ZenGen Labs: The China Round

The China Round — August 10, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:00:18 GMT

The China Round is a weekly report tracking venture and strategic investment activity across China’s core technology sectors: AI, robotics, semiconductors, new energy and materials, aerospace and defense, and frontier tech.

Where capital flows is where talent concentrates, where production capacity gets built, and where the next commercial technologies will come from.

The China Round is free, published weekly, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

About the author: Dermot McGrath is Irish, based in Shanghai, a decade in China’s tech and investment ecosystem, fluent Mandarin. Co-founded a VC fund scaled to nine-figure AUM. Now running ZenGen Labs, a cross-border strategy studio covering AI, robotics, and deep tech.

222 filings this week. The single biggest check went to a company that’s already public, and it went into a subsidiary. A robotics professor raised $100 million twice in 33 days. A June government directive may be tying this week’s AI, chip, and robotics capital into one policy-driven stack. And two city governments wrote checks into the same startup’s round, nine weeks after Beijing told them to stop competing. Here’s where the money went.

Where the Money Went

222 deals | 24 deals disclosed a combined $2.04B (~¥14.7B)

AI led the week on deal count (53 of 222 filings), but most of that volume was small and undisclosed. Only 24 of 222 deals disclosed a figure at all. Semiconductors, with only 39 deals, pulled in nearly half the week’s disclosed capital, $973M of the $2.04B total. Almost all of that came from one deal: ESWIN Materials’ ¥6.5 billion (~$903M) capital increase into its Wuhan wafer subsidiary. Robotics saw two standouts: DISCOVER Robotics raised roughly $100 million twice in 33 days, and Konvery brought three robot manufacturers onto its cap table as strategic investors. In AI, Gradence reported the top coding benchmark score, though we couldn’t find the company on the benchmark sites it references. Five quantum computing deals landed this week, all on the Radar. Aerospace stayed state-anchored, with i-Space closing another ¥1 billion (~$139M) tranche of its E round on the way to a STAR Market listing (the Shanghai exchange’s board for high-growth tech companies).

ESWIN Materials’ ~$903M round is excluded from the scatter to keep the other deals visible. It is included in the sector bar charts above.

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Spotlight

Gradence (梯度回音)

Angel Round, Undisclosed Amount, Valuation Undisclosed

A multi-agent coding harness running on top of OpenAI’s model claims the top benchmark scores in software engineering.

The China Round — August 3, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:55:20 GMT

The China Round is free, published weekly, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

About the author: Dermot McGrath is Irish, based in Shanghai, a decade in China’s tech and investment ecosystem, fluent Mandarin. Co-founded a VC fund scaled to nine-figure USD AUM. Now running ZenGen Labs, a cross-border strategy studio covering AI, robotics, and deep tech.

The structural stories this week sit further down the cap table. Three competing humanoid robot makers put money into the same AI-model supplier, a cooking-robot company reported turning profitable, and a Chinese cockpit chip appeared inside a Volkswagen Group vehicle for the first time. Moonshot’s $3.5 billion F round dominates the numbers.

Where the Money Went

152 deals | $4.18B disclosed | $683M ex-Moonshot

Three fusion companies raised in one week, with CATL leading its first fusion bet into a 7-month-old startup. Robotics capital went beneath the robot. Three rival humanoid makers backed the same AI-model supplier (Delta Intelligence, nearly ¥500M at a ¥3B valuation) while cooking robots and dexterous hands split the remaining $97M in disclosed robotics capital. Semiconductors stayed state-heavy at later stages, anchored by SiEngine’s $100M for the cockpit chip inside a Volkswagen and Angstrom Excellence’s ¥1B for wafer metrology equipment. AI was almost entirely Moonshot’s $3.5B F round; strip it out and the week split between agent infrastructure and biological AI. Corporate strategics led or co-led an unusually large share of headline deals, with CATL in fusion, Alibaba Cloud in AI ops (while running a competing internal product), China Merchants Capital in cooking robots, and Sungrow and Tianqi Lithium putting a combined ¥805M (~$112M) into battery maker Sunwoda EVB.

Moonshot’s $3.5B round excluded from scatter to keep other deals visible. It is included in the sector bar charts above.

Spotlight

Delta Intelligence (德塔智能)

Angel Round (6th round), Nearly ¥500M (~$69M), ¥3B (~$417M) valuation

Humanoid robot foundation-model platform, six rounds in six months.

The China Round — July 24, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:42:49 GMT

It is free, published weekly, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

A seven-month-old company raised $80M at angel stage, two rival startups in Shanghai raised in the same week for competing visions of AI memory, and AI-generated 3D content produced the category’s largest round to date. Elsewhere, a medical device maker and a landscaping contractor turned up among the investors in an AI chip company that has yet to sell anything. Several deals were timed to coincide with WAIC, where Xi Jinping announced the creation of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The other kind of memory had its own week. As this issue goes out, CXMT (长鑫科技), China’s largest DRAM maker, saw its shares begin trading in Shanghai at ¥49.5 against an ¥8.66 issue price, a 471% jump that briefly made it the most valuable company on the A-share market at over ¥3.3 trillion (~$458B).

The High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance at WAIC in Shanghai, 17 July, where Xi Jinping announced the creation of WAICO. Staged as a diplomatic summit rather than a tech conference. Source: New Development Bank

Where the Money Went

191 deals this week across AI, robotics, semiconductors, energy, and frontier tech. 22 deals with published exact amounts disclosed a combined $1,469M (~¥10.6B), a strong but not exceptional week by 2026 standards. AI dominated both the deal count and the disclosed capital, and advanced manufacturing spread across the widest range of sub-sectors.

🧠 AI (50 deals)

A cluster of large rounds arrived within days of each other, several timed to coincide with WAIC in Shanghai. Meshy raised ~$400M (~¥2.9B) for AI-generated 3D content, the largest known round in that category globally. FlovaAI, a 7-month-old company founded by the developer of CapCut, raised $80M (~¥576M) at angel stage. Two “AI memory” startups, Red Bear AI and MemTensor, both raised in Shanghai in the same week with competing architectures for persistent AI memory, the ability for language models to remember prior conversations and accumulated knowledge. HiDream.ai (智象未来) pulled in ¥1.5B (~$208M) with China’s Social Security Fund co-leading, a marker of how Beijing categorizes generative AI as strategic infrastructure. Calculet (原粒半导体) raised over ¥700M (~$97M) for AI chips built to run agents on local hardware. Design Order (设序科技) raised its B round for industrial AI software that embeds inside Siemens NX, with plans to enter the European market this year.

🤖 Robotics (33 deals)

The highest-valued robotics round went to Psibot (灵初智能), which raised ~$100M (~¥720M) at a $1.48B valuation with Chery Auto leading and Lens Technology co-investing. A car manufacturer and an Apple/Tesla components supplier are writing the checks for an embodied AI company (AI systems built to control physical robots rather than run as software alone), not traditional VCs. Elsewhere, Xynova (曦诺未来) raised ¥500M (~$69M) for dexterous robot hands, extending a pattern where each of its rounds has been led by a different platform company (CATL, JD, Li Auto, and now Meituan). Yimu Tech (一目科技) hit ¥10B (~$1.39B) valuation on its E round for tactile sensors. Futuring Robot (未来不远机器人) raised ~¥1B (~$139M) at Pre-A for home service robots.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (17 deals)

Mostly undisclosed amounts, with state and corporate capital dominating the cap tables. Xuandian (玄电新材) raised near ¥100M (~$14M) for conductive carbon black, a specialty chemical added to lithium-ion battery electrodes to improve conductivity. TCL’s venture arm led the A round for Tianjiao Xinneng (天交新能), a new energy company. China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), a state-owned nuclear operator, opened its Yunnan renewable energy subsidiary to outside capital.

🔬 Semiconductors (27 deals)

Mostly undisclosed amounts and mostly state-adjacent capital. Tongyong Semiconductor (通用半导体) disclosed its B round at several hundred million RMB (~$40M+). The rest were smaller or undisclosed rounds across analog chips, micro-sensors, and lithography components. Zhongxin Juyuan (中芯聚源), a fund linked to SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, appeared in two deals.

💡 Frontier Tech (9 deals)

LiangYi (两仪万象) raised its A+ at ¥2B (~$278M) valuation after setting a world record of 11,000 trapped atoms for neutral-atom quantum computing. Trapped atoms serve as quantum bits (the quantum equivalent of a transistor), so more of them, controlled precisely, means more computing power; LiangYi’s 11,000 nearly doubles the previous record of 6,100, held by Caltech. Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital has invested in every one of LiangYi’s rounds. Jingjie Juneng (竞界聚能) raised a hundreds-of-millions-of-RMB (~$40M+) angel round at ¥1.5B (~$208M) valuation for a fusion reactor that uses an unconventional approach to confining the superheated plasma that powers the reaction. Jingjie Juneng’s round drew an unusually broad 9-investor syndicate led by Loongson VC, the venture arm of China’s flagship domestic CPU company.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Xingchen Daohe (星辰道合) raised a near-¥100M (~$14M) angel round for satellite communications equipment. The remaining seven deals were smaller or undisclosed.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (47 deals)

The largest disclosed round went to Lanhe Tech (蓝河科技), which raised a B+ of several hundred million RMB (~$40M+) for UV-LED equipment used to cure coatings and etch circuits in electronics manufacturing. The round was led by the China Internet Investment Fund, a fund under China’s State Council (the country’s top government body). IBDTEC (博顿光电) raised a B+ for ion beam equipment used in manufacturing superconducting tape, a material that carries electricity with zero resistance and is critical for advanced magnets in everything from MRI machines to fusion reactors. The company claims near-100% domestic market share in that niche.

Spotlight

Meshy

B Round, ~$400M (~¥2.9B), ~$1.5B valuation (~¥10B+)

AI 3D content generation platform.

The China Round — July 17, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:07:26 GMT

The China Round is free, published weekly, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

This is quite a few days late. I appreciate your patience. And fret not, there will be two editions this week. I was busy with WAIC and, more importantly, getting married.

