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Cyberport Leads Nine Start-ups to Join WAIC 2025
Project from the Artificial Intelligence Subsidy Scheme Shortlisted for Top 30 of the SAIL Award
HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 29 July 2025 - World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2025 and High-level Conference on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence' (WAIC 2025) held in Shanghai has successfully concluded. This year, Cyberport led nine community members to participate in the event, among which three start-ups: Canpanion, Votee AI and YouToo Robot, were recognised for their exceptional innovation and successfully selected as the 'WAIC 2025 Future Tech'. Additionally, one of the approved projects under the Artificial Intelligence Subsidy Scheme (AISS), which is led by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), along with projects from three leading AI enterprises at Cyberport, including iFlytek, and Baidu Apollo, were shortlisted for the Top 30 of the 'Super AI Leader Award' (SAIL Award). Notably, the joint innovative project by Biren Technology won the SAIL Award this year. These achievements highlight Hong Kong's competitiveness in the field of AI and its contributions to promoting high-quality development both locally and nationally.
Cyberport led nine community members to participate in WAIC 2025.
WAIC 2025 centred around the theme of 'Global Solidarity in the AI Era'. The conference brought together global experts, scholars, entrepreneurs, government officials, international organisations, and investors, creating a platform for collaboration and showcasing cutting-edge AI solutions. This year, Cyberport again led start-ups to participate in the 'Hong Kong Pavilion' established by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), showcasing Hong Kong's AI innovations to global audiences. The exhibits include a wide range of innovative applications, such as AI education platforms, fall risk management systems, smart training systems, smart city applications, and AI content generation platforms, fully demonstrating Hong Kong's strength in the Innovation and Technology (I&T) sector. (For details of the participating start-ups, please refer to the appendix.)
At the opening ceremony, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council presented three suggestions for advancing AI development and global governance: promoting the dissemination and application of outcomes; strengthening cooperation in innovation and open-source initiatives; and building a secure and trustworthy global governance framework.
As Hong Kong's AI accelerator, Cyberport is advancing several key initiatives in related fields. Through the AISS, Cyberport promotes the transformation of local research and development (R&D) and application projects, fostering the realisation of AI outcomes. In promoting open-source cooperation, the 'Cyberport Open Source Community' was established in June this year to provide computing power through Cyberport's Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Centre (AISC), supporting open-source technology testing and application. Furthermore, in building a governance system, Cyberport has partnered with various sectors, including the international organisation World Digital Technology Academy (WDTA), to establish the 'WDTA Asia-Pacific Institute' at Cyberport, promoting regional governance standards and global cooperation, thereby contributing to the creating of a safe, trustworthy, and responsible AI ecosystem and demonstrating Hong Kong's proactive role in global AI development.
Rocky Cheng, CEO of Cyberport, stated 'AI is rapidly becoming a key driver of new quality productive forces. As Hong Kong's digital technology hub and AI accelerator, Cyberport is proud to lead nine outstanding community members to this year's WAIC, three of whom have been selected for the 'WAIC 2025 Future Tech'. Additionally, one of the use cases from the 'Artificial Intelligence Subsidy Scheme' has been shortlisted for the Top 30 of the prestigious SAIL Award, showcasing innovative application solutions to the world and highlighting Hong Kong's technological capabilities. Cyberport and our community members will continue to leverage our strengths in line with the development strategies of the HKSAR Government and the nation, focusing on research and development and transformative real-world applications in areas such as AI, green technology and Fintech. We will keep welcoming key enterprises from various tech sectors and promoting digital transformation for both society and businesses, contributing innovative power and economic value to the technological innovation and high-quality development of Hong Kong and beyond.'
To foster innovation, this year's 'Future Tech Innovation Incubation Exhibition Special Zone' featured some of the world's most promising AI start-ups, including three Cyberport start-ups: Canpanion, which develops AI-driven education and psychology ecosystems; Votee AI, focusing on AIGC technology for governments and enterprises; and YouToo Robot, specialising in industrial AI operation and maintenance. They were selected as 'WAIC 2025 Future Tech' in recognition of their forward-looking solutions, growth potential, and commercial value; notably, Votee AI and YouToo Robot have been recognised as 'Future Tech' for the second consecutive year. Moreover, other start-ups including FireAlert, LAiPIC, Laiye, Lidarvision, RealAI, and HK Simfinity showcased their AI applications at the event, allowing attendees from around the world to experience Hong Kong's I&T scene.
