Venture capitalist Lee Kai-fu dismissed rumours that tech unicorn 01.AI, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company he founded in 2023, was negotiating to sell its pre-training team to Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing unit amid operational challenges.
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In a WeChat post on Tuesday, the start-up denounced as “vicious slander” recent talk that it was looking to sell its pre-training team and other important assets to Alibaba Cloud owing to business difficulties. Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Beijing-headquartered 01.AI, which reached a valuation of more than US$1 billion in 2023 after a funding round that included Alibaba Cloud, posted revenue of more than 100 million yuan (US$13.7 million) in 2024, which is expected to increase this year, according to Lee, who serves as the start-up’s chief executive. He is also chairman and chief executive at Sinovation Ventures and formerly president at Google China.
Lee’s denial comes a few days after Alibaba Cloud and 01.AI announced that they will jointly set up a laboratory to develop new AI models for enterprise users.
In the company’s post, Lee said 01.AI will prioritise AI applications in 2025, which is expected to be a period of explosive growth amid intense competition among AI companies in China.
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Neither 01.AI nor Alibaba Cloud immediately replied to a request for comment on Tuesday.