MoFa (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd.
- Chinese name
- 魔珐科技
- Pinyin
- Registered name
- 魔珐（上海）信息科技有限公司
- Unified Social Credit Code
91310104MA1FRA7H0Xregistered in Shanghai 上海
Hyperreal and film-grade studios
Xmov (魔珐科技), registered as MoFa (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (魔珐（上海）信息科技有限公司), is a Shanghai company that makes hyper-realistic 3D digital humans and the AI that drives them. It was founded by Chai Jinxiang (柴金祥), who holds a PhD in AI and robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and was a tenured professor of computer science at Texas A&M University. The company was registered in October 2017 and dates its start to 2018. Co-founder Tan Hongbing (谭宏冰) earlier co-founded the apparel retailer HaoMaiYi (好买衣网).
By the company’s own account, its first product was an end-to-end AI performance-animation technology in 2018, followed in 2019 by a digital human deployed in finance and the hyper-realistic virtual human Ada. In May 2020 it launched Ling (翎), a Chinese-style virtual idol and influencer created with Next Generation Culture (次世文化). In January 2021 Ling sang the Peking-opera piece The Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers (天女散花) on CCTV’s talent show Go Online, Brilliant Youth (《上线吧，华彩少年》), which Jiemian (界面) described as the first virtual idol on a CCTV stage.
In April 2022 Xmov announced Series B and C rounds totalling US$130 million. The C round of US$110 million was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and earlier investors Sequoia China and 5Y Capital also invested (36Kr, TechWeb). At the time it described itself as building infrastructure for the metaverse.
On 16 August 2023 it launched three consumer AIGC products built on its 3D digital humans (Beijing Business Today, STAR Market Daily): Youyan (有言), which turns a script or slides into a finished 3D digital-human video; Youguang (有光), for AI-driven virtual livestreaming; and Youling (有灵), a digital-human agent app.
At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in July 2025 it showed Xingyun (魔珐星云, Embodia AI), an open platform for embodied 3D digital humans that generate voice, facial expression and gesture in real time and run on ordinary screens and devices. A Xingyun customer-service demo went up on Alibaba’s ModelScope community in December 2025. In April 2025 it signed a strategic partnership with the LED-display maker Unilumin (洲明科技), and in April 2026 Chai promoted the idea of the “AI screen”, a display with a built-in interactive digital human, at the DTS 2026 display-industry conference. At WAIC 2026 the company showed Xingyun and an upgraded Youyan running on screens, mobile devices and robots (China Newsweek, ifeng).