Approaching AI is expected to develop an ATaaS platform in Xiaoshan district, Hangzhou. [Photo/WeChat account: hzstcj]

An AI infrastructure startup spun out of Tsinghua University will establish its East China headquarters in Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district, with plans to build a 10,000-GPU AI Token factory within five years.

The agreement, signed on July 21 with Qianjiang Century City, will see Beijing-based Approaching AI develop an AI Token-as-a-Service (ATaaS) platform that delivers standardized AI inference services for enterprise users.

The project comes as AI "tokens" — the basic units consumed by large language models during inference — are emerging as a key metric for measuring AI computing power. Instead of selling hardware or server time, the company aims to provide AI inference capacity through scalable token production.

Founded in late 2023, Approaching AI was commercialized from Tsinghua University's Institute of High Performance Computing. Its core team also created the open-source KTransformers and Mooncake projects, which focus on improving AI inference efficiency across heterogeneous computing systems.

The company said its proprietary technologies can significantly improve token production efficiency while reducing computing costs, adding it has attracted more than 1 billion yuan ($148 million) in financing within just six months.

The project will strengthen Qianjiang Century City's growing AI ecosystem, which already includes an AIGC computing center, a chip-model innovation community and the ZODA open data community.

Together, they form a full AI infrastructure chain spanning data, models, computing power and token production, supporting Hangzhou's ambition to become a leading AI innovation hub in China.

Xiaoshan's Qianjiang Century City features an integrated industrial chain. [Photo/WeChat account: hzstcj]