Wife of SenseTime’s late founder donates HK$20 million via new Hong Kong charity
Sophie and Sean Foundation to carry out wish of Tang Xiao’ou to give back to community, with three universities in city among those to benefit
The wife of Chinese AI giant SenseTime’s late co‑founder has established an education and charity foundation in Hong Kong, donating HK$20 million (US$2.57 million) in the name of the couple to set up scholarships at several universities and establish a professorship.
Sophie Yang Qiumei, a managing director and adviser to the CEO at the Hong Kong stock exchange and who inherited a stake worth more than US$1 billion in SenseTime from her husband last year, launched the Sophie and Sean Foundation on Wednesday to promote education and innovative technology.
The first tranche of the donation is HK$20 million, including HK$10 million designated to establish a professorship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) engineering school to help recruit top talent in the field. The remaining HK$10 million will fund scholarships for about 30 students at four universities.
The scholarship will be awarded to doctoral candidates with a research focus on artificial intelligence at CUHK, the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
The foundation was named after her and her late husband, Tang Xiao’ou, the Chinese University of Hong Kong professor who turned his computer science laboratory into a multibillion-dollar business and co-founded China’s artificial intelligence giant SenseTime.