The World AI Conference opened in Shanghai this week with Xi Jinping delivering the keynote, calling for open-source AI cooperation and pledging 5,000 AI training places for developing countries over the next five years. Ten days earlier, at a pre-WAIC press conference, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave its most concrete production target yet for humanoid robots: 100,000 units in 2026, more than four times the roughly 24,000 deployed worldwide at the end of 2025.

Where the Money Went

This week, 159 deals landed across seven sectors, and 25 of them disclosed a combined $1.02 billion (~¥7.3 billion). Most deals came without published figures, so the actual capital deployed was considerably higher. AI led in deal count with 40 transactions, followed by semiconductors (28), robotics (25), and other advanced manufacturing (24). Industrial customers, not venture funds, led several of the largest rounds this week, buying equity directly in the suppliers they need.

🧠 AI (40 deals)

The two largest disclosed AI rounds went to on-device models, not cloud-scale foundation models: ModelBest (面壁智能) accumulated over ¥5 billion (~$694 million) across H1 2026 for models that run on phones and cars, and AIsphere (爱诗科技) closed its C+ at ¥2.98 billion (~$414 million) with Alibaba leading. TASHAN (他山科技) closed a B round with industrial customers as investors. At the early stage, seed and angel deals skewed toward embodied intelligence, with multiple rounds backing “world models” (AI systems that simulate physical cause-and-effect so a robot can predict what happens before it acts) and vision-language-action systems (models that turn a spoken instruction directly into physical movement).

⚡ New Energy & Materials (20 deals)

Power, batteries, and the physical infrastructure beneath the AI boom. Marvel-Tech (慕帆动力) closed a Sequoia-led C round for on-site AI datacenter power generation. ENN Fusion (新奥聚变) opened its first external round at ¥10.6 billion after more than a decade of internal R&D. Ganfeng Battery (赣锋锂电) raised twice in three weeks for solid-state batteries. Linkcharging (领充新能源) raised a strategic C round with multiple automakers. Generating, storing, and delivering power is becoming its own investment category, driven by AI compute demand.

🔬 Semiconductors (28 deals)

State-capital coalitions and strategic investors dominated. Liuyuewei (六岳微) raised ¥500 million in a Series A for domestically developed digital signal processors (the chips that convert real-world signals like sound and radar into digital data), backed by a Guangdong government coalition. Cygnusemi (星思半导体) completed its third round of 2026 for satellite baseband chips (the component in a phone or terminal that decodes wireless signals), reaching ¥12 billion. Shuoguang Precision (烁光精密) attracted two listed-company strategic stakes within weeks for co-packaged optics components, the light-based interconnects replacing copper inside AI data centers. Multiple deals showed listed companies taking direct equity in their own suppliers rather than routing through venture funds.

🤖 Robotics (25 deals)

Capital came from unusual directions. LimX Dynamics (逐际动力) raised $200 million in a Pre-IPO, over 70% from overseas investors. CATL took RoboParty’s (萝博派对) entire Pre-A alone. Shanghai Electric led DexRobot’s (灵巧智能) Series A and co-founded two manufacturing joint ventures with the company. Seven of 25 deals were at the angel stage, suggesting a new wave of company formation. Industrial companies are buying equity in their future robot suppliers, locking in components before the production ramp.

💡 Frontier Tech (11 deals)

The largest round came from one of the oldest companies: Wentian Quantum (问天量子) raised ¥600 million in a Series B after 17 years in quantum communication. Bama (八匹马) raised over ¥100 million for superconducting magnets (magnets cooled to near absolute zero to generate extremely strong magnetic fields) and cryogenics serving quantum computing, fusion, and semiconductor fabrication. Shuyanjuchuang (束研聚创) raised ¥100 million at the angel stage for neutral beam injection systems (equipment that shoots high-energy particles into a fusion reactor’s plasma to heat it enough to sustain a reaction). Two of three deals are component suppliers to other frontier sectors, a sign that the infrastructure layer beneath quantum and fusion is now investable on its own.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (11 deals)

LegendSpace (临界航天), a six-month-old startup, raised ¥200 million (~$28 million) at the angel stage for AI-accelerated liquid rocket engine development. Galactic Energy (星河动力), China’s most-launched pre-IPO commercial rocket company with 21 flights and 89 satellites delivered to orbit, took an investment from GAC Capital, Guangzhou Automobile Group’s corporate venture arm. GAC Group launched its own flying car brand earlier this year and has backed autonomous driving companies including Momenta and Pony.ai, a portfolio that puts rocket launches closer to the core business than it first appears.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (24 deals)

Hardware teams leaving big companies to build consumer products for export. Deeplore (蓝洞探索), three former DJI engineers, raised a seed for an AI diving mask. LightMake (轻量智造), a former AnkerMake lead, raised an angel for 3D printers targeting North America and Europe. Whale (帷幄) raised $40 million from Hyundai and Japanese bank corporate venture arms, bringing its total Series C to over $100 million, more than half its revenue now international. Chinese hardware expertise built at scale inside large companies is spinning out and shipping directly to Western customers.

Spotlight

Deeplore (蓝洞探索)

Seed, Tens of millions of RMB (several million USD), Val. ¥150M (~$21M)

AI diving mask with a heads-up display and real-time marine species recognition.

The China Round — July 10, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:18:43 GMT

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Happy Friday. China’s first unified outbound investment regulation took effect on July 1, restricting how technology can leave the country. The same week, 141 deals closed across seven sectors. More on those rules below.

Where the Money Went

141 deals across seven sectors. 24 disclosed exact amounts, totaling $2.2 billion (~¥15.6B), with most of the capital concentrated in a satellite mega-round and several hundred-million-dollar AI raises.

🧠 AI (26 deals)

Shengshu Technology (生数科技) closed a $500 million (~¥3.6B) B+ round for Vidu, its AI video platform. Tripo AI raised $150 million (~¥1.08B) in an A+ round for AI-generated 3D assets, its third raise in four months. DeepCtrls (深度智控) pulled in hundreds of millions of RMB with Jinko Solar as a strategic investor (covered below). MindRank (德睿智药) raised $52 million (~¥374M) for AI drug discovery, with its lead candidate now in Phase III (covered below). Below the growth rounds, a cluster of Pudong-backed seed and angel deals continued Shanghai’s pattern of systematic early-stage deployment.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (23 deals)

Starchens (星辰新能) led the sector with a ¥500 million (~$69M) B round backed by CITIC Securities Capital, ICBC Capital, and East Money, a lineup of securities and bank-affiliated investors more typical of pre-IPO rounds. The rest split between battery materials, hydrogen, energy storage, and specialty chemicals, with state-linked capital from Hefei, Nanjing, and Jiangsu backing early- and growth-stage rounds.

🔬 Semiconductors (22 deals)

Twenty-two deals, nearly all with undisclosed amounts. Sicreat (新美光) closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) C+ round for CMP (chemical-mechanical planarization) polishing pads, a key semiconductor consumable (more below). EDA (chip design software), chiplet packaging, and optoelectronic chips each drew a handful of deals. Several semiconductor materials companies are raising in Suzhou, continuing that city’s emergence as a vertically integrated chip-materials cluster.

🤖 Robotics (18 deals)

RobotEra (星动纪元) closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) B round led by Chengtong, a fund under SASAC (China’s state-asset regulator), part of ¥2.5 billion (~$347M) raised across three rounds in roughly 60 days. Morphi (墨奇智能) pulled in hundreds of millions of RMB in what is reportedly one of the largest disclosed angel rounds in China’s embodied-AI sector (AI designed to operate physical hardware like robots), with Alibaba and Tencent co-anchoring for a six-month-old company. Motorevo (泉智博) completed its seventh round in 18 months for humanoid robot joint modules.

💡 Frontier Tech (8 deals)

Two brain-computer interface companies raised in the same week: Gestala (格式塔科技), a non-invasive ultrasound BCI startup, closed a ¥442 million (~$61M) angel+ round (covered below), while NeuroXess (脑虎科技) raised an A+ round as it began Class III clinical trials at Huashan Hospital. QBoson (玻色量子) closed a Pre-IPO round and filed for IPO coaching (the formal process of engaging an underwriter to prepare a company for listing) three days later. SynMetabio (贻如生物), a synthetic biology company making cultivated leather for luxury brands, closed its A round with Ordos Group co-leading (covered below).

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (16 deals)

Changguang Satellite (长光卫星) dominated with a ¥5 billion (~$694M) strategic round, the largest single raise in the sector this week. The company operates 161 satellites, the world’s largest sub-meter-resolution commercial remote-sensing constellation. Space Pioneer (天兵科技) added ¥200 million (~$28M) in strategic capital. Kaipu Dynamics (开普动能), an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) electric propulsion startup founded by a former Rolls-Royce division director, raised an angel round (covered below). Most of the remaining deals were seed and angel rounds for early-stage space-tech and low-altitude economy startups, including Ruiqi Deep Space (瑞启深空), a four-month-old constellation startup that raised ¥220 million (~$31M) at a ¥1.1 billion (~$153M) valuation from Suzhou state funds.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (28 deals)

Snapmaker (快造科技) raised ¥1 billion (~$139M) in a C round for consumer 3D printing (covered below). CLAWLAB (浪爪智能) raised hundreds of millions of RMB with miHoYo leading (covered below). Thinkhead (上海星合), a 17-year-old bootstrapped machine-tool manufacturer, took its first outside capital. Coffee robot maker InSpace/XBOT (影智科技) closed a B round. The rest spanned optics, precision measurement, industrial equipment, and microfluidics (tiny channels etched into chips to manipulate fluids for medical diagnostics and lab work).

Spotlight

Gestala (格式塔科技)

Angel+, ¥442M (~$61M), Valued at ¥4.2B (~$583M)

Non-invasive ultrasound brain-computer interface.

The China Round — July 3, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 17:48:23 GMT

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Happy Friday everyone. Let’s get straight into it.

