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.
It 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.
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).
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.