China’s embodied AI startup PsiBot has joined the ranks of billion-dollar AI companies after securing a new funding round that values the company at $1.48 billion. The Shanghai-based startup is raising nearly $100 million from investors led by Chinese automaker Chery Automobile, highlighting growing investor confidence in embodied AI and “world models”—technologies designed to help robots and autonomous systems understand and interact with the physical world.
The funding underscores the rapid evolution of China’s AI ecosystem beyond large language models. As investors increasingly back robotics, autonomous driving, and physical AI applications, PsiBot has emerged as one of the country’s newest AI unicorns, competing in a field that many researchers see as the next frontier of artificial intelligence.
PsiBot Reaches Unicorn Status
PsiBot, also known as Lingchu Intelligence, is close to completing a financing round worth nearly $100 million, giving the company a $1.48 billion valuation.
The round is expected to include investment from:
- Chery Automobile.
- Lens Technology.
- Existing institutional investors.
Since its founding in 2024, the company has raised approximately $300 million to develop AI models that enable machines to understand and respond to real-world environments.
Funding Overview
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Company | PsiBot (Lingchu Intelligence) |
| Headquarters | Shanghai, China |
| New Funding | Nearly $100 million |
| Valuation | $1.48 billion |
| Total Funding Raised | Around $300 million |
| Founded | 2024 |
Focus on Embodied AI and World Models
Unlike conventional AI startups focused primarily on chatbots or text generation, PsiBot develops embodied AI and world models.
These technologies enable:
- Humanoid robots to interact with physical objects.
- Autonomous vehicles to better understand their surroundings.
- Industrial robots to perform more complex tasks.
- AI systems to learn from real-world environments rather than text alone.
The company collects data using proprietary hardware, including robotic platforms and sensor-equipped gloves, allowing its models to learn how objects move and how humans interact with the physical world.
Core Technologies
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| World Models | Simulate and understand physical environments |
| Embodied AI | Enable robots to interact with the real world |
| Robotics Training | Improve robotic movement and manipulation |
| Autonomous Systems | Support self-driving vehicles and automation |
Experienced Founding Team
PsiBot was founded by a team of AI researchers and robotics experts with experience across academia and major technology companies.
The founding team includes:
- Viktor Wang, a PhD graduate from George Washington University.
- Xiaojie Chai, a robotics specialist formerly at Alibaba and Tencent.
- Yaodong Yang, assistant dean at Peking University.
- Yuanpei Chen, a Stanford University visiting scholar advised by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li.
China Accelerates Push Into Physical AI
PsiBot’s funding comes amid increasing investment in China’s AI sector, where startups are expanding beyond foundation models into robotics and intelligent machines.
China benefits from:
- Strong government support for AI.
- Large volumes of industrial and manufacturing data.
- A rapidly growing robotics ecosystem.
- An active open-source AI community.
Industry experts increasingly view world models as the next major breakthrough after large language models, enabling AI systems to reason about and interact with physical environments rather than simply generating text.
Part of a Broader AI Funding Wave
PsiBot’s unicorn valuation reflects a broader surge in funding across China’s AI industry.
In recent weeks:
- DeepSeek disclosed funding implying a valuation above $50 billion.
- Zhipu AI raised billions through a Hong Kong share sale.
- Moonshot AI unveiled one of China’s largest open AI models.
These developments illustrate how Chinese AI companies are rapidly raising capital to fund computing infrastructure, talent acquisition, and next-generation AI research as they compete with leading U.S. firms.
Looking Ahead
PsiBot’s emergence as a $1.48 billion AI startup highlights the growing importance of embodied AI and world models within China’s rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape. As the industry shifts beyond text-based AI toward systems capable of understanding and interacting with the physical world, startups focused on robotics, autonomous vehicles, and intelligent machines are attracting increasing investor attention.
Looking ahead, continued advances in robotics hardware, AI training data, and world-model architectures could make embodied AI one of the next major battlegrounds in the global AI race. With strong investor backing and a focus on physical intelligence, PsiBot is positioning itself to play a significant role in the development of next-generation AI systems that extend beyond digital assistants into real-world applications.
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