US-China ‘chip war’ impacts SenseTime’s diversification plans

SenseTime, a number one determine in China’s AI {industry}, faces vital challenges resulting from U.S. government export controls. These restrictions stop corporations like Nvidia from promoting important chips to Chinese language entities, impacting SenseTime’s efforts to diversify its enterprise mannequin. The Hong Kong-based AI agency has been making an attempt to shift away from its main surveillance enterprise, which supplies AI-powered safety cameras to Chinese language authorities. Nevertheless, in accordance with a current report by The Monetary Occasions, the continued U.S.-China “chip conflict” threatens to derail these plans.

SenseTime’s diversification efforts

In anticipation of its public itemizing two years in the past, SenseTime’s Chief Xu Li highlighted the corporate’s future income potential from an expansive AI knowledge heart in Shanghai. This heart, powered by Nvidia’s A100 GPUs, was designed to cater to AI corporations. The transfer appeared then like a strategic resolution, particularly since SenseTime had secured GPUs earlier than the U.S. imposed export restrictions.

Nevertheless, because the U.S. tightens its grip on AI chip gross sales to China, SenseTime’s benefit on this sector is diminishing. The current U.S. restrictions not solely place SenseTime on its Entity Listing but in addition on an funding blacklist, inflicting international traders to withdraw their assist.

Challenges forward for SenseTime

Regardless of its efforts to safe its provide chain, SenseTime faces a decline in its conventional surveillance tech revenues. The corporate’s sensible metropolis gross sales, which embody its surveillance expertise, dropped by 58% within the first half of this yr. Whereas SenseTime stays optimistic about its long-term prospects, analysts are skeptical about its share value within the present local weather.