
Chinese tech giant Alibaba on Wednesday said it set up a joint research institute in Singapore, together with a local university.
The research institute will focus on developing artificial intelligence applications in a variety of areas including health care, smart homes and urban transportation.
Alibaba said that the institute, launched with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), was the firm’s first joint research center outside China. It will be housed on the university’s campus.
Initially, the center would start with 50 researchers from Alibaba as well as the university. AI applications developed by the research institute would be tested on NTU’s campus, within Singapore and across the Southeast Asian region, according to Alibaba.
The e-commerce giant and NTU together would invest millions of Singapore dollars per year over the next five years to fund research projects, according to a statement attributed to Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang.
An Alibaba spokeswoman declined to break down the investment figures, but said the tech company’s contributions would come from a research and development fund announced last year.
Zhang also said that Singapore was an important market for Alibaba’s plans for Southeast Asia, and pointed to the city-state’s well known research and development institutions, academic talent and supportive government policies as the basis for choosing to set up the center there.
Last October, Alibaba said it would invest $15 billion over a three-year period into a global research and development program, called DAMO Academy, to create new technologies.
As part of the program, Alibaba said it would set up research labs in China, the United States, Russia, Israel and Singapore.
On Wednesday, Alibaba said it was still looking to establish its own DAMO research lab in Singapore.
Artificial intelligence is still in its nascent stage but billions of dollars have already been spent on developing smart systems. International Data Corporation, last year, predicted that by 2021, global spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence systems could reach $57.6 billion.
This article was originally published on www.cnbc.com and can be viewed in full


Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)