By YU Hao

SenseTime Technology has announced the passing of founder TANG Xiao’ou, an AI scientist who led the Pudong and Shanghai artificial intelligence laboratories.

Before establishing SenseTime Technology, Tang was head of the vision computing group at Microsoft.

Since October 2014, SenseTime has grown into a listed company with a total market value of HK$42 billion (USD 5.4 billion).

From 2018 to 2022, Sensetime’s R&D investment was around 12 billion yuan, with the R&D expense-to-revenue ratio increasing from 45.8 percent in 2018 to 105 percent in 2022.

SenseTime is cutting costs and jobs, making “strategic adjustments” and optimizing the talent structure. By the end of June, SenseTime Technology's accounts receivable totaled 7.7 billion yuan. 

The company has not made an annual profit since its listing in 2017. In 2022, losses totaled 4.7 billion yuan. Given that the AI sector is still in the phase of heavy investment, the deficit is not unusual.

In the first half of 2023, revenue from generative AI accounted for 20.3 percent of all business, twice as much as the year before. Behind the growth lies a low base number, but also demonstrates the potential of generative AI. 

As of the close on December 15, SenseTime Technology's stock price was HK$1.26 per share, up 3.3 percent, but it has fallen more than 80 percent from its peak.

Tang held 20.6 percent of SenseTime Technology and had agreed not to sell any shares until the end of next year.