StepFun, a Chinese AI startup specialising in the development of large language models (LLMs), has raised over 5 billion yuan ($717 million) in a Series B+ round of financing as one of the largest LLM investments so far in China.
Although its fundraising is still nowhere near OpenAI’s reported funding of $40 billion or Anthropic’s $13-billion Series F round in the US, StepFun received continued support from existing shareholders, including Tencent Holdings, Qiming Venture Partners, and 5Y Capital. Lighthouse Capital, which served as the deal’s financial advisor, announced the deal on Monday.
A group of domestic government and industry capital investors also participated in the round. They include an investment platform wholly owned by Shanghai State-Owned Capital Investment, China Life Private Equity Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, Xuhui Capital, the state-owned Xiamen ITG Group, and Shanghai-listed Huaqin Technology, an intelligent hardware ODM (original design manufacturer).
The new financing will allow StepFun to invest further in product R&D to build world-class foundation models. It also plans to accelerate the realisation of its core “AI plus terminals” strategy to enable the adoption of AI in consumer-facing products like smart vehicles and smartphones.
Founded in April 2023 and led by co-founder and CEO Jiang Daxin, formerly the chief scientist of Microsoft Asia Research Institute, StepFun claims to have embedded its AI models into over 42 million smartphones under its partnerships with Chinese brands like OPPO, Honor, and ZTE.
In July 2025, it teamed up with China’s Geely Auto to showcase a smart cockpit product powered by StepFun’s end-to-end voice LLM, featuring a more human-like, in-vehicle conversation and interaction experience for users. Later in September, Geely launched in China the Geely Galaxy M9, a six-seat, plug-in hybrid SUV, which they said was the industry’s first implementation of an end-to-end voice LLM in a mass-produced vehicle.
StepFund expects to deploy its LLMs into over one million vehicles this year.
This big-ticket financing also coincides with StepFun’s announcement of officially appointing Yin Qi as the chairman of the board to spearhead its strategic business direction and technology roadmap.
A seasoned AI entrepreneur, Yin also chairs the board of Afari Technology, a Shanghai-listed company focusing on AI-driven smart new energy vehicles (NEVs) and intelligent driving, with Mercedes-Benz being a minority stakeholder.
His appointment will see StepFun and Afari Technology deepen their collaborations in promoting the commercialisation of the strategic focus of “AI plus terminals,” said StepFun in a statement.
