Recently, Prosperity 7, a fund managed by the venture capital department of Middle Eastern oil giant Aramco, invested in Chinese AI giant unicorn company Zhipu AI, with a total investment of $400 million (approximately RMB 2.894 billion), bringing the valuation of Zhipu AI to $3 billion (approximately RMB 21.702 billion). Prosperity 7 is a fund with managed funds of up to $3 billion, primarily investing in global innovative technology companies. This investment scale is the largest single round financing event in China's AI big model field to date, and also marks the first time Prosperity 7 has invested in a unicorn project in China's generative AI field.
Zhipu AI was founded in 2019. Its team comes from the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory of Tsinghua University. It has developed into the largest generative AI startup in China, with more than 800 employees. Its business covers many industries, including media, finance, and the Internet. At present, Zhipu AI has launched multiple large model products and established cooperative relationships with over 2000 partners. Despite the lockdown imposed by the United States on the Chinese AI industry, other investment funds around the world are currently experiencing a contraction in their operations in China. However, Prosperity 7 is expanding its team in China, which has now grown to about 12 people. In May of this year, Prosperity 7 held an investment forum in Beijing, with Zhipu AI as one of the participants, further demonstrating the depth of cooperation between the two sides.
This investment not only reflects Saudi Arabia's willingness to support an artificial intelligence ecosystem that can compete with Silicon Valley in the United States, but also marks the rise of China's AI technology and its potential to attract global capital. Meanwhile, this is also part of Saudi Aramco's further deepening cooperation with the Chinese market through Prosperity 7, aiming to provide opportunities for high-tech investment and technological cooperation for Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. Through this investment, Zhipu AI has not only been strengthened at the capital level, but its technology and products are also expected to further enter the international market through Saudi Aramco's global network. This is an important driving force for Zhipu AI's internationalization strategy and opens up new possibilities for its future development.