Chinese voice recognition firm iFlytek to raise 3.6 billion yuan to speed up AI development

Chinese voice recognition company iFlytek plans to raise up to 3.6 billion yuan (US$565 million) via a private placement to ramp up research and product development in an effort to maintain its “world-leading position in core artificial intelligence technologies”, according to its stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

The Shenzhen-listed iFlytek said the proceeds will be used for further development of its so-called next generation cognitive technology, AI speech open platform, smart service robots as well as upgrading sales and service and improving the company’s cash flow.

The AI speech open platform is expected to get the biggest boost as iFlytek intends to invest a total of 2.05 billion yuan in that project with 1.18 billion yuan coming from proceeds of the private placement.

The fundraising comes six months after iFlytek was tasked by the Chinese government to spearhead the country’s development in voice intelligence by building an “open innovation platform”.

The company was named along with Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings as the government’s first batch of national champions tasked with driving AI development in the country. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.