The Chinese SenseTime, whose IPO had been postponed after its inscription on the American blacklist, will make its debut in the place of Hong Kong on December 30, said Monday the specialist in artificial intelligence.
SenseTime designs facial recognition and image recognition applications, including crowd monitoring and identity verification.
The company was blacklisted earlier this month by the US Treasury, which accuses it of developing technology to specifically identify members of the Uyghur ethnic group in China, including those wearing "
Beard, sunglasses or a mask
" to serve as police surveillance in Xinjiang.
Exclusion of US investors
SenseTime, which had castigated "
unfounded accusations
", had in the process postponed its IPO, scheduled for December 17.
Blacklisting makes it virtually impossible to purchase securities of companies listed therein by banks or US nationals.
The start-up finally filed a new listing request on Monday and plans to debut in Hong Kong on December 30, she said.
SenseTime intends to raise 767 million dollars (682 million euros).
The company specifies that "
due to the [...] evolving nature of American regulations, we must exclude American investors
" from this fundraising.
According to the financial information agency
Bloomberg
, the champion of artificial intelligence has nevertheless secured 512 million dollars (454 million euros) from nine investors, including the Chinese public investment fund Mixed-Ownership Reform Fund.
In 2019, Washington had already placed SenseTime on the Commerce Department's blacklist for similar reasons, prohibiting Americans from selling technology to it.
