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Canaan Inc. Closes Third Tranche of Preferred Shares Financing

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Plans to fund self-mining expansion and Bitcoin mining machine business in North America 

SINGAPORE, Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN) (“Canaan” or the “Company”), a leading high-performance computing solutions provider, today announced that it has closed the third and final tranche of its previously announced preferred shares financing (the “Preferred Shares Financing”), raising additional total gross proceeds of $50 million. Pursuant to the third tranche of Preferred Shares Financing, the Company issued 50,000 Preferred Shares (the “Third Closing Shares”) at a price of US$1,000.00 per Preferred Share. Canaan agreed that the proceeds from the sale of the Third Closing Shares will be used by the Company and/or its subsidiaries to manufacture or invest in digital mining sites and equipment to be deployed or sold in North America, including any acquisition or disposition of assets from or between subsidiaries.

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with this institutional investor. We believe their continued commitment demonstrates their confidence in Canaan and the significant opportunities this collaboration offers for both parties,” said Nangeng Zhang, chairman and chief executive officer of Canaan.  “By expanding our North American self-mining activities, we expect to benefit from a more diversified revenue stream, reduced volatility, and a stable regulatory environment. This strategic initiative positions us to capitalize on the anticipated Bitcoin bull market, enhancing our ability to generate robust returns from our self-mining operations.  We also hope that working on projects that utilize the Northern American power infrastructure will expand our team’s expertise on blockchain data center operations and beyond.” 

On November 27, 2023, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Securities Purchase Agreement”) with an institutional investor (the “Buyer”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to issue and sell to the Buyer up to 125,000 Series A Convertible Preferred Shares at the price of US$1,000.00 for each Preferred Share. On December 11, 2023, the Company closed the first tranche of the Preferred Shares Financing, raising total gross proceeds of $25 million. On January 22, 2024, the Company closed the second tranche of the Preferred Shares Financing, raising total gross proceeds of $50 million.

On September 27, 2024, the Company closed the third and final tranche of the Preferred Shares Financing under the Securities Purchase Agreement. The Third Closing Shares were sold under the amended terms of certain documents executed on September 26, 2024, namely, a global amendment (the “Global Amendment”) to the Securities Purchase Agreement as well as an amended certificate of designations (the “Certificate of Designations”) of Preferred Shares, par value US$0.00000005 per share, as adopted by the Company. The amendments to the original terms of the securities purchase agreement and certificate of designations include, among other things,

(a) while the first and second tranches of preferred shares were sold as registered securities under a registration statement of the Company, the Third Closing Shares were issued and sold as “restricted securities” under applicable U.S. federal and state securities laws, and the Buyer acknowledged that Company has no obligation to register or qualify the Third Closing Shares, or the ADSs into which they may be converted;

(b) the Third Closing Shares are convertible, after six (6) months following their issuance, into Class A Ordinary Shares that can be deposited with the Depositary for the issuance of ADSs; and

(c) so long as the Buyer holds any of the Preferred Shares or any Conversion Shares, the Buyer will limit its aggregate sales of Conversion Shares on the open market in any given calendar week to no more than 10% of the weekly trading volume of the ADSs on all trading markets for such week.

The Buyer and the Company have also made amendments to the preferred share conversion mechanism under the Certificate of Designations. First, the Fixed Conversion Price has increased. For the first and second tranches, the Fixed Conversion Price was 120% of the Weighted Average Price of the ADSs on the Trading Day immediately preceding the applicable Issuance Date of the Series A Preferred Shares being converted.  For the third tranche, the Fixed Conversion Price has been modified to $4.00. For reference, the closing trading price of the Company’s ADSs on September 27, 2024, was $1.06. Second, a 90-day average Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) published on the Trading Day immediately preceding the date of conversion, or a SOFR factor, has been added to the calculation of the Conversion Amount, reflecting an additional cost for the Company to use the proceeds from the sales of the Third Closing Shares until the Conversion Date. As of September 27, 2024, the 90-day average SOFR was 5.32675%.

