SoftBank fund to seek investment in Chinese AI giant

SAN FRANCISCO: SoftBank Vision Fund is seeking to invest almost US$1bil in China’s SenseTime Group Ltd as it seeks a stake in the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence (AI) startup, people familiar with the matter said.

The fund, created by SoftBank Group Corp, and SenseTime are still finalising terms of the deal and the details could still change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private.

The company has already announced two other funding rounds this year as it raised more than US$1.2bil.

SenseTime, a four-year-old startup, makes systems that analyse faces and images on a huge scale and contributes to China’s vast surveillance system.

The company is one of a host of local start- ups at the forefront of Beijing’s goal of making the country the world leader in AI by 2030.

Tokyo-based SoftBank has made China one of the main destinations for the Vision Fund, a near US$100bil pool of money that’s become the world’s largest technology investor.

It’s already backed sectors as diverse as robotics, ride-hailing, e-commerce and semiconductors. The fund has put billions into Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and has taken a stake in ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co.

SenseTime fits into SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s vision to invest in a future dominated by AI and data.

His firm spent US$32bil to acquire ARM Holdings Plc, the chip designer that he believes will be a linchpin in the development of artificial intelligence.