Raking in 10.4 billion in just one month, why are all the AI "money-sucking" unicorns in Haidian?

Before March ended, the capital enthusiasm in the AI track had been pushed to the peak by three enterprises in Haidian, Beijing.

First, on March 2nd, the embodied intelligence company Galaxy Universal announced the completion of a 2.5 billion yuan Series A+ financing. This is not only the highest single-round financing record in the field of embodied intelligence in China so far, but also sent a key signal - the national large fund made a rare move and made its first layout in the embodied intelligence track.

Immediately afterwards, Guanglun Intelligence, an enterprise in the field of physical AI simulation infrastructure, announced that it had recently completed two rounds of financing, Series A++ and Series A+++, with a cumulative amount of 1 billion yuan. So far, this "shovel seller in the AI field" has successfully joined the ranks of unicorns, becoming the world's first unicorn in the field of embodied data.

The latest news comes from Dark Side of the Moon. Recently, some media reported that the company is conducting a new round of financing of up to $1 billion (about 6.9 billion yuan) at a valuation of $18 billion. If the news is true, Dark Side of the Moon will break the domestic large model financing record it set at the beginning of this year and become the "unicorn" company with the fastest valuation exceeding $10 billion in China.

Three phenomenal projects and over 10.4 billion yuan in real money have directed the spotlight to the same coordinate - Haidian, Beijing.

This inevitably makes people wonder: Why is it Haidian? At a time when major cities across the country are vying for the high ground in AI and local governments are offering sky-high incentives, what kind of magic does this land hold that can attract such intensive capital bets and lead to frequent record-breaking in financing?

Starting in Haidian, Rooted in Haidian

By exploring the leaders of the above three star enterprises, it is not difficult to find that their growth trajectories and entrepreneurial experiences are deeply bound to the land of Haidian.

Let's start with Yang Zhilin, the founder of Dark Side of the Moon. He is a typical entrepreneur from Tsinghua University. He graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree and then went to Carnegie Mellon University to pursue a doctorate. He once engaged in research related to large models at Google Brain. In April 2023, he returned to Beijing and founded Dark Side of the Moon at No. 27, Zhichun Road, Haidian District.

It only took this company a little over two years to become a "unicorn" with a valuation of $10 billion, and its growth rate even exceeded that of Pinduoduo and ByteDance.

Wang He, the founder of Galaxy Universal, has an even deeper connection with Haidian. As a post-90s generation, he graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree and then obtained a doctorate from Stanford University in the United States. He is currently an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at the Center for Frontier Computing Research of Peking University. In May 2023, Wang He and industrial robot expert Yao Tengzhou jointly founded Galaxy Universal and completed the registration in Haidian. At the 2025 Haidian District Economic and Social High-quality Development Conference, he once summarized in one sentence: "I was born in Haidian, grew up in Haidian, worked in Haidian, and started my business in Haidian. I feel very honored."

Finally, Xie Chen, the founder of Guanglun Intelligence, is also a top student from Haidian. Born in 1987, he was admitted to the Department of Physics of Peking University in 2005. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, he went to Columbia University in the United States to pursue a doctorate in quantitative finance. After graduating with a doctorate, Xie Chen has successively worked in companies such as NVIDIA and Cruise. He is a leading figure in the industry who pioneered the integration of generative AI into simulation.

In 2019, Xie Chen returned to China and joined NIO, responsible for the construction of the autonomous driving simulation system. He left NIO in January 2023 and founded Guanglun Intelligence in Zhongguancun, Beijing, together with his technical partner Yang Haibo.

It can be said that the above three people are all representatives who were nurtured in Haidian and then returned to Haidian to start their businesses.

If you broaden your perspective, you will find that such a "Haidian phenomenon" is everywhere in the AI circle. For example, Zhipu AI, the "first stock of global large models", comes from the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory (KEG) of the Department of Computer Science of Tsinghua University; Wang Xiaochuan of Baichuan Intelligence is an alumnus of the Department of Computer Science of Tsinghua University in the class of 1996; Wuwen Xinqiong was initiated and founded by Wang Yu, the director of the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University... And star projects such as Shenyan Technology and Ruilai Intelligence all emerged from the laboratories of Tsinghua University and Peking University and continue to shine in Haidian.

So, why do these AI enterprises gather in Haidian?

As we all know, talent is the core production factor of the AI industry, and Haidian holds the "source of talent supply". Data shows that Beijing has gathered about 43% of the top AI talents in the country, with a total of about 12,300 people, and more than 80% of them are located in Haidian.

More importantly, its advantages lie not only in quantity but also in its unique talent structure. On the one hand, 37 universities and top scientific research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Microsoft Research Asia have built a complete source ecosystem from academic research to talent cultivation. On the other hand, technology giants such as Baidu and ByteDance and thousands of startups have actually provided a training ground for engineering implementation and a test field for innovative ideas.

This "learning - research - production" integrated ecosystem undoubtedly forms a strong talent attraction and constitutes the first moat for Haidian's AI industry. Different from other regions that rely on external talent introduction, Haidian's AI talents have the unique advantage of "native cultivation and in - situ transformation". This talent ecosystem with seamless connection between "academia and industry" makes Haidian the first choice for AI entrepreneurs and also makes capital firmly believe that where top talents gather, top AI enterprises will surely emerge.

