Tian Keyu's stealth AI lab raises ~$30M at $200M valuation, drawing criticism
According to Bloomberg, a roughly 10-person AI lab with no product and no public name has raised nearly $30 million at a $200 million post-money valuation, backed by 5Y Capital and IDG Capital, and led by founder Tian Keyu, an early-20s Peking University PhD student. Tian is first author of the NeurIPS 2024 best paper (VAR) and was the subject of ByteDance's alleged "model poisoning" incident: a first-instance court ordered him to pay 500,000 yuan and return all internship salary while rejecting ByteDance's 8 million yuan tort claim, and ByteDance has appealed with the second trial still pending. 36Kr's commentary argues that, with strong AI projects heavily oversubscribed, investors who "close their eyes" are effectively pricing controversy-driven attention as an asset.
It highlights how Chinese AI investors are pricing scarce talent amid a shortage of quality deals, and whether controversy-driven attention can itself become a funding asset.