Lei Jun and Wang Xiaochuan Join Forces, Xiaomi's Large Model Investment Strategy Revealed for the First Time
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In the era of large models, Lei Jun and Wang Xiaochuan have come together.
QuantumBit has learned that Wang Xiaochuan's startup, Baichuan Intelligence, has become a new favorite in Lei Jun's large model strategy.
In the two rounds of financing that Baichuan is still rumored to be undergoing, Lei Jun has made significant investments, playing a key role.
However, Wang Xiaochuan is not Lei Jun's only bet on large models. In Lei Jun's race, there are two other star large-model unicorns.
Lei Jun and Wang Xiaochuan's Large Model Collaboration
The specific form of Lei Jun's collaboration with Wang Xiaochuan is through Xiaomi Group and Shunwei Capital, investing in the large model startup Baichuan Intelligence.
The company was established by Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan in March, starting with foundational large models and adopting a dual approach of releasing models in both open and closed-source formats.
According to venture capital circles, Lei Jun made his first investment in the company in May. As Lei Jun's "two hands," Xiaomi and Shunwei jointly participated in Baichuan Intelligence's Series A1 funding round. The pre-money valuation was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with financing exceeding hundreds of millions of RMB.
In addition to Xiaomi and Shunwei, other investors in Baichuan Intelligence's Series A1 round, as disclosed by investment platforms, include Tencent Investment, Tsinghua Holdings, TAL Education Group's strategic investment arm, and Shenzhen Capital Group.
The second investment was in Baichuan Intelligence's recent Series A3 funding round, with market rumors suggesting Shunwei and Xiaomi made another heavy bet, investing tens of millions of USD.
Regarding the above investment news, Baichuan has stated that there are no comments or responses at this time.
However, Baichuan Intelligence is not Lei Jun's only choice for investing in large model startups.
Previous reports revealed that as investors, Xiaomi Group and Shunwei Capital have already poured substantial funds into the market's recognized top players.
Who are they?
Zhipu AI and MiniMax—the two most sought-after rising stars.
Through these moves, Lei Jun's current layout for large AI models is becoming clear: replicating Xiaomi's strategy from the mobile internet era—combining investment and internal R&D to advance simultaneously.
This also indicates that Lei Jun recognizes the transformative power of large models and is acting faster, more precisely, and more aggressively compared to the decision-making AI wave.
Opportunities and Challenges for Baichuan Intelligence
As one of the three large model startups reportedly backed by Lei Jun, Baichuan Intelligence has indeed established itself as a prominent player in China's emerging large model market.
With founder Wang Xiaochuan as its figurehead, the team boldly declared its mission to 'build China's best large model foundation' and aims to release a model rivaling GPT-3.5 by year-end.
The ambition sounds grand, yet Baichuan appears confident. Established in late March and publicly announced in early April, it launched its first open-source commercial model Baichuan-7B within two months, subsequently maintaining a monthly update cycle for new models.
Many consider it the fastest-moving contender in China's large model race. More importantly, the company has demonstrated its technical prowess through frequent model releases:
By late August, Baichuan Intelligence obtained approval for public launch. Currently, its Baichuan series has progressed to Baichuan2, with the latest development being September's release of the 53-billion-parameter closed-source Baichuan2-53B and API interfaces for B2B expansion.
While demonstrating remarkable speed and product output, Baichuan Intelligence faces equally evident and formidable challenges ahead.
On one hand, as a startup, Baichuan Intelligence must carve out a path among emerging competitors while also competing with industry giants. The parallel advancement of open and closed-source strategies means facing competition from all sides, with a higher number of rival companies.
This level of competition is undeniably intense, requiring substantial financial and resource investments.
On the other hand, Baichuan Intelligence's competitiveness and talent appeal have yet to form a complete cycle—an area that has raised external skepticism. So far, compared to the anticipated OpenAI, Baichuan Intelligence appears more like Sogou 2.0.
The team includes former Sogou COO Ru Liyun and former Sogou CMO Hong Tao, among other executives. A significant portion of the team has a Sogou background. According to Wang Xiaochuan's public statement in early August, about 30-40% of Baichuan Intelligence's 120 employees were formerly from Sogou.
Some former Sogou employees even joked that it feels like they've simply changed offices to continue working. Sogou, of course, was also a technology company known for its talented and skilled workforce.
In China's winner-takes-all tech and internet arena, whether it's investment or talent acquisition, one can't help but ask—why could this time be different?
Especially when the competitors remain the same: Baidu is still Baidu, and 360 remains under Zhou Hongyi's leadership.
Now, Baichuan Intelligence is entering the fray as an independent startup, racing against first-mover unicorns like Zhipu's Minimax while also engaging in fierce competition with tech giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, iFlytek, and 360.
The challenges may be even greater than during the Sogou era.
One More Thing
Of course, some things change, while others stay the same.
What remains unchanged is that Zhang is once again standing alongside Xiaochuan.
Latest development: Sohu, led by Zhang Chaoyang, has made its first investment in the field of large models and even AI. The target is none other than Baichuan Intelligence.