(Yicai) May 8 -- StepFun, one of China's six "artificial intelligence tigers," is set to complete a new funding round worth almost USD2.5 billion, while having dismantled its red-chip structure to accelerate preparations to go public in Hong Kong, a source told Yicai.

The fundraiser has attracted several investors from across the supply chain, including Huaqin Technology, Longcheer Holdings, OmniVision Integrated Circuits Group, and ZTE, covering sectors from complete machine manufacturing to upstream core components, the source pointed out.

Shanghai-based StepFun has not commented on the matter yet.

StepFun was set up in April 2023 by Jiang Daxin, a former vice president of Microsoft. It appointed Yin Qi as chairman responsible for overall strategy and technological direction this January.

Yin forms StepFun's core management team along with Chief Executive Officer Jiang Daxin, Chief Scientist Zhang Xiangyu, and Chief Technology Officer Zhu Yibo. He also serves as chairman of Afari Technology, a company listed in Shanghai that leads the advancement of "AI + Automotive" and embodied intelligence business.

Early this year, StepFun bagged over CNY5 billion (USD730 million) in a Series B+ fundraiser, setting a record for the largest single funding round in the Chinese large language model sector.

Regarding commercialization, StepFun has teamed up with auto giant Geely Automobile Holdings to develop smart cockpits and also allied with Guotai Junan International to deploy smart investment advisory systems. It focuses on three key terminal scenarios: personal devices, autos, and embodied intelligence.

MiniMax Group and Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock, better known as Zhipu AI, two other "AI tigers," went public in Hong Kong in January. Shares of MiniMax [HKG: 0100] tumbled 8.8 percent to HKD748 (USD95.56) each as of 2.25 p.m. today, but the stock remains up 353 percent since listing. Zhipu [HKG: 2513] plunged 5.6 to HKD920, but is also up 690 percent since its debut.

Editor: Martin Kadiev