Key Takeaways
- • Sand.ai, a Beijing-based AI video generation startup, raised $200 million in a Series A+ round that lifted its valuation above $1 billion, making it a unicorn.
- • The round was jointly led by CoStone Capital and Shenzhen-listed Wangsu Science & Technology, with participation from state-owned Pudong Venture Capital Group and an investment arm of Shanghai International Group.
- • The Series A+ is the startup's third funding round of 2026 and brings its 10-month fundraising total to $300 million.
- • Existing backers including iMPC (formerly Matrix Partners China), CAS Star and HyT Capital re-invested, according to a company announcement.
- • VidMuse, Sand.ai's paid AI video creation service, reached annual recurring revenue of over $10 million within two months of its January launch.
Summary
Sand.ai, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup specialising in video generation, announced on Thursday that it has completed a $200 million Series A extension round, taking it past the $1 billion valuation threshold that marks unicorn status. The Beijing-based company drew a mix of investors that included industry capital, government funding, domestic yuan-denominated funds and US dollar investors.
Chinese investment firm CoStone Capital and Shenzhen-listed IT infrastructure company Wangsu Science & Technology jointly led the round. Multiple investment firms, along with state-owned Pudong Venture Capital Group and an investment arm of Shanghai International Group, also participated. Existing investors iMPC (formerly Matrix Partners China), CAS Star and HyT Capital re-upped, according to a company announcement. The round marks the company's third funding round in 2026 and brings its fundraising total over the past 10 months to $300 million. It follows less than five months after the startup raised more than $100 million across two earlier rounds. Earlier investors included Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen's family office Lollapalooza Capital, IDG Capital, Baidu Ventures and Sinovation Ventures, led by former Google China head Dr Kai-Fu Lee.
Founded in early 2024 by Tsinghua PhD graduate Cao Yue, Sand.ai uses generative video models to lower production costs, shorten turnaround times and broaden access to high-quality video creation. Its model lineup includes Magi-1, an autoregressive video generation model; GAGA-1, a model for simultaneous audio-visual generation; and MAGI-2 Preview, an open-source research release. The company plans to launch an official version of MAGI-2 in the near term.
On the commercial side, VidMuse, a paid AI video creation service offering tools for music videos, product advertisements and anime dramas, reached annual recurring revenue of over $10 million within two months of its launch in January. The new capital will fund video foundation model research and training, inference infrastructure, product iteration and global market expansion.
Cao previously co-founded AI company Light Year with Wang Huiwen in February 2023. Meituan acquired Light Year in June 2023 for $281 million, about four months after its founding.
Chinese investment firm CoStone Capital and Shenzhen-listed IT infrastructure company Wangsu Science & Technology jointly led the round. Multiple investment firms, along with state-owned Pudong Venture Capital Group and an investment arm of Shanghai International Group, also participated. Existing investors iMPC (formerly Matrix Partners China), CAS Star and HyT Capital re-upped, according to a company announcement. The round marks the company's third funding round in 2026 and brings its fundraising total over the past 10 months to $300 million. It follows less than five months after the startup raised more than $100 million across two earlier rounds. Earlier investors included Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen's family office Lollapalooza Capital, IDG Capital, Baidu Ventures and Sinovation Ventures, led by former Google China head Dr Kai-Fu Lee.
Founded in early 2024 by Tsinghua PhD graduate Cao Yue, Sand.ai uses generative video models to lower production costs, shorten turnaround times and broaden access to high-quality video creation. Its model lineup includes Magi-1, an autoregressive video generation model; GAGA-1, a model for simultaneous audio-visual generation; and MAGI-2 Preview, an open-source research release. The company plans to launch an official version of MAGI-2 in the near term.
On the commercial side, VidMuse, a paid AI video creation service offering tools for music videos, product advertisements and anime dramas, reached annual recurring revenue of over $10 million within two months of its launch in January. The new capital will fund video foundation model research and training, inference infrastructure, product iteration and global market expansion.
Cao previously co-founded AI company Light Year with Wang Huiwen in February 2023. Meituan acquired Light Year in June 2023 for $281 million, about four months after its founding.
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