In December 2024, the domestic artificial intelligence sector market performed well, and the industry index rose 8.66% in the past month. This month, the AI sector continued to rise sharply. On the one hand, Shanji released AI glasses, catalyzing the theme of AI glasses, and the sector performed well. From the industry perspective, next year will be the year for AI glasses to go from 0 to 1, and many manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Baidu and Samsung will release new products. On the other hand, ByteDance AI assistant Doubao became popular, driving Doubao AI-related concept stocks to rise sharply. At present, computing power is no longer a constraint on the AI industry, and AI applications will usher in a great era of development in the future.
This month, all segments of the Metaverse have risen. Among them, benefiting from the hype in the AI glasses market, the virtual reality sector has a good rise, and the index has risen by 12.75% in the past month. At the same time, due to the popularity of Doubao AI, the market heat of the AI application sector is relatively high, and the index has risen by 7.87% in the past month. In addition, due to the escalation of US restrictions on Chinese AI chips, the domestic AI computing power sector has also performed well, with an increase of 10.92% in the past month. Although the Chinese corpus and virtual human segments that are not on the main line of the market have risen this month, the increase is relatively limited.
Comments on Important Events in the Metaverse Industry
1. Interpretation of Key Events in the Metaverse
1) 2025 is expected to be the first year of AI glasses
On December 24, Goldman Sachs analysts pointed out in their latest report that the download volume of Meta smart glasses-related applications has exploded. According to the data of application downloads from the data platform SensorTower, the download volume of MetaView supporting applications soared by more than 200% year-on-year in October. It is widely speculated in the industry that 2025 is expected to be the first year of AI glasses. According to wellsennXR's forecast, starting from 2025, AI smart glasses will quickly penetrate into traditional glasses against the background of stable growth in sales of traditional glasses; in 2029, the annual sales volume of AI smart glasses is expected to reach 55 million pairs; by 2035, the sales volume of AI smart glasses is expected to reach 1.4 billion pairs.
For example, Apple has begun to develop an AI glasses project called "Atlas", and Hon Hai Precision has cooperated with Porotech to plan to enter the field of ultra-thin AR glasses. In addition, Thunderbird Innovation V3 and Xiaomi's new generation of AI smart glasses are also planned to be launched in 2025, further promoting the rapid growth of the overall market. Baidu also showcased its latest AI glasses products at the Baidu World Conference on November 12, 2024.
2) ByteDance AI assistant Doubao has become popular, with the most downloads in China in November
On December 13, Doubao APP's MAU reached 59.98 million in the global monthly active rankings in November, ranking second in the world after OpenAI's ChatGPT. Doubao is an AI tool developed by ByteDance based on the Skylark model. In November, Doubao's daily active users were close to 9 million, and the cumulative user scale has exceeded 160 million.
The popularity of the Doubao concept is not only reflected in the growth of the number of users, but also in the capital market. Many listed companies have actively responded to investors' concerns and responded to questions about Doubao concept stocks. The stock prices of these companies have also been affected to varying degrees, showing the market's high attention to the field of AI. For fund investors who are optimistic about the development of ByteDance AI, participating in the investment of related industrial chains may become one of the important directions in the next few years.
Metaverse industry dynamics tracking
1. Metaverse industry policy changes
1) The Central Economic Work Conference laid out the "Artificial Intelligence +" action to empower future industries
The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 11 to 12, 2024. The meeting clearly pointed out that scientific and technological innovation should lead the development of new quality productivity and build a modern industrial system. Strengthen basic research and key core technology research, advance the layout of major scientific and technological projects, and carry out large-scale application demonstration actions of new technologies, new products, and new scenarios. At the same time, carry out the "Artificial Intelligence +" action to cultivate future industries.
