China’s AI start-ups have ‘no choice’ but to explore overseas markets despite challenges
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as key for China to close the widening tech divide with the US that has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions
Leading Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups see entering the overseas market as a defining stage for success, despite geopolitical tensions and economic sanctions.
Shanghai-based MiniMax – a generative AI start-up that is often called one of China’s “four little AI dragons” – said it aimed to develop markets in countries involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the next one or two years to add to its business in Japan, South Korea, the United States and the Southeast Asian region.
“One of the main defining factors in the next stage would be presence in the overseas market,” Simon Peng, chief editor and vice-president of Minimax, told a panel on the sidelines of the HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Competition in Beijing on Sunday.
“Right now, the entire AI industry is shaped by two ends- the US and China.”
While Beijing identified home-grown hi-tech sectors as key to growing its slowing economy, domestic barriers- including censorship that limits AI generated content – have weighed on development, on top of US export controls that bar Chinese firms from accessing frontier software and hardware to advance their products.
