Economists warn China’s AI boom could inflate valuations and widen inequality
Economists and business leaders say China’s rapid expansion in artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics carries risks alongside its growth potential. Concerns include excessive valuations in unprofitable robotics companies and the possibility that AI gains will benefit a narrow group while lower-income workers see limited improvement.
China’s artificial-intelligence transformation is attracting investment and encouraging industrial change, but economists and business leaders are warning about inflated valuations and a widening gap between high- and low-income groups. Daniel Zhang, managing partner of FirstLight Capital and a former chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Group Holding, said the decline in some humanoid robotics shares showed that investor expectations had become excessive. Zhang was speaking at the FutureChina Business Forum in Singapore after Unitree Robotics, a fast-growing Chinese humanoid robot maker, saw its shares fall 55 per cent from their peak less than a month after listing on Shanghai’s Star Market.
He described Unitree as a strong company with an ambitious founder but said no business could withstand expectations at such a high level. Zhang added that many robot makers were preparing initial public offerings, while some remained unprofitable after filing to list. The source material says Chinese regulators have increased scrutiny of humanoid-robot start-ups seeking mainland listings amid concerns about excessive market enthusiasm.
The attention is expected to affect companies including Deep Robotics and Leju Robot. Fan Gang, an economics professor at Peking University, raised a separate concern about how the gains from AI are distributed. He said new growth benefits were reaching a relatively small group and warned that AI could intensify the problem if ordinary incomes and consumption did not increase.
Foo Jixun, senior managing partner at Granite Asia, said innovation should extend beyond high technology and AI. He pointed to Pop Mart’s Labubu toys and fitness competitions such as Hyrox as examples of consumer trends creating opportunities in cultural and service industries. The forum’s speakers therefore presented AI as part of China’s wider economic transition rather than its only source of growth.
Their comments combined support for innovation with calls for valuations to reflect economic realities and for the benefits of expansion to reach more of the population.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.