Beijing-based startup Naive AI has reached a valuation of $1.42 billion just seven months after its launch in February 2026. The company, which employs fewer than 100 people, focuses on optimizing existing open-weight AI models rather than building new ones from scratch.
The startup has secured a total of $400 million across three funding rounds. The capital was raised in tranches of $100 million, $180 million, and $120 million. By April 2026, the company had raised $300 million and held a valuation of approximately $800 million.
Tencent led the investment alongside IDG Capital, MPCi, and HSG, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China. The company utilizes techniques such as mid-training, post-training, and reinforcement learning to enhance the performance of publicly available architectures.
Founder Dai Jifeng, an associate professor at Tsinghua University with experience at Microsoft Research Asia and SenseTime, plans to release the company's first open-weight large language model in September 2026.
