China wants to challenge the U.S. in AI — here’s what Chinese giants are doing with the tech

Global attention around generative artificial intelligence has been focused on big U.S. companies like OpenAI,?Alphabet ’s Google, and?Meta .

But some of China’s giants, from?Alibaba ?to?Tencent, ?have launched?their own AI models over?the?past 18 months, looking to capitalize on?the?hype around?the technology.

CNBC runs through?the?big Chinese AI models developed by?the?country’s biggest tech firms.

Baidu

Baidu , one of China’s biggest internet companies, was among?the?first in?thecountry to launch generative AI applications. Its model powers Ernie Bot, an AI chatbot designed to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and which?the?Chinese company says has 300 million users.

Alibaba

Alibaba launched its set of foundational models,?Tongyi Qianwen ?(Qwen), last year.?Alibaba ?has developed various versions that can carry out different tasks.

Tencent

Last year,?Tencent launched its own foundational model called Hunyuan . Companies can access Hunyuan’s capabilities via Tencent’s cloud computing business

Huawei

Huawei has taken a slightly different approach to rivals with its Pangu AI models. It has created several AI models aimed at customers in specific industries including government, finance, manufacturing, mining and meteorology.

ByteDance

TikTok owner ByteDance launched an AI model, named Doubao, this year, marking a late entrance into?the?race against competitors like Baidu and Alibaba. ByteDance, however, brought out its AI model at a price much cheaper than?theother companies.

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Amazon makes ￡8 billion UK investment to build cloud and AI infrastructure

Amazon’s huge investment, announced early Wednesday London time, comes as cloud players talk up?the?benefits of generative AI and as companies look to integrate?the?tech into?their businesses.

“We’ve seen a real uptake of cloud computing and AI technology by British businesses, and we know?the?U.K. has a very ambitious digital plan,” Tanuja Randery, managing director for European, Middle East and Africa at AWS, told CNBC in an interview.

Investment in AI

Randery said generative AI is “probably?the?most transformative technology we have seen, possibly since?the?cloud and?the?internet” and that businesses are currently trialing?the?nascent tech.

AWS, along with other cloud players, has been investing heavily in infrastructure, such as data centers and?Nvidia ?chips, to train and run AI models.?These cloud players?then sell AI services to businesses.

Regulatory scrutiny

AWS competes with?Microsoft ?and?Google ?in?the?U.K. and its investment continues?the?company’s focus on expansion in Europe. AWS said this year it plans to invest 8.8 billion euros in existing cloud infrastructure in Germany.

But this investment also comes at a time when regulators in?the?U.K. are scrutinizing competition in?the?cloud market with AWS and Microsoft under?the microscope.?The?Competitions and Markets Authority is?currently looking into?the U.K. cloud market .

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Britain labels data centers critical infrastructure to boost cyber defenses

Data centers were on Thursday classed by?the?U.K. government as critical infrastructure.?

The?move is expected to boost cybersecurity in?the?country and help operators of?the?critical computing facilities work with?the?government to protect data from malicious attacks and outages.

Joining sectors like defense and space

British Technology Minister Peter Kyle said that U.K. data centers will be given “Critical National Infrastructure,” or CNI, designation, a label normally reserved for only key sectors such as energy, nuclear power, defense, space, and emergency services.

“Data centres are?the?engines of modern life,?they power?the?digital economy and keep our most personal information safe,” Kyle said in a statement Thursday.

Direct line to?the?government

Data center operators will effectively be given a direct line to?the?government to prepare for and respond to data threats,?the?government said.

It is?the?first time a new sector has been granted CNI designation in almost a decade. Space and defense were both given CNI status in 2015.

Meanwhile,?the?U.K. also announced Thursday that it is in favor of a plan submitted by a firm called DC01UK to develop a huge 85-acre data center in Hertfordshire, England, which it said would become?the?largest in Europe once built.

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Skype founder’s VC firm raises $1.24 billion to back European tech startups

Atomico, an early investor in top European technology firms from Stripe to Klarna, announced Monday?the?launch of two new funds worth $1.24 billion to back emerging and growth-stage startups in?the?sector.

The?firm, founded in 2006 by Niklas Zennstr?m, a co-founder of Microsoft-owned video calling app Skype, has backed some of?the?most well-known companies in Europe’s tech scene.

Restarting European startups

The?launch of Atomico’s sixth batch of new funds, comprising a $754 million growth-stage fund for startups raising Series B to pre-IPO financing and a $485 million early stage fund, marks a breath of life for a European tech industry that has been reeling from a?slide in valuations ?and?mass layoffs .

Venture funding for European tech startups nearly halved to $45 billion in 2023 from $82 billion in?the?previous year, according to a?report ?penned last year by Atomico. This decline was a reversal of pre-pandemic years which saw a wild rise in tech valuations, Atomico said at?the?time.

“Beyond?market cycles”

“European technology is coming of age. Meeting this opportunity requires ambition, hustle and commitment from founders, who need investors with?theexperience and perspective to see?beyond?market cycles,” Zennstr?m said in a statement Monday.

The?fresh fundraise comes as two of Atomico’s key portfolio companies, Stripe and Klarna, have been circled by speculation of upcoming stock market listings.

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