SenseTime

What SenseTime does

SenseTime is a Hong Kong-listed (HKEX: 00020.HK) AI software company founded in 2014 by Tang Xiao'ou, Xu Li, Wang Xiaogang, and Lin Dahua, generating RMB 5 billion (~USD 724M) in FY2025 revenue with 32.9% year-over-year growth. The company operates a vertically integrated AI stack spanning proprietary compute infrastructure (SenseCore AI Cloud, 40,400+ PetaFLOPS across 7 cities), foundation models (SenseNova series with the NEO-Unify native multimodal architecture), and an application portfolio including SenseFoundry Vision AI, SenseAuto automotive AI, SenseCare medical AI, SenseAvatar digital humans, Seko AI drama/video generation, Office Raccoon and Code Raccoon agents, and SenseMirage text-to-image. It leads IDC's China Vision AI market for ten consecutive years and ranks #1 in China's Native AI Cloud market, with generative AI accounting for 72.4% of group revenue in 2025.

The company's business model combines subscription-based enterprise AI cloud services (MaaS Token Plan covering 16 flagship models), usage-based SenseCore infrastructure access, and direct/quoted enterprise licensing for vertical platforms such as SenseFoundry Enterprise, SenseAuto, and SenseCare. Distribution operates through direct enterprise sales (heavily weighted toward Chinese government, transportation, healthcare, and industrial accounts), a four-tier partner program (national distributors, regional/industry agents, AI hardware transformation partners, and ISV partners), self-serve APIs at sensenova.cn, and the SenseTime MEA joint venture with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for Middle East expansion. The GTM motion has shifted from government-funded smart-city surveillance toward commercial generative-AI enterprise services.

SenseTime employs 1,001-5,000 staff (two-thirds in R&D), operates offices in China (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou), South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and serves 20M+ users and enterprises across 10+ countries. Strategic subsidiaries include Sunrise (AI chip spinoff, $431M raised), ACE Robotics (embodied intelligence), and minority investments in SiliconFlow, TuringQ, Dexmal, RoboParty, and RoboScience. The company reached its first positive H2 2025 EBITDA of RMB 376.4M since listing and narrowed its FY2025 net loss by 58.6% to RMB 1.8B.

Name

SenseTime

Legal name

SenseTime Group Inc.

Website

https://sensetime.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

SenseTime is a Hong Kong-listed AI software company building a vertically integrated stack from compute infrastructure (SenseCore) to foundation models (SenseNova) to vertical applications (Vision AI, automotive, healthcare, agents), serving enterprise, government, and developer customers across 10+ countries, with FY2025 revenue of RMB 5 billion.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Software Platform

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management) (HDAEANAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ), Enterprise Foundation Model Integration & APIs (Connectors, Governance, Deployment) (HDAAACAO), Model Hosting, Serving & Inference Platforms (HDAAACAB), Open-Source Model Ecosystems & Model Marketplaces (HDAAACAM)

Keywords

• Multimodal foundation models
• Computer vision AI
• AI cloud infrastructure
• Autonomous driving solutions
• Medical imaging AI

Headquarters

HQ city

Sha Tin

HQ country

Hong Kong SAR China

HQ region

Asia

Offices12 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Generative AI Services: Cloud-based AI model services including API access, model compute, and AI agent applications. Generative AI now accounts for 72.4% of group revenue as of 2025.
2. SenseCore AI Cloud: AI infrastructure services providing computing power, model training platforms, and enterprise AI development tools.
3. Vision AI Solutions: Enterprise software platforms (SenseFoundry, SenseFoundry Enterprise) for computer vision applications across smart city, enterprise, and vertical industries. IDC reports 10 consecutive years of China Vision AI market leadership.
4. Smart Auto: Automotive AI solutions including SenseAuto cabin, ADAS, RoboX, and V2X products for intelligent driving and cockpit applications.
5. Healthcare AI: SenseCare medical AI products including diagnostic imaging analysis and healthcare platforms.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

SenseTime develops and sells AI software spanning foundation models, AI infrastructure, and Vision AI platforms. Its SenseNova foundation model series delivers multimodal generative AI capabilities (LLMs, image, video, code), SenseCore provides AI cloud computing at 40,400+ PetaFLOPS, and SenseFoundry offers Vision AI software for smart cities and enterprises. Generative AI accounted for 72.4% of FY2025 revenue (RMB 5 billion total).

