A Gen-Z Gamer's 3D-Model Startup Vast Raises ~$200M to Become China's Latest AI Unicorn

Vast, a Beijing-based startup that uses AI to generate three-dimensional models from text and images, said on June 1 that it has raised nearly $200 million in fresh funding at a valuation north of $1 billion — vaulting the young company into the ranks of China’s newest artificial-intelligence unicorns. According to Bloomberg, the round was led by Ince Capital alongside a venture fund backed by China Life Insurance Co.

The company was founded by Simon Song, a twenty-something gamer who built Vast around a single bet: that the slow, expensive craft of 3D asset creation could be automated the way large language models automated text. Its flagship product, Tripo AI, takes a written prompt or a flat image and turns it into a detailed, production-ready 3D object in seconds — geometry, textures and all — collapsing work that traditionally took skilled artists hours or days.

That pitch has found a market faster than most. Vast says Tripo AI now serves close to 10 million users and roughly 90,000 studios and companies, and counts heavyweights such as NetEase and Sony among its customers. The generated models are used across video games, filmmaking, 3D printing and industrial design — anywhere a digital object needs to exist before it is rendered, shipped or manufactured.

The raise caps a remarkable twelve months. As recently as March 2026, Vast closed a $50 million Series A led by Alibaba Group and Hengxu Capital, with participation from Baidu Ventures and the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund — a round that had already pushed its paper value toward the billion-dollar line. The new financing more than triples that earlier check and confirms the unicorn label outright.

Vast is wading into an increasingly crowded fight over generative 3D. At home it goes head-to-head with Tencent’s Hunyuan 3D, while abroad it faces Silicon Valley’s Meshy and a steady push from Google and other labs treating 3D generation as the next frontier after text, images and video. The backing of a state-linked insurer and China’s biggest internet platforms underscores how strategic Beijing now considers the category — and how quickly a consumer-friendly tool can graduate into national-champion territory.