Nvidia challenger Biren secures fresh funding from state-backed investor
Biren Technology, one of China's challengers to Nvidia, raised a new round of funding led by a state-owned fund in Shanghai, as the US-sanctioned
artificial intelligence (AI) chip start-up gears up for an initial public offering (IPO) in the country.
Advertisement
The company, valued at US$2.2 billion according to the 2024 Hurun Global Unicorn List, secured fresh funding from a private equity entity under Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment (SSCI), according to the investment fund.
The latest fundraising also involved other investors, according to a Tuesday statement from the Shanghai SSCI Leading Private Equity (PE) Fund Management, but it did not elaborate on the size of the investments.
It was the first investment made by the
AI industry 'fund of funds' under SSCI's PE firm, and was considered an important contribution to the AI ecosystem, the investment firm said.
Biren's BR100 AI chip. Photo: Handout
The move showed Shanghai's determination to build a 'fully domestically produced, independent and controllable' computing system, using made-in-China chips to 'solidify the foundation of the country's AI industry and its global competitiveness', the SSCI fund said.
Advertisement
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Xiaomi's first AI-powered eyewear brings smartphone firm into ‘war of hundreds of glasses'
Xiaomi is set to debut its first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered smart glasses on Thursday, marking the Chinese smartphone and electric vehicle (EV) maker's entry into a rapidly expanding but crowded domestic market. The Beijing-based company is positioning its new eyewear as a 'next-generation personal smart gadget', according to an image posted on its official Weibo account on Wednesday. Co-founder and CEO Lei Jun said the glasses can capture first-person video and respond to voice queries – features that have become common in modern smart glasses such as those from Meta Platforms and Ray-Ban. Xiaomi is set to officially launch the frames on Thursday evening at an event titled 'Human x Car x Home', during which it will unveil the price of the glasses in addition to other products, including its latest foldable smartphone and its first SUV. In one of two videos Xiaomi released teasing the smart glasses, the camera-equipped frames could 'see and recognise' objects around the user and answer questions using generative AI. Examples in the video showed the wearer asking the glasses to identify a plant, estimate the calories of a meal and explain what capybaras eat. Despite the lack of pricing or specifications ahead of Xiaomi's event, the AI glasses have been highly anticipated by consumers. Local media reports last year revealed that the company planned to launch the frames this year. WellsennXR, a consultancy specialising in augmented reality and extended reality, expected the glasses to adopt US tech giant Qualcomm 's AR1 chip, the same chip used by the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Meta's smart glasses are currently the most popular of their kind, accounting for more than 60 per cent of the global AI glasses market last year, according to market consultancy Counterpoint.
South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba touts world's first AI model to detect stomach cancer, even at early stages
Alibaba Group Holding unveiled what it says is the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) model to detect gastric cancer, even in early stages, by scanning computed tomography (CT) images. Known as Grape – a name derived from 'gastric cancer risk assessment procedure' – the system is a deep-learning framework that can analyse three-dimensional CT scans to detect and segment gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer. It was co-developed by Alibaba's Damo Academy and the Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, both in Hangzhou in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Alibaba owns the Post. Diagnosis of gastric cancer currently requires an endoscopy, an invasive procedure where a camera and tiny biopsy instruments are inserted through the throat. Fewer than 30 per cent of patients in China were willing to follow doctors' advice to have an endoscopy, said Cheng Xiangdong, a gastric surgeon at the Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, in a video published by Damo on Wednesday. The Grape model significantly outperformed radiologists, achieving sensitivity of 85.1 per cent and specificity of 96.8 per cent, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine on Tuesday. Sensitivity measures the ability to detect disease, while specificity measures the ability to avoid false detection in healthy patients. This exceeded the results of radiologists working without the model by 21.8 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, particularly in early-stage stomach cancer, the paper said. The first of its kind model 'may change the gastric-cancer screening approach in our country and even globally', Cheng said, adding that the percentage of early-stage detections could 'increase significantly'. The fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, gastric cancer can remain symptom-free even at advanced stages. Damo said in a statement on Wednesday that in one such real-world case, a person with the late-stage disease could have been diagnosed six months earlier via CT scans, but radiologists missed it.