Product overview

SenseTime offers a comprehensive AI software portfolio organized around its SenseNova foundation model series, SenseCore AI infrastructure, and SenseFoundry Vision AI platforms. The SenseNova series provides multimodal AI capabilities spanning large language models (SenseChat), generative AI (SenseMirage, SenseAvatar), video creation (Seko), code generation (Code Raccoon), and enterprise automation (Office Raccoon, FinAgent), all delivered via the proprietary NEO-Unify native multimodal architecture. The SenseCore AI cloud infrastructure powers model training and deployment at 40,400+ PFlops across 7 cities. SenseFoundry and SenseFoundry Enterprise deliver Vision AI for smart city management and enterprise digital transformation, respectively, while the SenseAuto platform provides autonomous driving and in-cabin AI for automotive applications. Additional products include smart healthcare (SenseCare), augmented reality/metaverse (SenseMARS), smart retail (SenseMart GO, SenseGalaxy), consumer AI devices (SenseRobot Chess Robot, Kapi Cam), and remote sensing analytics (SenseEarth). The company holds ISO 27001, ISO 29151, and ISO 27701 certifications, has led China's Vision AI market for 10 consecutive years, and generated RMB 5 billion in 2025 revenue with generative AI accounting for 72.4% of total revenue.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SenseNova: Large language model and multimodal AI foundation model series offering natural language processing, image generation, code generation, and digital human creation
• SenseCore
• SenseFoundry
• SenseAuto (绝影)
• SenseME
• SenseMARS
• SenseCare
• SenseRobot (元萝卜)
• Seko
• Office Raccoon
• Code Raccoon
• SenseAvatar
• SenseChat
• SenseMirage (秒画)

Products and services

• SenseNova Foundation Model System Flagship multimodal AI foundation model platform providing large language models, AI text-to-image generation, 2D/3D digital human creation, and code generation for enterprise and developer use.
• SenseNova U1 Next-generation native multimodal model fully open-sourced under Apache 2.0 license, powered by the proprietary NEO-Unify architecture unifying AI understanding and generation end-to-end.
• SenseNova 6.7 Flash-Lite Next-generation lightweight multimodal agent model designed for real-world AI workflows, reducing token consumption by 60% with millisecond-level feedback for enterprise office automation.
• SenseNova-SI

Quantifiable outcome

• 32.9% YoY revenue growth to RMB 5 billion in 2025
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability17 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 June 2026Strategic MoU for AI computing infrastructure partnership to establish Hong Kong's largest domestic intelligent computing center targeting 40,000+ PetaFLOPS by 2030. First phase expected within 2026 with multiple domestic GPU clusters. Aligns with China's 15th Five-Year Plan and Hong Kong 'AI for All' strategy.
• Sunrise (AI Chip Spinoff)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026AI chip spinoff Sunrise raised ~$420M within 12 months. Spun out of SenseTime, Sunrise designs inference GPUs targeting one cent RMB per million tokens processed with planned S3 chip in 2026.
• King Saud UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 November 2025Joint AI Innovation Centre launched in Riyadh with GPU cluster supporting health, energy, entertainment, logistics, smart cities, environmental monitoring, and space science initiatives.
• CambriconcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 October 2025Partnership with Cambricon to strengthen China's AI supply chain throughchip-level integration and self-reliance AI venture. Both companies saw stock increases on the news.
• King Abdullah Financial District (Riyadh)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 11 June 2025SenseTime MEA joint venture with Public Investment Fund establishing operations in Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District for Middle East market expansion.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun): Alibaba's cloud unit offering Qwen/Tongyi foundation models and Model Studio platform, directly competing with SenseTime's SenseNova API and ModelStudio offerings in the Chinese enterprise AI cloud market.
• Baidu: China's leading search and cloud AI company with ERNIE foundation models, Apollo autonomous driving, and Baidu Cloud — a broad incumbent whose enterprise AI offerings overlap significantly with SenseTime's SenseNova and SenseCore portfolios.
• iFlytek: Hefei-based AI leader specializing in speech recognition, natural language understanding, and AI education, with overlapping offerings in NLP, voice, and educational AI applications competing with SenseTime's SenseChat and SenseAudio products.
• Tencent: Chinese internet giant whose Hunyuan foundation models and Tencent Cloud compete with SenseTime's SenseNova and SenseCore in the broader Chinese enterprise AI market, particularly for AI-enabled gaming, social, and content applications.

Direct peers

• Megvii Technology (Face++): Beijing-based AI company specializing in computer vision and facial recognition with Face++ platform, directly competing with SenseTime's traditional Vision AI business in smart city, enterprise, and IoT applications across China.
• Zhipu AI: Beijing-based foundation model startup developing GLM series LLMs with multimodal capabilities, directly competing with SenseTime's SenseNova foundation model family for Chinese enterprise AI customers and developer mindshare.
• StepFun (Step AI): Shanghai-based multimodal foundation model startup whose Step series models compete directly with SenseNova in the Chinese enterprise AI market, particularly in image, video, and multimodal capabilities.
• Moonshot AI: Beijing-based AI company behind the Kimi LLM and related foundation models, competing with SenseNova in the Chinese enterprise LLM market with comparable long-context and reasoning capabilities.
• YITU Technology: Shanghai-based AI platform company offering computer vision, healthcare AI, and smart city solutions, directly comparable to SenseTime's SenseFoundry and SenseCare product lines across both enterprise and government segments.

Emerging players

• DeepSeek: Hangzhou-based AI research company whose open-source DeepSeek foundation models have gained rapid adoption, creating competitive pressure on SenseTime's SenseNova pricing and enterprise AI positioning in China.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/OpenSenseNova
• Xx.com/sensetime_ai
• Facebookfacebook.com/sensetimegroup
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sensetime-group-limited

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds11 records

Investors30 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments29 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SenseTime