Google Inc is making its first direct investment in a Chinese firm, an artificial-intelligence start-up, since mostly quitting the country in 2010 over censorship concerns.
Google is leading a round of funding for Mobvoi Inc (羽扇智信息科技), a company operating a Chinese-language voice-activated search engine. Google used the search engine instead of its own blocked service in the Moto 360 smartwatch released in China in June.
The deal underscores how Google might be edging back into the world’s largest mobile market with its first strategic investment in years. Last year, a growth equity arm of the corporation called Google Capital invested in InnoLight Technology Corp (旭創科技), a Suzhou-based company that makes high-speed data transmission hardware.
“Mobvoi is very excited to welcome Google as an investor as both companies share a long-term view on technologies,” said Mobvoi Inc founder Li Zhifei (李志飛), who is a former Google employee, without specifying the amount that Google is investing.
Mobvoi has raised US$75 million from backers including Sequoia Capital (紅杉資本) and ZhenFund (真格基金), the company said yesterday.
Mobvoi is to use the money to strengthen its artificial intelligence development, explore smartcar technologies and hire more people, the firm said.
“Mobvoi has developed some very unique speech and natural language processing technologies,” Google corporate development vice president Don Harrison said. “We were impressed by their innovative approach and the early traction that they’ve seen.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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