Hong Kong’s SenseTime teams up with Qualcomm to extend AI into more devices

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Keith Kressin (left), the Senior Vice-President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technology Inc, and Hailong Shang (right), Managing Director of SenseTime HK, at the press briefing on their partnership at the Kerry Hotel in Hung Hom. Photo: David Wong

Published: 7:30am, 20 Oct 2017Updated: 11:07am, 25 Nov 2019

SenseTime Group, a high-flying start-up based in the Hong Kong Science Park, has formed a strategic collaboration with mobile chip giant Qualcomm Technologies that will expand its expertise in artificial intelligence technologies into a broad range of devices.

“Together we’ll push the envelope and extend AI to places that are currently beyond reach,” Xu Li, co-founder and chief executive of SenseTime, said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our strategic collaboration will become a turning point for the whole AI ecosystem.”

Qualcomm and SenseTime expect to drive the popularity and development of on-device AI in areas such as innovative vision and camera-based image processing.

They said the first public demonstration of their collaboration will be held in Shenzhen during the China Public Security Expo, which will run from October 29 to November 1.

The alliance with Qualcomm marks a new milestone for SenseTime, which completed in July its US$410 million Series B round of funding from a group of nearly 20 investors that vaulted the company to “unicorn” status with a valuation of around US$1.5 billion.

That transaction was the single largest financing round in AI history to date. A unicorn is a start-up that is valued at US$1 billion or more.