Asia Times
15 hours ago
- Asia Times
US missing the point on China's industrial cyberespionage
The United States is attempting to decouple its economy from rivals such as China. Efforts toward this include policymakers raising tariffs on Chinese goods, blocking exports of advanced technology and offering subsidies to boost American manufacturing. The goal is to reduce reliance on China for critical products, in the hope that this will also protect US intellectual property from theft. The idea that decoupling will help stem state-sponsored cyber-economic espionage has become a key justification for these measures. For instance, then-US Trade Representative Katherine Tai framed the continuation of China-specific tariffs as serving the 'statutory goal to stop [China's] harmful … cyber intrusions and cyber theft.' Early tariff rounds during the first Trump administration were likewise framed as forcing Beijing to confront 'deeply entrenched' theft of US intellectual property. This push to 'onshore' key industries is driven by very real concerns. By some estimates, theft of US trade secrets, often through hacking – costs the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year. In that light, decoupling is a defensive economic shield – a way to keep vital technology out of an adversary's reach. But will decoupling and cutting trade ties truly make America's innovations safer from prying eyes? I'm a political scientist who studies state-sponsored cyberespionage, and my research suggests that the answer is a definitive no. Indeed, it might actually have the opposite effect. To understand why, it helps to look at what really drives state-sponsored hacking. Intuitively, you might think a country is most tempted to steal secrets from a nation it depends on. For example, if Country A must import jet engines or microchips from Country B, Country A might try to hack Country B's companies to copy that technology and become self-sufficient. This is the industrial dependence theory of cyber theft. There is some truth to this motive. If your economy needs what another country produces, stealing that know-how can boost your own industries and reduce reliance. However, in a recent study, I show that a more powerful predictor of cyberespionage is industrial similarity. Countries with overlapping advanced industries, such as aerospace, electronics, or pharmaceuticals, are the ones most likely to target each other with cyberattacks. Why would having similar industries spur more spying? The reason is competition. If two nations both specialize in cutting-edge sectors, each has a lot to gain by stealing the other's innovations. If you're a tech powerhouse, you have valuable secrets worth stealing, and you have the capability and motivation to steal others' secrets. In essence, simply trading with a rival isn't the core issue. Rather, it's the underlying technological rivalry that fuels espionage. For example, a cyberattack in 2012 targeted SolarWorld, a US solar panel manufacturer, and the perpetrators stole the company's trade secrets. Chinese solar companies then developed competing products based on the stolen designs, costing SolarWorld millions in lost revenue. This is a classic example of industrial similarity at work. China was building its own solar industry, so it hacked a US rival to leapfrog in technology. China has made major investments in its cyberespionage capabilities. Crucially, cutting trade ties doesn't remove this rivalry. If anything, decoupling might intensify it. When the US and China exchange tariff blows or cut off tech transfers, it doesn't make China give up – it likely pushes Chinese intelligence agencies to work even harder to steal what they can't buy. This dynamic isn't unique to China. Any country that suddenly loses access to an important technology may turn to espionage as Plan B. History provides examples. When South Africa was isolated by sanctions in the 1980s, it covertly obtained nuclear weapons technology. Similarly, when Israel faced arms embargoes in the 1960s, it engaged in clandestine efforts to get military technology. Isolation can breed desperation, and hacking is a low-cost, high-reward tool for the desperate. There's no easy fix for state-sponsored hacking as long as countries remain locked in high-tech competition. However, there are steps that can mitigate the damage and perhaps dial down the frequency of these attacks. One is investing in cyber defense. Just as a homeowner adds locks and alarms after a burglary, companies and governments should continually strengthen their cyber defenses. Assuming that espionage attempts are likely to happen is key. Advanced network monitoring, employee training against phishing, and robust encryption can make it much harder for hackers to succeed, even if they keep trying. Another is building resilience and redundancy. If you know that some secrets might get stolen, plan for it. Businesses can shorten product development cycles and innovate faster so that even if a rival copies today's tech, you're already moving on to the next generation. Staying ahead of thieves is a form of defense, too. Ultimately, rather than viewing tariffs and export bans as silver bullets against espionage, US leaders and industry might be safer focusing on resilience and stress-testing cybersecurity firms. Make it harder for adversaries to steal secrets, and less rewarding even if they do. William Akoto is assistant professor of global security, American University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
