2019, which means most of them are new companies less than 5 years old. The oldest one is iFlytek, which has been established for 18 years. The youngest one is Tashizhihang, which was established this year.
In terms of city distribution, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Chongqing all have representatives. Among them, Beijing and Shenzhen are more prominent.
Regarding their financing this year, 6 companies received US - dollar financing, and 14 received RMB financing, with RMB being the dominant currency. Actually, this ratio is okay. Compared with the ratio of RMB to US dollars in all transactions in the market this year, which is 95% to 5%, in the ultra - high - value investment cases in the AI track, the US dollar still has a heavier weight.
What do these companies do?
Next, let's classify and get to know these companies and the capital behind them.
The first group is the group of intelligent robots, which is the hottest in the market this year.
According to the capital rhythm and the development status of the companies, they can be clearly divided into two groups.
Among these 9 companies, 7 were established about 2 years ago. The other two are the well - known Unitree Robotics, which is now 9 years old, and Yuanding Intelligence, which sells pool robots overseas and is now 10 years old.
The 7 companies established about 2 years ago, such as Tashizhihang, Xinghaitu, Zhongqing Robot, Qianxun Intelligence, etc., almost all fit a certain profile:
Their teams are either composed of top academic brains or come from industry leaders, or they are serial entrepreneurs -
The capital providers behind these 7 companies also have a relatively unified style -
Since they have only been established for 1 or 2 years, and the "capital boom" in the robot track has only occurred in the past one or two years - they are all companies that co - exist with capital.
Almost all of their financing processes started with seed and angel rounds from market - oriented financial VCs such as Shunwei, Oasis, Jinshajiang, BlueRun, Matrix Partners, and Baidu Ventures. Then, more state - owned enterprises, giant companies, and strategic investors entered the game. After that, state - owned capital, especially local state - owned capital, rushed to get involved.
Under the concept of intelligent robots, these 7 companies are almost all working on embodied intelligent robots. That is to say, what has been heavily invested by capital in 2025 is specifically the "embodied intelligence" in intelligent robots. This is a track with a large market capacity and should not be missed. In addition, it is difficult for a winner - takes - all market pattern to emerge. Eventually, multiple companies can co - exist and occupy different market segments, and there can also be multiple small - scale enterprises.
Capital is rushing into the market and must take a position.
Different from the previous 7 companies, Unitree Robotics and Yuanding Intelligence do not have particularly star - studded entrepreneurial teams, nor do they have a large amount of funds at their disposal from the start. These two companies have undergone a relatively long - term polishing and received ultra - large - scale financing in 2025.
Yuanding Intelligence did not receive any financing within 7 years of its establishment. It only came into the sight of capital in 2022 and started to receive financing from XVC, Sunwoda, Fengqiao Capital, etc. In 2025, it directly received a 1 - billion - yuan financing. This time, Fluidra, a giant company in the global pool industry, led the strategic investment. This company not only provided funds but also, more importantly, provided Yuanding with global industry channels. This financing clearly shows that for a certain type of enterprise, when it reaches a certain level, the funds themselves are not as important as the resources that the money can bring.
The earliest investor in Unitree Robotics was an individual investor, Yin Fangming - he is also an entrepreneur who has made hardware products for AI education. In the following years, when the industry was still in its early stage, Unitree successively received several small - scale investments from Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital, and Chuxin Capital.
Before appearing on the Spring Festival Gala in 2025, Unitree was discovered by the industry capital - industrial capital and local state - owned capital flocked in. At this time, Meituan, Zhongguancun Science City, Beijing State - owned Assets Management, and Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund all invested in this little dragon from Hangzhou.
After the Spring Festival Gala, the valuation of the popular Unitree soared, and only a few super - capital players such as Alibaba, Tencent, Jinqiu Fund backed by ByteDance, China Mobile, and Geely Holding could afford to invest. At this time, only the big players are willing and able to accept the high valuation.
In the latest round, Beijing State - owned Assets Management made some more investments in Unitree. What does this mean? The Hangzhou government probably needs to have some risk awareness.
