China fuels home-grown tech startups

The Chinese government has spent more than $1bn on domestic start-ups in the hope of becoming a world leader in artificial intelligence and other technologies, according to accountancy KPMG. The spending is part of the “Made in China 2025” plan, put in place in 2015, to improve China’s technology industry by spending hundreds of billions of dollars through venture capital funds guided by government policy. In the second quarter of this year, investments in private tech companies in Asia topped those in the US for the first time, according to analysis by CB Insights and PwC, with $19.3bn pouring into Asian start-ups compared with $18.4bn in the US, the traditional home of venture capital. Beijing has made it a priority to support strategic technology sectors such as AI and robotics. Local governments and state-owned companies have set up funds for investment in local tech companies, the Financial Times reports. All cities have funds to distribute, ranging from $10m to $50m.