Exclusive | SenseTime defied US sanction to raise capital in Hong Kong. Where does it go from here?
- The jewel in SenseTime’s crown is SenseCore, which uses massive data and deep learning to produce scalable and affordable models for different industries
- SenseTime’s shares plunged 47 per cent in Hong Kong on June 30 when the lock-up period covering nearly two-thirds of its stock expired
‘‘Technology should be the global goal that we pursue for our [collective] future” for all of humanity,” said Xu, who received a doctorate in computer science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) before co-founding SenseTime, during an interview with South China Morning Post. “[It is regrettable] that we are caught in the middle of geopolitical tension.”
The White House placed SenseTime on a list of “Chinese military-industrial complex companies,” holding the Hong Kong-based start-up responsible for “human rights abuse enabled by the malign use of technology,” according to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. SenseTime rejected the accusation.
Still, the US sanction – that banned American funds from investing in SenseTime – coincided with the day for pricing its shares, in an IPO expected to net US$768 million. The pricing was delayed, forcing the company to postpone its stock sale three days after the US sanction.
