SenseTime

What it is

SenseTime (商汤科技) is a Chinese AI company with its headquarters at Hong Kong Science Park ^[1]. Its main products are the SenseNova (日日新) large model family, the SenseChat chatbot, and agents such as Raccoon.

Origins

The company was founded in October 2014 by Tang Xiaoou (汤晓鸥), a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the computer scientist Xu Li (徐立), among others ^[1]. Tang Xiaoou was its co-founder and chairman ^[5].

Its funding grew quickly. It raised US$410 million in a Series B round in July 2017, a US$600 million Series C led by Alibaba in April 2018, and a US$1 billion Series D from the SoftBank Vision Fund in September 2018 ^[2]. The Wall Street Journal reported a valuation of US$7.7 billion at the end of 2018, and that year China named the company one of its national 'AI champions' ^[1].

The company listed in Hong Kong after a difficult start. Its IPO was postponed on 13 December 2021, relaunched on 20 December and listed on 30 December 2021 under the ticker 0020 ^[1]. The offering was cut from an expected US$2 billion, and the company raised about HK$767 million ^[1]. It joined the Hang Seng TECH Index in February 2022 ^[1].

Tang Xiaoou died on 15 December 2023, aged 55, and SenseTime's shares fell 18% after the news ^[5][1].

Key features

SenseTime launched its SenseNova large model system and the SenseChat chatbot on 10 April 2023 ^[4]. Xu Li is chairman of the board and chief executive ^[6]. The company's product framework in 2026 combines the SenseNova models, a compute service called Token Factory, and agents including Raccoon and the video agent Seko ^[3]. Token Factory processed 2.4 trillion tokens a day in July 2026 ^[3]. A token is the unit of text a model reads and writes, so the figure measures how much model work the service handles.

The company's financial results show how its business has shifted. In 2025 it had revenue of RMB5.014 billion, a net loss of RMB1.782 billion and 2,472 employees ^[2]. In the first half of 2026 it reported revenue of RMB2.91 billion, up 23.4%, and its first IFRS net profit since listing, RMB620 million ^[3]. Generative AI made up RMB2.33 billion of that revenue, nearly 80% of the total ^[3].

In October 2024 the company said it was moving to more domestic chips, and its Shanghai AI data center uses chips from Huawei and Biren ^[1].

Position in development

SenseNova models remain part of the company's 2026 product framework ^[3]. At the 2023 launch, the chatbot was not open for public testing, and access was reserved for government and corporate clients ^[1].

The company has also faced US restrictions. In October 2019 it was added to the US Entity List over alleged use of its technology in Xinjiang. On 10 December 2021 the US Treasury barred American investment in the company. SenseTime denies the allegations ^[1].