China AI chipmaker Biren gets 2 billion yuan funding pledge after US sanction: sources

CHINESE artificial intelligence (AI) chip firm Shanghai Biren Intelligent Technology has recently secured a pledge of two billion yuan (S$376.1 million) from Guangzhou government-backed investors after the company was blacklisted by Washington in October, according to people familiar with the matter.

The startup has also talked to officials in Hong Kong in recent weeks for extra funding, and it is considering establishing operations in the Chinese territory, according to sources, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public. The talks may still fall through, the people added.

Biren and the related Hong Kong government agencies, including the Financial Secretary’s Office, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Biren’s success in raising new funds from investors affiliated with the local Guangzhou government comes as major Chinese tech firms including Baidu are seeking domestic alternatives to Nvidia’s AI chips, in the face of growing US curbs on China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductors.

In addition to Biren, there are other domestic Nvidia challengers that Beijing and Chinese firms are betting on. Moore Threads Intelligent Technology Beijing, another Chinese AI chip startup that got sanctioned together with Biren by the US in October, reportedly also raised “hundreds of millions” in yuan from a Series B-plus round.

In the current earnings season, the likes of Tencent and Baidu were keen to reassure investors that they had stockpiled enough Nvidia chips to advance their AI capabilities. In the case of Baidu, it has been claiming that the latest iteration of its large language model can rival OpenAI’s advanced ChatGPT-4 in general capabilities.

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Meanwhile, Biren is considering a listing in Hong Kong as soon as this year, Bloomberg News reported in July. If the company eventually decides to set up shop in the Chinese territory, it could boost the Hong Kong government’s ambition to develop a local chip industry to aid Beijing’s objective of becoming self-sufficient in critical fields including advanced semiconductors. BLOOMBERG