Tencent bets big on AI development with investment in two startups | KrASIA

“Chinese internet giant Tencent (HKG: 0700) has placed a strategic bet on the AI industry by investing in two companies, local media Caijingtuya reported on Monday.

Through the Tencent Industry Win-Win Fund, the corporate venture arm of Tencent, the internet giant took a 2.44% stake in Ningbo-based AI vision company Qting Vision on Sunday, just one day after it obtained a 1.23% stock in Beijing-based Sinoits Tech, according to enterprise data provider Tianyancha. Financial details of both deals were not disclosed.”

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What could we learn from China’s national AI team (国家队) strategy | SMU Artificial Intelligence Club

“The notion of a national team is usually associated with sports teams representing the nation on the global stage for a shot at glory. These days, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments all the rage, nations are creating national teams for the race towards AI superiority. Amidst all the hype that one is exposed to in the media over the possible doomsday scenario about how AI could ruin our lives, governments and businesses across the globe are rapidly positioning themselves to ride the next wave of change.

In 2017, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) handpicked 4 of its technology giants, forming a ‘national team’ to lead the way in building open innovation platforms that are accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This initiative was created to foster participation and hence innovation in sectors that will increasingly be powered by AI technologies in an effort to support the entrepreneurship of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This national team is expected to contribute in areas such as research and development, sharing data, open source software and ecosystem participation. Moreover, MOST is very supportive in encouraging the deployment of these technologies at the provincial level. This includes providing resources and access to city infrastructure to allow for proof of concepts to scale. (DigiChina, 2019)”

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