DP Technology, an artificial intelligence (AI) firm focused on scientific applications, said it has snagged $100 million in its latest financing round.
Zhongyuan Capital, the mother fund under state-owned leading media group Shanghai United Media Group, as well as several China-focused private equity firms, including MSA Capital and Loyal Valley Capital, participated in the round.
The proceeds will be used to expand the Beijing-headquartered firm’s AI for science-based platforms for drug discovery, materials science, energy, and other scientific fields, the firm said.
Founded in 2018, DP Technology leverages AI and molecular simulation algorithms to create a new generation of micro-scale industrial design and simulation platform for industries including biomedical, energy, materials, and information science.
The firm also claims that it released large pre-trained models for molecular property prediction and quantum chemistry computation as well as generative AI models for pocket-based drug design last year.
The latest capital injection is the AI firm’s fifth financing round after it bagged “several hundreds of millions” US dollars in a Series B round from GGV Capital and Qiming Venture Partners in January 2022.
Although investors continue to inject capital into AI firms, as the country races to become an AI innovation powerhouse by 2030, investing in AI firms has increasingly become a sensitive sector rife with geopolitical risks.
VC funding in China’s AI sector reached $4.1 billion as of June 29, down 26.8% from its pre-pandemic level of $5.6 billion in the first half of 2020, according to Preqin data. In comparison, funding for AI firms in the US stood at $27.3 billion during the same period this year.
Most recently, the Biden administration rolled out an executive order on August 9 that will prohibit new US private equity, venture capital, and joint-venture investments in China’s advanced semiconductors and quantum computers.
The proposed rules may also mandate American investors in China to disclose their direct investments in AI and other types of semiconductors to the US government, the Wall Street Journal reported.