- Chinese investors poured fresh capital into quantum computing, edge AI chips, RISC-V processors and embodied AI as startups accelerated commercialization
- The latest funding rounds will support chip development, AI infrastructure, quantum cloud services and next-gen robotics across emerging industries
Logical Qubit closes Series A to expand quantum chip, cloud platform
Logical Qubit (逻辑比特), a Hangzhou-based quantum startup, has raised several hundred million yuan in a Series A funding round co-led by Chaos Investment and Bayland Capital.
Other participants include Guokai Technology Venture, Vision Plus Capital, Shanghai Future-oriented Industries Fund, IDG Capital, China Fortune-Tech Capital, UNT Capital, Highlight Capital, TCL Capital, Houxue Capital and other investors.
Existing backers including Matrix Partners China, Orient Renaissance Capital, Fortune Capital, T-Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group also increased their stakes.
Founded in 2022 as a spinout from Zhejiang University’s superconducting quantum computing team, the company has completed three financing rounds this year and six since its inception.
The proceeds will fund development of next-generation superconducting quantum chips, construction of automated production lines, expansion of its quantum computing cloud platform and recruitment.
On July 9, the company also launched a superconducting quantum computing cloud platform for universities, research institutes and industries including pharmaceuticals, AI and finance.
Powered by its 30-qubit and 100-qubit AGate chips, the platform delivers key performance metrics that the company says match or exceed leading international quantum cloud platforms such as IBM.
Users can submit algorithms in code, which are automatically translated into quantum circuits for execution.
The company also signed a strategic partnership with Pharmaron to explore quantum computing-enabled drug discovery and help accelerate “Quantum-ready” pharmaceutical R&D.
ListenAI bags nearly $74 million Series B funds for edge AI chips
Hefei based AI processor startup ListenAI (聆思科技) has raised nearly 500 million yuan ($73.78 million) in a Series B funding round led by several state-backed investment platforms in Anhui and the provincial capital Hefei.
The backers include Hefei Industrial Investment Capital, Hefei Xingtai Holdings, Hefei Jiantou Capital, Guoyuan Securities, Hua’an Jiaye and Anhui Provincial Emerging Industry Investment. Other investors included iFlytek Capital, Shenzhen Press Group, Yingke PE and Yongxin Capital.
The AIoT chip designer said the proceeds will be used to commercialize its Nebula series and build infrastructure for on-device large-model inference.
Founded in 2020, ListenAI has adopted a “chip plus algorithm” strategy and has launched 23 system-on-chip products. Its chips have shipped more than 150 million units and are used by customers including Haier, Midea, Hisense and China’s three major telecom operators.
The company’s first edge AI inference chip, the Nebula series, is scheduled for launch by the end of 2026 for applications including robots, AI PCs, smart cockpits and smart homes.
The company is jointly developing applications with Lenovo, Chery, Haier, Midea and robotics partners, betting on the industry’s shift from AI training to inference.
RISC-V Computing secures pre-Series A financing to scale RISC-V chiplets
RISC-V Computing (灵睿智芯), a startup working on RISC-V chip architecture, has raised several hundred million yuan in a pre-Series A funding round backed by Zhangjiang High-Tech, Biren Technology, Oriental Fortune Capital, CAS Star, Chengwei Capital, Stony Creek Capital, Fortera Capital, H Capital and WestSummit Capital.
Founded in Shanghai in January 2025, the startup was established by a team of former IBM engineers who led the development of multiple generations of POWER server processors and have experience commercializing high-performance CPUs using 7nm and more advanced manufacturing processes.
The company develops high-end RISC-V CPU cores, chiplets and domain-specific processors. The latest funding will support tape-out of its P100 processor core, chip validation and team expansion.
Based on the P100, the company is developing both domain-specific processors for storage and networking and AI computing chips using a chiplet architecture for AI inference, robotics and autonomous driving.
Its FPGA prototype entered an operating system in July, and the company aims to build China’s highest-performance domestically developed RISC-V AI agent processor.
Westlake Robotics lands shy of $15 million to scale embodied AI
Westlake Robotics (西湖机器人), an embodied robot startup, has raised more than 100 million yuan ($14.76 million) in a pre-Series A++ funding round solely backed by Huirong Fund of Henan Investment Group.
The funding will be used to further develop the Hangzhou-based company’s unified embodied AI foundation model, strengthen its core algorithms and accelerate commercialization of its Westlake o1 humanoid robot across multiple industries.
Founded by a team led by Wang Donglin, associate professor in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at Westlake University, the startup is the university’s first major commercialization project in AI and robotics.
It has completed three funding rounds in just five months, raising several hundred million yuan.
Westlake Robotics develops end-to-end embodied AI systems spanning a general-purpose foundation model, a full-body humanoid control model and self-developed humanoid hardware.
The company says it is among a handful of firms worldwide pursuing a fully integrated stack covering cognition, motion and robotics hardware.
Earlier this year it unveiled its first self-developed humanoid robot, Westlake o1, validating its technology from underlying algorithms to complete robotic systems.
The company has already begun commercial deployments in logistics inspection, data collection and cultural entertainment, with industry orders continuing to grow.
