【202302】安全与新兴技术中心-美国对中国人工智能企业的投资分析_68页_英.pdf

Washington are advocating for a potential outbound investment security review or

regime to address the national security risks associated with outgoing U.S. capital. This

policy brief analyzes data from Crunchbase on U.S. outbound investment into Chinese

artificial intelligence companies between 2015 and 2021 to better understand the

scope and nature of these transactions. This report aims to identify: 1) the main U.S.

investors active in the Chinese AI market, and 2) the set of AI companies in China that

benefitted from U.S. capital during this period. It also lays out potential implications

and next steps for U.S. policy. Our key findings include the following:

● Chinese investors remain the dominant investors in Chinese AI companies.

Between 2015 and 2021, at least 71 percent of the transaction value and 92

invested into 251 Chinese AI companies, which accounts for 37 percent of the

$110 billion raised by all Chinese AI companies. However, we do not know the

exact portion of the $40.2 billion that came from U.S. investors.

● Ninety-one percent of the observed U.S. investment transactions into Chinese AI

companies during the covered time period came at venture capital (VC)

investment stages, such as angel, seed, and pre-seed.

While Crunchbase data suggests that U.S. outbound investment into Chinese AI

companies is limited, such financial activity, commercial linkages, and the tacit

expertise that transfers from U.S.-based funders to target companies in China’s

booming AI ecosystem carry implications that extend beyond the business sector.

highly complex nature of these transactions, means policymakers should attain a full

understanding of the nature and scope of U.S. financial and technological support to

Chinese AI companies before proceeding to address any concerns, and doing so

cautiously. To this end, we provide a set of recommendations:

1. Identify clear policy objectives for any potential outbound investment

security review or regime. There is a sufficient amount of U.S. outbound

investment into Chinese AI companies to warrant further investigation with

clearly scoped objectives.

2. Devise a pilot program for collecting data on U.S. outbound investment into

China. Revise disclosure requirements for U.S.-based funds, as well as

security beyond defense/materiel and surveillance.

4. Create a mechanism to prevent U.S. investment into Chinese companies on

the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List. This could require divestiture

from Chinese companies on the Entity List and restrict future investment in

listed entities.

Assessment of U.S. Outbound Investment into Chinese AI Companies ............................ 10

Investment in Chinese AI Companies: Understanding the Trends .................................. 10

Transactions with U.S. Investor Involvement ..................................................................... 11

Transactions without U.S. Investor Involvement .............................................................. 16

Types of Chinese AI target companies ..................................................................................... 18

Types of U.S. Outbound Investment into Chinese AI Companies .................................... 20

Understanding the Intangibles Attached to VC Investment .................................................. 23

Top U.S. VC in China ...................................................................................................................... 24

Mentorship and Coaching ......................................................................................................... 25

Name Recognition and Building Strategic Networks ...................................................... 27

Investment.............................................................................................................................................. 45

Appendix B: Taxonomy of Primary Applications of AI ............................................................ 46

Appendix C: Additional Figures and Tables ................................................................................ 50

ongoing debates surrounding the rationale for a potential outbound investment

security review or regime. Policymakers who have advocated for an outbound

investment screening regime fear that U.S. capital is flowing into entities in China that

are actively supporting the Chinese military (formally known as the People’s Liberation

Army, or PLA), some of which includes taxpayer dollars through the retirement and

pension funds of public sector employees.

chains—especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a world forced

to reckon with the fact that China dominated critical supply chains around personal

protective equipment and other important materials.

Separately, others in the White House and in Congress are worried that the tacit

artificial intelligence poses national security concerns. In October 2022, new export

much of a lead as possible.

This report analyzes Crunchbase data from 2015 to 2021 on U.S. outbound investment

into Chinese AI companies to more effectively understand the scope and nature of

these transactions. It seeks to identify the main U.S. investors active in the Chinese AI

ecosystem and the set of Chinese AI companies that have benefitted from U.S. capital.

We find that, although there are several gaps in our ability to track and monitor these

investments, there is sufficient U.S. investment going into Chinese AI companies to

warrant further and closer investigation. In addition, we discuss how such investments,

and particularly the early-stage venture capital (VC) funding that accounts for the