Hong Kong’s international financial centre role gives it an edge in AI market, experts say

Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre gives it an edge in artificial intelligence (AI) development in spite of rising geopolitical tensions, according to experts, as the city boosts computing power resources to support companies involved in the vital technology.

“For AI companies, having easy access to capital is extremely important,” SenseTime chief financial officer Wang Zheng said in a panel discussion at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference 2025 on Tuesday. “Hong Kong has a really deep, world-class capital market.”

Founded in Hong Kong in 2014, SenseTime was able to raise “a lot of private capital” in the city to support its growth before eventually going public on the Hong Kong stock exchange, according to Wang.

“Hong Kong is really fantastic in playing the role of a capital connector,” Wang said. “I think this is the one area that Shenzhen and Singapore would be very hard-pressed to surpass in the foreseeable future.”