US investors including the investment arms of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc accounted for nearly one-fifth of investments in Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) companies from 2015 to 2021, a report showed on Wednesday.
The document, released by CSET, a tech policy group at Georgetown University in Washington, comes amid growing scrutiny of US investments in AI, quantum and semiconductors, as US President Joe Biden’s administration prepares to unveil new restrictions on US funding of Chinese tech companies.
According to the report, 167 US investors took part in 401 transactions, or about 17 percent of the investments into Chinese AI companies in the period.
Photo: Reuters
Those transactions represented a total of US$40.2 billion in investment, or 37 percent of the total raised by Chinese AI companies in the six-year period.
It was not clear from the report, which pulled information from data provider Crunchbase, what percentage of the funding came from the US firms.
Qualcomm Ventures and Intel Capital were involved in 13 and 11 investments in Chinese AI companies respectively, outpaced by GGV Capital, which led US firms with 43 total investments in the sector, the data showed.
The Biden administration is expected to unveil an executive order this year curbing some US investments in sensitive Chinese tech industries as some lawmakers in Washington blame American investors for transferring capital and valuable know-how to Chinese tech companies that could help advance Beijing’s military capabilities.
According to the report, US investor GSR Ventures invested alongside China’s IFlytek Co (科大訊飛) in a Chinese AI company after the speech-recognition firm was added to a trade blacklist.
Silicon Valley Bank and Wanxiang American Healthcare Investments Group made investments in Chinese AI firms alongside China’s SenseTime Group Inc (商湯科技) before the powerhouse in facial recognition technology was added to the same blacklist.
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