Veteran tech investor Lee Kai-fu bets on AI as next internet wave

Sinovation Ventures, the Chinese venture capital firm founded by veteran tech investor Lee Kai-fu, is betting big that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace a growing number of human jobs from equity traders, security guards. drivers even medical staff in future.

“AI is really changing every profession and every industry. There’s almost nothing that won’t be touched by AI,” said Lee, one of the most influential figures in China’s internet sector.

Lee said AI is now Sinovation’s most important investment category among, having invested US$100 million in 25 AI-related start-ups.

It raised the equivalent of US$675 million in total across a Chinese and an American fund in September, and the firm has over 300 companies in its portfolio.

A former senior executive for Google and Microsoft in China, Lee said AI is set to mean huge changes in the financial sector, while in other sectors such as medicine, it is already replacing some basic teaching functions, and basic diagnosis.

“If an AI application is smarter than a human trader in buying and selling stocks, why do we need a human equity trader?” Lee ask a forum in Beijing on Monday.

“AI face recognition is already being used by the security industry. If AI application can recognise people’s faces better than human, we don’t need a security guard as well,” Lee said.