Additionally, one of the approved projects under the AISS, titled 'Enhancing Edge-based Foundation Models for Advanced Reasoning', developed by PolyU, along with projects from strategic enterprises at Cyberport, including iFLYTEK's 'AI Learning Tablet: A Personalised Learning Device Empowered by Spark Large Model', and Apollo Go's 'Autonomous Ride-hailing Platform', were shortlisted for the Top 30 of the SAIL Award. Biren Technology's joint project on the 'Distributed OCS All-Optical Interconnection Chips and Super-node Application Innovation Solution' won the SAIL Award, the highest honour at WAIC. This award aims to identify globally recognised AI projects that significantly enhance human well-being, thereby encouraging technological breakthroughs, application innovations and governance explorations.
During the conference, Cyberport also co-organised a forum entitled 'The Bay Area Hub in the Age of AI: Hong Kong's New Vision for the Smart Economy' with the HKTDC and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) to explore Hong Kong's strategic positioning in the development of the smart economy. The forum features speakers from leading technology enterprise including Chairman of Suanova Technology Douglas Fang, Prof Guo Yike, Provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Director of HKGAI, and Prof Yang Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, who shared insights on the application and future development of AI technology.
Additionally, a panel discussion, moderated by Dr Crystal Fok, Director of AI Applications at Cyberport, included Hendrick Sin, Chairperson of the Committee of the AISS, Alvin Li, Head of Supervisory Technology at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Liu Hui, General Manager of Hong Kong Inspur Cloud Company, and Guanchun Wang, Chairman of Laiye Technology to discuss how Hong Kong can leverage its international advantages to foster cross-regional cooperation, exploring aspects such as government funding, financial regulation, enterprise settlement, and the international expansion of start-ups.
With the AISC, the largest in Hong Kong, commencing operation in December last year, Cyberport actively promotes the local R&D and applications, with the AISC and AI Lab as the core engines to achieve more scientific research breakthroughs. This year, its computing power will gradually increase to 3,000 PFLOPS to meet the industry's growing demand for R&D. Cyberport also collaborates with over 400 AI and data science start-ups and works with local colleges, R&D institutions and enterprises to fully utilise the computing resources of the AISC to promote AI technology and R&D, empowering digital and intelligent transformation of industries, promoting the digital economy and AI development, and supporting Hong Kong in realising its vision of becoming an international AI and I&T hub.
Appendix I - Cyberport start-ups participating in the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025 (in alphabetical order):
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About Hong Kong Cyberport
Wholly owned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, Cyberport is Hong Kong's digital tech hub and AI accelerator, with a vision to empower industry digitalisation and intelligent transformation, to promote digital economy and AI development, and to foster Hong Kong to be an international AI, innovation and technology (I&T) hub. Cyberport gathers over 2,200 companies, including 5 listed companies and 7 unicorns. One-third of onsite companies' founders come from 26 countries and regions, while Cyberport companies have expanded to over 35 global markets.
Cyberport, with Hong Kong's largest AI Supercomputing Centre and AI Lab as the engine, has been building the AI ecosystem with industry-leading AI companies and over 350 AI and data science start-ups. Through development of tech clusters, namely AI, data science, blockchain and cybersecurity, Cyberport empowers industries across smart city and government, banking and finance, digital entertainment, culture and tourism, healthcare, education and training, property management, construction, transportation and logistics, green environment and more, while hosting Hong Kong's largest FinTech community. Commissioned by the HKSAR Government, Cyberport has implemented proof-of-concept and sandbox schemes, subsidisation for digital tech adoption, industry tech training and start-up incubation, to drive technology R&D, translation and commercialisation, thus propelling digital transformation and intelligent upgrade across industry and society.
Also as Hong Kong's key incubator, Cyberport supports entrepreneurs with funding and office space, extensive networks of enterprises, investors, technology corporations and professional services for business growth and expansion to Mainland China and overseas markets, all-round facilitation for landing in Hong Kong, talent attraction and cultivation, ready as a launchpad to take start-ups in any stages of development to the next level.
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