If you have paid attention to the World Robot Conference in 2024 and 2025, you may have found that in just such a short period of time, intelligent robots have evolved at a high speed.
Is there a bubble in the financing of China's embodied intelligence and robots? There must be. But looking back at the tracks where large - scale companies emerged in the past, there were investment bubbles at that time. Now the market sentiment is average, and I even miss the bubble a bit.
Next, let's take a look at the "intelligent driving" track.
Some people have talked to me and said that the investment in this track is over, right? Haha. Your perception is correct, and the data feedback from the capital is also correct.
This year, 4 companies in the intelligent driving track have made it onto the list of the top 20 in terms of financing.
The company that has received the most financing is the "new company" Qianlizhijia.
The predecessor of Qianli Technology was Lifan Automobile, a representative private enterprise in Chongqing. Lifan Automobile went bankrupt in 2020 due to poor management. Later, Geely participated in the reorganization, and Megvii Technology also took a stake. In February 2025, the company was renamed "Qianli Technology".
In March 2025, Qianlizhijia was officially established, jointly funded by Zhejiang Jirun under Geely Holding, Maichi Zhixing under Ant Group, Ningbo Lotus Robotics, and Zhijiang Zhongwang. The latest news is that now Geely Research Institute, ZEEKR Intelligence, and Maichi Zhixing are all going to be integrated into Qianlizhijia.
After its establishment, Qianlizhijia also received investments from many parties, including Chongqing High - tech Investment, Liangjiang Fund, and Geely Automobile. The total financing in two rounds in 2025 has reached 3 billion yuan.
This is a very classic combination - the local government, automobile companies, and AI companies working together. It seems to be a well - prepared all - rounder. Let's hope for good news.
The other three intelligent driving companies that have received a lot of financing are Neolix, Qingzhou Zhihang, and Jiushi Intelligence.
Neolix and Qingzhou Zhihang are both located in the Economic Development Zone of Beijing. They were established in 2018 and 2019 respectively. They have also gone through the same financing path of market - oriented VC, PE, strategic investment from automobile companies, and state - owned capital rounds. Now they are both unicorn companies with valuations exceeding 1 billion US dollars. They received a new round of financing of 600 million yuan and more than 1 billion yuan respectively this year.
Jiushi Intelligence is an L4 - level self - driving enterprise in Suzhou. It started its first - round financing 3 years after its establishment, which makes it a relatively cautious player. It has just reached the Series B stage, and the investors are mainly financial investors, and local state - owned capital has just started to get involved. Its financing rhythm is a bit slower than the other two.
The industrial investors of these unmanned driving enterprises are generally automobile companies and logistics enterprises, which are typical application scenarios.
Next, let's talk about another hot spot in the market - the large - model track. Only 2 companies have made it onto the list of the "top 20 AI companies with the most overall financing" this year. This track experienced a crazy upsurge last year and has hit the brakes this year. Do you still remember who the six little tigers of large models were last year?
Now the capital is mainly focusing on these two - Zhipu raised 3 billion yuan this year, and Minimax raised 1.95 billion yuan.
Zhipu's financing this year is very characteristic. Simply put, it is the "competition" among local government funds - competing for equity investment. It has received 4 rounds of financing since the beginning of the year, from the most important funds in Hangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai respectively, with the amount of funds ranging from 200 million to 1 billion yuan.
The Zhipu team from Tsinghua University is a favorite in the eyes of local governments.
Zhipu's financing this year probably extremely reflects the current eagerness of local governments for unicorns, high - tech enterprises, and the next - generation super - companies, and the specific operation of each place is reflected in "equity investment".
Relatively speaking, Minimax is a younger large - model team, which was born in Shanghai. Its previous investors were all US - dollar capital, such as Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Shunwei Capital, Matrix Partners, Yunqi Partners, and Oasis Capital. This investor background is like: if you are not a top - tier VC, you are not qualified to hold shares in Minimax.