Wayne Shiong, Co-founder and Venture Partner of China Growth Capital, discusses the significant role of Chinese talent in the AI industry and its impact on traditional sectors, such as manufacturing. He highlights the government's support of AI innovation through funding and policies, and the growing self-sufficiency of Chinese AI companies, particularly in the face of tech restrictions.
00:00Wayne Xiong is the co-founder and venture partner at China Growth Capital.
00:06Ultimately it's because of the talents, right?
00:09If you are following all the trending tweets on X platform and then there's a pretty famous one circulating circle that 50% of developers are Chinese.
00:20And if you look at the pictures they've taken at the X headquarters.
00:24And so I think China is supplying at least 50% of the talent in the AI industry.
00:29And at least 50% of those talents will be in China.
00:33So that's the foundation, that's the beta for the industry.
00:37And we're now seeing AI come into even traditional industries, aren't we?
00:41How do you think it's contributing to China's broader economic development?
00:46Yes, absolutely.
00:47I think the biggest contribution AI could bring is for traditional sectors, especially when it comes to manufacturing.
00:54If you look at those kind of dark factories, I'm not sure whether you've visited any of those OEMs, the car factories in China.
01:02And it's highly automated.
01:04It's probably 90% automated using industrial robots.
01:08And AI is exactly applying its power into the traditional manufacturing lines.
01:14And I think that's the biggest benefit for China.
01:18And the government's really got behind AI, hasn't it, launching funds and policies to help boost it forward.
01:25How effective is that, do you think, in supporting innovation and tech startups?
01:29Absolutely.
01:32China itself is the largest VC.
01:34It's probably the largest in the world.
01:38And that's the same way China is developing its own high-speed train system and the telecommunications, the 5G systems,
01:47and the new energy, the wind, and the solar panel systems.
01:52And that's the same approach China has been using for the past 20 years.
01:56And AI is just another frontier.
01:57How important has self-sufficiency, if you like, been for these AI companies, especially in the face of tech restrictions?
02:07I think China, or overall, has stepped over the hurdle right now.
02:12And if you see the recent release of 820 by NVIDIA, well, they claim that China already has the equivalentship.
02:20I think that's what industry has been busy for the past three to five years.
02:24And in the next coming, probably 18 months or 20, 24 months, I think China will be quite self-sufficient in terms of high-end manufacturing of those GPU chips.
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