Deals
Tripo AI Raises 3 Billion Yuan and Previews P2.0, Betting on 3D-Native Foundation Models
A roughly $446 million raise and a simultaneous model preview push generative 3D toward foundation-model scale, with compute the new bottleneck.
Mainstay Communications Team · · 3 min read
In brief
Tripo AI, the 3D generative platform operated by Beijing-based VAST, announced on September 1, 2026 that it had closed 3 billion yuan in combined Series B and Series B+ financing, equivalent to roughly $446 million. The round arrived alongside a preview of Tripo P2.0, a 3D-native foundation model that the company says generates quad topology natively, an industry first. The raise signals that institutional capital now sees generative 3D as a foundation-model race, not a productivity tool market, and that compute scale is the central bet.
The Round
VAST, the Beijing-founded company behind the Tripo AI platform, raised 3 billion yuan across two tranches. MPCi led the combined financing. Strategic and industry co-investors included Perfect World, BlueFocus, SPC, Yanqu Games, ThunderSoft, and 37 Interactive Entertainment. Financial investors included CDH Venture and Growth Capital, CICC, CMC Capital Partners, Hongtai Aplus, 3H Health, Zhongping Capital, and GreatOrigin Asia. Several existing backers, including Fortune Capital, Primavera Capital, 4399 Network, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, INCE Capital, and T-Capital, increased their positions.
According to DealStreet Asia, the Series B and B+ rounds bring VAST's total fundraising over the prior six months to approximately 5 billion yuan, or roughly $744 million.
The company says it will deploy the capital toward expanding computing infrastructure for AI training and inference, accelerating 3D-native foundation model development, growing 3D data infrastructure, and funding product development and commercialization.
What P2.0 Does
The simultaneous release of Tripo P2.0 in preview form frames where the capital goes. P2.0 introduces native quad topology generation, which the company describes as an industry first among 3D foundation models.
Quad meshes matter to artists and engineers because they animate cleanly. Triangle meshes are faster to compute but require a retopology pass before a character can be rigged for animation. A model that outputs quads directly skips that step. P2.0 supports quad meshes up to 25,000 faces and triangle meshes up to 50,000 faces, up from P1.0's 20,000-face ceiling. The model accepts up to four reference images as input for geometry reconstruction and produces output in 10 to 40 seconds depending on polygon density, according to 3D Printing Industry's coverage.
The primary targets are game character development, prop creation, and hard-surface mechanical assets. Those are categories where production pipelines currently require significant manual cleanup after AI generation.
The Market Behind the Check Size
Tripo isn't raising into a quiet sector. Meshy, a competing AI 3D generation platform, closed nearly $400 million in Series B financing at a $1.5 billion valuation in July 2026. Meshy's PR described that round as "the largest funding round to date for a company built specifically for AI 3D," a claim that Tripo's announcement, two months later and about $46 million larger in USD terms, effectively supersedes.
The check sizes in this segment have grown because the compute requirements for training 3D foundation models at scale are substantial. VAST's stated use of funds lists expanded AI training and inference infrastructure ahead of product development, which is a different priority order than earlier-stage AI startups typically disclose. Tripo reported $12 million in annual revenue as of 2025 and says it has close to 4 million users and 40,000 API business partners, with customers including Tencent, ByteDance, HTC, and Stability AI.
The Company
VAST was founded in 2023 by CEO Simon Song, who previously co-founded MiniMax, and Chief Scientist Yanpei Cao, who led generative 3D work at Tencent before joining. CTO Ding Liang holds a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and previously led vision and large-model work at SenseTime. The company operates from Beijing, Hangzhou, and San Francisco.
Its products are Tripo Studio, a browser-based 3D workspace, and the Tripo API, which third-party developers use to build generative 3D into their own pipelines. VAST's earlier Series A, reported to be around $50 million, was backed by Alibaba and Baidu Ventures, per 3D Printing Industry's coverage.
Sources
- Tripo AI Raises 3 Billion Yuan in Series B and Series B+ Funding, PR Newswire
- 3D Model Generator Tripo AI Raises 3 Billion Yuan in Series B and Series B+ Funding, 3Dnatives
- Tripo AI Lands 3 Billion Yuan, Unveils Quad-Topology Model, 3D Printing Industry
- 3D generative AI platform Tripo AI developer VAST raises Series B rounds, DealStreet Asia
- Tripo AI Raises 3 Billion Yuan in Series B and Series B+ Funding, VoxelMatters
- Meshy Raises Nearly $400 Million at a $1.5 Billion Valuation, the Largest Round to Date in AI 3D, PR Newswire
Companies mentioned
Mainstay Digital · Spatial and 3D visualization for industrial companies