Chinese AI 3D technology company VAST has completed Series B and B+ financing rounds totaling approximately RMB 3 billion, as it expands its development of large-scale 3D models and universal world models. CMC Capital participated in the financing, adding institutional backing to the company's efforts to advance artificial intelligence technologies capable of understanding and generating three-dimensional environments. VAST plans to direct the new capital toward improving its native 3D models and data capabilities, expanding training and inference infrastructure, and accelerating product development and commercialization.
Building an AI-Native 3D Platform
Founded in late 2022 by Song Yachen, a former co-founder of Chinese AI company MiniMax, VAST is developing an integrated technology stack focused on 3D generation and world modeling. The company has assembled a product ecosystem combining proprietary 3D foundation models, world models, an AI-native creation workbench, and applications designed around its underlying technology. VAST says its approach is supported by a specialized algorithm team and a growing collection of high-quality spatial assets used to train and improve its models.
Moving Beyond Basic 3D Generation
The financing comes as generative AI increasingly changes how digital three-dimensional content is created across industries including gaming, animation, 3D printing, extended reality, and spatial computing. Traditional 3D production typically requires specialized technical expertise and lengthy workflows involving modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, and other stages before an asset is ready for practical use. Generative AI systems are increasingly automating parts of that process, lowering production barriers while enabling creators to produce assets faster and with fewer manual steps.
From Visual Models to Usable Assets
VAST is positioning its technology around the broader transition from AI systems that generate visually convincing 3D objects to tools capable of producing assets that can be modified and incorporated into professional workflows. This shift requires models to generate not only an object's appearance but also structural information that allows developers and designers to continue editing, rigging, animating, and deploying the resulting asset. The company is therefore developing its models alongside creation tools intended to connect AI-generated content with existing production processes.
Tripo Studio Anchors the Product Offering
At the center of VAST's product portfolio is Tripo Studio, an AI-powered 3D workbench designed to support multiple stages of the digital asset creation process within a single environment. Its workflow covers concept generation, 3D modeling, texturing, segmentation, topology preparation, rigging, animation, and asset exporting, allowing users to move from an initial idea toward a production-ready model. By combining these functions, VAST is seeking to reduce the fragmentation traditionally associated with specialized 3D software and separate production tools.
Expanding Toward World Models
VAST's broader ambitions extend beyond generating individual 3D assets, with the company developing world models intended to represent and reason about more complex spatial environments. Such technologies could support AI systems capable of understanding spatial relationships, predicting physical interactions, and generating simulations of objects and environments rather than producing isolated digital models. VAST describes this technological direction as a progression from systems focused on "creating everything" toward models capable of "creating the world."
Funding to Support Infrastructure and Commercialization
A significant portion of the RMB 3 billion raised across the Series B and B+ rounds is expected to support the computing infrastructure required to train and operate increasingly capable 3D and world models. VAST also plans to strengthen the datasets and spatial assets underlying its technology, which are important for improving model accuracy, controllability, and usefulness across different production scenarios. Alongside continued research and development, the company intends to accelerate commercialization as demand grows for AI-assisted tools across digital content and spatial computing industries.
VAST's latest financing provides substantial resources for the company to deepen its position in the emerging AI 3D and world-model market while expanding the capabilities of products such as Tripo Studio. Its strategy reflects a broader industry shift toward generative systems that produce structured, editable, and commercially usable three-dimensional assets rather than purely visual outputs. As AI models become increasingly capable of understanding spatial environments and physical interactions, VAST is betting that integrated 3D generation and world-model technology will become an important foundation for next-generation digital production.