$10.4 billion in just one month—why are all the AI "money-making" unicorns located in Haidian?

March has not yet ended, and the capital enthusiasm in the AI sector has already been pushed to its peak by three companies in Haidian, Beijing.

First, on March 2, the embodiment intelligence company Galaxy General announced it had completed a 2.5 billion yuan Series A+ financing round, which not only sets the current record for a single financing round in China’s embodiment intelligence field but also releases a key signal— the National Big Fund is rarely making a move, marking its first foray into the embodiment intelligence sector.

Following that, the physical AI simulation infrastructure company Lightwheel Intelligence announced it recently completed two rounds of financing, A++ and A+++, totaling 1 billion yuan. With this, the “AI shovel seller” successfully entered the unicorn ranks, becoming the world’s first unicorn in the field of embodied data.

The latest news comes from Dark Side of the Moon. Recently, media reports indicated that the company is seeking a new round of financing at a valuation of 18 billion dollars, with a maximum of 1 billion dollars (approximately 6.9 billion yuan). If this information is accurate, Dark Side of the Moon will break its own record for domestic large model financing set earlier this year, becoming the domestic unicorn company with the fastest valuation to exceed 10 billion dollars.

Three phenomenal projects, over 10.4 billion yuan in real capital, have turned the spotlight on the same coordinates—Haidian, Beijing.

This raises the question: Why Haidian? Amid the fierce competition among major cities across the country for AI dominance, where local governments are offering sky-high “prizes,” what kind of magic does this land hold that allows capital to bet so densely and financing records to be frequently broken?

Originating in Haidian, Rooted in Haidian

Exploring the leaders of the three star companies mentioned above reveals that their growth trajectories and entrepreneurial experiences are deeply tied to this land of Haidian.

First, let’s talk about the founder of Dark Side of the Moon, Yang Zhilin, who is a typical Tsinghua University entrepreneur. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University, then pursued a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University, and worked on large model research at Google Brain. In April 2023, he returned to Beijing and founded Dark Side of the Moon at 27 Zhichun Road, Haidian District.

This company took just over two years to grow from its establishment to a valuation of 10 billion dollars, outpacing the growth rates of Pinduoduo and ByteDance.

The founder of Galaxy General, Wang He, has an even deeper connection to Haidian. A post-90s graduate of Tsinghua University’s Department of Electronics, he later obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at Peking University’s Frontier Computing Research Center. In May 2023, Wang He co-founded Galaxy General with industrial robot expert Yao Tengzhou, registering the company in Haidian. At the 2025 Haidian District Economic and Social High-Quality Development Conference, he succinctly summarized, “I was born in Haidian, grew up in Haidian, work in Haidian, and start my business in Haidian. I feel very honored.”

Finally, we have Xie Chen, the founder of Lightwheel Intelligence, who is also a top scholar emerging from Haidian. Born in 1987, he entered Peking University’s Department of Physics in 2005, and after graduating, went to Columbia University in the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in quantitative finance. After obtaining his doctorate, Xie Chen worked at Nvidia, Cruise, and other companies, becoming a leading figure in integrating generative AI into simulations.

In 2019, Xie Chen returned to China and joined NIO, where he was responsible for building the autonomous driving simulation system. In January 2023, he left NIO and, together with his technical partner Yang Haibo, established Lightwheel Intelligence in Beijing’s Zhongguancun.

It can be said that the three individuals mentioned above are representatives of those cultivated in Haidian and who returned to Haidian to start their businesses.

If we broaden our perspective, we will find that this “Haidian phenomenon” is common in the AI circle: for example, “the world’s first stock in large models,” Zhihua AI, originated from Tsinghua University’s Knowledge Engineering Laboratory (KEG); Baichuan Intelligent’s Wang Xiaochuan is an alumnus of Tsinghua’s computer science class of 1996; Wuwen Xinqiong was initiated by Wang Yu, the department head of Tsinghua University’s Department of Electronic Engineering… Moreover, star projects like Shenyin Technology and Ruile Wisdom also emerged from Tsinghua and Peking University laboratories, continuing to shine in Haidian.

