China's SenseTime, the world's highest valued AI startup, raises $600M

[onebyone]

The future of artificial intelligence (AI), the technology that is seen as


The future of artificial intelligence (AI), the technology that is seen as potentially impacting almost every industry on the planet, is widely acknowledged to be a war between tech firms in America and China.



Beyond the high figures involved -- the round is a record fundraising for an AI company worldwide -- SenseTime's investment efforts are notable because of the names that have backed it.



"SenseTime is doing pioneering work in artificial intelligence. We are especially impressed by their R&D capabilities in deep learning and visual computing. Our business at Alibaba is already seeing tangible benefits from our investments in AI and we are committed to further investment," said Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman.



China has placed vast emphasis on tech development, with AI one of its key flagposts.



Even two years ago, the potential was evident, with Lee explaining that teaching, medicine and healthcare were obvious areas for disruption.

Perhaps the main difference between the state of AI development in the U.S. and China is that, in America, much of the technology is being developed in big tech firms like Amazon and Google. In China, however, companies like SenseTime and its rival Megvii (which develops the Face++ platform) are independent entities that operate with the financial backing of giants like Alibaba.

• This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-apos-sensetime-world-apos-053329116.html

 

[powastick]

I don't know why an AI company needs 600 million.

 

[MrSato1]

I don't know why an AI company needs 600 million.

I think they are the main arm behind chinas big brother state. By the way I am a supporter of China, but based on CCTV/CGTN reports, they operate a lot of the facial recognition software used by the police, banks and the likes, so its not that they need 600 million, its just that they own the largest potential market in the word, for one of the most important technologies in the coming future so it makes sense.

 

[TaiShang]

I don't know why an AI company needs 600 million.

It is an extremely promising area in AI. China leads in facial recognition and I guess investors know the potential.

It is not only about tracking and monitoring but also about quick access to certain services such as banking, port and train station boarding, hospital registration etc.

 

[qwerrty]

nvidia and qualcomm are using their machine vision algorithms in their ai chips. honda is also asking them to help develop self-driving car software for them