Source: Visual China
Reporter丨Wang Rui, Jiang Yuxuan, Editor丨Jiang Yuxuan
Li Ka-shing, aiming at artificial intelligence in full swing.
At the end of September, it donated a total of HK$60 million to two major medical schools in Hong Kong to develop AI medical teaching.
"AI is changing the world."
Li Ka-shing said that in medical research and curriculum, it is indispensable to promote the effective application of AI.
Around the same time, Victoria Harbor Investments, the richest man in Hong Kong, led a $49 million strategic financing round from Kneron, a chipmaker he has struck four times.
From investing in technology companies such as Skype, Facebook, and Siri more than ten years ago, to now adding AI subdivisions such as medical care and chips, Li Ka-shing has always kept a low profile and demonstrated his unique investment vision in the field of science and innovation.
Double pitch in one day
Li Ka-shing invests, puts a long line, and catches big fish.
On September 26, he donated HK$30 million to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong and the School of Medicine of the University of Chinese of Hong Kong, which will be used to expand the application of AI in medical interaction.
These two prestigious schools in Hong Kong have made breakthroughs in the field of medical artificial intelligence.
In July last year, the Faculty of Dentistry of HKU announced that it had developed the core technology of intelligent manufacturing of dental crowns with the help of generative artificial intelligence, which can automatically design dentures.
In November of the same year, CUHK announced the development of an artificial intelligence system that can detect Alzheimer's disease by analyzing retinal images, the first of its kind in the world.
At HKU Faculty of Medicine, Li's donation will be invested in digital health teaching, using generative AI technology to simulate real medical conditions and train students in medical history collection, clinical reasoning and other skills.
Source: The University of Hong Kong website
CUHK launched the "AI Medical Education" programme to enable students to master the application of AI in clinical medicine and encourage students to jointly develop AI solutions in the medical field.
Li Ka-shing, 95, has devoted a lot of effort to the frontier of science and technology.
On the day that the medical school received the donation, the edge AI chip manufacturer Neon announced that it had received a B+ round of financing led by Victoria Harbor Investment.
The funds will be used to promote AI research and development, especially the development of lightweight GPT solutions in the automotive field.
Together with the previous A+, A++ and B rounds, Li Ka-shing has injected capital four consecutive rounds, helping the AI chip company raise a total of US$190 million, or about RMB1.4 billion.
Neon mainly focuses on edge artificial intelligence chips, and its core products are low-cost, low-power AI computing chips and algorithms, and its customers include OFILM, Deschmann, Gree Electric Appliances, etc. Aiming at scenarios such as urban security, intelligent driving, and terminal equipment.
The founder Liu Juncheng has worked in Qualcomm and Samsung R&D centers, and is a technical reviewer for many internationally renowned academic journals.
"It's not enough to just listen to the report, to feel the 'bullet flying process', I will participate in technical discussions and go to the front line to run customers." In an exclusive interview with "21CBR", Liu Juncheng said.
The person at the helm is professional and dedicated, which has attracted Li Ka-shing's favor and waved his hands several times.
Crazy Cast AI
"Invest in deep science and technology that will propel humanity towards a better future." The slogan on the official website of Victoria Harbour Investment shows Li Ka-shing's investment pursuit.
In the face of artificial intelligence, Li Ka-shing will strike when he should make a move.
According to the reporter of "21CBR", of the 113 investment projects invested in Victoria Harbour included in Tianyancha, 19 were invested in the field of artificial intelligence, accounting for about 17%.
Especially last year, more than seventy percent of Li Ka-shing's investment projects were related to AI.
Among them, biomedical technology, deep human-computer interaction, and speech semantic recognition have become the three AI subdivisions with the most extensive layout by Li Ka-shing.
He has a strong interest in biocomputing AI startups.
In April, Victoria Harbour Investment led Cortical Labs' latest round of $10 million funding.
The Australian startup is combining lab-grown human brain cells with computer chips that perform specific tasks, such as playing video games like tennis.