The Securities Purchase Agreement (as amended) contains customary representations, warranties and agreements by the Company and the Buyer, and indemnification obligations of the Company against certain liabilities, including for liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The provisions of the Securities Purchase Agreement (as amended), including the representations and warranties contained therein, are not for the benefit of any party other than the parties to such agreement and are not intended as a document for investors and the public to obtain factual information about the current state of affairs of the Company. Rather, investors and the public should look to other disclosures contained in the Company’s filings with the SEC.

The Certificate of Designations creates the Preferred Shares and provides for the designations, preferences and relative, participating, optional or other rights, and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, of the Preferred Shares, which becomes effective upon its adoption.

The foregoing description does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Securities Purchase Agreement, as amended, and the Certificate of Designations, as amended. The full text of the amendment to the Securities Purchase Agreement and the form of amended Certificate of Designations are to be filed as exhibits to the Company’s current report on Form 6-K dated on or around September 30, 2024. The full text of the Securities Purchase Agreement was previously filed as an exhibit to the Company’s current report on Form 6-K dated November 28, 2023. Capitalized terms used in this press release without definition shall have the meanings given to them in the Securities Purchase Agreement, the Certificate of Designations, and any amendments thereto.                                                                                                                                             

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, which is made only by means of a prospectus supplement and related prospectus. There will be no sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation of an offer to buy or sale would be unlawful.

About Canaan Inc.

Established in 2013, Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN), is a technology company focusing on ASIC high-performance computing chip design, chip research and development, computing equipment production, and software services. Canaan has extensive experience in chip design and streamlined production in the ASIC field. In 2013, Canaan’s founding team shipped to its customers the world’s first batch of mining machines incorporating ASIC technology in bitcoin‘s history under the brand name Avalon. In 2019, Canaan completed its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market. To learn more about Canaan, please visit https://www.canaan.io/.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward−looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward−looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Among other things, Canaan Inc.’s anticipated financing plans and its intended use of proceeds contain forward−looking statements. Canaan Inc. may also make written or oral forward−looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on Forms 20−F and 6−K, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Canaan Inc.’s beliefs and expectations, are forward−looking statements. Forward−looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward−looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development, financial condition and results of operations; the expected growth of the bitcoin industry and the price of bitcoin; the Company’s expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its products, especially its bitcoin mining machines; the Company’s expectations regarding maintaining and strengthening its relationships with production partners and customers; the Company’s investment plans and strategies, fluctuations in the Company’s quarterly operating results; competition in its industry in China; and relevant government policies and regulations relating to the Company and cryptocurrency. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Canaan Inc. does not undertake any obligation to update any forward−looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Investor Relations Contact

Canaan Inc.
Ms. Xi Zhang
Email: IR@canaan-creative.com 

ICR, LLC.
Robin Yang
Tel: +1 (347) 396-3281
Email: canaan.ir@icrinc.com 

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SOURCE Canaan Inc.

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Samsung Selects Chandigarh University Student as ‘Punjab AI State Topper’

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CU Student Devesh Panwar Wins Rs 1 Lakh Award for Developing AI-Based Document Search System

CHANDIGARH, India, July 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) student of Chandigarh University, Devesh Panwar, has been named the “Punjab State Topper” in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) under the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program organised by Samsung in collaboration with Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) and training partner Focal Skill Development (Focalyt) to equip Indian youth with industry-relevant in-demand skills in AI, loT, Big Data, and Coding & Programming, preparing them for future careers.

A final-year student of Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) at University Institute of Computing (UIC) of Chandigarh University, Devesh Panwar also won a cash award of Rs 1 lakh along with a laptop, and exclusive Samsung rewards for achieving this remarkable milestone under the Samsung Innovation Campus AI Program.

 “Being named ‘AI State Topper’ was a moment of profound pride and validation for me. Hard work, intense technical training and a passion for AI culminated in the immense honor of the Punjab State Topper title. Besides getting access to state-of-the-art tools to fuel my future research and development endeavor, I gained world-class knowledge during the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program. It helped me in gaining hands-on experience and applied AI to solve real-world challenges, especially in aeronautical and technical domains,”

During Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program, Devesh and his team worked on innovative AI capstone project which was presented before the jury panel as part of the final assessment.

