Founder Sean Xiang Yuqiu says the fund will invest US$500 million in the AI and robotics sectors over the next three years

One of Asia’s top private equity funds is betting big on artificial intelligence and humanoid robots, envisioning a future where AI-powered implants are plugged into human brains, allowing people to experience the world in ways once confined to science fiction.

Xiang, who has been featured in the latest edition of Fortune China magazine’s 40 Chinese business elites under 40 released on Tuesday, said Hermitage would invest at least US$500 million in the AI and robotic sectors over the next three years.

With a decade of experience at Wall Street investment bank JPMorgan Chase before founding Hermitage Capital in 2017, Xiang said the company’s investments focused on building a global AI ecosystem, ranging from hardware like graphics processing units to large language models (LLMs) and intelligent robotics.

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