Home
News
- 1 SenseTime Group’s China AI firm’s co-founder, Tang Xiao’ou, died at 55 due to an illness causing a fall in share price.
- 2 Tang Xiao’ou, had a notable 21% stake in SenseTime firm and was a mentor for China’s AI sector.
- 3 SenseTime the AI firm is facing many difficulties such as U.S. sanctions, accusations of revenue inflation, and restricted access to capital and other assets.
SenseTime shares fell significantly after the death of China AI firm’s co-founder Tang Xiao’ou. The share price plunged more than 18%, which is the most remarkable fall since July 2022. The company is already facing a difficult time and the Tang demise has further added more challenges.
SenseTime uncovers that co-founder and major stakeholder Tang Xiao’ou died at 55 on Dec 15 after some major health issues. As per the company’s annual report, Mr Tang Xiao’ou had a significant 21% stake in the company and according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth is around $1.1 Billion.
Mr Tang was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and professor in Hong Kong. He was born in 1968. They were widely acknowledged as a trailblazer in China’s AI industry, including recreating an essential role in establishing a major player in the field of computer vision within the country.
The Chinese firm was earlier backed by Alibaba Group and listed in Hong Kong. The Company IPO was considered the most highly anticipated debut of 2021. However, its growth has slowed down over the period due to tough competition.
Difficulties Faced by SenseTime
SenseTime has been trapped with many difficulties that have affected its growth and stability. In 2019, the US government blacklisted a company due to allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang. As a result, the company’s access to capital and crucial US tech components became restricted.
Additionally, the situation was compounded in recent months by new curbs on the sale of advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms. These problems are becoming a big hurdle in its growth and advancing the company’s difficulties.
The challenges didn’t stop here as recently the share of the company has plunged after short-seller Grizzly Research alleged that the firm is inflating revenues, which SenseTime denied afterward. These difficulties badly affected the company’s financial health
SenseTime’s Stock Performance
Before the news was unveiled, SenseTime’s share price had been trading at HK$1.26, less than a third of its listing price. However, the stock did recover some of its losses on Monday’s trading session. The share price was still trading around 11 percent lower than its previous levels.
Moreover, this year the company’s focus has shifted from facial recognition to generative AI. Furthermore, SenseTime was one of the pioneering Chinese tech companies to receive official approval to launch ChatGPT-like services to the public.
China’s AI Tech field has had an abundance of capital and talent and companies like Baidu SenseTime and other startups are competing hard to generate more solutions.
The unexpected death of Tang Xiao’ou shook the SenseTime Group and caused a drop the its stock price. The Chinese AI firm faced many obstacles in recent times dealing with it’s slow growth, U.S. sanctions, and allegations of financial misconduct.
Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.
