从快手独立的AI芯片公司融资数亿元，视频压缩性能超英伟达｜早起看早期

Core Insights - The article discusses the recent A-round financing of Lingchuan Technology, an AI chip company, which raised several hundred million yuan led by Beijing AI Industry Investment Fund and Kuaishou Group, aimed at next-generation chip development and market expansion [4][5]. Company Overview - Lingchuan Technology was established in March 2024, originating from Kuaishou Group's heterogeneous computing and chip division, and has independently developed the SL200 chip, which integrates video encoding, AI inference, and multi-core CPU functionalities [4][5]. - The SL200 chip has been deployed in tens of thousands of units, serving 700 million users, and has been recognized as an "Innovative Development Typical Case" at the 2023 World Internet Conference [4][5]. Product Features - The SL200 chip is the first domestic ASIC chip to integrate video encoding, AI inference, and multi-core CPU capabilities, achieving a fault rate of one in ten thousand and a nearly 100% coverage rate among top clients [5]. - Its video compression performance surpasses that of Intel and NVIDIA, with a 40% reduction in single-stream processing costs [5]. Market Position and Strategy - Lingchuan Technology aims to address the differentiated demand for ASIC architecture in the AI chip market, particularly in the context of rising costs and energy efficiency needs for large model inference scenarios [4][5]. - The company targets vertical markets and has developed a programming interface compatible with PyTorch and mainstream inference engines to lower customer migration costs [5][6]. Future Developments - The next-generation chip is designed for large model training and inference, supporting high computational demands for applications like LLM, text-to-image, text-to-video, and recommendation algorithms [5][6]. - Lingchuan Technology plans to expand into autonomous driving robots and edge computing scenarios, having completed compatibility tests with several large model companies [7]. Team and Expertise - The CEO of Lingchuan Technology, Liu Lingzhi, has a strong academic background and extensive experience in the chip and internet industries, with the team growing threefold since the company's split [7]. - The team comprises over 80% R&D personnel, with more than 70% holding master's degrees and over 20% holding doctoral degrees, and has filed over a hundred patents in key technologies [7].