Samsung newly invests in Chinese machine vision firm

Samsung Electronics continues to make investments in foreign artificial intelligence technology businesses, especially focusing on Chinese firms, according to sources Monday.

The South Korean tech behemoth recently invested $20 million in Vion Technologies, a Chinese AI firm specializing in machine vision, in partnership with Swiss automation company ABB, Chinese venture firm Tsing Capital and Hong Kong’s Waterwood, reported a Chinese news outlet.

Vion Technologies is an AI solutions and product provider that specializes in smart cities and business intelligence. The company is famous for its smart camera used for capturing images of traffic violations, as well as a video analysis terminal capable of recognizing faces and age via monitors.

The Chinese firm’s focus is known as machine vision, or technology to provide image-based automatic inspection and analysis.

Samsung’s chipmaking division has been working on machine vision technology in coordination with IBM.

Last year, Samsung unveiled a machine vision platform based on IBM’s TrueNorth processor, a chip designed to operate like the human brain to process digital imagery at a fast rate. 

“Machine vision, more widely known as computing vision, is one of the key areas of AI, along with voice recognition and translation,” said Chang Joon-hyuk, a professor at Hanyang University. “Securing the technology will be crucial for implementing virtual reality programs on smartphones, recognizing images on devices and further for autonomous driving programs.”

Samsung declined to confirm facts regarding the latest investment, saying, “The company’s investment entities that are based in the US are independently making investments in tens of different foreign businesses, including the Chinese companies, which is hard to keep track of at the headquarters level.”

According to the industry, the latest investment in Beijing-based Vion Technologies is interpreted as a follow-up measure of Samsung’s launch of $300 million Automotive Innovation Fund in September.

At the time, Samsung announced the new fund would invest to secure technologies related to connected cars, including smart sensors, machine vision, artificial intelligence and security.

Industry observers note that Samsung has been recently expanding investments in AI businesses to catch up with advanced global players, particularly in Chinese companies, including fledgling startups.

Less than a year after the Korean company invested $30 million in British AI chip firm Graphcore in October 2016, Samsung provided $40 million for China’s Tsinghua-based Deephi Tech in August as a partner company.

More recently, Samsung acquired Korean AI startup Fluenty last month, an announcement that was made after the company created an AI center under Samsung Research earlier in November, which was read by industry watchers to enhance its AI capabilities by integrating the formerly separated hardware and software R&D institutes.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)