Megvii Technology, a world-famous artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Beijing, officially put its AI engineering institute into operation in East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China), Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, on July 31.

It is also the company's headquarters in central China.

In February this year, Megvii Technology and Optics Valley of China signed a cooperation agreement to establish the institute, which is now in service.

Established in 2011, Megvii Technology focuses on research and development in AI technologies such as facial recognition and image recognition, with clients including Alipay, China Merchants Bank and well-known mobile phone manufacturers Xiaomi and Huawei.

The company is currently valued at $2.5 billion, providing remote real-name authentication services for 295 million people worldwide, becoming the world's largest facial recognition technology platform.

It dominates more than 90 percent of the internet facial recognition application market in the country.

Located at Future City in the zone, the institute is the company's largest technology development and service platform in China, mainly engaging in productization of machine vision, facial recognition, image recognition and other technologies, which will be applied in such fields as intelligent buildings, smart finance and security protection.

The institute in Optics Valley now comprises an office area of over 1,600 square meters, with 41 staff members all recruited from Wuhan. 

The number of R&D employees at the institute is expected to exceed 200 in the next three years, producing at least 30 international patents and international academic papers.

According to Xie Peng, vice president of Megvii Technology, Optics Valley has advantages such as its innovative professionals, large number of incubators, plus enterprises and universities, which will provide a strong professional presence and favorable business environment for the company.

Optics Valley will plan to establish an artificial intelligence industrial park, deploying industries such as speech recognition, image recognition, unmanned driving, AI chips and intelligent robots, with the aim to create an AI industrial cluster of global influence.

Chen Ping, executive deputy director of East Lake High-tech Development Zone’s administrative committee, addresses the opening ceremony for the AI engineering institute, on July 31. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Office of the Megvii Technology’s AI engineering institute based in Optics Valley of China, Wuhan, Hubei province [Photo provided to China Daily]