Open frontier models · Shanghai, CN · founded 2023

StepFun: who founded it, who funds it

StepFun is a Shanghai open-weight AI lab founded in 2023 by Jiang Daxin and Zhu Yibo, who came from Microsoft and ByteDance. What it is building: multimodal open-weight Step models; filing in Hong Kong. No funding round has been disclosed. It releases open-weight models.

Open modelOpen frontier models

Founders: Jiang Daxin (ex-Microsoft), Zhu Yibo (ex-ByteDance)
Founders from: ex-Microsoft, ex-ByteDance
Location: Shanghai, CN (Asia)
Valuation: $10B estimate, per source
Raised: · disclosed
Investors: ·
What ships: Open model

Sources

neolabs.fyi neolabs.fyi

News

Sep 18, 2026
Step 5 Preview: China’s Cheapest Frontier AI Model Yet

AnalysisIntelligent LivingStepFun
Sep 9, 2026
US Warns AI Labs to Degrade Suspected Distillers

AnalysisMemeburnStepFun DeepSeek
+1 more coverage
- The New Indian Express Washington accuses Chinese AI firms of 'systematic' theft from US rivals
Jun 9, 2026
Infrastructure specialist StepFun is China’s next AI IPO contender

AnalysisAsia Tech ReviewStepFun
May 31, 2026
StepFun proves efficient AI models are becoming serious competitors

AnalysisStartup FortuneStepFun
May 24, 2026
StepFun Releases StepAudio 2.5 Realtime: An End-to-End Voice Model with Roleplay-Specific RLHF and Paralinguistic Comprehension

ProductMarkTechPostStepFun
+1 more coverage
- Decrypt News StepFun's Voice AI Topped Every Benchmark. It Also Hears Your Sighs
Feb 3, 2026
Compact AI model from China’s StepFun outshines rivals from DeepSeek, Moonshot

AnalysisSouth China Morning PostStepFun DeepSeek

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