Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund sees the potential of Hong Kong to be a data trading center

Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund hopes Hong Kong could be a data trading center to leverage the city’s advantage to develop artificial intelligence.

The call also echoes Beijing’s push to set up data trading markets to exploit this emerging productive factor.

Cindy Chow Lok Mei-ki, executive director and chief executive of AEF, noted that Hong Kong has a unique advantage in data, such as the permitted data flow within the Lok Ma Chau Loop, which allows AI startups to access data from the mainland China and the overseas markets.

With the data, the startups can use the sanitized data to train their models effectively and explore real-world applications.

It came after the Hong Kong government plans to explore development of a data-trading ecosystem, and explore on a pilot basis facilitation arrangements for cross-boundary data flow within the Greater Bay Area.

The data flow is supported by measurement like the Standard Contract for the Cross-boundary Flow of Personal Information Within the GBA, which is expected to be extended to all sectors, promoting more cross-boundary services to benefit the public and businesses while facilitating data flow throughout the region.

In addition to a strong educational infrastructure producing top AI talent and ongoing investments in advanced computing resources, Hong Kong is well-positioned to become a hub for AI innovation and development, Chow said.

As of May, there were already 24 data exchanges across China and they vowed to facilitate mutual recognition and interoperability.

As data trading activates the value of data, industrial digitization, digital government, smart city, and data trading are expected to see demand grow in the long term.

Meanwhile, AEF’s Chow said this year’s JUMPSTARTER competition aimed to explore solutions by using large language models and build an ecosystem for global AI startups, instead of purely increasing investments. 

This year’s JUMPSTARTER pledged a total of US$5 million () in investments for top entries, the same as last edition despite the AI mania starting last year.

The competition, jointly sponsored by AEF and HSBC, has been open for applications until December 8.