Chinese chip designer Cambricon Technologies and artificial intelligence company SenseTime have teamed up to advance the country’s efforts to become self-reliant in AI infrastructure, according to a social media post on Wednesday.
The two companies intend to leverage their respective hardware and software expertise to promote “a new indigenous AI development paradigm”, according to a WeChat post by SenseTime, in response to the “AI Plus” strategy unveiled in August by the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Beijing has made self-reliance across China’s AI stack – from integrated circuits to AI models – a national priority, as infrastructure buildout is expected to be a major theme in the country’s development of a 15th five-year plan.
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The strategic cooperation is expected to result in a synthesis of Hong Kong-headquartered SenseTime’s foundational models with Beijing-based Cambricon’s growing suite of AI processors, according to Wednesday’s post.
The two companies said they would jointly develop AI computing solutions and “all-in-one” vertical enterprise services, as well as explore “pooling regional industrial resources … to build more dynamic and influential regional AI ecosystems”.
General view of SenseTime headquarters inside the Hong Kong Science Park in Tai Po. Photo: Sam Tsang alt=General view of SenseTime headquarters inside the Hong Kong Science Park in Tai Po. Photo: Sam Tsang>
Cambricon, dubbed China’s “little Nvidia” by retail investors, is one of the country’s hottest companies after its Shanghai-traded stock surged fivefold over the past year. It went public in 2020.
In August, the company reported a 4,348 per cent year-on-year increase in first-half revenue to a record 2.88 billion yuan (US$404.8 million). It has forecast further revenue growth amid increased demand for computing power to train and run large AI models.
Meanwhile, SenseTime recorded an adjusted loss of 1.16 billion yuan in the first half, following a difficult few years in which it struggled under the weight of US sanctions.
One of China’s first batch of AI champions, SenseTime has released several foundational models, including the SenseNova V6.5 in July.
SenseTime co-founder and CEO Xu Li told the Post last month that the company’s strong capabilities in computer vision technology give its multimodal models an advantage over competitors.
