Chinese artificial intelligence firm iFlyTek and its healthcare unit are set to expandtheir footprint in Hong Kong’s Cyberport, with expected investment topping HK$400 million ($51 million) over the next five years.

The Shenzhen-listed company and its healthcare service subsidiary Xunfei Healthcare plans to build a team of more than 150 in Hong Kong by 2029, delivering a vote of confidence to the city’s push to become a global innovation and technology hub.

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According to the company, iFlyTek plans to set up its international headquarters in Hong Kong, which will include a research and development center, an international business center, as well as a trade and fund management platform. Meanwhile, Xunfei Healthcare will establish an international research institute, focusing on the integration of healthcare and AI applications.

The giant will join the city’s AI community that includes some industry bellwethers like Baidu and Cisco.

For Hong Kong, having more innovation-driven firms’ presence in the city is a key part of efforts to boost its technological strength as the Asian hub looks for new growth engines to drive the economy following the social unrest in 2019 and years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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According to the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong, over 100 technology companies have set up or expanded their businesses in the city in the past two years.

A case in point is that CATL — the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery maker — picked Hong Kong as its international headquarters and opened a research and development center in the city. Its investment is expected to exceed HK$1.2 billion.

Founded in 1999, iFlyTek has established itself as a leader in intelligent voice, cognitive AI, and computer vision, and was one of the major firms to launch an alternative to US chatbot ChatGPT. Its healthcare arm specializes in applications of speech recognition and natural language understanding technologies in the medical field, offering products for AI-assisted diagnoses and medical image recognition.

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Reiterating Hong Kong’s role as a gateway for both mainland and overseas businesses, Sun said an “ecosystem of AI” is taking shape in the city as related companies expand.  

Sun also revealed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is testing out the city’s locally-developed generative AI tool rivaling ChatGPT, with plans to make it available to the public next year.

Contact the writer at evanliu@chinadailyhk.com