2) State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Research Institute: Start the development of the IEEE national standard for the power dispatching metaverse training simulation system
On December 18, the IEEE "Design Guidelines for Power Dispatching Metaverse Training Simulation System" working group, led by the State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Research Institute, held its first meeting in Beijing, announcing the formal establishment of the working group, marking the official launch of the international standard development work. It is reported that the "Design Guidelines for Metaverse Training Simulation System for Power Dispatching" was applied for by the Institute of Electrical Engineering and was successfully approved at the end of September this year. It is the first international standard for the field of power dispatching by the IEEE Metaverse Standards Committee. It provides a reference for the design of the international power dispatching Metaverse training simulation system, which helps to improve the scalability, maintainability and portability of the system, and is of great significance to the promotion and application of Metaverse in the field of power dispatching simulation training.
3) Hangzhou promotes the "New Eagle" plan to compete for the city of AI
On December 19, Hangzhou held a press conference to promote the high-quality development of Hangzhou's science and technology enterprises and introduced the relevant situation of the "Hangzhou "New Eagle" Enterprise Cultivation Management Measures". The "Management Measures" further strengthen the future industry orientation, clarify that the industry field to which the products (services) of "New Eagle" enterprises belong must be the future industry that Zhejiang Province focuses on developing, and highlight the cultivation and support of a group of new fields and new tracks. The "Management Measures" have strict identification standards for "New Eagle" enterprises. The products and services of "New Eagle" enterprises must belong to the future industry fields that are focused on development, such as general artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, brain-like intelligence, synthetic biology, and low-altitude economy.
4) Shenyang AI Center officially launched
According to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" on the 20th, the Shenyang Artificial Intelligence Industry Conference and the Shenyang AI Center launch ceremony were held in Liaoning on December 20. According to reports, the Shenyang AI Center is the core area of the Shenyang Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park. It has an autonomous, controllable, integrated hardware and software artificial intelligence full-stack infrastructure, which can provide end-to-end artificial intelligence technology support, data services, algorithm services and model services for settled enterprises.
2. Metaverse Industry Dynamics Tracking
1) State Grid and Alibaba reached an AI cooperation and released a multi-modal industry model with a scale of 100 billion yuan
On December 19, State Grid Corporation of China and Alibaba Group announced in Beijing that they had reached a cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence and jointly released a multi-modal industry model with a scale of 100 billion yuan, the "Guangming Electric Power Model". The two parties signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly build the model and promote the integrated development of energy and power technology innovation and industrial innovation.
2) Gamefam report: The global metaverse game market will reach $168.4 billion in 2030
On December 19, according to Fortune, Gamefam, a metaverse game developer, released its annual report on the status of Roblox and Fortnite brands. The report predicts that by 2030, the global metaverse game market will reach $168.4 billion and the number of users will reach 900 million, indicating that the industry still has strong growth potential.
3. Metaverse industry products
1) AI doctors are on duty, and AI hospitals are expected to be officially launched at the end of the year
On December 1, the first "AI hospital" Agent Hospital created by the Tsinghua University Intelligent Industry Research Institute team is undergoing internal testing and will be officially launched at the end of the year and open to the public in the first half of next year. In addition, an AI medical model, which was initiated and developed entirely by a team of doctors and was "fed" with more than 6,000 domestic and foreign medical textbooks, has been put into use in the outpatient and emergency departments, critical care medicine departments, and inpatient departments of Shanghai Oriental Hospital. The AI doctors can assist in completing medical history records, preliminary diagnosis suggestions and analysis, and treatment plan recommendations.
2) OpenAI releases AI video generation tool Sora, which can generate videos based on text prompts
On December 10, OpenAI officially released an artificial intelligence video generation tool called Sora. The tool can generate AI videos based on text prompts, nearly 10 months after OpenAI first publicly previewed this technology. In the live demonstration, the company said that the new version of Sora will be launched to users in the United States and other markets, but did not mention the launch schedule in Europe and the United Kingdom.
3) Alipay announced the official launch of the independent AI creative generation platform "Ants on Creativity"
Recently, Alipay announced the official launch of the independent AI creative generation platform "Ants on Creativity". Ants on Creativity mainly provides AI to quickly generate creative materials, intelligent analysis of marketing advertisements and other marketing services for merchants and institutions, and at the same time opens up marketing image materials worth hundreds of millions for free. It is understood that the "Ants on Creativity" launched this time will be open to all merchants and designers, focusing on using AI to make commercial marketing simpler, and small shop owners can also realize independent creativity.
