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Chinese AI chatbot firm Xiao-I eyes global market after Nasdaq IPO on ChatGPT fever
- Xiao-I, which raised US$39 million from its IPO in March, wants international sales to account for half of its revenue, founder and CEO Yuan Hui says
- The Shanghai-based firm aims to sharpen its focus on business clients, with plans to launch a large language model in June
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Ann Caoin Shanghai
When Yuan Hui launched his company’s first chatbot two decades ago, the world had yet to catch up on the potential of conversational artificial intelligence (AI).
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Today, Shanghai-based Xiao-I Corp is worth more than US$400 million, listed on the Nasdaq, and gunning for a global market finally waking up to the technological prowess of ChatGPT and similar services.
For Xiao-I chairman and chief executive Yuan, who sat down for an interview with the South China Morning Post in May, fresh from his company’s US$39 million initial public offering (IPO) in March, it all began with a speech by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
As a marketing employee at the US tech giant, Yuan attended a conference in Atlanta, where he heard the billionaire entrepreneur speak. Inspired by Gates’ experience, Yuan quit his job a year later and founded Xiao-I in 2001.
The idea of developing a chatbot came to Yuan in 2003, when the Sars outbreak hit China. “At that time, many people could not leave their homes, which contributed to the popularity of instant messaging tools such as MSN and [Tencent Holdings-owned] QQ,” he said.
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