Chinese AI startup Tripo AI, operated by Beijing-based Vast, has closed nearly $200 million across Series A+ and Series A++ financings to scale its 3D foundation models and launch a new world-model research program called Project Eden. The combined rounds were led by Ince Capital and the venture arm of China Life Insurance, with Genesis Capital, Eminence Ventures and Primavera Venture Partners participating.
What Tripo Builds
Tripo AI specialises in models that produce production-ready 3D meshes from text and image prompts. Its Tripo H3.1 and Tripo P1.0 systems, both released in March 2026, generate detailed geometry suitable for game assets, virtual production, e-commerce visualisation and — increasingly — physical AI training pipelines that need diverse 3D scenes for simulation.
Project Eden: Persistent World Models
Alongside the funding, the company unveiled Project Eden, a research initiative aimed at building persistent, multiplayer 3D world models. Eden uses a three-layer architecture that separates world state from rendering, letting environments stay consistent across multiple viewpoints and over long time horizons — a design choice intended for both interactive entertainment and embodied AI simulation.
From 0 To 20 Million Users In Three Years
Vast was founded in 2023 by Johns Hopkins-educated entrepreneur Simon Song, then 29. The company says Tripo's user base has grown to 20 million across creators, developers and enterprise customers in three years. Like other Chinese AI infrastructure builders, Tripo has benefited from cross-border capital and an emerging domestic ecosystem around 3D and world-model research.
Why World Models Now
World models — neural networks that simulate complete environments rather than just images — have become a central research bet for AI labs hoping to power both video generators and physical robots. Tripo's announcement places it among the first commercial 3D AI companies to ship a dedicated world-model research program at scale, and gives Project Eden a near-term commercial backstop in 3D asset generation.
Reporting based on coverage from GamesBeat, GlobeNewswire/Manila Times, VoxelMatters, Pulse 2 and IBTimes UK.