The Tamesis
Simon Song, founder of VAST.
Forbes Asia Fang Yan
VAST, a Chinese artificial intelligence model developer founded by 29-year-old gaming enthusiast Simon Song, has become a unicorn startup after raising about $200 million in new funding from more than a dozen investors including INCE Capital, Genesis Capital and Primavera Capital Group.
The company announced its Series A+ and Series A++ funding rounds on Monday. The company has been valued at at least $1 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The startup is currently valued at about $1.5 billion, one of the people said. A VAST spokesman declined to comment on the company’s valuation.
The new funding comes just three months after a Series A round in March, when the startup raised $50 million at an undisclosed valuation from investors led by Alibaba and private equity firm Hengxu Capital. VAST was founded in 2023 by Song, who was named to this year’s Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list.
As an avid gamer who often plays games until midnight, Song hopes to use VAST to speed up the creation of 3D content. Its Tripo AI platform converts images and text cues into detailed 3D objects in seconds, saving users and game creators development time.
VAST plans to use the newly raised funds for hiring as well as research and development. In addition to announcing the funding, the company also launched Project Eden, an effort to develop what it calls a model of the world. These models are a form of artificial intelligence that generate virtual environments for people to freely explore and interact with. Earlier this year, pioneering computer scientist Fei-Fei Li raised $1 billion for her spatial intelligence startup World Labs, which develops world models that provide artificial 3D environments for users to explore.
In its funding announcement, VAST said its goal is to create simulated environments for multiple users. The startup said it has also made strides with its Tripo AI service, which can now create lifelike characters with cinematic quality.
The company works with companies including Chinese gaming giant NetEase and Japanese entertainment giant Sony. It charges them on a per-project basis. VAST says it also has 20 million users worldwide who use Tripo AI for animation and industrial design work.
These users pay monthly subscription fees ranging from $20 to $140. According to the company, they mainly come from regions such as the United States, Europe and Japan. Song majored in economics and international studies at Johns Hopkins University and returned to China in 2019, where his first job was as an assistant to Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of SenseTime, a Hong Kong-listed artificial intelligence software company. Two years later, he co-founded MiniMax, an artificial intelligence model developer, and left the company in 2022 to form VAST.