“Our team developed the advanced AI-powered system AI Research Agent, a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) platform designed for intelligent querying of private document collections. Organizations, researchers, legal professionals, and HR teams often work with large collections of documents. Traditional search methods rely heavily on keyword matching and require significant manual effort to locate relevant information. The project was developed to address the limitations of traditional document search systems, which often struggle with contextual understanding, retrieval accuracy, learning adaptability, and response speed,” said Devesh.

 “The developed system demonstrated significant improvements over traditional document retrieval approaches with faster response generation with integration of modern AI techniques, full-stack development, database systems, and intelligent automation into a single practical solution.  By combining modern RAG architecture with innovative retrieval and reasoning mechanisms, this system provides a fast, intelligent, and user-friendly solution for knowledge discovery and resume evaluation. This project not only enhanced our technical expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Full-Stack Development but also strengthened our problem-solving, teamwork, and professional communication skills. It stands as a significant achievement of our Samsung Innovation Campus 2025 journey and reflects our commitment to building impactful AI solutions for real-world challenges,” he added.

Congratulating Devesh Panwar for being named “Punjab State Topper” AI under the Samsung Innovation Campus Samsung Innovation Program, Deepinder Singh Sandhu, Senior Managing Director, Chandigarh University, said, “Devesh’s achievement reflects Chandigarh University’s focus on experiential learning and industry-academia collaboration.  Through the Samsung Innovation Campus AI Program, CU students gain practical exposure to AI and building solutions for real-world challenges. This accomplishment reflects not only Devesh’s commitment to excellence but also the growing culture of innovation and industry-oriented learning at Chandigarh University,”.

“Since its inception, Chandigarh University has set benchmarks for world-class education with its dynamic hands-on experiential learning model, industry-aligned programs, dynamic fraternity, state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities and impeccable placements. Samsung Innovation Program is also part of our initiatives to develop a future-ready talent pool equipped with advanced capabilities in AI, loT, Big Data, and Coding and Programming. By bridging the gap between theoretical learning and real-world application, this collaboration helps in providing CU’s computer science and computing students exposure to cutting-edge and emerging technologies.  CU’s this partnership with Samsung is focused on building future-ready talent equipped with industry-relevant skills in AI and emerging technologies,” Sandhu said.

He said Chandigarh University’s Institute of Computing (UIC) prepares students for a successful career in computing, to create and disseminate computing knowledge and technology. “Chandigarh University carries a vision of crafting next-gen IT professionals who can take up industry challenges effectively and our Institute of Computing (UIC) prepares students for a successful career in computing, to create and disseminate computing knowledge and technology.  UIC’s hands-on approach paves the way for a smooth transition to the workforce after graduation. Our students are equipped with the best knowledge, skills and passion to succeed in any number of computing careers.   CU’s Institute of Computing renders cutting-edge education ranging from the expertise in traditional software development -to- modern computing technologies. Fully-equipped industry-sponsored labs, industry-aligned curriculum, and accreditations and validations by top companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Google Android, Red Hat etc. give our students an exclusive edge over others,” the Chandigarh University CMD said.

Sandhu said the latest edition of QS World University Rankings has yet again reaffirmed Chandigarh University global standing as a top educational institution. “Continuing its remarkable rise among the world’s leading higher education institutions, Chandigarh University (CU) has made impressive strides in the latest edition of prestigious QS World University Rankings 2027 by securing an overall world rank of 526, an increase of 49 ranks as compared to 575th rank in QS’ 2026 Rankings. This is for the fifth consecutive year that Chandigarh University’s global rankings have witnessed an impressive surge with CU’s world rank going up by an impressive 274 ranks — from the 800th rank in 2023 to 526th in 2027’s Rankings,”.

“As per the latest QS World University Rankings, with All India Rank of 13 among all universities in the country as compared to 16th rank in 2026’s rankings, Chandigarh University now ranks among the top 1% of universities in India and the top 2% of universities in the World, underscoring its growing reputation as a leading institution of higher learning, both in India and globally,” he added.

About Chandigarh University

Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade University and QS World Ranked University. This autonomous educational institution is approved by UGC and is located near Chandigarh in the state of Punjab. It is the youngest university in India and the only private university in Punjab to be honoured with A+ Grade by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). CU offers more than 109 UG and PG programs in the field of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, journalism, animation, hotel management, commerce, and others. It has been awarded as The University with Best Placements by WCRC.

