By Evelyn Cheng
Publication Date: 2026-04-10 01:42:00
A mechanical hand is displayed at Robot Mall, the world’s first embodied intelligent robot 4S store, in Beijing, China, August 13, 2025.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – Alibaba Cloud is investing in a new type of artificial intelligence that aims to better replicate the real world, using a different approach than chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The shift recognizes the limitations of “large language models” that are trained primarily on text. Instead, developers are increasingly focusing on “world models” based on videos and real-world physical scenarios.
Following this trend, Alibaba invested 2 billion yuan ($290 million) in ShengShu, the startup behind AI video generation tool Vidu, the company announced Friday. TAL Education and Baidu Ventures also participated in the Series B funding round.
The investment comes about two months after ShengShu raised 600 million yuan from Qiming Venture Partners and other backers. The startup declined to disclose its…
