Founder of SenseTime, China's AI Titan, Succumbs to Unknown Illness Amid US Short Seller Accusations

The billionaire founder of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) giant SenseTime, Tang Xiao’ou, has passed away due to undisclosed health issues.

What Happened: Tang died on Friday. The cause of death, according to a statement released by SenseTime, was unspecified “health issues”. The company’s statement mourned the loss of their beloved founder, a renowned AI scientist, and professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The nature of Tang’s illness remains undisclosed, reported Business Insider on Saturday.

SenseTime, a partly state-owned company founded in 2014, is recognized as a controversial AI firm. With direct connections and funding from the Chinese government, it became the world’s most valuable AI startup, developing technologies such as facial recognition and object detection.

The news of Tang’s death follows recent accusations made by US-based short-seller Grizzly Research in November. The AI firm was accused of inflating its revenue through “highly questionable revenue round-tripping schemes”. Despite SenseTime denying these allegations, the company’s stock fell nearly 10%, adding to its cumulative losses of more than 40% this year and over 80% since its IPO.

At the time of his death, Tang’s net worth was estimated at $1.1 billion, entirely attributed to his shares in SenseTime.

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Why It Matters: SenseTime’s journey in recent years has been dramatic. The company joined the AI chatbot frenzy in April, launching its SenseNova AI architecture and SenseChat, its version of ChatGPT. This move was seen as a response to the AI chatbot launches by tech giants like Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.

However, SenseTime’s share price did not follow the upward trend seen in other major names in artificial intelligence. Following the release of its AI tools, the company’s stock has been on a downward spiral. In July 2023, Alibaba exited SenseTime, raising questions about the company’s future.

With the death of its founder and the ongoing controversy around its financials, the future of SenseTime remains uncertain.

Price Action: SenseTime shares were seen trading 12.7% lower at HKD 1.1 ($0.14) at the time of publishing in Hong Kong.

Photo Courtesy: rafapress On Shutterstock.com

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