Website address: https://www.cuchd.in/

Photo: https://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1885145/PRESS-PIC-001-SAMSUNG-CU-STUDENT.jpg?id=OA2769782&token=eyJhbGciOiJkaXIiLCJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIn0..tz96RqadDKMvzkEj.hSUhhTBdc9ZsrJjdBxEgY3wlJi0695tAGCi_yhGtBbdiThMARSwsYuRxoaEaAC1HccJGtnxglefy4fXZDdGfD-4OdjVgfOBZDHtwSaDWfS9i0sxsJ9uscOPXaiNP1iwN6to.iJaPyZAn7rk4NN9I54uvhg

 

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Samsung Selects Chandigarh University Student as ‘Punjab AI State Topper’

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CU Student Devesh Panwar Wins Rs 1 Lakh Award for Developing AI-Based Document Search System

CHANDIGARH, India, July 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) student of Chandigarh University, Devesh Panwar, has been named the “Punjab State Topper” in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) under the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program organised by Samsung in collaboration with Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) and training partner Focal Skill Development (Focalyt) to equip Indian youth with industry-relevant in-demand skills in AI, loT, Big Data, and Coding & Programming, preparing them for future careers.

A final-year student of Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) at University Institute of Computing (UIC) of Chandigarh University, Devesh Panwar also won a cash award of Rs 1 lakh along with a laptop, and exclusive Samsung rewards for achieving this remarkable milestone under the Samsung Innovation Campus AI Program.

 “Being named ‘AI State Topper’ was a moment of profound pride and validation for me. Hard work, intense technical training and a passion for AI culminated in the immense honor of the Punjab State Topper title. Besides getting access to state-of-the-art tools to fuel my future research and development endeavor, I gained world-class knowledge during the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program. It helped me in gaining hands-on experience and applied AI to solve real-world challenges, especially in aeronautical and technical domains,”

During Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) AI Program, Devesh and his team worked on innovative AI capstone project which was presented before the jury panel as part of the final assessment.

“Our team developed the advanced AI-powered system AI Research Agent, a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) platform designed for intelligent querying of private document collections. Organizations, researchers, legal professionals, and HR teams often work with large collections of documents. Traditional search methods rely heavily on keyword matching and require significant manual effort to locate relevant information. The project was developed to address the limitations of traditional document search systems, which often struggle with contextual understanding, retrieval accuracy, learning adaptability, and response speed,” said Devesh.

 “The developed system demonstrated significant improvements over traditional document retrieval approaches with faster response generation with integration of modern AI techniques, full-stack development, database systems, and intelligent automation into a single practical solution.  By combining modern RAG architecture with innovative retrieval and reasoning mechanisms, this system provides a fast, intelligent, and user-friendly solution for knowledge discovery and resume evaluation. This project not only enhanced our technical expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Full-Stack Development but also strengthened our problem-solving, teamwork, and professional communication skills. It stands as a significant achievement of our Samsung Innovation Campus 2025 journey and reflects our commitment to building impactful AI solutions for real-world challenges,” he added.

Congratulating Devesh Panwar for being named “Punjab State Topper” AI under the Samsung Innovation Campus Samsung Innovation Program, Deepinder Singh Sandhu, Senior Managing Director, Chandigarh University, said, “Devesh’s achievement reflects Chandigarh University’s focus on experiential learning and industry-academia collaboration.  Through the Samsung Innovation Campus AI Program, CU students gain practical exposure to AI and building solutions for real-world challenges. This accomplishment reflects not only Devesh’s commitment to excellence but also the growing culture of innovation and industry-oriented learning at Chandigarh University,”.

“Since its inception, Chandigarh University has set benchmarks for world-class education with its dynamic hands-on experiential learning model, industry-aligned programs, dynamic fraternity, state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities and impeccable placements. Samsung Innovation Program is also part of our initiatives to develop a future-ready talent pool equipped with advanced capabilities in AI, loT, Big Data, and Coding and Programming. By bridging the gap between theoretical learning and real-world application, this collaboration helps in providing CU’s computer science and computing students exposure to cutting-edge and emerging technologies.  CU’s this partnership with Samsung is focused on building future-ready talent equipped with industry-relevant skills in AI and emerging technologies,” Sandhu said.

