37 Interactive Entertainment, a Chinese gaming giant, recently reported a staggering 981.35% year-on-year increase in investment income for Q1 2026. The main driver? A strategic investment in Zhipu AI, a large language model (LLM) company whose stock surged from 116 HKD to over 1,000 HKD after its Hong Kong IPO in January 2026. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. On May 15, 2026, 37 hosted a conference in Wuhu, Anhui, titled 'Reading Technology, Interactive Entertainment Reborn.' The guest list read like a who's who of hard tech: AI chip maker XiWang, brain-computer interface (BCI) unicorn BrainCo, edge GPU cloud service provider Tingyu, embodied AI company Guanglun, video AI firm Aishi—nearly 50 cutting-edge tech companies, all brought together by a game company.
Why does this matter? Because 37 is not just diversifying; it's building a comprehensive AI ecosystem that spans the entire value chain: computing infrastructure, LLM algorithms, AI applications, BCI, embodied AI, and quantum computing. This strategy is rooted in the gaming industry's pain point: high costs and low efficiency. Developing a AAA game like 'Red Dead Redemption 2' takes 8 years, and even 37's own 'Soul Land: Douluo Dalu' took nearly two years. By integrating Zhipu's GLM model, 37 reduced ad material production costs by over 60% and shortened production cycles from weeks to hours. Now, over 70% of its ad materials and 80% of its 2D art are AI-assisted. Its in-house 'Xiaoqi' LLM has passed national cybersecurity filings, and over 90% of core operations (R&D, publishing, operations) are AI-covered.
37's investment portfolio is equally impressive. It has stakes in three of China's 'Big Four' LLM startups (Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, Baichuan AI), excluding only MiniMax, which is tied to rival MiHoYo. It also invested in AI chip company Yizhi Electronics (acquired by Black Sesame Technologies, now a key asset in Hong Kong's 'AI chip first stock'), optical module maker Lijing Innovation (valued at 22.5 billion yuan post-investment, IPO-filed in Hong Kong), semiconductor equipment firm Star Technology (led by lithography pioneer He Rongming, focusing on advanced packaging lithography), and BCI unicorn BrainCo (with a $20 million investment in November 2025, followed by a 2 billion yuan funding round—second only to Neuralink globally).
Wuhu, the conference location, is no coincidence. It's the core node of the 'East Data West Computing' project in the Yangtze River Delta, with intelligent computing power exceeding 26,000 P (petaflops), accounting for 70% of Anhui province. Wuhu also offers 'computing vouchers'—a 100 million yuan annual fund subsidizing over 25% of computing costs for enterprises. Since 2021, 37 has operated the '37 Play Heart Fund' in Wuhu (200 million yuan total, 120 million yuan deployed), investing in tech startups like Tingyu and Huixi.
But is 37 neglecting its core gaming business? Far from it. In Q1 2026, revenue reached 3.72 billion yuan, with net profit of 873 million yuan (up 59.02% year-on-year). Games like 'Ragnarok Online: World Journey' topped app store charts in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan; 'Last Asylum: Plague' ranked in the global top 10 mobile revenue growth; and survival game 'Survival 33 Days' dominated WeChat mini-games, Douyin, and TapTap. Upcoming titles include 'The Husband's Revenge,' 'Fights Break Sphere,' and 'Douluo Dalu: Inheritance.'
37's 'dual-engine' strategy—gaming and tech investment—is unique among Chinese game companies. Its investments are not mere financial plays; each one connects back to its gaming core. Since exploring AI in 2018, 37 has invested over 4 billion yuan in frontier tech, proving that gaming firms can be precision hunters in hard tech. Chairman Li Weiwei said at the Wuhu conference: 'Wuhu has computing power, subsidies, and we have scenarios and sincerity. You have the most cutting-edge technology and keen insights.' By building a platform, fostering an ecosystem, and enabling mutual growth, 37 has transcended its gaming origins to become a tech ecosystem orchestrator.