Beijing video-generation startup Sand.ai on Nov. 5, 2026 announced a $200 million Series A+ round, according to outlets that reported the company's statement. Sand.ai says that financing lifts it above a $1 billion valuation and that it has raised $300 million across three rounds over the past 10 months; those dollar totals and the unicorn framing are company-stated figures reported by the press, not verified here. For related coverage, see Fal Raises $1.3B at $16B Valuation, Bloomberg Reports, Nooks Secures $500M Growth Capital From GC CVF, Tutor Intelligence Raises $75M to Scale Robot Workers, GenRobot AI Raises $100M Series A+ for Robot Training Data, Pika Releases H3 Flex, an Open-Weight AI Video Model, and Kling 4.0 Goes Global: 30-Second AI Video and 10 Keyframes.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Company | Sand.ai (Beijing), MAGI video models and VidMuse |
| Round | Series A+, $200 million (per company announcement as cited by media) |
| Valuation | Above $1 billion (Sand.ai says; reported by outlets) |
| 10-month funding | $300 million across three rounds (Sand.ai says) |
| Joint leads | CoStone Capital (also referred to as Cornerstone / 基石资本) and Shenzhen-listed Wangsu Science & Technology (300017.SZ, 网宿科技) |
| Use of proceeds | Video foundation-model R&D, training and inference infrastructure, product work, international expansion; full MAGI-2 release planned soon (company messaging via press) |
| ARR claim | VidMuse reached more than $10 million annualized revenue within about two months of launch (Sand.ai says; via reporting) |
The investors
DealStreetAsia, TechNode Global, and Caijing cite Sand.ai's announcement that the Series A+ was jointly led by CoStone Capital and Wangsu Science & Technology. Caijing, summarizing the company, lists additional participants including Times Capital / Jeneration Capital (时代资本), Guofang Venture Capital (国方创投), Panlin Capital (磐霖资本), Dongzheng Capital (东证资本), Tianchuang Capital alongside Shandong railway-related funds, Pudong Venture Capital (浦东创投) and other Shanghai state-linked backers. DealStreetAsia, also citing the announcement, names state-owned Pudong Venture Capital Group and an investment arm of Shanghai International Group among participants; existing investors described as re-upping include iMPC / Matrix Partners China (经纬创投), CAS Star (中科创星), and HyT Capital / Huaye Tiancheng (华业天成). This article does not claim any firm acted as sole lead beyond what those reports attribute to Sand.ai.
Shenzhen-listed Wangsu previously disclosed, in exchange filings summarized by TechNode Global, a plan to invest on the order of RMB300 million (about $44.5 million) through a convertible instrument and warrants tied to Series A+ preferred shares—representing roughly 4.4% of Sand.ai after other subscriptions, according to that coverage. The disclosure is regulatory and outlet-reported; treat it as one slice of the same round rather than an extra pool of capital counted twice against Sand.ai's headline raise.
What Sand.ai builds
Sand.ai was founded in early 2024 by Cao Yue, previously with Microsoft Research Asia and Tsinghua, according to profiles in the same reports. The team markets MAGI video models and the VidMuse creator-facing product. Sand.ai says it open-sourced a MAGI-2 Preview (on the order of 114 billion parameters in a mixture-of-experts layout with roughly 6 billion active parameters) in August 2026; treat parameter counts as company-provided technical labels relayed by the press.
Against China's busy generative-video sector—where domestic rivals such as Kling also ship competitive models—the round underscores a push to pair model releases with studio-style products and international plans. Sand.ai's stated uses for the capital—model R&D, compute for training and serving, product iteration, and overseas expansion—fit that playbook.
Why the round matters
A Sand.ai-stated raise above $1 billion post-money remains notable for a video-generation startup when paired with compute and product plans, because it signals a bet on durable serving and creator workflows rather than a single model drop. The investor mix described in press reports also mirrors how some Chinese AI companies blend venture and regional capital for long-horizon infrastructure builds. Wangsu's separate exchange disclosures describe how a listed strategic can take a structured position alongside venture leads without duplicating Sand.ai's headline raise figure.
What to watch
The full MAGI-2 release window, any added disclosure on inference scale or regional expansion, and whether third parties verify figures beyond Sand.ai's statements. Filings related to Wangsu or other co-investors may add detail on ownership mechanics that short announcements skip.