Alibaba (BABA) invests $290 million in AI startup ShengShu

Alibaba Cloud led a 2 billion yuan ($290 million) investment in ShengShu, an AI startup focusing on creating a 'general world model' using multimodal data. This investment includes participation from TAL Education and Baidu Ventures, following ShengShu's previous raise of 600 million yuan. The new model aims to bridge digital and physical worlds, potentially impacting markets focused on AI developments. Alibaba has increased its commitment to AI, investing in various startups like Tripo AI and PixVerse recently, highlighting the growing competition in AI-generated video.