So, why do these AI companies gather in Haidian?

It is well-known that talent is the core production factor in the AI industry, and Haidian holds the “source of fresh water” for talent supply. Data shows that Beijing gathers about 43% of the nation’s top AI talent, totaling approximately 12,300 people, with over 80% located in Haidian.

More crucially, the advantages here go beyond mere numbers; they include a unique talent structure: on one hand, 37 universities and top research institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Microsoft Research Asia have established a complete source ecosystem from academic research to talent cultivation. On the other hand, technology giants like Baidu and ByteDance, along with thousands of startups, provide a practical ground for engineering landing and a testing ground for innovative ideas.

This ecosystem that bridges “research, development, and production” undoubtedly forms a powerful talent attraction, constituting the first line of defense for Haidian’s AI industry—unlike other regions that rely on external talent, Haidian’s AI talent possesses the unique advantages of “native cultivation and local conversion.” This seamless integration of “academia and industry” creates a talent ecosystem that makes Haidian the preferred location for AI entrepreneurs, while capital firmly believes that in places where top talent gathers, top AI companies will surely emerge.

The “Tropical Rainforest” of the AI Industry

Indeed, talent is the starting point of all innovation, but to grow seeds into industry-leading unicorns, mere technological breakthroughs are clearly insufficient. Especially in the current climate, as capital becomes more cautious, merely relying on flashy demos can no longer impress investors; the ability to commercialize becomes the core bargaining chip for AI companies in financing.

Haidian’s continued emergence of “money-making” unicorns is because it not only possesses a talent reserve but has also constructed a mature industry ecosystem and an efficient conversion mechanism, ensuring that every step of technology’s journey from the lab to the market is traceable.

First, from the perspective of industrial empowerment. As the area with the earliest layout and the most complete industrial chain in China’s AI industry, Haidian has formed a full-chain ecosystem covering the “infrastructure layer—technology layer—application layer”: from large models, computing chips, and computer vision to embodied intelligence, autonomous driving, and AI + industry applications, it has everything.

Particularly decisive for the commercialization process are the application scenarios. Data shows that Haidian has over 280,000 market entities, 265 listed companies, 49 unicorns, and nearly 10,000 national high-tech enterprises, forming one trillion-level, four hundred billion-level, and five hundred billion-level industrial clusters.

This complete ecosystem of “R&D + manufacturing + application” allows AI companies to find application scenarios right at their doorstep, without having to “seek far and wide.”

Furthermore, it also possesses a complete capital aggregation ecosystem. On one hand, data shows that Haidian District has over 3,200 various financial and investment institutions, including more than 780 private equity investment institutions, collectively establishing a complete financing system covering seed to maturity stages. On the other hand, Haidian, being the area with the densest sci-tech resources, has created a dedicated main stage for venture capital—the Zhongguancun Science City International Innovation Service Aggregation Area—to collectively track cutting-edge technological innovation trends.

In addition, to accelerate the development of key industries, Haidian has established the Zhongguancun Science City Technology Growth Fund, and this series of funds has already formed four phases, with a total scale of up to 28 billion.

The gathering of resources is just the first step; the key lies in how to efficiently link them and achieve organic synergy. Especially for AI hard tech companies, the biggest pain point is the “disconnection” in transforming scientific achievements: cutting-edge technologies from universities and research institutes cannot “transfer out,” and market demands cannot “catch hold,” leading to a disconnect between research and industry.

To solve this problem, Haidian has pioneered the “Five Parties and Six Forces” mechanism to collaboratively promote the transformation of scientific achievements.

Specifically, the “Five Parties” refer to the five main entities: Zhongguancun Science City, universities and research institutes, investment funds, incubation carriers, and technology parks; the “Six Forces” include the organizational power of the Party and government, the innovative power of universities and research institutes, the value power of investment funds, the nurturing power of incubation carriers, the bearing power of technology parks, and the market power of collaborative efforts—these six forces work in unison to build a complete transformation system that can “transfer out, catch hold, settle down, and use well.”

