Exclusive | China AI firm SenseTime on fast track to profitability thanks to spin-offs, Beijing support
SenseTime attributes its financial progress to spinning off noncore operations and support from Beijing
In an interview with the Post on Friday, Xu said SenseTime’s 1+X strategy, where “1” refers to its core AI business and “X” encompasses other ventures, is paying off as the company’s first-half adjusted loss narrowed by 50 per cent from a year earlier.
“The speed of narrowing losses will only accelerate in the second half of this year,” Xu said, adding that if the company took more operations off the balance sheet, “we would be profitable immediately”.
He also said “the speed of loss reduction in the second half will not be low”.
The company had four key “X” businesses at the end of June: smart auto, healthcare, robotics and retail, and SenseTime plans to make them into independent business entities by encouraging the company’s executives to become “re co-founders”, Xu said.
He said the changes, which were put into implementation last year, have inspired the company’s employees.
“Previously SenseTime had to lead them to move forward, now they can lead SenseTime to move forward,” Xu said. “They are put in control of promising businesses...and they can go to the market to find external investors.”