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Beijing-based facial recognition developer to raise another $1 billion

Facial recognition camera.
A surveillance camera, which is part of a facial recognition technology test in Germany. Photo: Steffi Loos/Getty Images

SenseTime, a Beijing-based developer of facial recognition technologies, is in talks to raise around $1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund, per Bloomberg.

Why it's the BFD: It's already the world's most valuable AI startup, having raised money earlier this year at a $4.5 billion valuation. And this additional money would help further shift the balance of power from privacy to security, with all of the trade-offs that entails.

  • Also: AnyVision, an Israeli developer of body and facial recognition technologies, just raised $28 millionin Series A funding led by Bosch.

Bottom line: "[SenseTime] is developing a service code-named 'Viper' to parse data from thousands of live camera feeds -- a platform it expects will prove invaluable in mass surveillance." — Selina Wang & Lulu Yilun Chen, Bloomberg

Facial recognition system