CEO跑路后，明星AI创企被曝寻求卖身

Core Viewpoint - Character.AI, a leading global AI companion application, is reportedly in discussions for a potential sale and has also considered raising several hundred million dollars in financing [3][6]. Group 1: Company Overview - Character.AI was founded in 2021 by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, allowing users to customize chatbots based on various characters for text and voice interactions [3][6]. - The company completed a $150 million Series A funding round in March 2023, achieving a valuation of $1 billion [3][6]. - As of February 2023, Character.AI had 20 million monthly active users and projected annual revenue of $50 million by the end of the year, significantly up from a previous estimate of $30 million [6][10]. Group 2: Recent Developments - In June 2023, Character.AI appointed Karandeep Anand, a former executive from Meta and Brex, as the new CEO [6]. - The company launched a social information feed feature in July, allowing users to share AI-generated videos and collaborate on content creation, while also starting to take on advertising from brands like Yelp and Webtoon [6]. Group 3: Challenges and Competition - Following the departure of its founders and core technical team to Google in August 2022, Character.AI ceased independent model development and began using open-source models from companies like DeepSeek and Meta, incurring monthly operational costs of several million dollars [10][11]. - Character.AI is facing two lawsuits alleging that its platform provides harmful content to minors, with investigations initiated by the Texas Attorney General [10][11]. - The competitive landscape is intensifying, with major tech companies like Meta launching similar services, which has diminished Character.AI's competitive edge [11][12].