To some extent, this “laboratory-to-unicorn” direct access mechanism also equips Haidian’s AI companies with a high commercial floor from day one of their establishment.

From talent to industry, then to capital, and finally breaking through the “last mile” of achievement transformation—Haidian answers why AI “money-making” unicorns are all here: because on this land, technology is not only created but also efficiently transformed into value.

Using Real Money to Support Innovation

Investing in technological innovation and the transformation of results ultimately boils down to investing in talent. Haidian District, as one of the areas with the densest intellectual resources in the country and even globally, is itself a fertile ground for cultivating and discovering innovative projects.

However, the process of transitioning from laboratory to market often exhibits characteristics of long time cycles, high risks, and no clear short-term returns. At this time, the need for matching “patient capital” to safeguard the process becomes even more critical.

This year, Haidian has established a new results transformation fund with a scale of 2 billion yuan. From the outset, this fund has anchored a clear positioning: focusing on original, leading, and disruptive technology projects, adhering to “early investment, small investment,” and providing long-term stable funding support for transformation projects from universities and research institutes as well as innovative entrepreneurial projects.

Undoubtedly, the establishment of the results transformation fund will elevate Haidian’s technological innovation ecosystem to a new height, meaning that through the power of capital, it will further provide solid support for the transformation of results and innovation entrepreneurship for high-end talent.

As the laboratories of Peking University and Tsinghua University continuously output original technologies, as the “Five Parties and Six Forces” mechanism breaks through critical bottlenecks in results transformation, and as the government is willing to provide real money to back early-stage projects… we can conclude that the influx of capital is no coincidence but a natural outcome.

The magic of Haidian is complex yet simple: it transforms hard tech entrepreneurship from a high-risk gamble into a more certain venture. Here, genius is not wasted, technology can find applications, and capital dares to place bets. This is precisely the confidence and example that China needs in the AI era to compete for global discourse power.

To deeply analyze the core “leap” of AI accelerating from technology to value, to explore the opportunities and asset pricing logic behind the trillion-yuan AI industry, to seek investment strategies that identify commercial turning points and layout across the entire cycle amid industrial chain restructuring, and to envision the “symbiotic” path of global innovative collaboration and the synergy of capital, industry, and government under the integration of virtual and real, the “AI Future Forum,” jointly hosted by the Haidian District People’s Government and Beijing State-owned Capital Operation Management Co., Ltd., will be grandly held on March 29 at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, organized by Beijing Zhongguancun Science City Innovation Development Co., Ltd., Beijing Shunxi Private Fund Management Co., Ltd., and China Venture Information.

This conference, themed “Leap·Investment·Symbiosis,” invites the most authoritative practitioners from the technical, capital, and industrial fronts to deeply analyze trillion-level industrial opportunities and asset pricing logic, discussing investment strategies and collaborative symbiotic paths in industrial chain restructuring. Four iconic figures from China’s venture capital scene, including Zhou Kui from Sequoia China, Liu Qin from Wuyuan Capital, Xu Chuanxing from Matrix Partners, and Li Liang from Hillhouse Capital, will sit together to discuss how new AI species are reshaping productivity patterns. Zhu Xiaohu, managing partner of Jinsha River Capital, will once again attend as the host of the “Intelligent Leap·AI Pioneer Dialogue” session, engaging in cross-disciplinary discussions with investors, entrepreneurs, and scholars.

In addition to intense intellectual exchanges, the forum will also host a series of signing events for the investment ecosystem partner plan, including the signing of the Zhongguancun Science City International Innovation Service Aggregation Area and the Five Parties and Six Forces Fund ecosystem.

Moreover, this forum will release the “China’s Most Valuable Venture Capital District Rankings for 2025” for the second consecutive year, marking new directions for venture capital value based on nine dimensions including economic development levels, technological innovation capabilities, and corporate financing activity.

On March 29, let us witness this deep resonance between capital and technology together.