Alibaba Leads $439 Million Funding Round for AI Video Startup AIsphere

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has led a new funding round for artificial intelligence startup AIsphere, bringing the company’s Series C financing to 2.98 billion yuan ($439 million), as China’s tech giants step up investments in video-generation technology.

The deal underscores a widening race among the country’s internet conglomerates to fill gaps in their multimodal AI capabilities. Major platforms are pouring capital into startups developing interactive world models as they seek to challenge ByteDance Ltd.’s lead in the sector.