Where the Money Went

163 deals across seven sectors. 37 disclosed exact amounts, totaling $5.9 billion (~¥42.4B). Strip out Kling AI’s $3 billion debut raise and the remaining 36 deals still disclosed $2.9 billion (~¥20.8B). Robotics led on volume (37 deals).

🧠 AI (35 deals)

Kling AI’s $3 billion first external raise dominated the sector and the week (covered below). Several ¥1 billion+ growth rounds closed, including DexForce Technology and Tripo AI (both in Radar below), and Xellar Biosystems (耀速科技), whose organ-on-chip platform screens drug candidates on chip-based organ models (covered below). At the other end, a cluster of seed and angel rounds backed brand-new entrants. Klaren Intelligence (厘清智能), a startup building world models, raised several hundred million RMB with HongShan (红杉), Hillhouse, and Shunwei all on the cap table for a seed round. Founded in April 2026. Eighteen AI companies raised at valuations of ¥100 million (~$14M) or less.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (17 deals)

Mostly sub-¥100 million (~$14M) rounds across battery materials, energy storage, and specialty chemicals. Yingong Technology (隐功科技) raised ¥100 million (~$14M) in a Pre-A for nanocomposite materials, and Anputai (安普态) closed a near-¥100 million A round in advanced insulation, both backed by state-linked funds.

🔬 Semiconductors (31 deals)

31 deals, led by Gowin Semiconductor’s Pre-IPO (covered below). EDA, chiplet packaging, and MEMS sensors each drew 1 to 3 deals, alongside camera sensor chips and power management ICs. Qili Semiconductor (齐力半导体) raised ¥100 million (~$14M) for chiplet packaging at Zhangjiang, and Jiyi Semiconductor (集溢半导体) raised ¥130 million (~$18M) for analog chip design. State capital appeared in investor lists across the sector, with Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang government funds all active.

🤖 Robotics (37 deals)

The most active sector by deal count, with three mega-deals (AI2 Robotics, X Square Robot, and Boundless Motion, all covered in Radar below). Below those, the deals split between platform-backed humanoid companies and smaller startups building components, sensors, or manipulation software. Fifteen deals closed at valuations of ¥100 million (~$14M) or less.

💡 Frontier Tech (11 deals)

Eleven deals. SpinQ (量旋科技) raised ¥1 billion (~$139M) in a D-round for quantum computing (more in Radar below). Xinghe Fusion’s (星核聚变) ¥833 million (~$116M) debut was the largest first-round raise in Chinese private fusion, backed by 25 investors including SAIC Motor. Two other fusion companies also raised this week, Andong Jubian (安东聚变) and Chaoci Xinneng (超磁新能), making it a three-fusion-deal week. SynSense (时识科技) closed several hundred million RMB for neuromorphic chips, event-driven processors that react only to changes in a scene rather than analyzing every frame, cutting power consumption for always-on cameras and sensors.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Eight deals, dominated by Hongqing Technology’s ¥1.3 billion (~$181M) Pre-B for its satellite constellation (covered below). Puxing Aerospace (谱星航天) raised several hundred million RMB across combined rounds for optical remote-sensing payloads, with plans for a 1,024-satellite constellation.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (24 deals)

24 deals spanning optoelectronics, industrial equipment, and consumer hardware. Sinoscience Fullcryo’s ¥1 billion (~$139M) Pre-IPO for cryogenic equipment (covered below) was the sector’s largest. CAYE raised ~¥400 million (~$56M) in a B-round for coffee machines (covered below). At the other end, AIVELA raised several million dollars for its smart ring.

Spotlight

Kling AI (可灵AI)

First External Round, $3B (~¥21.6B), Valued at ~$18B (~¥129.6B)

Kuaishou’s video generation platform raised its first outside capital, with $500M in annualized revenue and a Hong Kong IPO planned within 12 months.

The China Round — June 26, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:18:57 GMT

Where capital flows is where talent concentrates, where production capacity gets built, and where the next commercial technologies will come from.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

This week, a robotics company founded in 2015 with over ¥1 billion (~$139M) in annual revenue filed for its Hong Kong IPO at a ¥19.5 billion (~$2.7B) valuation. The same week, a robotics company founded 90 days ago with zero product raised at a ¥9 billion (~$1.25B) valuation. Both are rational bets. 127 deals spanned every sector, early-stage rounds continued to swell to growth-stage sizes, and the most interesting capital flows crossed sector boundaries.

Where the Money Went

127 deals this week, 49 of which disclosed amounts totaling approximately $1.75 billion (~¥12.6B). Strip out COOWA’s $600 million (~¥4.3B) IPO round and Tongwei Solar’s ¥5.06 billion (~$703M) restructuring, and 47 deals disclosed a combined ~$442 million. Most Chinese deals don’t disclose amounts, so the actual total is higher.

Stage distribution: 42 angel, seed, and pre-A rounds, 49 at Series A/A+, 15 at Series B or later, and 21 strategic investments. The early-stage dominance reflects a market where the embodied AI and physical AI boom is still generating new companies faster than it is graduating existing ones.

🧠 AI (25 deals)

The largest AI cluster spans physical AI infrastructure, video generation, and 3D content. Lightwheel AI (光轮智能) raised ¥1 billion (~$139M) for robot simulation data from a syndicate that includes three listed gaming companies. Sand AI raised over $100 million for video generation that competes with OpenAI’s Sora. Deemos (影眸科技) raised hundreds of millions of RMB for 3D generative AI with clients including Unity, Figma, and Canva. Jiangxing AI (江行智能) closed its third fundraise of 2026, backed by CATL-affiliated capital, Jinkosolar, and Yanzhou Energy as customer-investors.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (16 deals)

The headline is Tongwei Solar’s ¥5.06 billion (~$703M) restructuring, which dwarfs everything else. Beyond that, the energy transition stories are more interesting than the numbers suggest. HYDOtech (海德氢能) attracted a repeat investment from Saudi Aramco’s venture arm alongside Conch Group’s private equity arm, one of China’s largest cement producers. HYLICreate (合源锂创) landed a Xiaomi fund-led round for solid-state batteries with a live factory. Solide (索理德) raised for silicon-carbon anode materials at volume production scale.

🔬 Semiconductors (26 deals)

The second-largest sector by deal count spans optical interconnect chips, AI inference silicon, and specialized sensors. Aluksen Technology (傲科光电子) closed a B++ for high-speed optical chips that connect GPUs inside AI data centers. AIPhotonix (慧芯激光) raised to build its own manufacturing line for gallium arsenide and indium phosphide optical chips, targeting the same AI data center interconnect market. Transtreams (凌川科技) closed an A+ for a video compression chip that outperforms NVIDIA on compression efficiency benchmarks. Juxin Semiconductor (聚芯半导体) filed for a Hong Kong IPO as the world’s fourth-largest optical sensor company by revenue.

🤖 Robotics (20 deals)

COOWA (酷哇科技) is raising $600 million (~¥4.3B) ahead of a Hong Kong IPO at a ¥19.5 billion (~$2.7B) valuation, with SoftBank China Venture Capital backing. At the other extreme, Kunlun Xing (昆仑行机器人) raised an undisclosed amount at a ¥9 billion (~$1.25B) valuation 90 days after founding, with zero product. AGILINK (临界点) hit unicorn status at ¥10 billion in its B round, five months after founding, though unlike most instant unicorns it actually has revenue and 8,000+ dexterous robot hands shipped.

💡 Frontier Tech (4 deals)

The smallest sector by count but one deal carries outsized signal: Juhe Jubian (聚合聚变), a fusion energy startup in Hefei, raised an angel round co-led by Hillhouse Ventures and Sequoia China, the third fusion deal in three consecutive weeks across three distinct fusion approaches.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Argo Space Technology (吉天星舟) raised a B round as a profitable space-tech component supplier with 55 payloads delivered and 30 in orbit at a 100% success rate. Jitai Aviation (吉太航空) raised for a modular electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, an air taxi that takes off like a helicopter but runs on electric motors, targeting China’s government-designated “low-altitude economy” covering commercial airspace below 1,000 meters.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (28 deals)

The largest sector by deal count spans industrial automation, optoelectronics, and specialized manufacturing. Highlights include Fubusi (辅布司), an AI textile cutting company, and Botler Robotics (博特勒), building high-temperature superconducting magnets for fusion reactors.

Spotlight

COOWA (酷哇科技)

Latest round, $600M (~¥4.3B), ¥19.5B (~$2.7B) valuation

Autonomous urban robots that actually make money.

The China Round — June 19, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:30:40 GMT

Where capital flows is where talent concentrates, where production capacity gets built, and where the next commercial technologies will come from.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

This past week, DeepSeek raised over $7 billion (~¥51B) in its first-ever external funding round, the largest single financing event in Chinese AI history. The rest of the data is just as revealing: 93 deals in total, a wave of new company formations in physical AI, and at least six companies raising in the same week to build “world models,” AI systems that predict physical cause and effect so robots can plan actions before executing them.

Where the Money Went

Ninety-three deals landed between June 12 and 18. Nineteen disclosed amounts, combining for $8.7 billion (~¥62.6B) in total disclosed capital. DeepSeek alone accounts for 82% of that figure. Strip it out and 18 deals still disclosed a combined $1.6 billion (~¥11.5B), a strong week by any measure.

Roughly 43% of deals were angel or seed rounds, well above the typical weekly mix. This skew reflects a physical AI company-formation wave, with new teams spinning out of established labs and raising within weeks of incorporation.

🧠 AI (24 deals)

AI dominated both deal count and capital. DeepSeek’s ¥51 billion (~$7B+) A round accounted for the vast majority of that capital, but the sector had depth beyond it: LiblibAI raised $300 million (~¥2.2B) for its AI creative platform, SiliconFlow closed a ¥2 billion (~$278M) B round for inference infrastructure, and 卜拉格科技 raised ~$220 million (~¥1.6B) in its first institutional round with no shipped product. A cluster of companies raised to build “world models” for robotics. Physis, Manifold AI, and Synapx all closed world model rounds in the same window. More on this pattern in The Bigger Picture.

