About Bing Xu
In a December 2021 interview prior to SenseTime's Hong Kong IPO, CEO Xu Li discussed the company's use of proceeds, regulatory environment, and international expansion. Xu stated that 60% of the IPO capital would be invested in research and development, specifically to build an artificial intelligence algorithm center for mass-producing AI models and reducing costs. He described this as a "more fundamental but more difficult path" and said the company was already seeing scaled effects from its investments in R&D talent and infrastructure. Xu also expressed confidence in a "very clear path to achieving profitability for the next few years."
Regarding regulation, Xu argued that "timely interactive regulation" benefits emerging industries, warning that premature rules may not reflect technological boundaries, while late regulation can be painful. He advocated for "agility" and "immediacy" in regulation, with companies engaging academics and regulators. On data security, Xu said SenseTime prioritizes the issue and believes technology providers should understand safe data processing, calling for industry standards. Addressing U.S. sanctions, Xu stated the entity list "has no basis" but acknowledged it "hurts our overall plan and development for international expansion," requiring additional communication to comply with export controls.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Bing Xu's recent appearances.
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Transcript (13 segments)
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Bing Xu0:10
Infrastructure and R&D in artificial intelligence. The production cost for technology is the key factor in commercializing it. So the second phase of industrialization is to reduce the cost to a lower level so it can be used in all kinds of scenarios in our daily lives. 60% of the capital raised in this IPO will be spent in research and development to build up an infrastructure called artificial intelligence algorithm center, which will be used for mass production of AI models that will enhance the productivity and reduce cost.
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Interviewer0:45
I can ask you about R&D a little bit. I noticed that looking at your earnings, you're investing a lot in R&D. Why is that? Is it because it's getting harder to...
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Bing Xu1:10
This investment, including investing in R&D talent, accounted for a large portion of our R&D expense. But we are already seeing the scale effect from our investments.
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Interviewer1:21
So what is your company doing in order to make sure that you're compliant with China's new data security laws?
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Bing Xu1:31
SenseTime always attaches great importance to data security. To some extent, the owner of data is the data processor, but we believe that even technology providers should understand how to safely process data using the technology. I think as the biggest player in the AI industry, we should work with other players to formulate industry standards.
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Interviewer2:11
But your operating losses are getting wider as well. I guess I have to ask you, when is your company going to become profitable and what are you doing in order to ensure that?
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Bing Xu2:27
SenseTime's revenue is very healthy. Its loss to revenue and loss to asset ratios are very low. We believe that investing heavily in technology R&D at the early stage is the only way to make an impact on the industry. For us, we are seeing a very clear path to achieving profitability for the next few years thanks to our early investment in AI infrastructure.
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Interviewer2:52
It's been a year of regulation. We're seeing it from online gaming with tutoring...
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Bing Xu3:15
We believe timely interactive regulation will benefit the emerging industries, especially for the ones in high-speed development. Some premature regulations can't appropriately reflect the boundary of an industry and the technology if the regulators haven't yet fully grasped the changes in the technologies. So regulators should keep adjusting what and how they should regulate. But the regulation can also be a painful process if it comes too late. When a great amount of investment has already been put into the sector, it will need a lot more effort to correct the direction. That's why we always believe that two parts of regulations are needed for regulators to embrace the changes in a timely fashion.
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Interviewer4:11
Your company was hit by sanctions during the Trump administration, and that sort of continued more or less during the Biden administration. I think maybe it's one unit that was affected, but how are these sanctions affecting your company's ability to grow overseas, as well as the source from overseas?
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Bing Xu4:40
First, I need to reiterate that the U.S. entity list has no basis. But it indeed hurts our overall plan and development for international expansion. It requires us to do more communication to explain the details of the export control when expanding businesses in...
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Interviewer5:00
And what about the source from overseas?
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Bing Xu5:05
It also affects our ability to source certain components and technologies from overseas, but we are working on alternatives and strengthening our domestic supply chain.
