SenseTime Act 2: From China’s AI dragon to regional innovator
With artificial intelligence being the latest buzzword, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out among the crowd of companies in the sector. One of the pioneer companies in AI is SenseTime, which has expanded into Singapore and Southeast Asia. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Li Yaning speaks to Jeff Shi, president of SenseTime’s Asia Pacific business, to get his take on where the company is going.
A visit by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his trip to China in 2017 was all it took to forge a connection between Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company SenseTime and Singapore.
One of China’s so-called “four AI dragons”, SenseTime started with facial recognition technology and rose to prominence during the previous wave of AI development. In recent years, however, with generative AI sweeping the globe, doubts emerged over whether this former star had lost its shine. Yet the surprising response from Jeff Shi, president of SenseTime’s Asia-Pacific business, was that the company is having its second “moment in the spotlight”.
In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao at his office in Keppel Bay Tower in Singapore, Shi said that SenseTime has not fallen behind in the generative AI wave. By integrating large-model technologies, SenseTime’s visual AI has advanced from the 1.0 stage to the 2.0 stage.
Reaching a peak in Singapore
Shi explained that SenseTime’s commercialisation in Singapore is relatively mature, with deployments already in areas such as smart healthcare and smart cities. For example, earlier this year, SenseTime Healthcare entered into a partnership with Parkway Radiology, part of Singapore-based IHH Healthcare, to promote the real-world application of AI-powered lung cancer screening.
SenseTime was founded in Hong Kong in 2014 by the late computer vision expert Professor Tang Xiao’ou. It subsequently expanded rapidly across mainland China, establishing multiple offices and applying computer-vision–based facial recognition technologies to areas such as public security, finance and smart retail, quickly becoming one of China’s most high-profile AI technology companies at the time.
In 2017, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited SenseTime while in Beijing; in 2018, SenseTime set up an office in Singapore.
Pessimistic voices began to emerge in the market about older AI companies, arguing that as the technological focus shifted toward large models and generative AI, early AI pioneers such as SenseTime were losing their lustre and coming under pressure.
On the timing of SenseTime’s expansion into Singapore, Shi said Mr Lee’s visit was a major driver. Following that visit, Temasek Holdings was part of SenseTime’s series-C funding round in 2018, which raised about US$600 million and valued the company at around US$3 billion.
After coming into Singapore, SenseTime quickly hit its peak. Shi laughed as he recalled: “Back in the era of computer vision, the level of attention we received was comparable to what DeepSeek is getting today. Many people came to us seeking collaboration.”
Improving financial health and profitability just a matter of time
However, since the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI has rapidly reshaped the industry landscape. Pessimistic voices began to emerge in the market about older AI companies, arguing that as the technological focus shifted toward large models and generative AI, early AI pioneers such as SenseTime were losing their lustre and coming under pressure.
Responding calmly to such scepticism, Shi said that SenseTime is now a listed company and no longer a start-up that can simply “burn cash and tell stories”, but one subject to a much stricter evaluation framework. “It’s perfectly normal to face doubts and differing views.”
The company’s results for the first half of 2025 show revenue of 2.36 billion RMB (US$337.9 million), a year-on-year increase of 35.6%. Generative AI businesses accounted for 77% of revenue, growing 72.7% year on year. Over the same period, net losses narrowed by 39.9% year on year to 1.49 billion RMB.
Shi says SenseTime’s visual AI is nearing profitability, and its AI cloud, anchored by a large Shanghai data centre, has already become profitable.
In late 2024, SenseTime launched its “1+X” strategy—“1” for core businesses like computer vision, AI cloud and large models, and “X” for innovative ventures. Shi says SenseTime’s visual AI is nearing profitability, and its AI cloud, anchored by a large Shanghai data centre, has already become profitable.
Integrating visual AI with large models to develop multimodal models
SenseTime is avoiding direct competition in traditional “foundation models”, focusing instead on combining its visual AI expertise with language abilities to build multimodal models — a strategy it calls “computer vision 2.0”. Earlier this month, it open-sourced NEO, a multimodal large-model architecture that integrates vision and language at a foundational level.
Shi explained practical applications: unlike traditional visual search, which relies on image matching, these models can understand text descriptions to retrieve images. They can also enhance robotics by combining camera input with human instructions and support urban safety, for example, locating missing elderly using camera feeds and text cues.
“Singapore could be, firstly, a starting point for us to expand into Southeast Asia. Secondly, when it comes to smart cities, many countries — whether in Europe or the Middle East – look to Singapore. We were hoping to leverage the position of this island state to spring into bigger markets.” — Jeff Shi, President (Asia-Pacific), SenseTime
Singapore as a hub to reach Southeast Asia; healthcare emerges as a new focus
SenseTime positions Singapore as its “Asia-Pacific innovation and collaboration hub”, from which it not only serves local clients but also builds an AI ecosystem across Southeast Asia and introduces Chinese-style innovation into regional markets.
Singapore is not SenseTime’s first overseas market, but it is the first designated as a regional headquarters. “We were pursuing a ‘springboard strategy’, believing that Singapore could be, firstly, a starting point for us to expand into Southeast Asia. Secondly, when it comes to smart cities, many countries — whether in Europe or the Middle East – look to Singapore. We were hoping to leverage the position of this island state to spring into bigger markets.”
So far, SenseTime has served over 200 clients across Southeast Asia, with 75% still making use of its products and services. More than half of this clientele are Singaporean.
SenseTime has focused on security and mobility within smart city technologies and is now prioritising healthcare. Its large model is being piloted in Singapore, including at Tan Tock Seng Hospital for chest X-ray interpretation, taking advantage of the Ministry of Health’s open platform for global healthcare AI.
In early 2025, SenseTime relocated from Frasers Tower, a move some saw as a cost-cutting scale-down. Shi clarified that the decision was strategic: the rent savings could fund five years of computing power for S-Lab (SenseTime’s AI laboratory in partnership with Nanyang Technological University), and the new building offered the added benefit of serving as a showcase for SenseTime’s AI technology.
Shi, with experience in China, Japan, the US and Singapore, sees many advantages in Singapore’s AI ecosystem. However, he believes the industry still needs more innovative vitality and a more open mindset to attract companies from diverse cultural backgrounds, fostering a truly diverse and vibrant AI ecosystem.
Malaysia’s business is growing faster than Singapore’s, while Thailand remains a key market.
Looking ahead, Shi says SenseTime will keep Singapore as its central hub while expanding across Southeast Asia to grow its customer base. The company also plans to capitalise on generative AI, using its original technologies to drive localised innovation.
He notes that Malaysia’s business is growing faster than Singapore’s, while Thailand remains a key market. SenseTime entered Thailand over two years ago and expects to see tangible results within the next year or two.
This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “亚太业务总裁史军：并未在生成式AI浪潮中落后 商汤科技正迎第二次AI高光时刻”.
