Multiple Chinese AI Unicorn Startups Report Losses, Suffering Impact From US Sanctions

A robotic shark is seen at the Apsara Conference, a cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) conference, in Hangzhou, in China's eastern Zhejiang Province, on Oct. 19, 2021. (STR/AFP/Getty Images）

News Analysis

China’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) firms have had a stressful year in 2022. Some reported heavy losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the chip ban, and the U.S. sanctions over their role in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

iFlytek Voice Recognition

On April 20, iFlytek, China’s voice-computer champion, reported a revenue of 18.82 billion yuan ($2.73 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 63 percent, for 2022 net profit.