Chinese short video giant Kuaishou announced on Thursday night that its artificial intelligence video arm, Clin AI, aims to raise about US$3 billion in its first external funding round, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Authority.
Baidu, Alibaba’s cloud arm and Tencent were involved in the funding round, according to the filing. State-backed capital such as Beijing Information Industry Development Investment Fund and Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund also participated.
Alibaba is the owner of SCMP.
Backers also include companies in the media and entertainment industry that are increasingly using AI video tools, such as Huace Film & TV and Mango Investment.
This funding round is the largest in the world by an AI video modeling company and comes at a time when competition in the global AI video space is intensifying.
Chinese rival ByteDance shocked Hollywood in February with the release of its SeaDance 2.0 model. Because the model can produce video so lifelike and faithful to its details, entertainment executives have expressed concern that the technology could disrupt film and television production and take away creative jobs.