The "Tropical Rainforest" of the AI Industry

It is true that talent is the starting point of all innovation, but to make a seed grow into a top - level unicorn in the industry, technological breakthrough alone is obviously not enough. Especially when capital is becoming more rational, a flashy demo can no longer impress investors, and the ability of commercialization has become the core bargaining chip for AI enterprises to raise funds.

The reason why Haidian can continuously produce "money - attracting" unicorns is that it not only has a talent reserve but also has built a mature industrial ecosystem and an efficient transformation mechanism, making every step of the technology from the laboratory to the market traceable.

First, from the perspective of industrial empowerment. As the region with the earliest layout and the most complete industrial chain in the domestic AI industry, Haidian has formed a full - chain ecosystem covering the "basic layer - technology layer - application layer": from large models, computing power chips, and computer vision to embodied intelligence, autonomous driving, and AI + industry applications, everything is available.

Especially on the scenario side that determines the commercialization process. Data shows that Haidian has more than 280,000 market entities, 265 listed companies, 49 unicorn enterprises, and nearly 10,000 national high - tech enterprises, and has formed one trillion - level, four thousand - level, and five hundred - level industrial clusters.

This complete ecological chain of "R & D + manufacturing + application" allows AI enterprises to find application scenarios right at their doorstep without having to look far afield.

Moreover, it also has a complete capital agglomeration ecosystem. On the one hand, data shows that there are more than 3,200 various financial institutions and investment institutions in Haidian District, including more than 780 private equity investment institutions, which together have built a complete financing system covering the seed stage to the maturity stage. On the other hand, Haidian has created an exclusive home court for venture capital in the area with the most concentrated scientific and technological innovation resources - the International Innovation Service Agglomeration Area of Zhongguancun Science City to jointly track the trend of cutting - edge scientific and technological innovation.

In addition, in order to promote the accelerated development of key industries, Haidian has established the Zhongguancun Science City Science and Technology Growth Fund. So far, four phases of this series of funds have been established, with a total scale of up to 28 billion yuan.

The agglomeration of resources is only the first step. The key lies in how to link them efficiently and coordinate them organically. Especially for AI hard - tech enterprises, the biggest pain point lies in the "gap" in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements: the cutting - edge technologies of universities and research institutions cannot be transferred out, the market demand cannot be met, and scientific research and industry are "two separate things".

To solve this problem, Haidian pioneered the "Five - Party Six - Force" mechanism to jointly promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Specifically, the "Five - Party" refers to the five main bodies of Zhongguancun Science City, universities and research institutions, investment funds, incubation carriers, and science and technology parks; the "Six - Force" refers to the organizational power of the Party committee and government, the innovation power of universities and research institutions, the value power of investment funds, the cultivation power of incubation carriers, the carrying power of science and technology parks, and the market power of all parties' cooperation. The six forces work together to build a full - chain transformation system that can "transfer out, receive, implement, and use well".

To some extent, this direct - access mechanism of "laboratory to unicorn" also gives Haidian's AI enterprises a very high commercial floor from the first day of their establishment.

From talent to industry, then to capital, and finally to break through the "last mile" of achievement transformation - Haidian uses a complete innovation ecosystem to answer why AI "money - attracting" unicorns are all here: because on this land, technology is not only created but also efficiently transformed into value.

Supporting Innovation with Real Money

Investing in scientific and technological innovation and the transformation of achievements ultimately boils down to investing in talent. As one of the regions with the most concentrated intellectual resources in the country and even the world, Haidian itself is a fertile ground for the cultivation and discovery of innovative projects.

However, the process from the laboratory to the market often features a long time cycle, high risks, and no clear short - term benefits. At this time, "patient capital" that matches it is needed to escort it.

This year, Haidian newly established a 2 - billion - yuan achievement transformation fund. From the very beginning of its establishment, this fund has a clear positioning: focusing on original leading and disruptive technology projects, adhering to "investing early and in small - scale projects", and providing long - term and stable financial support for the transformation projects of universities and research institutions and the entrepreneurial projects of innovative talents.

There is no doubt that the establishment of the achievement transformation fund will push Haidian's scientific and technological innovation ecosystem to a new height, which means that here, through the power of capital, it will further provide solid support for the transformation of achievements and innovation and entrepreneurship of high - end talents.

When the laboratories of Peking University and Tsinghua University continuously output original technologies, when the "Five - Party Six - Force" mechanism breaks through the key bottlenecks in the transformation of achievements, and when the government is willing to use real money to support early - stage projects... So we can conclude that the influx of capital is not accidental but an inevitable result.

The magic of Haidian is both complex and simple: it turns hard - tech entrepreneurship from a high - risk bet into a more certain thing. Here, geniuses are not wasted, technology can find application scenarios, and capital dares to place bets. And this is exactly the confidence and example that China needs to compete for global discourse power in the era of artificial intelligence.

This article is from the WeChat public account "China Venture Capital", author: Wang Manhua, published by 36Kr with authorization.