4) Shanji releases AI glasses, benchmarking Ray-Ban Meta
On December 19, Shanji Technology officially released the first mass-produced AI shooting glasses in China-Shanji AI "Papai Mirror" A1. Shanji A1 retails for 1,499 yuan, and the co-creation version is priced at 999 yuan. Shanji Technology's goal for Shanji A1 is to ship more than 500,000 units per year and achieve sales of more than 600 million yuan.
4. Investment and Financing of Metaverse Industry
Financing of Some Enterprises in December 2024 (Data Source: 36Kr Public Information)
| Company Name | Financing Amount | Round | Investment Company | Company Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titanium Tiger Technology | Over 100 million RMB | Pre-A++ Round | Yida Capital, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital, Jiangyin Talent Fund, Matrix Partners | Provides robot products and core components for the industry |
| Baiying Technology | Over 100 million RMB | Round C | Wu Venture Capital, Hubei Gaotou Group | AI Enterprise Service SaaS Platform |
| Shuangshen Technology | Tens of millions of RMB | Strategic Financing | Fuhan Micro | Image and Video Data Compression Service Provider |
| Data Force ShallxR | 40 million RMB | Round A | Anji Botai Investment Co., Ltd. | Offline VR Shared Entertainment Venue Meta Bar One-stop Solution Provider |
| Zhongke Xiguang | Undisclosed | Round B | Anhui Haiyuan Capital | Satellite and Big Data Information Service Provider |
| China Science and Technology Vision | Undisclosed | M&A/Merger | Fuhuang Steel Structure | Provider of comprehensive intelligent new visual solutions |
| Wuzheng AI | RMB 10 million | Pre-A round | Renyi Capital | Smart consumer device manufacturer |
| As Technology | Undisclosed | Round B | Donghai Investment Control | Developer of intelligent defecation and urination care robots |
| Naidejia | Over RMB 100 million | Round C | Hefei Construction Investment Capital, Hefei Binhu Jintou, Beijing New Materials Industry Supplier Investment Fund | Optical module for AR smart glasses |
| FaceWall Intelligence | Hundreds of millions of RMB | Round A+ | Loongson Ventures, CDH Investments, Zhongguancun Science City, SAIF Investments, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Qingke Ventures, Haier SAIF | Enabler of large-scale AI model acceleration and application landing |
| Zhongzhiwei | Tens of millions of RMB | Round B | Baiyun Financial Holdings, Hongfeng Capital | New generation AI security operation innovator |
| OneTouch Interactive | Millions of dollars | Angel round | Huashan Capital | AI application layer company based on general large models |
| VITURE | Undisclosed | Round B+ | Wang Huiwen | Technology trend XR glasses, the next generation of Internet portal |
| Shexu Technology | RMB 30 million | Round A++ | A strategic investor in the semiconductor industry | Al industrial SaaS software service provider |
| Qingsi Intelligence | Tens of millions of RMB | Round A | Beijing Information Industry Development Fund | Mixed application of large and small AI models in the visual field |
| Wanxun Technology | Nearly RMB 200 million | Round A++ | Yuantai Fund, Chuhui Capital, Dehu Capital | Global leader in general soft robots |
| Great Bay Bio | Undisclosed | Round B | Taixin Capital, Hong Kong Science Park Venture Capital Fund, Hong Kong Family Office | AI biomedical technology developer |
| Zhipu AI | RMB 3 billion | Round D+ | Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Yunhui Capital, Xinke Capital, Legend Capital, China Merchants Venture Capital, Lianrong Zhidao | A Knowledge Intelligence Technology Developer |
| PGVerse | Pre-A+ Round | Tens of millions of RMB | Pudong Capital | City-level Metaverse Space Bottom Technology R&D Application Provider |
| PixelBloom | Undisclosed | Round B+ | Next-generation AI workstation for individuals and organizations | |
| Hyperion Robotics | Tens of millions of RMB | Round A | Qianrong Holdings, Detong Capital, Luojia Venture Capital, Junding Investment | AI Technology Service Provider |