A startup that didn’t exist until 2023 just raised nearly $200 million and crossed the billion-dollar valuation threshold. Vast, a Beijing-based company building AI-powered 3D modeling tools, has become China’s newest AI unicorn, adding another name to an increasingly crowded roster of generative AI companies jockeying for dominance in the world’s second-largest economy.
The company’s core product, Tripo AI, translates text and image prompts into detailed 3D objects. That pitch has resonated with some serious names: clients include NetEase and Sony.
The funding trail
Vast’s path to unicorn status has been unusually fast, even by Chinese AI standards. The company closed a $50 million Series A round in March 2026, led by Alibaba Group and Hengxu Capital, with participation from Baidu Ventures and other investors. That single round pushed the company’s valuation past the billion-dollar mark.
Prior to that milestone, the startup had already pulled in tens of millions from a mix of government-linked and private investors, including the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Vitalbridge, and Fortune Capital. When you stack all the rounds together, the total funding approaches the $200 million figure.
Who’s behind it
Vast was founded by CEO Simon Song, who previously co-founded MiniMax, another Chinese AI unicorn.
The company’s user base tells its own story about product-market fit. Vast claims nearly 10 million individual users and roughly 90,000 studios and companies on the Tripo platform. The presence of enterprise clients like NetEase and Sony suggests the output quality is production-grade, or at least close enough that major studios are willing to integrate it into their workflows.
The competitive landscape and what investors should watch
Vast positions itself as a competitor to efforts from Tencent and Google in text-to-3D generation. Tencent has the advantage of owning massive gaming and entertainment platforms that are natural distribution channels for 3D content.