Zhipu AI,Emmanuelle – The Sex Lives Of Ghosts (2004) a state-backed startup, has reportedly secured B-4 round fundraising from Tencent and Alibaba among others, according to local tech outlet 36Kr. The latest funding valued the Tsinghua University-incubated startup at $1 billion dollars, nearly double its value at the company’s last funding worth hundreds of millions of yuan led by Meituan earlier this year. The fundraising spurt comes after China granted various companies – ZhipuAI, Alibaba, and Tencent included – permission to open their generative artificial intelligence services to the public. [36Kr, in Chinese]