2026: Why Capital Prefers AI Apps That Can Make Money

In 2026, capital is shifting from user scale to commercialization quality verification for AI applications. The old model of subsidizing compute for DAU growth failed because of high compute costs and poor retention. Companies like Character.AI and Inflection AI saw user declines despite large funding rounds. Haiyi, a global AI app company based in Chengdu, has emerged as a benchmark: 40%+ gross margin, 60%+ core product renewal rate, and $60 ARPPU. Its product matrix includes three lines: SeaArt (AI creative community, 2M assets), MoreShort (AI short drama platform, $1M monthly revenue in 6 months), and SeaSoul (AI character interaction, 500k DAU with 66-minute average session). These are built on five reusable capabilities: multimodal generation, agent interaction, content recommendation, paid growth, and monetization. This modular structure reduces new product validation from 36 to 4 months. Haiyi recently closed a Series B led by Visual China, Huagai, and Vertex Ventures, with participation from Tencent, Alibaba, and government funds. The company has 65 million registered users, 30 million monthly visits, and generates 10M images and 500k videos daily. It also opens its infrastructure to third parties and launched a creator incubator in Chengdu. The thesis: AI apps can achieve positive gross margin and sustainable revenue without burning cash on compute subsidies.