Megvii IPO hit by setbacks; Huawei opens AI lab in Singapore

#China #HongKong #IPO - Chinese AI firm Megvii Technology’s plans for a $500 million listing in Hong Kong have been dealt a setback, with regulators in the city asking the company: which has been blacklisted by the US government: for more information, according to sources. (CNA)

#China #venturecapital - Since last year, tech funding in China has undergone a ‘capital winter’—referring to the significant slowdown in investment and fundraising activities. However, areas such as cloud, AI, and blockchain, are still generating excitement among investors. (TechNode)

#China #AIChips - Cambricon Technologies is worth $2.5 billion, making it one of China’s most valuable AI chip start-ups Founded by brothers Chen Yunji and Chen Tianshi, its chips have been used to power nearly 100 million smartphones and servers. (SCMP)

#India #AIvoice - Tech giants are increasingly focusing on Indic languages as millions of Indians are going online. A report by Internet and Mobile Association of India in collaboration with Nielsen Holdings says India had 451 million monthly active Internet users as of March, second only to China’s 800 million. And this base is consuming content in regional languages. (Times of India)

#Singapore #Huawei - Chinese tech giant Huawei has opened a new AI lab in Changi Business Park promising to train up to 100 AI architects and 1,000 AI developers over the next three years. (Straits Times)

#Singapore #France #defence - France’s Naval Group has launched a research and development (R&D) centre in Singapore. The group said the new facility is aimed at creating a “world-class expertise for strategic naval defence research topics”, including development of Big Data and AI applications. (Janes)

#China #manufacturing - Xiaomi Corp CEO Lei Jun said on Thursday at an event that the company will open a smart factory in December in Beijing, powered by 5G and artificial intelligence, with the aim of producing 1 million smartphones in its first phase of operation, according to China Securities Journal. (Reuters)

#India #education - Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Institute which will start its academic session in 2021 — will offer courses in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, digital media and marketing. These undergraduate courses will be led by Shailesh Kumar, who is the chief data scientist for Reliance Jio. (Business Insider)

#China #USA #tradewar - A Chinese national - Haitao Xiang, 42, an employee of Monsanto and its Climate Corp subsidiary from 2008 to 2017 - who worked for agricultural biotechnology firm Monsanto before it was bought by Bayer was charged in St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with stealing trade secrets for China, the US Justice Department said. (SCMP)

#China #MadeInChina2025 - The “Chinese drive towards self-sufficiency” has accelerated over the past year as a result of the “decoupling,” said Ben Harburg, managing partner of Beijing-based venture capital firm MSA Capital, at CNBC’s East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou in China.

#China #USA #Blacklist - Bipartisan group of 15 lawmakers demands that congressional leaders be notified before US firms are allowed to sell components to the Chinese telecoms giant About half of 300 requests have been processed so far, with roughly half of those given green light. (SCMP)

#China #USA #AIrace - Dependence on US frameworks for deep learning seen as significant gap in China’s AI ecosystem, potentially hampering efforts to close the AI tech gap with the US by 2030. (SCMP)