Yin Qi's capital game is reaching a fever pitch: going on a crazy fundraising spree, aiming to rival Elon Musk, and making bold claims.
After Megvii Technology's IPO attempt failed, Yin Qi, an experienced AI veteran, not only continued his capital game but also became even more fanatical.
The StepFun he leads is close to completing a financing round of up to $2.5 billion (approximately 17 billion yuan), surpassing the previous $2 billion financing of Kimi and setting a new record for the largest financing of a large - model company in China.
Meanwhile, steps such as dismantling the red - chip structure, completing the shareholding reform, and increasing the registered capital are all pre - requisites for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, indicating a clear plan for entering the capital market. Once completed, it will become the third domestic large - model company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after Zhipu and MiniMax.
In January this year, on the same day Yin Qi announced his appointment as the chairman of StepFun, the company completed a Series B+ financing round of over 5 billion yuan, breaking the single - round financing record of domestic large - model companies in the past year.
Among its long and luxurious list of shareholders, Shanghai state - owned assets, Tencent, Matrix Partners, and other capital entities from various ownership systems and funding sources have made a large - scale appearance.
Meanwhile, Qianli Technology, where Yin Qi serves as the chairman and the second - largest shareholder, also has the support of major shareholder Geely and Chongqing state - owned assets. The company submitted its prospectus for the second time on April 23, continuing to promote its second listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is reported that it plans to raise $1 billion.
Since the beginning of this year, the frequent, rapid, and intense capital actions of the two companies under Yin Qi's leadership clearly show his eagerness to seize this epic AI bull market. Relevant capital has also timely offered astronomical checks. Even the stock prices of Zhipu and MiniMax, which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, have started another round of rapid growth, further driving up the valuations of large - model companies. Everything seems to be in perfect harmony.
However, the key issue is that compared with MiniMax, Kimi, DeepSeek, etc., StepFun's products are still second - tier players in the market. The crazy AI market and near - extreme capital operations are pushing Yin Qi and his backers into a fanatical situation.
01
Financing
After a five - year long - distance race of raising 14 billion yuan and incurring a loss of 15 billion yuan, Megvii Technology ultimately failed to go public.
Entrepreneurship in the AI 1.0 era was a "capital struggle." With the advent of the AGI era, the former glory of the "Four Little Dragons" has been completely shattered, and they have become martyrs left behind.
Megvii Technology originally planned to raise 6 billion yuan but ended up getting nothing; the current market value of CloudWalk Technology is only 1/20 of Zhipu's; Yitu Technology even saw its president leave helplessly, and its business lines completely collapsed.
Compared with other peers who are still struggling or have given up, Yin Qi, an almost 40 - year - old AI veteran, chose to fully shift to AI 2.0. On January 26, he announced on social media that he would officially serve as the chairman of StepFun.
On that day, this large - model company, which had been established for less than three years at that time, announced the completion of a Series B+ financing round of over 5 billion yuan. State - owned assets such as Shanghai State - owned Assets Investment, China Life Equity Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, and Xiamen C&G Group placed their bets, and old shareholders such as Tencent and Qiming Venture Partners continued to follow up. This financing immediately set a single - round financing record for large - model companies in the past 12 months.
Compared with Qianli Technology, Yin Qi's joining StepFun had a more immediate effect. Investment institutions have an indescribable and even incomprehensible absolute confidence in Yin Qi. In an external interview, Yin Qi said that improving the "foundation model" ability and completing the "AI + vehicle" business puzzle with Qianli Technology are his important tasks.
However, judging from the current progress, capitalization is the top - priority project in the minds of Yin Qi and his backers.
In April, the scale and speed of StepFun's financing increased significantly again.
According to National Business Daily, on May 8, StepFun completed a financing round of nearly $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, the company has completed the shareholding reform, increasing its registered capital from 23.94 million yuan to 56.26 million yuan, a 135% increase, and changing from a limited liability company to a joint - stock limited company. The work of dismantling the red - chip structure is also nearing completion. These are regarded as necessary steps before the Hong Kong IPO sprint.
It is reported that StepFun plans to submit its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange before June 30 this year and is expected to be listed as early as the end of the year, aiming to become the "third domestic large - model stock."
By examining its shareholder list, it can be found that StepFun has attracted many local state - owned assets and state - owned capital, precisely meeting the urgent needs of local industrial upgrading, especially in the Pearl River Delta region, including state - owned capital such as Shanghai state - owned assets, Pudong Venture Capital, Xiamen C&G Group, and Wuxi state - owned assets.
Currently, the capital echelon of domestic large - model companies has become increasingly clear. The "twin stars" Zhipu and MiniMax were the first to enter the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with their total market values exceeding HK$400 billion and HK$230 billion respectively, becoming the leading teams and valuation benchmarks for domestic large - model companies. StepFun and Kimi follow closely behind, and DeepSeek, in a special situation, has just started its capitalization process.
In May, the news of sky - high financing of large - model companies frequently made headlines.
One day before StepFun's financing, Kimi completed a new round of financing of approximately $2 billion, with its post - investment valuation exceeding $20 billion; DeepSeek's fundraising ability is even stronger. It is reported in the market that it is carrying out a first - round financing plan of 50 billion yuan (Liang Wenfeng may personally lead an investment of 20 billion yuan), and its post - investment valuation may reach as high as $45 billion.
The stark contrast between different eras of AI is truly sigh - inducing.
Megvii Technology's IPO journey started when it submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2019. After switching to the STAR Market, it got stuck in the registration stage and finally withdrew its application voluntarily in November 2024, wasting nearly five and a half years.
Now, what Megvii spent five and a half years on, StepFun completed in five months. As the company enters the "crazy financing" mode, the long - standing capital wishes of Yin Qi and his backers seem to be close to realization.
