Singapore Video Startup Founded By Tencent’s Former AI Head Bets Big On World Models
Key takeaways
- Fresh off an $80 million round from investors including AMD and Hyundai Motor, Video Rebirth is competing shoulder-to-shoulder with tech giants atop a major AI video leaderboard.
- Yet, right before the public launch of its flagship model in May, the company carved out a spot on a benchmark leaderboard alongside the tech giants.
- “For a team of our size, that was a strong signal that our architectural approach was working,” says Liu Wei, cofounder and CEO of Video Rebirth.
Fresh off an $80 million round from investors including AMD and Hyundai Motor, Video Rebirth is competing shoulder-to-shoulder with tech giants atop a major AI video leaderboard. Now it’s building a world model that can create real-time interactive 3D environments on the fly.On paper, Video Rebirth is too small to compete in the capital-intensive AI video battleground. Less than two years old, the startup has $80 million in funding and a team of 30 operating out of its Singapore headquarters and an office in Hong Kong. In a space where training cutting-edge video models costs tens of millions of dollars—and running it costs even more—Video Rebirth should be locked out of the race.
Yet, right before the public launch of its flagship model in May, the company carved out a spot on a benchmark leaderboard alongside the tech giants. Video Rebirth’s Bach model debuted at No. 6 on an Artificial Analysis text-to-video leaderboard, trailing behind models developed by Alibaba, ByteDance, Kuaishou Technology and xAI. It reigns as the highest-ranking startup model, with the cheapest price per minute of video generated among the top 10.
“For a team of our size, that was a strong signal that our architectural approach was working,” says Liu Wei, cofounder and CEO of Video Rebirth.