Asia
China AI startups & tech ecosystem (2026)
Major hubs for AI research and applications. China is home to 234 AI & tech startups, 36 investors, and 11 tracked founders and operators, with the largest hub in Shenzhen. Total tracked funding to date: $191.5B.
Across 24 cities, the largest startup hubs are Shenzhen (59 startups, $8.4B raised), Shanghai (49 startups, $19.8B raised), and Beijing (47 startups, $129.1B raised). The most active sectors are Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Consumer Electronics, and Generative AI.
Top China startups by total score include Alibaba.com, Shein, Meituan, BYD, and NIO Inc — browse the full ranked list below or jump straight into search.
| # | Company | City | Funding | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alibaba.com A global B2B e-commerce platform connecting businesses for international trade. | Hangzhou | $63.0M | 87 |
| 2 | Shein A global online fast-fashion retailer. | Nanjing | $4.2B | 86 |
| 3 | Meituan Leading Chinese e-commerce platform for services like food delivery, hotel booking, and movie tickets. | Beijing | $10.2B | 86 |
| 4 | BYD Global manufacturer of electric vehicles and batteries, known for its Blade Battery technology. | Shenzhen | $63.0M | 85 |
| 5 | NIO Inc Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer designing, developing, and selling smart electric vehicles. | Shanghai | $1.0B | 85 |
| 6 | NIO Inc. Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer designing, developing, and selling premium smart electric vehicles. | Shanghai | $3.3B | 85 |
| 7 | Didi Global A leading ride-hailing and mobility technology platform. | Beijing | $21.0B | 85 |
| 8 | Pinduoduo A leading Chinese social commerce platform focused on agriculture and value-for-money products. | Shanghai | $6.4B | 85 |
| 9 | Yangtze Memory Technologies Chinese semiconductor company designing and manufacturing 3D NAND flash memory chips and SSDs. | Wuhan | $226.0M | 85 |
| 10 | kling 3.5 Kuaishou's generative AI service for creating videos from text and image descriptions. | Beijing | — | 81 |
| 11 | Unitree Robotics Develops and sells high-performance quadruped and humanoid robots for industrial and consumer applications. | Hangzhou | $890.1M | 74 |
| 12 | MiniMax MiniMax is a leading global technology company and one of the pioneers of large language models (LLMs) in Asia, developing proprietary LLMs across various modalities. | Shanghai | $1.1B | 74 |
| 13 | Drones (e.g., DJI, Skydio, Skyfront) World's largest manufacturer of commercial drones and aerial robotics technology. | Shenzhen | $1.2B | 73 |
| 14 | Starbucks' China unit Starbucks' China unit is a major coffeehouse chain operator in China, now a joint venture with Boyu Capital. | Shanghai | — | 73 |
| 15 | Pudu Robotics Intelligent service robotics developer. | Shenzhen | $490.0M | 71 |
| 16 | DeepSeek AI Chinese AI company developing advanced models for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). | Beijing | — | 70 |
| 17 | CreateAI AI animation and video generation platform, pivoted from autonomous trucking (formerly TuSimple) | Hong Kong | $2.0B | 70 |
| 18 | TigerData Provides data analytics and business intelligence solutions for businesses. | Shanghai | $166.1M | 70 |
| 19 | Hai Robotics Develops and deploys intelligent warehouse automation robotics for efficient storage and retrieval. | Shenzhen | $644.0M | 70 |
| 20 | Geek+ Geek+ is a global leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for warehouse and logistics automation. | Beijing | $891.0M | 69 |
| 21 | Robot Era Beijing-based humanoid robotics company building full-stack embodied intelligence, first humanoid to climb the Great Wall. | Beijing | $145.0M | 69 |
| 22 | Alibaba Group Alibaba Group is China's largest e-commerce and technology conglomerate, operating platforms across retail, cloud computing, logistics, and digital media. | Hangzhou | $4.8B | 69 |
| 23 | China Telecom China Telecom is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, providing integrated information services across China and globally. | Beijing | $80.0B | 69 |
| 24 | Baidu Chinese multinational technology company specializing in internet services and artificial intelligence. | Beijing | $3.1B | 68 |
| 25 | Pony AI A leading autonomous driving technology company. | Guangzhou | $400.0M | 66 |
| 26 | WuXi AppTec Global CRDMO providing integrated R&D and manufacturing services for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. | Shanghai | $40.0M | 66 |
| 27 | Trip.com Group Leading global online travel agency with hotel, flight, and tour booking services. | Shanghai | $75.0M | 66 |
| 28 | BYD Co., Ltd. Chinese multinational manufacturing conglomerate specializing in automobiles, batteries, electronics, and rail transit. | Shenzhen | $496.0M | 66 |
| 29 | Moonshot AI Chinese AI startup developing advanced large language models and AI agents, including the Kimi chatbot. | Beijing | $250.0M | 66 |
| 30 | Huawei Global leader in telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and digital solutions. | Shenzhen | $2.7B | 65 |
| 31 | meitu AI-driven technology company specializing in photo editing, video enhancement, and design creation tools. | Xiamen | $590.0M | 63 |
| 32 | RingConn A svelte smart ring that tracks activity, sleep, and health metrics with long battery life. | Shenzhen | $63.0M | 63 |
| 33 | Reolink Smart home security and surveillance solutions. | Shenzhen | $63.0M | 63 |
| 34 | Monica All-in-one AI assistant browser extension powered by GPT, Claude, and Gemini for 10M+ users worldwide. | Hong Kong | $10.0M | 63 |
| 35 | Bambu Lab Makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet. | Shenzhen | $150.0M | 62 |
| 36 | Eufy Smart home security solutions with local AI processing and no subscription fees. | Shenzhen | $63.0M | 62 |
| 37 | Hailuo 3.0 Next-generation AI video generator for cinematic 4K 60FPS videos from text or images. | Shanghai | $1.4B | 62 |
| 38 | EngineAI Builder of humanoid and quadruped robots for traffic, security, and retail. | Shenzhen | $635.0M | 62 |
| 39 | Dify Dify is a leading agentic AI development platform that enables teams to effortlessly develop, deploy, and manage autonomous agents and RAG pipelines for production-ready AI solutions. | — | $38.2M | 62 |
| 40 | Nona Biosciences Biotechnology company specializing in antibody discovery and development with integrated 'Idea to IND' solutions. | Shanghai | $100.0M | 62 |
Frequently asked questions about China startups
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China AI startup ecosystem — frequently asked
How many AI startups are in China?
StartupHub.ai tracks 234 startups headquartered in China, with $191.5B in total tracked funding across 24 cities.
What are the top startup cities in China?
The top startup cities in China are Shenzhen (59 startups), Shanghai (49 startups), Beijing (47 startups), Hangzhou (19 startups), Unknown (14 startups).
Which sectors are China startups focused on?
The most common sectors for China startups are Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Consumer Electronics, Generative AI.
How many investors are active in China?
There are 36 investors tracked in China on StartupHub.ai — venture capital firms, angel investors, corporate investors, and family offices. Browse all China investors.
How is China startup data sourced?
Every China profile on StartupHub.ai is built from structured HQ-country fields, public registry data (Companies House, SEC, INSEE, OrgBook, etc.), founder LinkedIn signals, and verified company websites. Profiles are refreshed continuously as new funding rounds and team changes are detected. More on our methodology.
What is the total startup funding in China?
Startups headquartered in China have raised a total of $191.5B in tracked funding on StartupHub.ai.