SenseTime, once the darling of China’s artificial intelligence sector, has been pushing to diversify away from unreliable government revenues by snapping up high-powered chips that every AI company wants.Its effort now seems doomed by the latest round of US government export controls preventing Nvidia and its rivals from selling the powerful chips, needed to train the latest AI systems, to Chinese customers and their foreign subsidiaries.
Since it went public in 2021, SenseTime has been seeking to reduce its reliance on its core surveillance business, which sells AI-powered security cameras to Chinese authorities.
However, the Hong Kong-based company’s move into data centres packed with cutting-edge AI chips — which it rents out to AI companies — now appears stymied by the US-China “chip war”.