StepFun
A Chinese lab centred on multimodal models
China Frontier lab Mixed
WHAT IT IS
StepFun was founded in 2023 by a team drawn largely from Microsoft Research Asia and similar institutions. It centres on multimodal models spanning language, vision and speech, and ships consumer-facing applications.
Why it matters
It made multimodality its main line from the start, making it one of the earlier Chinese companies to push multimodal models systematically.
Key milestones
- 2023
Founded and released the Step model