"The possibilities for hybrid AI combined with synthetic biology models are limitless, accelerating the possibilities of digital AI in a more powerful and sustainable way." Zhong Hongwen, founder of Cortical Labs, said.
In addition, Deepcell, a developer of artificial intelligence cell biotechnology, and Chemify, a developer of chemical computing technology, have all won tens of millions of dollars invested by Victoria Harbour during the year for the research and development of AI technology at the cellular and molecular levels, which is applied to medicine, agriculture, and material science.
Deep human-computer interaction is related to the previously popular concept of "meta-universe".
AI technology provider Wonder Dynamics, VR game technology unicorn Improbable, haptic feedback company Lofelt, etc., have received investment from Li Ka-shing in 2021 and 2022.
Speech semantic recognition steps on the wind of ChatGPT.
As early as 15 years ago, Li Ka-shing fell in love with Siri, which was quickly acquired by Apple and became the well-known AI assistant of the IOS system.
During the pandemic, real-time AI speech transcription company Otter achieved a five-fold surge in usage, and its Otter.ai can perform multi-person speech recognition and transcription, and automatically generate voice conversations into text notes in meetings, interviews, speeches and other scenarios.
Li Ka-shing made a quick decision, and Victoria Harbour appeared in its $50 million Series B+ financing.
Frequent shots
In 2002, Li Ka-shing, then 74, founded Horizons Venture, which aimed at technology startups, often choosing to enter in Series B or earlier to make a small fortune.
In 2007, Li Ka-shing decided to invest in Facebook in just 5 minutes, injecting $120 million, and by the time the company went public, Li Ka-shing had reaped a fivefold return.
"Most Internet startups lack revenue, let alone profit, investors are buying an attractive concept, 5 minutes is about the upper limit of the explanation." Li Ka-shing explained.
According to the official website, Victoria Harbour's investment team is only 23 people, and Chinese members account for more than 70%.
The fund does not raise funds externally, the funds mainly come from Li Ka-shing personally, and Li Ka-shing also bears the risk, and all the proceeds go to the charitable trust fund, the Li Ka-shing Foundation.
As a family fund, Victoria Harbour Investment's investment is based on a longer term, and Li Ka-shing, who has a strong principal for high-risk and high-yield projects, has more courage to bet.
Tianyan inspection shows that Victoria Harbour has invested 130 investment projects in the past eight years, far higher than the industry average.
Once successful, the rate of return is also amazing. FOR EXAMPLE, AN INVESTMENT IN ZOOM, A VIDEO CONFERENCING SERVICE.
TEN YEARS AGO, VIAVE LED ZOOM'S SERIES B FINANCING, AND TWO YEARS LATER, IT FOLLOWED UP WITH A SERIES C ROUND, ACCUMULATING $8.5 MILLION AND HOLDING 8.5%.
DURING THE EPIDEMIC, THE FREQUENCY OF ONLINE MEETINGS AND TEACHING SOARED, AND ZOOM'S STOCK PRICE SOARED IN 2020, WITH A MAXIMUM MARKET VALUE OF MORE THAN $139 BILLION, AND LI KA-SHING'S STOCK MARKET VALUE ONCE EXCEEDED $10 BILLION.
In the 2023 Forbes Hong Kong 50 Richest List, Li Ka-shing topped the list with US$39 billion (about RMB 284 billion).
The driving force behind many star investments is the strong woman Zhou Kaixuan. She and Li Ka-shing have known each other for nearly 30 years and are Li's right-hand man, and she also manages the daily operations of Victoria Harbour Investment.
Zhou Kaixuan
Chow said that there are only two categories of investment strategies for Victoria Harbour Investment, one is projects that have synergistic value with Li Ka-shing's traditional business, and the other is disruptive technology that can solve huge problems, explore future visions and drive forward.
"The future investment focus will revolve around IA (intelligent augmentation) in the traditional sector and AI (artificial intelligence) that can drive the future." Zhou Kaixuan said.
With a number of AI startups, Li Ka-shing's technology empire has unlimited potential.