Text/Observer Network Gu Zhixuan
The unicorn with the highest valuation in the world was born, and it was still a China company that won the title.
On February 27th, Horizon Robotics, an AI chip start-up, revealed to Observer.com that it had received a series B financing of about $6 million (about 4 billion RMB), with a valuation of $3 billion (about 2 billion RMB).
In June last year, another Chinese company, Cambricon Technologies, completed hundreds of millions of dollars in Series B financing, with an overall valuation of $2.5 billion (about 16.7 billion RMB) after the investment. At that time, it became the "leader" of global AI chip startups.
In this way, Horizon has surpassed Cambrian and become the "most valuable" unicorn enterprise in the field of AI chips.
it should be mentioned that among the leading investors in this round of financing, South Korea's SK Hynix, the third largest semiconductor supplier in the world, is impressively listed, and Intel, the "boss" in this field, led Horizon's A+ round of financing as early as 217. This means that two of the top three semiconductor giants in the world have become important shareholders of Horizon.
Horizon's "Journey 1. Processor" map has been established for three years since Horizon website
Horizon told Observer.com that the second round of financing was jointly led by SK China, SK Hynix and several China first-tier automobile groups (with their funds).
other institutions and strategic partners involved include: Oceanwide Investment under China Oceanwide Holding Group, People's Bank of China Capital, CSOBOR Fund under CITIC Lyon and Haisong Capital. At the same time, this round of financing has also been blessed by existing shareholders including Morningstar Capital, Gaoyao Capital, Yunhui Capital and Linear Capital.
This is also the second time that Horizon, which was established just over three years ago, has received a heavyweight investment after it received more than $1 million in A+ round financing led by Intel in the second half of 217.
The company also said that the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars given to Horizon by several domestic first-tier automobile groups has also become the largest investment of China automobile enterprises in the AI field at present.
Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon, told Observer.com, "The important strategic partners and resources introduced by this financing will further accelerate the pace of research and development and commercialization of Horizon."
In addition, Wu Zuoyi, president of SK China, pointed out that "Horizon's products and solutions in the field of AI processors and autonomous driving are impressive."
Yu Kai, who previously worked for Baidu, launched the Baidu Autopilot Project in 213. However, in May 215, he left Baidu and founded Horizon in July of the same year.
Yu Kai data map is from vision china
Before obtaining the latest round of financing, Horizon also published a "report card".
in 217, Horizon made a large-scale film (trial production) and released China's first edge AI processor-Horizon "Journey" series processor for intelligent driving and Horizon "Rising Sun" series processor for AIoT (Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things) edge computing.
in 218, relying on its soft-hard AI processor technology, the company successively released the Matrix autopilot computing platform and the Horizon XForce Edge AI computing platform.
At present, the Matrix autopilot computing platform has been supplied to the world's top L4 autopilot manufacturers on a large scale. At the end of 218, the company launched a software and hardware integrated solution such as Navnet crowdsourcing high-precision map collection and positioning scheme based on the Matrix computing platform, and it has begun to gradually land.
In the field of intelligent driving, Horizon's partners include Audi, Bosch, Changan, BYD, SAIC, Guangzhou Automobile, etc.
According to Reuters, the software and hardware jointly developed by Horizon and Audi helped the latter obtain the license to test autonomous driving on Wuxi Highway in China.
Screenshot of Horizon Intelligent Driving Demonstration Video
Chinese enterprises have yet to catch up with industry giants
Observer Network also noticed that although Horizon has been favored by many capitals, Chinese enterprises have yet to catch up with industry giants in the field of AI chips.
Compass Intelligence, a market research organization, evaluated more than 1 chip companies around the world. In the final ranking of AI chip companies, 24 companies were shortlisted, and the top three companies were Nvidia, Intel and IBM. Huawei is the highest ranked company in China, ranking 12th.
Horizon also ranks 24th in this list, and the Cambrian mentioned above is one place ahead of it.
other short-listed China enterprises include MediaTek, Imagination, Rockchip and Verisilcon, ranking 14th, 15th, 2th and 21st respectively.
The picture is from Compass Intelligence
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