SenseTime, artificial intelligence platform founded by CUHK professors, files to raise at least US$2 billion in Hong Kong IPO

SenseTime Group, China’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) company, filed to go public in Hong Kong on Friday in one of the biggest technology offerings since Beijing cracked down on the country’s tech sector last month, a move that has unnerved investors from Hong Kong to New York.

The Hong Kong-based start-up, known for its facial-recognition software, is looking to raise at least US$2 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), according to a person familiar with the matter.

SenseTime warned on Friday that it is subject to “complex and evolving” laws and regulations regarding privacy and data protection, including new draft rules for cybersecurity reviews in China.

“We cannot predict the impact of the draft measures, if any, at this stage, and we will closely monitor and assess any development in the rule-making process,” SenseTime said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. “If the enacted version of the draft measures mandate clearance of cybersecurity review and other specific actions to be completed by companies like us, we may face uncertainties as to whether such clearance can be timely obtained, or at all.”

The planned offering comes nearly two years after SenseTime’s Beijing subsidiary was blacklisted alongside a group of Chinese technology champions by the Trump administration in 2019 and added to the so-called Entity List, which prevents it from buying from American suppliers.