June 2026 is a defining moment for China's AI industry: three waves converging at once.
Wave 1: Embodied AI Funding Frenzy
QianXun Intelligence: 4.5B RMB in 3 Months
On June 3, QianXun Intelligence announced 1.5B RMB A+ round. Total: 4.5B RMB in 3 months, valuation >20B RMB.
Key tech: Spirit v1.6 model topped RoboArena global leaderboard — beating NVIDIA's Cosmos 3 (released 2 days earlier). First Chinese embodied model to reach #1 globally.
Founder Han Fengtao: "Future robot capability ceiling = model. Core competitive resource = real-world data, not compute."
QianXun's wearable data collection devices deployed in 100+ cities, ~1000 units running → unique data flywheel.
XingYuanZhi: 1B RMB, "National Team" Backing
XingYuanZhi (Tsinghua Institute incubated) raised 1B RMB in 10 months.
Tech differentiation: "Embodied interaction world model" — not just generating future frames via video models, but focusing on core question robots must understand: "how will actions change the world?"
Zhongche Capital + Beigong Investment (state-backed) → long-term funding + policy support.
Wave 2: Large Model Financing "Winner-Takes-All" Phase
DeepSeek: $59B Valuation, Finally Opening to Capital
June 8: DeepSeek's first external round — raising ~500B RMB (~$74B), valuation up to $59B.
Founder Liang Wenfeng committed 20B RMB personal contribution. Tencent + CATL (battery giant) expected as largest external investors.
After ~3 years of self-funded R&D, DeepSeek finally opened the door to strategic capital.
Kimi: $30B Valuation, 6x in 6 Months
Kimi's new round: pre-money valuation $30B — up 6x from $4.3B in 6 months.
Revenue: ARR hit $100M in March 2026, grew to $200M+ in April.
June 3: Kimi released Kimi Work Beta — shifting from conversational AI → Agent-grade product for knowledge workers.
StepFun: Pursuing HK IPO, $12B Valuation
StepFun accelerating Hong Kong IPO. Key investors' valuation proposal: up to $12B.
Wave 3: National Data Infrastructure Deployed
June 8: NBS issued "High-Quality Dataset Construction Action Plan" — milestone AI development infrastructure plan.
Six专项行动:
- Foundation expansion (强基扩容)
- Annotation breakthrough (标注攻坚)
- Quality improvement (提质增效)
- Application empowerment (应用赋能)
- Management service (管理服务)
- Value release (价值释放)
Most forward-looking: "Explore Token trading and other novel transaction models" — first state-level proposal for Token-based quantifiable data value system.
Data Supply Status (Q1 2026):
- High-quality datasets built: 116K+
- Total volume: >960PB
- Daily Token calls: >140 trillion
Platform Layer: The "Last Mile" Engineering Bridge
Amidst the three waves, one often-overlooked layer is becoming critical: enterprise AI platform as engineering foundation connecting tech → business.
Problem solved by platforms like YuanZhiQi:
- Data bureau's "Plan" → solves "where does AI fuel come from?"
- Model financing → solves R&D capital
- SOE high-value scenario opening → solves demand-side entry
- Platform → solves "how to convert data → model capability → business delivery?"
YuanZhiQi (representing enterprise AI configuration platforms) reduces Agent development threshold by >80% via "knowledge base + DB integration + plugin ecosystem" architecture.
Outlook: From "Policy Dividend Period" to "Industrial Decisive Period"
June 2026's three-wave convergence marks China AI shifting from "policy dividend period" → "industrial decisive period".
Four factors forming positive cycle for first time:
- Data system supply
- Model generational leap
- Physical world intelligent deployment
- Capital + scenario bidirectional convergence
Based on reports from Sohu Finance (June 16, 2026), compiled from NBS announcements, RoboArena leaderboard, and corporate disclosures.