He said Chandigarh University’s Institute of Computing (UIC) prepares students for a successful career in computing, to create and disseminate computing knowledge and technology. “Chandigarh University carries a vision of crafting next-gen IT professionals who can take up industry challenges effectively and our Institute of Computing (UIC) prepares students for a successful career in computing, to create and disseminate computing knowledge and technology.  UIC’s hands-on approach paves the way for a smooth transition to the workforce after graduation. Our students are equipped with the best knowledge, skills and passion to succeed in any number of computing careers.   CU’s Institute of Computing renders cutting-edge education ranging from the expertise in traditional software development -to- modern computing technologies. Fully-equipped industry-sponsored labs, industry-aligned curriculum, and accreditations and validations by top companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Google Android, Red Hat etc. give our students an exclusive edge over others,” the Chandigarh University CMD said.

Sandhu said the latest edition of QS World University Rankings has yet again reaffirmed Chandigarh University global standing as a top educational institution. “Continuing its remarkable rise among the world’s leading higher education institutions, Chandigarh University (CU) has made impressive strides in the latest edition of prestigious QS World University Rankings 2027 by securing an overall world rank of 526, an increase of 49 ranks as compared to 575th rank in QS’ 2026 Rankings. This is for the fifth consecutive year that Chandigarh University’s global rankings have witnessed an impressive surge with CU’s world rank going up by an impressive 274 ranks — from the 800th rank in 2023 to 526th in 2027’s Rankings,”.

“As per the latest QS World University Rankings, with All India Rank of 13 among all universities in the country as compared to 16th rank in 2026’s rankings, Chandigarh University now ranks among the top 1% of universities in India and the top 2% of universities in the World, underscoring its growing reputation as a leading institution of higher learning, both in India and globally,” he added.

About Chandigarh University

Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade University and QS World Ranked University. This autonomous educational institution is approved by UGC and is located near Chandigarh in the state of Punjab. It is the youngest university in India and the only private university in Punjab to be honoured with A+ Grade by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). CU offers more than 109 UG and PG programs in the field of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, journalism, animation, hotel management, commerce, and others. It has been awarded as The University with Best Placements by WCRC.

Website address: https://www.cuchd.in/

Photo: https://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1885145/PRESS-PIC-001-SAMSUNG-CU-STUDENT.jpg?id=OA2769782&token=eyJhbGciOiJkaXIiLCJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIn0..tz96RqadDKMvzkEj.hSUhhTBdc9ZsrJjdBxEgY3wlJi0695tAGCi_yhGtBbdiThMARSwsYuRxoaEaAC1HccJGtnxglefy4fXZDdGfD-4OdjVgfOBZDHtwSaDWfS9i0sxsJ9uscOPXaiNP1iwN6to.iJaPyZAn7rk4NN9I54uvhg

 

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Black Lake Technologies Shortlisted as SAIL Award TOP30 Finalist and Selected as Global Industrial AI Flagship Case, Showcasing Latest Industrial Agent at WAIC 2026

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SHANGHAI, July 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) opened in Shanghai on July 17. Shanghai Blacklake Technologies Co., Ltd. (“Black Lake”), an industrial AI company, is showcasing a portfolio of industrial AI agents at the conference. The company has also been named to the Top 30 shortlist for the 2026 WAIC Super AI Leader (SAIL) Award and selected as a Trusted Partner under the Global Call for Trusted Partners for Industrial AI in the Global South.

The accreditations highlight Black Lake’s latest progress in bringing AI into critical manufacturing decision-making workflows and deploying industrial AI capabilities on the shop floor around the world.

This year’s conference attracted over 1,100 exhibiting companies and showcased more than 3,000 exhibits, setting a new record for exhibition scale. The conference delivered a clear signal: as artificial intelligence becomes a common priority across global industries, attention is moving beyond model capabilities toward practical applications in real-world operating environments.

