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Beijing-based text-to-video startup AIsphere has raised over RMB 100 million ($13.8 million) in its latest A2 funding round from Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba, less than two months after the company raised more than RMB 100 million. According to Chinese media outlet LatePost, which cited people close to Ant, the Alipay owner has made the move as part of a strategy to add stand-out Chinese AI ventures such as ZhipuAI and Moonshot AI to its investment portfolio, while also developing its own AI foundation model. Founded last April by Wang Changhu, the former vision technology lead at ByteDance, AIsphere has touted plans to catch up with OpenAI’s Sora within three to six months. PixVerse, the firm’s Sora-like tool, has seen monthly traffic exceed 1.16 million following its launch in January, figures from third-party analyst platform SimilarWeb show. [LatePost, in Chinese]