China's powerhouses focus on AI to surpass the US

Global Quarterly AI Funding

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Chinese tech giants are increasing their artificial intelligence (AI) investments as they vie to stay competitive in the burgeoning space, according to South China Morning Post.

China is the world’s second-largest investor in AI after the US — 66% of AI investments in 2016 were in US-based companies.

And although investments in Chinese companies are growing quickly, they still fall behind, making up just 17% of AI investments, according to McKinsey. China hopes to narrow the AI gap with the US as it wagers to become a global leader in the space by 2030.

Chinese companies' focus on AI is well timed, as the market is expected to see accelerated growth both in China and globally in the near-to-mid-term.

The global market for AI is projected to reach $37 billion in revenue by 2025, a 57-fold increase from $644 million in 2016. AI is the fastest-growing segment in the IT sector, and there are already 27 verticals exploiting AI-related technologies.
AI-related industries are expected to generate up to 26% of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. The largest sector gains will likely be in retail, financial services, and healthcare.
AI technologies are anticipated to contribute up to $16 trillion to the global economy by 2030. That’s greater than the current output of China and India collectively.

As the AI wars heat up, China is banking on Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent to help it pull ahead of the US. Baidu, a pioneer in the field, currently has over 60 different types of AI services in its intelligence suite, dubbed Baidu Brain. The company has also pushed its AI ambitions through acquisitions and partnerships — Baidu partnered with NVIDIA to bring AI technology to cloud computing, self-driving vehicles, and AI home assistants, and has also acquired Kitt.ai, an NLP startup, to strengthen its voice ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Tencent recently stepped up its AI endeavors by developing a research lab in Seattle, and releasedan AI-infused voice assistant in May. Alibaba plans to invest $15 billion over the next three years in AI-related technologies, and has already launched AI cloud services for the healthcare and manufacturing industries.

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