🤖 Robotics (13 deals)

Thirteen robotics deals disclosed $278 million (~¥2B). SEAHI Robotics pulled in ¥1 billion (~$139M) for its marine robots, while GigaAI closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) B2 round for its humanoid platform. ACE Robotics, which builds AI software brains for robots, raised nearly $100 million (~¥720M) at angel stage with a ¥2.6 billion (~$361M) valuation. NOITOM Robotics, a leading player in the global professional motion capture market, raised several hundred million RMB (~$30-130M) for its pivot into robot training data. At the smaller end, a half-dozen angel-stage robotics companies each raised single-digit millions.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Eight deals, $264 million (~¥1.9B) disclosed. Emposat (航天驭星) led with a ¥1.4 billion (~$195M) D+ round for satellite ground operations ahead of an IPO filing. ZEROG (零重力飞机工业), which makes both conventional electric fixed-wing aircraft (already shipping, over 1,000 letters of intent) and electric aircraft designed for vertical takeoff and landing (in development), closed a ¥500 million (~$70M) B round led by three Hefei government funds. Juneng Tianqing (聚能天擎) raised several hundred million RMB (~$30-130M) for methane rocket engines at angel stage.

💡 Frontier Tech (6 deals)

Six deals, $125 million (~¥900M) disclosed. Taiyi Quantum (太一量生) raised ¥300 million (~$42M) at Pre-A for its neutral-atom quantum computer, which uses ytterbium atoms suspended in a laser trap rather than the superconducting qubits favored by IBM and Google. The approach runs at room temperature and makes fewer calculation errors, the main bottleneck in current quantum systems. Xeonova (星能玄光) closed a ¥500 million (~$70M) A round for commercial nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion, the reaction that powers stars, would produce nearly unlimited clean energy if it can be sustained cheaply. Most approaches require enormous reactor chambers costing billions; Xeonova uses a compact alternative reactor design that reaches initial plasma ignition at far lower cost.

🔬 Semiconductors (6 deals)

Six semiconductor deals, mostly with undisclosed amounts. The most notable chip deal of the week was NanoCore Chip (微纳核芯), which raised ¥1 billion (~$139M) in a B+ round for its RISC-V processor platform. RISC-V is an open-source chip architecture, the open alternative to ARM’s proprietary designs, important because it avoids licensing dependencies on Western IP and gives Chinese manufacturers a path around US export controls on chip technology. The sector was quieter than in recent weeks.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (3 deals)

Three deals, all with undisclosed amounts. TCL’s venture arm backed an early-stage new materials company, and two strategic rounds landed in specialty chemicals and clean energy.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (33 deals)

Thirty-three deals across optoelectronics, industrial equipment, quantum instruments, display materials, and precision manufacturing. Most were early stage with undisclosed amounts. The Hefei government continued its aggressive cluster-building, leading or co-leading rounds in advanced materials and quantum instrument companies alongside its aerospace investments.

Spotlight

DeepSeek (深度求索)

A round, ¥51B (~$7B+), valuation ~¥400B (~$55.6B)

China’s top AI lab takes its first outside money, on its own terms.

The China Round — June 12, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:54:01 GMT

Where capital flows is where talent concentrates, where production capacity gets built, and where the next commercial technologies will come from.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

As this report went to press, China’s drug regulator accepted an IPO application from Neuracle (博睿康), the company behind the world’s first commercially approved invasive brain-computer interface. It filed for a ¥2.5 billion (~$347M) listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market, the tech-focused board that serves a similar role to Nasdaq for Chinese companies. That timing is coincidental, but the signal is not. China’s frontier medical devices are moving from lab to market to public listing faster than most investors expected.

Where the Money Went

This week’s scan captured 109 deals across all sectors, with 27 additional stragglers from last week’s gap. Origin Quantum’s ¥3 billion (~$417M) quantum computing Pre-IPO dominated the headline numbers. Strip that out and 16 deals disclosed a combined ~$443M (~¥3.2B), a solid mid-tier week. Robotics and AI continued to lead deal volume, but the week’s most interesting stories came from frontier tech and advanced manufacturing.

🧠 AI (22 deals)

AI deal flow stayed strong at 22 rounds, though this week skewed toward application-layer companies rather than foundation models. The standout was CreativeFitting (井英科技), which closed both an A and A+ round backed by Ant Group for its overseas AI short drama app, Reel.AI. HiDream.ai (智象未来) received a strategic investment from Huace Film (华策影视), one of China’s largest private TV drama producers. A cluster of early-stage deals in spatial intelligence, AI education, and virtual humans filled out the sector.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (19 deals)

Materials and new energy logged 19 deals, almost entirely early-stage. MATTERENE (烯材科技), co-founded by Nobel laureate Andre Geim, raised a Pre-A+ from Aviation Industry Investment for its graphene film production facility in Shenyang. Advanced ceramics, specialty metals, and battery materials accounted for the bulk of deals, with state-backed funds leading most rounds.

🔬 Semiconductors (18 deals)

Semiconductor deal count held steady at 18. The week’s standout was Anatrix (安纳智芯), a six-month-old Peking University spinout whose RRAM analog computing chip earned a Nature Electronics paper and a Series A led by Matrix Partners China (经纬创投). Raysees (瑞识科技), the Samsung Galaxy Ring sensor supplier, took strategic capital from GAC at a ¥3.5 billion (~$486M) valuation. Wisewave (芯潮流), which designs the high-speed data link circuits that let chips inside servers and AI clusters talk to each other at hundreds of gigabits per second, raised a Series A from Sequoia China and CITIC Securities.

🤖 Robotics (16 deals)

Robotics logged 16 deals and produced some of the week’s biggest stories. Dexmal (原力灵机) closed a B round at ¥6 billion (~$833M) valuation backed by three of China’s top large language model companies: Zhipu AI, StepFun (阶跃星辰), and SenseTime. LiberAI hit a ¥3 billion (~$417M) valuation on a Pre-A. Inspire Robotics (因时机器人) raised a C+ at ¥2.6 billion (~$361M), having shipped over 10,000 dexterous hands in 2025. Qianjue Robotics (千诀科技) raised an A round at a ¥5 billion (~$694M) valuation for its robot decision-making and planning platform.

💡 Frontier Tech (9 deals)

Frontier tech produced the week’s largest round and its strongest stories. Origin Quantum (本源量子) raised ¥3 billion (~$417M) in a Pre-IPO with China North Industries Group (中国兵器集团), a defense conglomerate, among the lead investors. A nuclear energy cluster formed: Dongsheng Fusion (东昇聚变) raised $100 million (~¥720M) to build a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped reactor that confines superheated plasma with magnetic fields to fuse hydrogen isotopes into helium, releasing energy. Its D-He3 fuel choice produces near-zero radioactive waste. Weilan Zhidian (蔚蓝支点) raised hundreds of millions of RMB for a small modular fission reactor, and straggler Dongxi Fusion (东曦聚变) raised hundreds of millions for a fusion approach that uses high-powered lasers to compress fuel pellets until they ignite. In BCI, Shenfu Jianxing (神复健行) raised ¥300 million (~$42M) at ¥1.8 billion (~$250M), the largest angel round in Chinese BCI history.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Eight aerospace deals, led by Expace (科工火箭), the commercial launch arm of state defense conglomerate CASIC, which raised ¥300 million (~$42M) in a C round. Tianmu Turbine (天目涡轮) raised a near-¥100 million (~$14M) angel for aviation engines, an unusually large angel for propulsion hardware.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (17 deals)

Seventeen deals in optics, 3D printing, precision equipment, and factory automation. The headline was Goertek Optical (歌尔科技), which took ¥1 billion (~$139M) in strategic capital from parent Goertek and Sunny Optical at a ¥8.79 billion (~$1.22B) valuation, positioning for the AR/VR optics cycle.

Spotlight

Shenfu Jianxing (神复健行)

Angel, ¥300M+ (~$42M), ¥1.8B valuation (~$250M)

Implantable brain-spinal interfaces that help paralyzed patients walk again.

The China Round — June 5, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 16:00:58 GMT

Where capital flows is where talent concentrates, where production capacity gets built, and where the next commercial technologies will come from.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

This was one of the busiest weeks of the year, with 132 deals in seven days. Two humanoid robot unicorns, a $200 million 3D AI round, and a wave of quantum deals backed by something closer to industrial policy than venture capital.

Where the Money Went

132 deals crossed the wire this week. About half published some indication of the amount raised, with 25 deals disclosing exact figures for a combined total of ~$1 billion (~¥7.5 billion). The real figure is substantially higher: most early-stage Chinese rounds never publish an amount, so treat that as a floor. The biggest individual checks went to humanoid robotics, but the broader story is breadth: every sector had at least eight active deals, and several had more than twenty.

🧠 AI (29 deals)

AI led the week by deal count, anchored by two outsized rounds. VAST (also known as Tripo AI) raised $200 million (~¥1.44B) for its 3D AI foundation model, while LightLink Tech (光联芯科) raised ¥500 million (~$69M) for optical chip-to-chip interconnect, a technology that replaces the copper wires between processors with laser light to keep up with AI compute demands. The rest of the sector split between AI agents, life science automation, and data infrastructure. Several deals went to companies building the training data that physical AI systems need: embodied intelligence is generating its own supply chain.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (17 deals)

Battery materials and energy storage continued their quiet grind. No single blockbuster, but steady capital into cathode and anode materials, lithium-ion cell makers, and advanced-materials plays. The largest disclosed amounts were modest: ¥140 million (~$19M) for a flexible photovoltaic company and ¥88.2 million (~$12M) for a lithium iron phosphate subsidiary. The sector’s capital arrives incrementally, round after round, without the headline figures that robotics and AI command.

