Surveillance in China: Sensetime celebrates successful stock market debut

One of the most valuable artificial intelligence startups is Sensetime from Hong Kong. The company was recently subject to US sanctions, and investors are now cheering.

Sensetime’s surveillance software was running during a demonstration at the company’s Beijing office in October 2017.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

So now this year after all. Sensetime, one of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startups, has postponed its IPO twice. The pandemic got in the way of the company in spring 2020, and new American sanctions at the beginning of December 2021. Because Sensetime equips practically all of China with its automated face recognition for video cameras and has also developed a patent specifically for the recognition of the persecuted Uighur minority.

Sensetime went public in his hometown of Hong Kong on Thursday, the last full trading day of the year. And for some observers after the US sanctions, the company did this with surprising success. American investors – an important pillar of many Chinese stock corporations, especially in the technology sector – were not admitted. Nevertheless, the price jumped up, in between by 23%, and then closed with a good 7% gain. This is also because Chinese state funds have stepped into the breach.

The fact that a new company weighing around $ 17.5 billion is now listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is small, conciliatory news for the financial center. Because the Hang-Seng-Index is on the best way in contrast to all other major stock exchanges in the world, to make its biggest annual loss in a decade – a minus of around 15%. This is mainly due to Beijing’s increasing mania for control, which has reached practically all areas of public life after the technology and tutoring sectors.

And that’s how you can perhaps understand the good start of Sensetime: The party state is tightening the screws even tighter, so it will demand the services of surveillance specialists like Sensetime even more.

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