Manufacturing provides a particularly demanding test for this transition. Factory operations are governed by multiple constraints, including process specifications, equipment capabilities, material availability, production capacity, delivery schedules and quality requirements. Therefore, AI has to do so much more than simply comprehend information input. It must make reliable judgments within clearly defined business rules and operational constraints.

Black Lake has focused on industrial digitalization and industrial AI for years, developing and deploying AI applications in a range of factory environments.

At WAIC 2026, the company is presenting industrial AI agents covering order splitting and process planning, quotation and pricing, procurement, production scheduling, quality inspection, and order tracking. These applications are designed to move AI beyond an auxiliary role and into critical manufacturing decision-making workflows.

Traditional industrial software is primarily responsible for data recording, digital workflows, and worker coordination. However, critical decisions such as how to split an order, determine pricing, schedule production, and assess quality risks still depend heavily on the experience of engineers and frontline workers.

Industrial AI agents are intended to convert fragmented industrial knowledge and production experience into decision-making capabilities that can be invoked, reused and continuously refined by software systems.

Order decomposition and process planning are representative examples. After receiving an engineering drawing, a factory typically relies on experienced engineers to identify components, materials and dimensions, define the required manufacturing processes and technical specifications, and establish a basis for subsequent quotation and quality inspection.

The process is highly dependent on individual expertise and represents one of the first critical decision points after an order is received.

Black Lake Technologies’ CAD-to-Process Agent can understand product drawings and, taking into account the factory’s equipment capabilities, process requirements, and production practices, rapidly generate process steps along with the corresponding technical requirements. Drawing analysis that once took hours can now be completed in approximately one minute, achieving an accuracy rate of over 95% in real deployment and providing engineers with stable, efficient decision support. Currently, the industrial agents developed by the company cover core processes including design, scheduling, production, and quality inspection, and have entered the stage of large-scale deployment.

Founded in 2016, Black Lake serves nearly 40,000 factories worldwide. Its customers span more than 30 industries, including food and beverage, automotive components and equipment manufacturing.

By working across factory order management, production and fulfillment workflows, Black Lake has accumulated the technical capabilities and industry knowledge required to support decision-making in complex industrial environments.

In April 2026, Black Lake completed a Series D funding round of nearly RMB 1 billion. The company said the proceeds would primarily be used to accelerate the deployment of its industrial AI products and support its international expansion.

AI-related products are becoming a new source of growth for the company. In a recent interview, Black Lake founder and CEO Zhou Yuxiang said that the company had recorded significant growth in AI-related revenue since the beginning of 2026. He also said that manufacturing customers were taking less time to make purchasing decisions for industrial AI agents.

Zhou expects AI adoption among Chinese factories to increase substantially over the next three to four years.

Unlike consumer-facing AI, which is primarily associated with content generation and personal productivity, industrial AI agents can directly affect production costs, capacity utilization, delivery performance, and product quality. Their commercial value therefore depends largely on whether they can perform specific tasks reliably in complex production environments.

During WAIC 2026, Black Lake was named to the Top 30 shortlist for the 2026 Super AI Leader (SAIL) Award. The SAIL Award is one of WAIC’s major awards and recognizes achievements in technological breakthroughs, application innovation, and industrial value.

Black Lake was also selected as a Trusted Partner under UNIDO’s Global Call for Trusted Partners for Industrial AI in the Global South.

The Global Call was launched under the guidance of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in partnership with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and in connection with the work of UNIDO AIM Global and its Shanghai-based Centre of Excellence.

The initiative aims to build a curated pool of leading partners to co-develop scalable industrial AI solutions and public goods for the Global South.

For Black Lake, the two accreditations underscore the growing importance of reliability, explainability, and scalability in the evaluation of industrial AI, in addition to the capabilities of AI models.

Global expansion will be a major priority in the company’s next phase of development. Black Lake is currently focusing on Southeast Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, adapting its industrial AI agents to the industrial structures, production processes and management requirements of different markets.

Although manufacturing operations vary across countries and regions, manufacturers share similar concerns about efficiency, quality, delivery reliability and production flexibility.

Black Lake is transforming industrial AI capabilities that have been validated in complex factory environments into configurable and deployable products. Through these products, the company aims to work with manufacturers worldwide to explore more efficient, flexible and intelligent approaches to production.

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SOURCE Black Lake

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