🔬 Semiconductors (25 deals)

The second-busiest sector and the most strategically dense. A subsidiary of chip-design house Montage Technology (澜起科技) raised ¥500 million (~$69M) for switch chips that control how processors and memory share data inside an AI data center, the routing layer that determines whether thousands of chips work together efficiently or spend most of their time waiting on each other. Supercore (超摩科技) raised ¥305 million (~$42M) for processors built from smaller, stackable tiles rather than one large chip, a design that lets manufacturers match high-end performance using fabrication processes they have access to domestically. LEDA Tech (立芯软件) took ¥300 million (~$42M) for EDA tools, the software engineers use to design chips before fabrication. And at the other end of the spectrum, Sibai Chuang (偲百创) was acquired at a distressed valuation by listed RF chipmaker Wisecore for vertical integration. The stage distribution skewed early, with several angel and Pre-A rounds targeting advanced chip packaging, processors that compute directly inside memory chips, and display semiconductors.

🤖 Robotics (25 deals)

The biggest individual checks of the week. Spirit AI (千寻智能) raised ¥1.5 billion (~$208M) at a ¥18 billion (~$2.5B) valuation, its sixth round in twelve months. Astribot (星尘智能) closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) Series B at ¥12 billion (~$1.67B). Below those flagships, capital concentrated in components and data rather than finished machines: dexterous hands, tactile sensors, force-torque sensors, tendon-drive mechanisms, and the training data that teaches robots to manipulate real objects all drew more rounds than complete humanoid systems.

💡 Frontier Tech (8 deals)

Eight deals, three of them quantum. HyQubit (华翊量子) raised its A+ from a 10-investor national syndicate for quantum computers that trap individual atoms with lasers to perform calculations. FieldQuantum (量坤科技), a five-month-old quantum-AI middleware company with no product, raised hundreds of millions at a ¥1.8 billion (~$250M) valuation. GGQuanta (国光量子) completed its third round in three months from industrial and strategic listed companies. The non-quantum deals included two brain-computer interface startups and a simulator for modeling nuclear fusion reactions.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (10 deals)

Satellite communications, eVTOL (electric vertical-takeoff aircraft, essentially flying taxis), and space. Interstellor (穿越者) raised ¥100 million (~$14M) for crewed spacecraft that fly to the edge of space and return without entering orbit, a market aimed at space tourism and high-altitude research. SparkSpace (星火空间) took a Pre-A for liquid rockets that use electric motors to feed propellant rather than traditional turbopumps, a simpler design suited to small satellite launches. The rest was early-stage: satellite-based Earth observation, rocket propellant tanks, and UAVs. Disclosed aerospace capital was modest, about $28 million (~¥200M), but the deals are concentrated in hardware categories that take years and billions to reach scale.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (18 deals)

The catch-all sector, and this week mostly components. Kunwei Technology (坤维科技) raised ¥100 million (~$14M) for six-axis force-torque sensors, the kind of touch-sensitive joint that lets a robot arm know exactly how hard it is pressing and adjust in real time. Servo systems, fiber-optic temperature sensors, and industrial automation filled out the list. Stage distribution was scattered: from angel rounds for polishing robots to a Series D for an optical sensing company.

Spotlight

Spirit AI (千寻智能)

A+, ¥1.5 billion (~$208M), ¥18 billion (~$2.5B) valuation

The humanoid robot company that beat global benchmarks and raised nearly ¥5 billion in three months.

The China Round — May 29, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Sun, 31 May 2026 16:54:50 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Two moods showed up in the same week. Investors poured early money into nuclear fusion and small modular reactors, frontier energy bets priced at valuations that assume a decade of patience, while one of China’s mid-tier battery makers raised a down round at a third below its prior valuation. Long-patience bets at the frontier, a squeeze in the commodity middle.

Where the Money Went

107 deals crossed the wire this week. Of those, 31 disclosed a dollar figure, for a combined total of roughly $1.21 billion (~¥8.7 billion). Treat that as a floor, not a ceiling: most Chinese rounds, especially the early ones, never publish an amount, so the real number is well above what the disclosed deals add up to.

🧠 AI (23 deals)

The busiest sector by deal count, and the one where chips, not models, drew the money. Several rounds converged on one idea: make AI computing cheaper by routing around Nvidia rather than trying to match it head-on. Sparse-computing chipmaker Moffett AI took ¥1 billion (~$139M); its chips skip the math the network does not need, since most of the numbers flowing through a neural network are zeros that contribute nothing, so the chip does more useful work per watt. A cluster of smaller chip startups raised on the same cost-per-answer logic. Disclosed AI capital came to about $251M (~¥1.8B).

⚡ New Energy & Materials (16 deals)

The week’s largest disclosed pool, about $317M (~¥2.3B), spread across battery materials, solid-state electrolytes, and specialty materials. The standout was a markdown rather than a milestone (see Spotlight), but capital also kept flowing toward the next battery chemistry rather than today’s.

🔬 Semiconductors (11 deals)

Mostly early and mostly cheap, around $26M (~¥187M) disclosed, but strategically dense: memory-maker-backed inference chips, compute-in-memory designs (chips that compute where data is stored, avoiding the memory-to-processor shuttling that is one of the largest energy costs in AI hardware), and chip-making equipment. Listed component suppliers showed up as investors, buying a window into the startups building around them.

🤖 Robotics (20 deals)

Money concentrated in components, not finished robots. Force sensors, robot hands, the interchangeable tools a robot arm swaps at its wrist, and the data used to train machines all drew more capital than any finished humanoid. The largest disclosed robotics round, ¥1 billion (~$139M), went to a force-control arm maker rather than a humanoid brand. Disclosed robotics capital was about $235M (~¥1.7B).

💡 Frontier Tech (6 deals)

Small in count, outsized in ambition: two nuclear-fusion startups, a small modular reactor designer, a neutral-atom quantum company (one of the leading approaches to a practical quantum computer, trapping individual atoms with laser beams as the basic units of calculation), and a brain-spine implant maker. Pre-revenue, pre-prototype, and priced like proven leaders. Disclosed capital was only about $42M (~¥300M), but here the headline figures are the valuations, not the cash in.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (7 deals)

Electric air taxis and satellite laser-communication startups led here, about $146M (~¥1.05B) disclosed. The biggest was a ¥1 billion (~$139M) round for a maker of passenger electric aircraft that take off vertically like a helicopter but run on battery motors.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (24 deals)

The catch-all sector and the second busiest, about $196M (~¥1.4B) disclosed: industrial lasers, 3D printing, optical and inspection equipment, and consumer hardware. A ¥900 million (~$125M) raise for an industrial-laser business was the largest.

Spotlight

Sunwoda EVB (欣旺达动力)

Series C, ¥1.68 billion (~$233M), ¥25 billion (~$3.5B) pre-money valuation

The power-battery arm of a listed cell maker, raising at a steep discount.

The China Round — May 22, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:59:11 GMT

Capital flows trace where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

The week’s largest disclosed round went to a rocket company, not an AI lab. After StepFun’s $2.5B Pre-IPO absorbed all the attention last week, capital spread wide and the most interesting deals turned up in the gaps: a Starship-architecture rocket in aerospace, a chip company building China’s answer to Nvidia’s NVLink, and a quantum computing angel round with SMIC’s foundry arm at the table.

Where the Money Went

85 deals across seven sectors. 11 disclosed exact amounts totaling $263M (~¥1.9B). Aerospace, which recorded zero deals last week, came back with the week’s biggest disclosed round at ¥500M (~$69M). The stage distribution continues the 2026 barbell: seed and angel bets at one end, a handful of larger rounds at the other, and a thin middle where Series A and B capital would normally concentrate.

🧠 AI (19 deals)

The deals cluster around infrastructure: the systems that sit between raw GPU hardware and the AI models that consume it. OriginFlow (渊澈太初) raised hundreds of millions of RMB at Pre-A for electromyography data infrastructure, capturing the electrical signals from human muscles to train robots to replicate dexterous hand movements. Approaching.AI (趋境科技) raised at a similar scale for the compute-management layer that sits between raw GPU clusters and the AI companies that rent them, scheduling which jobs run on which chips, at what priority, and at what cost. The company claims to process over a trillion tokens per day for customers including Zhipu and Kimi. DeepCybo (深度机智) raised hundreds of millions at Pre-A for PhysBrain, a system that trains robots by watching video of humans performing tasks rather than requiring expensive real-robot training data. HiDream.ai (智象未来) completed a double close, Series B and B+, reportedly with Hefei government funds backing the company across both rounds.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (10 deals)

International stories dominate. Zendure (征拓), covered in Spotlight below, raised a Series B for home energy storage systems already selling across Europe. Yanhe Solar (炎和科技) raised a Series A+ for thin, flexible perovskite solar cells, a next-generation solar technology that works in low light and can be embedded directly into consumer electronics. Yanhe Solar’s cells are already shipping to Lenovo, Signify (the company behind Philips lighting), and Dreame across more than 50 countries. Shanghai Energy Bridge (能量桥) raised at Pre-A for superconducting power distribution, a technology that transmits electricity with near-zero resistance, targeted at AI data centers where power delivery is becoming the binding constraint on how many GPUs you can run.

🔬 Semiconductors (16 deals)

The largest sector by deal count after AI. Tanwei Chiplink (探微芯联), covered in Spotlight, raised hundreds of millions at Pre-A for GPU interconnect chips. WingSemitech (隼瞻科技) raised close to ¥100M (~$14M) at angel for a chip design platform built on RISC-V, the open-source processor architecture that Chinese companies can use without licensing from any American company. Shenzhen Rayhertz Technology (镭赫技术) raised a Series A for semiconductor inspection equipment, the tools that scan chips during manufacturing to catch defects. Four angel-stage semiconductor deals reflect continued seed-level capital formation across the supply chain, from materials to packaging to sensors.

🤖 Robotics (15 deals)

Components and platforms over complete robots. AGILINK (临界点), covered in Spotlight, raised at A+ for dexterous robot hands that supply multiple humanoid manufacturers. Botshare (擎天租) raised at A+ for a platform that rents industrial and service robots by the month rather than requiring factories and warehouses to buy them outright, valued at ¥7B (~$972M), reportedly five months after founding. SEAHI Robotics (世航智能) raised at A+ for maritime robots that clean ship hulls and inspect underwater infrastructure, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s National SME Development Fund classifying the company as strategic technology. RoboParty (萝博派对), reportedly founded by a 21-year-old, raised tens of millions of dollars at angel for an open-source humanoid robot with Xiaomi backing across multiple rounds.

