Billionaire co-founder of BYD uncertain about China’s ability to create breakthrough tech on par with ChatGPT

Xia Zuoquan says a lack of fundamental research and an underdeveloped capital market hurt China’s chances of developing ChatGPT-like tech in the short term

The entrepreneur, who bet early on the world’s largest EV maker, is cautious about investing in Chinese start-ups working on large language models

Reading Time:2 minutes

An AI sign seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 6, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 18 Jul 2023

Xia Zuoquan, a Chinese billionaire investor who made his fortune betting on the once tiny battery maker BYD, is less certain about China’s ability to make big technological breakthroughs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the near future.

While the 1995 investment in BYD, now the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, has earned him enormous returns, Xia sees the lack of fundamental research or a mature capital market as an obstacle for China to make technological breakthroughs.

“I don’t think China can all of a sudden produce ChatGPT-level applications or technologies,” Xia told the South China Morning Post on Friday on the sidelines of an industry forum organised by the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance in Hong Kong.

“China still lacks a lot of fundamental things,” he said. “For instance, certain foundational algorithms are American. Chips are American, and a lot of key industrial software and hardware.”

Xia Zuoquan made an early bet on BYD in 1995 and now invests in other tech start-ups, but he said he is cautious about Chinese companies developing their own large language models. Photo: Handout

Xia, who remains a non-executive director at the EV giant he co-founded, has been running his own technology investment firm Zhengxuan Investment since 2003. His net worth is US$3.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Zhengxuan focuses on hi-tech fields including advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, new energy and semiconductors, according to the company’s website. It has backed Chinese companies including rocket maker OneSpace and humanoid robot maker UBTech, which earlier this year filed to go public in Hong Kong.