Ex-MiniMax co-founder aims to challenge Tencent and Google in 3D AI models

Chinese AI start-up Vast aims to take on global tech giants such as Tencent Holdings and Google in developing 3D AI models, which allow creators to generate three-dimensional visual content with text or image inputs, an increasingly competitive field that has seen the entrance of influential players such as AI pioneer Li Fei-fei.

Beijing-based Vast, established in 2023, aims “to let everyone create 3D content with zero barriers and zero cost”, and potentially create a TikTok-like platform for user-generated 3D content, founder and CEO Simon Song Yachen, previously a co-founder of Chinese AI unicorn MiniMax, said in an interview last week.

The company, with more than 100 employees in Beijing and Hangzhou, operates an AI 3D generation platform called Tripo Studio, and last week released the latest version, the Tripo 3.0 model, which offers its “most accurate, detail-rich geometry yet”, the company said.

“For AI 3D large models, we are the leader in the world. I think there’s consensus in that,” said 28-year-old Song, who worked in the CEO’s office of Chinese AI pioneer SenseTime before co-founding Minimax.

Song founded Vast shortly after Google’s 2022 launch of the text-to-3D model DreamFusion, which he said had made 3D content generation possible. The nascent field is shaping up to be the latest frontier in AI competition as companies try to appeal to professional creators in the game and film industries, as well as individual artists.

Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent in March made five of its early Hunyuan 3D models open source, and last month released and open-sourced its Hunyuan 3D world model 1.0, which it said could generate a 3D virtual world with a line of text or an image within minutes, a process that used to take weeks for a professional modelling team to build.