💡 Frontier Tech (11 deals)

Three brain-computer interface companies raised in this week’s data. See The Bigger Picture below. Juliang Guangqi (矩量光启), covered in Spotlight, raised ¥200M (~$28M) at angel for superconducting quantum computing. NeuraInsight raised a Series A from MiraclePlus (奇绩创坛), the Y Combinator-affiliated accelerator, for a structured database of neuroscience research and brain-activity data used by AI labs studying how biological intelligence works. Three synthetic biology deals covered companies engineering microbes to produce proteins, nutrients, and specialty chemicals through fermentation, an industrial process that can replace petroleum-derived ingredients in food, cosmetics, and materials with bio-manufactured alternatives.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (7 deals)

Back from zero deals last week. Astronstone (宇石空间), covered in Spotlight, raised ¥500M (~$69M) at Series A for a reusable rocket, the week’s largest disclosed round. TransFuture Aviation (华羽先翔) raised hundreds of millions at Pre-A for an electric vertical-takeoff aircraft, with Ant Group leading what is reportedly its first investment in the eVTOL sector. Beijing Interstellar Development (星际开发) raised a Series A for a reusable orbital cargo vehicle, eight years after founding and still without a first flight.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (7 deals)

No single thread across seven deals spanning optical eyewear, 3D printing materials, water treatment membranes, and networking equipment. Shenzhen Zhongjian Technology (众见科技) raised tens of millions at Series A for optical eyewear, backed by SEE Fund and AfterShokz (the bone-conduction headphone company).

Spotlight

Astronstone (宇石空间)

Series A, ¥500M (~$69M), ¥3B (~$417M) valuation

The engineer who helped build China’s heaviest operational rockets is now building a private Starship analog with chopstick catch.

The China Round — May 15, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:33:20 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

Last week’s 46 deals reflected the May Day holiday. This week brought 103 across seven sectors, confirming the Q2 2026 funding cycle is fully underway.

103 deals, 28 with disclosed amounts. Those 28 disclosed a combined $3.2B (~¥23.1B), dominated by StepFun’s ~$2.5B Pre-IPO, which alone accounts for 78%. Strip that out and the remaining 27 deals disclosed ~$706M (~¥5.1B). The true weekly total is higher. Most deals don’t publish amounts, and the disclosed figure understates actual capital deployed.

Stage distribution skews heavily early. Angel and seed rounds make up the majority across every sector, with few Series A or B companies and a handful of mega-rounds at the top. The barbell shape that has characterized China’s deep tech funding all year is intact.

🤖 Robotics (23 deals)

The week’s largest deal count, and the most fragmented. No single round dominates the way StepFun does in AI. Vbot (维他动力) raised the headline ticket at ~¥500M (~$69M) Pre-A for a consumer robot dog, but the 23 deals cover consumer companion robots, industrial embodied AI, construction robots, lawn mowers, kitchen robots, wearable exoskeletons, and component suppliers. Fourteen of the 23 were angel or seed-stage, five Pre-A or A, and four strategic or B+ transactions. One straggler: ZeroErr (零差云控, robot system core components, C+, close to ¥100M, ~$14M).

🧠 AI (18 deals, including 3 stragglers)

StepFun at ~$2.5B Pre-IPO dwarfs everything else in the sector. 奕行智能 (EVAS, RISC-V AI chips) took a strategic investment from China Mobile’s chain fund; Motion Brain (眸深智能) raised ¥300M (~$42M) Pre-A for an embodied AI brain targeting humanoid robots; ComNergy Tech (共绩科技) raised close to ¥100M (~$14M) Pre-A for idle GPU compute aggregation. Three AI stragglers were sub-¥10M angel rounds.

🔬 Semiconductors (14 deals)

SemiDrive headlines with a $100M (~¥720M) Series C. China’s most-deployed automotive SoC maker is now pivoting toward humanoid robots. 象帝先计算 raised hundreds of millions in a Series B as its near-death 2024 story converts to an IPO-prep 2026 story. RiVAI Technology (睿思芯科) closed a B+ for high-end RISC-V server processors. Fermion Technology (费勉仪器) closed a C+ for precision scientific instruments used in semiconductor and quantum research. Five of the 14 deals have disclosed amounts; government-affiliated funds led or co-led at least eight.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (16 deals)

The largest sector by deal count after robotics. Lithium Source (常州锂源) took ¥440M (~$61M) strategic investment for LFP cathode expansion. Xinta Green Energy (信塔绿能) raised ¥100M (~$14M) at angel. Multiple early-stage deals in solid-state batteries, power electronics, carbon nanomaterials, and hydrogen water tech. Greater Bay Technology (巨湾技研), the ultra-fast charging battery maker, took an undisclosed strategic round.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (8 deals)

Zero last week, eight this week. All angel or early stage, with a combined $14M in disclosed capital. Beijing Hengxing Power (恒星力量) raised ¥100M (~$14M) at angel for space energy research; Cathay Innovation and 厚雪资本 co-led. Shenzhen Zhiyu Aerospace (执宇航天) raised tens of millions (~$7M+) at angel for small reusable launch vehicles. Shenzhen Qingwei Aviation (庆为航空) closed a Pre-A for fly-by-wire avionics and smart cockpit displays. Vision Aero (维新宇航) raised tens of millions (~$7M+) at angel for a 7-seat eVTOL targeting emergency response. Four additional deals covered satellite propulsion, aerospace electrical interconnects, and microwave remote sensing.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (15 deals)

公大激光 / Gongda Laser headlines with a Series C, hundreds of millions RMB, for its green fiber laser technology, more on this in Spotlight. Yiktong (亦唐科技) raised hundreds of millions in a B+ for high-speed SMT pick-and-place equipment. KeenCool (云酷智能) raised close to ¥100M (~$14M) for liquid cooling equipment for AI data centers. One straggler: 时耘科技 (intelligent robots, angel).

💡 Frontier Tech (9 deals)

微元合成 / Microcyto leads with ¥1.5B (~$208M), a synbio startup that used the round to acquire a ¥900M+/year traditional factory. 雷鸟创新 / Rayneo, the global #1 AR glasses brand by unit volume, closed a C+ round of over ¥1B (~$139M) in January 2026, captured in this week’s data. Two quantum computing startups, Hangzhou Wuwen Quantum (无问清芯) and GGQuanta (国光量子), and a photonic computing chip startup, PhotonCore (光子芯力), raised angel rounds. Genlight (佳量脑科学) shows a C round at an implied ¥60B (~$8.3B) valuation and has no verifiable public presence.

Spotlight

StepFun (阶跃星辰)

Pre-IPO, ~$2.5B (~¥18B), valuation undisclosed

China’s most aggressive LLM fundraiser is heading for Hong Kong, and the companies betting on it build the phones.

The China Round — May 8, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 08 May 2026 16:55:05 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

Whether you were celebrating Labor Day, Cinco de Mayo, or just enjoying a long weekend, China’s five-day May Day holiday (May 1-5) kept most dealmaking on hold.

46 deals, $2.39B (~¥17.2B) in disclosed capital across nine of them. That number needs context: Kimi’s $2B D-round accounts for 84% of the total. Strip it out and 45 deals generated $390M (~¥2.8B). AI led on deal count at twelve, with robotics close behind at ten. No aerospace deals.

🧠 AI (12 deals)

One deal dominates the entire week: Kimi’s $2B (~¥14.4B) D-round at a ~$20B (~¥144B) valuation, the largest Chinese LLM startup round of 2026. Beneath that headline, two AI infrastructure companies raised a combined ¥1B+ (~$139M+) in the same week with identical “token factory” positioning: Infinigence AI at ¥700M+ (~$97M+) and Magik Compute at hundreds of millions. Nanochap took a ¥300M (~$42M) strategic round for biomedical chips targeting visual brain-computer interfaces, a medical device company tagged as “AI” on deal trackers. The remaining deals include PixelBloom’s C-round for its AiPPT product (30M+ registered users globally), a medical LLM angel (WiseDiag, ¥65M / ~$9M), a spatial intelligence platform strategic round (XGRIDS), and four late-reported deals spanning industrial cognitive AI, AI infrastructure cloud, and AI-driven drug discovery.

🤖 Robotics (10 deals)

RoboScience pulled the largest robotics round of the week at ¥1B (~$139M) for its VLOA embodied AI platform. The remaining main-window deals are earlier-stage: Eagle Vision raised a Pre-A for bionic flapping-wing flying robots with a consumer product targeting the global hobbyist market, Westlake Robotics for civilian quadruped robots, Knownobound for industrial embodied AI targeting ship maintenance and container logistics, and underwater robotics veteran Boya Gongdao closed a D+ round. Five late-reported deals brought the sector total to ten, including a Sequoia China-backed angel in smart robots and a strategic round in core robot components backed by iFlytek Ventures and Hillhouse.

🔬 Semiconductors (8 deals)

Eight deals spanning the full chip stack, from data center networking to automotive SoCs to photonic interconnects. Yunsilicon builds what it describes as China’s first 400Gbps RDMA data center networking chip, positioning it as the domestic alternative to Nvidia’s ConnectX; ByteDance and Inspur hold strategic equity stakes. Oritek closed a C-round for automotive zone controller SoCs, with SDIC Merchants participating in every round from B1 through C and eight listed auto companies as shareholders. Siminwei drew three top-tier VCs (Oriental Fortune Capital, GGV Capital, Detong Capital) to co-lead a seed at a ¥500M (~$69M) valuation for AI inference architecture, an unusually heavy syndicate for a seed. Rhinoptix raised for TFLN photonic chips, the post-copper datacenter interconnect technology covered in the April 10 issue. Sicred continues scaling SiC power devices with 100,000+ units shipped to aerospace and defense customers.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (7 deals)

Tachin Tech raised a Pre-A for electronic skin targeting the humanoid robot market, with core technology from Zhenan Bao’s Stanford lab. Makera closed a Series A for consumer desktop CNC machines after raising $10.2M on Kickstarter. Three smaller deals: a smart lighting company in Shenzhen (Mingyuda, ¥30M HKD / ~$3.8M), a consumer electronics angel backed by Co-Creation Ventures, and a miHoYo-backed equipment investment. Two late-reported deals added a metal 3D printing angel and a high-speed SMT equipment strategic round.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (5 deals)

BYD invested directly in battery electrolyte materials maker Huasheng Xianghe (strategic, hundreds of millions RMB), continuing its vertical integration down the EV supply chain. Hebang New Materials raised a ¥100M (~$14M) A-round for bio-based composite materials certified to EU high-speed rail standards. Three late-reported deals added carbon-based energy storage materials and emerging energy tech to the tally.

