On September 17, 2025, the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo grandly opened in Nanning, Guangxi. Zhou Changen, General Manager of Chasing Innovation, was invited to attend the "AI Unicorns Going Global Night" event. During the event, Chasing Innovation was successfully selected as one of the "Top 100 Chinese AI Unicorns Going Global" enterprises, thanks to its technological innovation and commercial practice achievements in the field of AI globalization. This list comprehensively evaluates enterprises based on multiple dimensions including technological innovation capability, market expansion capability, brand influence, and overseas user recognition. This honor not only demonstrates the industry's recognition of Chasing Innovation's leading role in the era of global AI globalization but also highlights the company's core competitiveness in the field of marine intelligent equipment. Meanwhile, this honor marks a new milestone for Chasing Innovation to bring deep-sea technology to the global AI industry stage.
Unicorns are like mysterious creatures shining with extraordinary light in the business forest, carrying the gene of innovation and thriving freely in the jungle of emerging fields. With fearless courage and extraordinary wisdom, Chasing has deeply cultivated the track of miniaturized and intelligent underwater intelligent equipment, injecting a steady stream of vitality into the development of the marine economy and becoming a new engine driving the progress of the marine century.
In practice, the valuation of unicorns is often regarded as a core reference indicator—for example, some domestic policies take a valuation of 1.5 billion RMB as the screening benchmark for high-potential enterprises. With technological innovation as its core competitiveness, Chasing Innovation has achieved the intellectualization, lightweight, and electronic information platformization of underwater robots. Relying on its technological strength and market performance, its current valuation has exceeded this reference line, firmly ranking in the first echelon of the underwater technology track, and is a well-deserved "underwater intelligent equipment unicorn".
Against a market environment dominated by European and American brands, Chasing Innovation has independently developed and put into production the world's first intelligent omnidirectional anti-current underwater robot—the Gladius X100. This product adopts the original OctoDrive power system and 8-thruster vector layout, achieving a maximum speed of 4.5 knots and omnidirectional anti-current capability of 4.5 knots, with a maximum diving depth of 350 meters and a horizontal operating radius of 400 meters, enabling stable operation in complex current environments. The equipped electronic gimbal camera can achieve 180° hemispherical perspective and 360° panoramic shooting, with performance improved by 20% compared with similar products, while the price is only 1/10 of foreign products. Its modular design and SDK open platform support independent accessory installation or secondary development. AI-related functions such as intelligent recognition, intelligent cruise, intelligent measurement, intelligent obstacle avoidance, intelligent tracking, and intelligent flaw detection developed based on this platform will be launched soon, covering application scenarios such as oil and gas platform inspection, submarine cable patrol, wind power pile foundation monitoring, underwater archaeology, emergency rescue, and fishery breeding.
As a pioneer force in the new marine economy, Chasing promotes industry progress with unique marine technology and business models, continuously expands user groups, improves the upstream and downstream industrial chain, creates diverse demands, and stimulates market vitality.
The China-ASEAN Expo has become an important platform for economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries. With the theme of "Digital Intelligence Empowers Development, Innovation Leads the Future", this year's Expo coincides with the inaugural year of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0. Nearly 200 high-tech enterprises gathered at the first-ever 10,000-square-meter artificial intelligence pavilion with 1,200 cutting-edge products and technologies. This innovative measure highlights the growing importance of AI technology in cooperation between China and ASEAN. Currently, ASEAN countries are in a critical period of digital transformation, with strong demand for the application of artificial intelligence technology in fields such as smart cities, marine economy, and industrial manufacturing.
ASEAN has a long coastline and numerous islands, and has an urgent demand for the development of marine resources. Geographically close and culturally interconnected, China and ASEAN countries have broad cooperation space in the marine economy field. As a practitioner in building a maritime power, Chasing Innovation is transforming its technological advantages into cooperation momentum. Through in-depth integration with China-ASEAN geographical and marine economic cooperation, the company drives industrial upgrading with technological innovation as the driving force, and has formed a demonstration effect in fields such as marine resource development, ecological protection, and maritime infrastructure construction. For example, in the marine fishery field, the Gladius X100 can real-time monitor water quality and fish school conditions, helping to achieve refined breeding; in the offshore wind power field, its deep-sea detection capability can ensure the safe operation of facilities. These practices not only expand the development boundary of the "blue economy" but also promote collaborative innovation between China and ASEAN in marine technology, digital economy, and green development by building an ecological system of "intelligent sharing and mutual benefit and win-win", injecting new impetus into high-quality regional development.
It is worth mentioning that during the display session of the "Unicorn Night" at this Expo, Chasing Innovation's products attracted the attention of many participating leaders and guests. Among them, the Gladius P200 PRO underwater robot was awarded the "Silver Award for Exhibits at the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo" by the Expo Organizing Committee for its innovative design and outstanding performance. This product not only has advanced functions such as deep diving operation, high-definition image quality, and intelligent submersible operating system but also has played a key role in various industries in many countries around the world, becoming an outstanding representative of the robot (virtual human) category at this ASEAN Expo.
Being selected into the "Future Unicorn" list this time is an affirmation of our "Technology Going Global + Ecological Co-construction" strategy. In the future, Chasing Innovation will further deepen cooperation with ASEAN partners, allowing China-made underwater robots to play a role in a broader marine space and inject "intelligent power" into China-ASEAN marine cooperation. This is our mission and also the future development journey of Chasing Innovation.
