China's VAST Raises $420 Million in Series B and B+ Rounds to Advance Generative Video

Chinese company VAST, specializing in video and 3D model generation, announced raising approximately $420 million across Series B and B+ funding rounds, supported by a broad group of local financial and strategic investors.

VAST is developing generative AI models capable of producing high-quality videos and 3D content, targeting creative content production, gaming, virtual environment design, and the metaverse.

This funding reflects rising Chinese investment in visual generative AI, as numerous Chinese companies seek to build domestic capabilities that rival Western counterparts such as OpenAI's Sora, Runway, and Pika, amid Chinese government directives supporting the development of national models.

The new funding will be deployed to accelerate research, expand the team, and increase computing capacity required to train large models in a market experiencing fierce competition to lead the visual generative AI era.

What do these terms mean?

Generative Video: An AI technology that produces complete video clips from text descriptions or still images, and is considered one of the fastest-growing AI sectors in terms of investment and commercial adoption.

Series B+ (Extended Series B): An additional funding round launched by startups following a main Series B round to accommodate surging demand or secure new strategic alliances without moving fully to Series C.

AI-Generated 3D Models: Three-dimensional digital content automatically produced using generative AI, used in video games, product design, and virtual environments.