💡 Frontier Tech (4 deals)

STARTORUS closed a ¥500M (~$69M) A+ for its fusion energy reactor, crossing the $1B (~¥7.2B) valuation mark. Greencloud, a subsidiary of listed Wangsu Technology, raised for immersion liquid cooling with partnerships across Intel, Dell, and BASF. Nanoloop took a seed for sports brain-computer interface wearables at ¥10M+ (~$1.4M+). One late-reported deal: Boyin Bio raised an A-round for biomaterials from Legend Capital, CAS Advanced Industry Fund, and Cornerstone.

Other sectors

No aerospace or defense deals this week.

Spotlight

Kimi (月之暗面)

Series D, $2B (~¥14.4B), ~$20B (~¥144B)

China’s best-funded independent LLM startup hits frontier parity and raises the largest Chinese AI round of 2026.

The China Round — May 1, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Sat, 02 May 2026 13:32:35 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

129 deals in seven days, $847M (~¥6.1B) in disclosed capital. Aerospace and defense led on dollar volume at $370M across 11 deals, the lowest deal count of any sector, driven by Volant Aerotech’s $300M Series C and Cosmoleap’s ¥500M (~$69M) Series A; no other sector crossed $200M. Robotics followed at $200M across 19 deals, concentrated in RobotEra’s single large round. The remaining five sectors generated 97 deals and under $280M combined.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (11 deals)

Two rounds accounted for nearly all disclosed capital. Volant Aerotech closed what multiple Chinese financial outlets confirmed as the largest single round in Chinese passenger eVTOL history: over $300M, with a UAE fund (Stone) leading and Shanghai’s first city-level state capital entering. Cosmoleap closed a ¥500M (~$69M) Series A for its chopstick-catch reusable rocket (the same tower-arm booster recovery system SpaceX uses), covered by SpaceNews. The remaining nine deals are earlier stage, concentrated in urban air mobility, SAR satellite infrastructure, and UAV systems.

🤖 Robotics (19 deals)

SF Express both led RobotEra’s $200M+ strategic round and operates the company’s humanoid robots across 10+ logistics centers. The operator-as-investor structure, where the round lead is also the largest deployment partner, is defining which companies demonstrate commercial traction rather than commercial intent. LinkerBot extended its fundraising to seven rounds in 18 months after shipping 10,000+ dexterous hands. Wujie Power attracted a ¥500M (~$69M) overseas deployment contract from Envision alongside its raise, the largest overseas commercial contract signed by a Chinese embodied AI company to date. Botshare, a robot rental platform launched December 2025, completed its fourth round in 105 days.

🧠 AI (22 deals)

Creati.ai closed a $20M Series B for its Buzzy video editing product, which the company frames as “the world’s first AI Video Photoshop,” reporting $15M in ARR and 20 million+ global users. Spirit AI’s Series A+, a straggler from the April 24 batch with Alibaba as sole lead and a reported ¥5.5B (~$760M) valuation, rounds out the AI highlights. The remaining 20 AI deals are early-stage and mostly undisclosed.

🔬 Semiconductors (22 deals)

IDG Capital led a ¥500M (~$69M) Pre-Series A for Calculet at a reported ¥3B valuation, building AI processors on a chiplet architecture. With access to advanced monolithic nodes constrained by export controls, chiplet designs assembled from available process nodes are emerging as a structural workaround. The remaining 21 deals are early-stage and undisclosed.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (24 deals)

The highest deal count at 24, but only $49M disclosed. QingNa Technology raised ¥200M (~$28M) in a Series A for sodium-ion batteries, with one million large cylindrical cells shipped to European customers in January 2026 and five million contracted for the year. The remaining 23 deals are early-stage and mostly undisclosed.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (22 deals)

22 deals, almost entirely undisclosed. Cangzhou Four STARS Glass, a 33-year-old pharmaceutical glass maker, closed the only disclosed round at ¥300M (~$42M) Pre-IPO. The remaining deals are concentrated in industrial automation, precision testing, and manufacturing equipment suppliers, the enabling layer beneath the robotics and semiconductor sectors above it.

💡 Frontier Tech (8 deals)

TuringQ completed a Series B+ for photonic quantum computing, reaching an estimated ¥7B (~$970M) valuation on the strength of ¥100M+ (~$14M) in signed orders in H1 2025 and approaching ¥1B (~$138M) raised in 2026 alone. BCDTEK closed a Series A for silicon-based OLED microdisplays (the display technology inside the Apple Vision Pro) while building China’s first 12-inch silicon OLED fab.

Spotlight

Volant Aerotech (沃兰特航空)

Series C, over $300M (~¥2.16B)

The largest single round in Chinese passenger eVTOL history: UAE capital leads, Shanghai’s first city-level state investor enters, and the order book stands at over 1,900 aircraft.

The China Round — April 24, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 15:42:25 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

111 deals in seven days, $1,020M (~¥7.3B) in disclosed capital, and 95 of those 111 deals didn’t disclose. All the visible money concentrates in a handful of large rounds: robotics ($419M) and AI ($504M) collected 90% of the total while generating fewer than 40% of the deals. Semiconductors ran the highest deal count of any sector at 23, but almost none disclosed amounts, operating early-stage and quiet.

🤖 Robotics (18 deals)

Sudu Technology came in at a reported $2B+ valuation at 11 months old and demo stage; X Square Robot collected all four of China’s internet giants on a single cap table at ¥2B (~$278M) Series B. The bottom of the distribution is a long tail of ~$690K seed rounds for pre-product startups building everything from dexterous hands to explosion-proof industrial quadrupeds. The component layer sits between them: Motorevo shipped 100,000+ joint modules in 2025 and is still valued at ¥1.6B (~$222M). The stage distribution skews to the extremes, with large late-stage rounds and a long tail of sub-¥10M seeds, but few companies in between.

🧠 AI (24 deals)

EVAS closed the week’s largest AI round at ¥1.5B (~$208M) with four Beijing municipal funds co-leading simultaneously, one day after Beijing formally established the ¥20B (~$2.8B) four-fund structure that backed the round. Sunrise AI (曦望) extended its run to seven financing rounds in ~16 months, crossing ¥10B (~$1.4B) valuation as China’s first inference-GPU unicorn. Loopit’s $50M (~¥360M) round (Garena lead) follows the app reaching #1 on the global Google Play Entertainment chart.

🔬 Semiconductors (23 deals)

The highest deal count of any sector, but almost none disclosed. The sector’s early-stage density is running well ahead of its public capital story. Two companies warrant attention regardless: NanoLN (晶正电子) is raising Pre-IPO financing as the holder of approximately 78% of global lithium niobate thin-film wafer supply, a material foundational to 5G filters and photonic chips. Wendun Juxin (稳顿聚芯) shipped China’s first domestic high-precision compound-semiconductor stepper in September 2025 and is already profitable. Neither has significant English-language coverage.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (13 deals)

Zero disclosed capital across 13 deals. Sodium battery, flow battery, and advanced materials companies raising without announcing terms. Luquos Energy (易池新能, CUHK spinout) is the exception, a Hong Kong-registered flow battery company with international backing (Towngas + Gobi Partners) that chose to disclose.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (10 deals)

The National Strategic Emerging Industry Investment Fund (国调基金) made a strategic investment in Chang Guang Satellite that accounts for most of the sector’s visible capital, a state-capital substitute for the financial and foreign investors who exited after Chang Guang was placed on the US Treasury’s SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) sanctions list. FAW Group’s eVTOL spinout Qiyi Technology (旗翼科技) added the week’s largest angel-stage aerospace deal at ¥400M (~$55M).

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (20 deals) · 💡 Frontier Tech (3 deals)

Audfly (清听声学) stands out in Other Adv. Manufacturing with a Series B+ at ¥2B (~$278M), a directional audio company backed by Lenovo Ventures. Frontier Tech had just three deals: a synthetic biology Series A from PAML Biotechnologies (柏垠生物, Hillhouse-adjacent capital) and a fusion-wire JV from Juneng Superconducting (聚能超导).

Spotlight

EVAS (奕行智能)

Series B, ¥1.5B (~$208M)

China’s first reportedly mass-produced RISC-V AI chip, now backed by Beijing’s four-fund industrial apparatus.

The China Round — April 17, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:52:50 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

102 deals from April 10 to 17. $1.63 billion (~¥11.7B) in disclosed capital across 27 of them — the other 75 went undisclosed. Robotics commanded $937 million (~¥6.75B) of that, across 23 deals. This week, though, the more interesting pattern runs underneath the headline numbers: listed companies and OEM customers are entering venture rounds not as passive financial investors but as strategic acquirers, buying equity positions in their key suppliers before commercial volumes arrive.

🤖 Robotics (23 deals)

它石智航 (TARS Robotics) closed a $455 million (~¥32.8亿) Pre-A, reportedly the largest private embodied AI raise in Chinese history, with Hillhouse, HongShan, and Meituan co-leading 14 months after founding. The stage distribution across the batch forms a barbell: eight angel and Pre-A rounds ran alongside five B+ or strategic rounds, with almost nothing in between.