02
Benchmarking
"Globally, the pattern of basic large models is basically set, and it is difficult to give birth to new leading enterprises. The core way out for existing players is to find exclusive scenarios and then complete the commercial closed - loop implementation."
Yin Qi, who suffered a lot in his first entrepreneurial attempt, now frequently "sells" his "closed - loop theory" in public.
The current large - model competition has indeed entered a stage where each player shows its unique abilities. Zhipu focuses on the private deployment in the domestic government and enterprise market through the MaaS model; MiniMax breaks through with overseas and ToC strategies, and its ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) has exceeded $150 million; Kimi stands out with its long - text ability, and DeepSeek maintains strong customer stickiness with its low - cost and open - source model. StepFun inherits Yin Qi's "AI + terminal" route that combines software and hardware.
Among them, "AI + vehicle" and "AI + mobile phone" are the two most important areas.
On April 22, Zhao Ming, the former CEO of Honor, who had just joined Qianli Technology, appeared on the same stage as Yin Qi. They boldly stated that by the end of 2026, the installation volume of Qianli Technology's ASD assisted driving system will reach 1 - 1.3 million vehicles, and they aim to challenge the goal of 8 million intelligent driving vehicles in 2028.
On that day, Qianli Technology also launched a new car brand, PALLADE, which was revealed by Yin Qi to be a major domestic car manufacturer. This move is also seen as an attempt by Qianli Technology to get rid of the label of being a "Geely in - house supplier."
Yin Qi clearly pointed out that the Tesla Grok + FSD route will be the only way out for autonomous driving. In his view, the Tesla route is not a "better choice" but the "only choice."
While the industry is vigorously promoting "end - to - end" and VLA, Yin Qi has always emphasized the "model content"; when the industry turns to world models and physical AI, Yin Qi still talks about the "foundation model ability" and "model content."
Based on this judgment, Qianli Technology is closely bound to its major shareholder Geely and StepFun. The Qianli Super Intelligent Agent and Qianli Intelligent Driving ASD 4.0 were first launched on the Geely ZEEKR 8X, which is regarded by the industry as the first Chinese version of "Grok + FSD."
Therefore, "StepFun + Qianli Technology + Geely" can be compared to the Chinese version of "xAI + Tesla." Correspondingly, Yin Qi has become the "Chinese Elon Musk" - at least in the eyes of those fanatical capitalists.
Yin Qi is not shy about such a comparison. Since its establishment, Qianli Technology has made many bold claims, such as "taking one - third of the market." Recently, Zhao Ming also proposed that "we must be better than Tesla and beat it if it refuses to accept."
In the field of "AI + mobile phone," its ambition has been revealed in the new round of financing. The "big backers" behind the $2 billion are all industrial capital, including Huaqin Technology, Longcheer, OmniVision Group, and ZTE, which are all core enterprises in the consumer electronics industry.
Huaqin and Longcheer are both outstanding ODM enterprises in the world's electronics products, providing R & D, design, and manufacturing services for complete machines; OmniVision (Will Semiconductor) is one of the world's three major image sensor manufacturers and is an upstream manufacturer of key components for mobile phone/automobile cameras; ZTE Mobile has previously deeply co - created AI mobile phones with StepFun. The Nubia Z80 Ultra equipped with StepFun's GUI Agent was publicly unveiled at the MWC in 2026.
It is reported that StepFun plans to launch an AI mobile phone under its own brand in August. The establishment of Zhiyue Qianli last year, which recruited talents from Huawei, Xiaomi, and other manufacturers, and the current capital binding with mobile phone ODM enterprises all confirm this news.
It can be seen that Yin Qi and his backers have fully bet their capital ambitions on the "AI + terminal" field.
03
Reality
Just as Yin Qi is speeding on the "AI + terminal" path, his idol across the ocean seems to have chosen to "retreat."
On May 7, Elon Musk replied to a post about the cooperation between xAI and Anthropic, saying that "xAI will no longer exist as an independent company. It will become SpaceX AI, that is, the AI product from SpaceX."
As early as February, xAI was fully acquired by SpaceX, and all 11 co - founders left, which is very rare in the entire AI startup circle. Musk has repeatedly emphasized that xAI aims to be "the world's most powerful" and "AGI for everyone," and Grok did rank first in many lists.
However, Grok still has not completed the commercial payment closed - loop, and enterprises still prefer to go to Claude when paying.
Musk's decision is also a shock to Yin Qi. Although Yin Qi has sufficient lessons and experience, his current commercialization process also faces challenges.
The most prominent problem is the "identity" issue. Currently, both Qianli Technology and StepFun are deeply bound to Geely. Li Shufu strongly supports Yin Qi, and Geely opens up its entire vehicle, supply chain, and even the intelligent driving team to cooperate with Qianli Technology. For example, the core highlight of the Geely Galaxy M9 is that it is equipped with StepFun's end - to - end AI voice large model and a highly anthropomorphic in - vehicle AI Agent.
The sales volume of this car exceeded 10,000 for three consecutive months at the end of last year, but it has been continuously declining this year, with the monthly sales volume less than 4,000. Against the background of the subsidy reduction and the lower - end configuration of competitors, the strategy of "impressing consumers with intelligent experience" seems to be ineffective.
On the mobile phone side, StepFun claims to have reached cooperation with 60% of the top mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, Honor, and ZTE, with an installation volume of over 42 million and serving nearly 20 million person - times per day.
However, in this niche area, ByteDance was the first to take the lead. Its Doubao mobile phone (Nubia M153) co - created with ZTE was unveiled at the end of 2025, and it is rumored that the second - generation Doubao AI mobile phone is expected to be launched in the first half of 2026.
In the large - model competition, StepFun's call volume has long been in the second -