🧠 AI (17 deals)

The bulk of the disclosed capital — ¥5亿+ (~$70M+) — went into one company: 智象未来 (HiDream.ai), which released an MIT-licensed open-source image model before closing this round. The broader batch skews early, with Anhui, Hefei, and Beijing municipal capital prominent as co-investors.

🔬 Semiconductors (23 deals)

The sector’s headline event was not a venture round. 盛合晶微 (SJ Semiconductor, 688820.SH) listed on the STAR Market 2,700 times oversubscribed, reaching a ¥360亿 (~$5B) market cap at issue, with ¥47.79亿 (~$664M) in net proceeds. As the #1 domestic 12-inch chip bumping provider and holder of 85% share in mainland 2.5D advanced packaging, it controls a chokepoint that every Chinese AI chip designer needs to reach production. Among the private rounds, 芯擎科技 closed a B+ at approximately $100 million (~¥720M) for its automotive cockpit chip platform, pulling in Yutong Bus (600066.SH) as a strategic co-investor, extending the company’s addressable market beyond passenger EVs.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (14 deals)

A quieter week for the sector. 疆海科技 (Zendure), which sells energy storage hardware across 63 countries and counts Europe and North America as its primary markets, raised a round led by domestic strategic investors. 顺铉新材, a specialty polyimide film producer with export relationships into South Korea, Japan, the US, and Russia, closed a materials round. Neither disclosed amounts.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (9 deals)

边界智控 (Boundary.AI) closed a B-round for its eVTOL flight control systems — the only Chinese company to have cleared CAAC’s SOI#1 airworthiness review for eVTOL-specific FCS. The rest of the batch was light: several pre-A rounds for drone platforms and satellite sensor startups, mostly undisclosed.

⚙️ Other Advanced Manufacturing (12 deals)

Mixed batch with no standout cluster. 锐能科技 raised a B-round with 菱电电控 (688667.SH) acquiring 30% as a strategic lead. Several other industrial automation plays closed early-stage rounds with regional government funds, consistent with the ongoing manufacturing digitization push in non-coastal provinces.

💡 Frontier Tech (4 deals)

量旋科技 (SpinQ) — announced April 3, flagged in this week’s straggler batch — sells superconducting quantum computers commercially into 200+ institutions across 40+ countries and raised ¥6亿 (~$83M) in a C+, several months after closing its C-round, bringing the combined C-series total to approximately ¥10亿 (~$139M). The company is profitable and building out a pre-IPO syndicate with Guotai Junan Innovation and Chengdu state capital as new investors. NovaFusionX (诺瓦聚变) appears in this week’s data with its ¥7亿 (~$97M) 天使+ round but was covered in last week’s issue; refer to that report for the full analysis.

Spotlight

TARS Robotics (它石智航)

Pre-A, $455M (~¥32.8亿), valuation ¥120.58亿 (~$1.67B)

Humanoid robotics, 14 months old, betting against the VLA consensus.

The China Round — April 10, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:30:30 GMT

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

103 funding events across seven sectors. Over $1.4 billion (~¥10.1B) in disclosed capital, with the real total significantly higher given that 50+ deals went undisclosed. Alibaba led a ¥2 billion (~$293M) strategic round into video generation platform Shengshu (Vidu). Nova Fusion raised ¥700 million (~$97M) at angel+ stage for nuclear fusion, on top of a ¥500 million angel round last year. Jack Ma and Lei Jun made their first known co-investment in Spirit AI, a humanoid robot company now valued at ¥15 billion (~$2.1B).

Chart note: Light-shaded bars represent conservative estimates where only a vague range (e.g., “数亿人民币” / “hundreds of millions”) was reported.

🤖 Robotics (16 deals)

Fewer deals than last week’s 27, but the individual rounds run larger. Spirit AI (千寻智能) pulled in ¥1 billion (~$139M) for an A+ round, part of two rounds totalling ¥3 billion (~$417M) within 30 days. ENGINEAI (众擎机器人) closed $200 million (~¥1.44B) with Luxshare as strategic co-lead. D-Robotics (地瓜机器人) raised $150 million (~¥1.08B) for its robot OS platform, a Horizon Robotics spinout building the infrastructure layer for humanoid development. The early-stage pipeline remains active: five angel/seed rounds, including a Li Auto AI team spinout (斜跃智能) founded just two months ago.

🧠 AI (17 deals)

Alibaba led a ¥2 billion (~$293 million) strategic round into Shengshu Technology (生数科技), maker of the Vidu video generation platform. That single deal accounts for most of the sector’s disclosed capital. The distribution otherwise skews early: Synapx (章鱼动力), founded December 2025 by four ex-Horizon Robotics executives, raised hundreds of millions at a ¥3 billion (~$417M) angel valuation for “physical AGI.” Red Bear AI (红熊AI) closed Series A with ¥135 million (~$19M) in revenue and 13% margins, one of the few profitable Chinese AI agent companies at this stage. ModelBest (面壁智能) hit E-round unicorn status for edge-side foundation models.

🔬 Semiconductors (14 deals)

Deals span analog and mixed-signal IC, MEMS sensors, power semiconductors, and storage chips. Most rounds are Series A or earlier with government guidance fund participation, consistent with the ongoing self-sufficiency push. Lingdong Jiaxin (灵动佳芯) closed an A round backed by SMIC Capital (中芯聚源) and others.

⚡ New Energy & Materials (19 deals)

Zhide Battery (致德新能源) raised ¥600 million (~$83M) at Series E for silicon-carbon anode materials, with CATL as an existing investor. JNION (珈钠能源) appeared for the second consecutive week, raising an A+ round for sodium-ion cathode materials with EVE Energy (亿纬锂能) backing. New materials companies (安迈特科技 with Toray strategic, 环西汀新材, 方硕材料, 启烯材料) accounted for roughly a third of the sub-sector.

🚀 Aerospace & Defense (5 deals)

Spacety (天仪研究院) raised ¥1.3 billion (~$181M) in a pre-IPO round for its 28-satellite SAR constellation, the sub-sector’s standout. Dezhihangchuang (德知航创) closed an A+ round with Sichuan provincial defense-industry funds. Huanyuhaoxing (寰宇昊行) and Gongda Satellite (工大卫星) filled out a quiet but steady week for space and defense.

⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (22 deals)

Optoelectronics and photonics accounted for roughly ten deals, including Aochuang Photonics (奥创光子) at Series D and Saifulesi (赛富乐斯) raising ¥300 million (~$42M) for micro-LED. Three deals covered the lithium niobate photonics value chain from substrate to chip design. The remainder spans industrial automation, precision control, smart manufacturing equipment, and a tail of companies where names alone do not reveal the sub-sector.

💡 Frontier Tech (10 deals)

Ten deals, with capital concentrated in a few large rounds. Nova Fusion (诺瓦聚变) leads the category with a ¥700 million (~$97M) angel+ round for FRC nuclear fusion targeting AI data center power. Four to five brain-computer interface deals (应和脑科学, 聚芯医疗, 脑次元, 曦嘉医疗, 瓦博科技) landed in the same week, following BCI’s first appearance in the Government Work Report. Juxin Medical (聚芯医疗) closed a ¥200 million (~$28M) C round for endovascular BCI.

Spotlight

Spirit AI (千寻智能)

A+ Round, ¥1 billion (~$139M), valuation ¥15 billion (~$2.1B)

Full-stack humanoid robotics.

The China Round — April 3, 2026

Dermot McGrath — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:38:21 GMT

The China Round is a weekly report tracking venture and strategic investment activity across China’s core technology sectors: AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, and frontier tech. These deals span semiconductors, autonomous driving, quantum computing, hydrogen and energy storage, eVTOL, brain-computer interfaces, synthetic biology, and more.

Where capital flows tells you where talent is concentrating, where production capacity is being built, and which technologies will reach commercial scale first.

The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.

Where the Money Went

130 funding events across four sectors. Over $1.4 billion in disclosed capital. Three quantum computing raises totalling over ¥1.6 billion. Angel-stage valuations that would have been Series B territory two years ago. The A/A+ stage accounts for 38% of all deals, but the signal is loudest at the extremes.

🤖 Robotics (27 deals)

The busiest sector by narrative weight. 27 raises in seven days, at least eight of them embodied AI or humanoid plays. Galaxea AI (星海图) led with ¥2 billion (~$280M) for a B+ round, valuing the company at ¥20 billion. JAKA Robotics (节卡机器人) closed an E round at a ¥6 billion valuation, one of a handful of Chinese cobot companies with real international footprint. At the early end, multiple seed and angel rounds for companies building everything from cooking robots to ocean-floor inspection vehicles.

Stage breakdown: 11 angel/seed, 9 A/A+, 5 B+, 2 strategic. The early-stage density signals continued new entrant formation, not just incumbents scaling.

🧠 AI (18 deals)

18 deals, but the individual bets run larger than the count suggests. MOSI Intelligence (模思智能) pulled in hundreds of millions of RMB at angel stage for speech-first foundation models. Tsingwei (清微智能) hit Pre-IPO stage for AI inference chips. The rest skew early: lots of angel and Pre-A rounds for vertical AI applications (drug discovery, gaming, spatial reasoning, pet tech).

⚙️ Advanced Manufacturing (78 deals)

The largest category by volume, and the most diverse. Sub-sectors span semiconductors (~15 deals), hydrogen and energy storage (~10), aerospace and eVTOL (~6), lasers and photonics (~5), new materials (~8), and a long tail of sensors, drones, and industrial components. Headline deal: CIX Technology (此芯科技) raised ¥1 billion (~$140M) for ARM-compatible AI PC chips. EPG (易普集) closed $100M for modular data centers backed by Alibaba Cloud and BlackRock’s Decarbonization Partners.

💡 Frontier Tech (7 deals)

Small by count, massive by capital. Three quantum computing raises (see theme below). One invasive BCI company. Two synthetic biology startups. One display chip maker.

Spotlight

QBoson (玻色量子)

Series B, ¥1 billion (~$140M), ¥7 billion valuation (~$970M)

Photonic quantum computing.