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He Xiangjian, founder and largest shareholder of home appliances giant Midea Group, wants China’s younger generation to to help shore up local scientific research. Photo: itouchtv.cn

Chinese billionaire He Xiangjian, founder of home appliances giant Midea, creates US$428 million science fund focused on AI and climate research

  • He Xiangjan said his fund ‘will help more scientists focus on their work and attract more youngsters to take part in technological advancement’
  • The large science-focused endowment from the Midea founder underscores the increased effort by the country’s private sector to support basic research
Chinese billionaire entrepreneur He Xiangjian, founder and largest shareholder of home appliances giant Midea Group, on Sunday unveiled an eponymous 3 billion yuan (US$428 million) science fund to boost artificial intelligence (AI) and climate research in the country.
He, 80, revealed the fund’s creation via a video recording played on the second day of the Greater Bay Science Forum 2023, which concludes on Tuesday in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province.

“Setting up the science fund will help more scientists focus on their work and attract more youngsters to take part in technological advancement and innovation in the country,” said He, who indicated that this initiative was both his duty and responsibility.

He called on the country’s younger generation to help shore up local scientific research, adding that “technology development is pivotal to a powerful nation and booming economy”, according to a report by state-backed financial newspaper Securities Times.

The large science-focused endowment from He underscores the increased effort by the country’s private sector to support basic research at a time of intense tech rivalry between China and the US.
Robust basic research is the only way to make China a global scientific and technological power, Chinese President Xi Jinping told members of the Politburo – the Communist Party’s No 2 decision-making body – at a meeting in February.

Diverse funding sources, international collaboration and talent training are crucial to achieve that goal, Xi said.

Basic research accounted for 6.5 per cent, or 182 billion yuan, of China’s overall research and development expenditure in 2021, as the country moved closer to its goal of 8 per cent by 2025.

China plans to set up regional AI ‘highlands’ and related tech platforms

Midea chairman and president Paul Fang Hongbo, who also serves as the president of He’s namesake science fund, on Sunday said the independently-run endowment will reward scientists who achieve breakthroughs in fundamental research, help commercialise cutting-edge innovation and invest in areas that include AI, healthcare, climate change and renewable energy.

Fang said the fund will launch an annual award to recognise outstanding scientific research and a grant scheme to support such research.

The Midea founder, who transformed a neighbourhood manufacturer of water bottle caps into the world’s largest producer of major appliances and a robotics powerhouse, is no stranger to philanthropic causes in China.

He – with a personal net worth of US$23.7 billion as of May 22, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – founded in 2013 and serves as honorary chairman of the He Foundation, a 6 billion yuan charity programme focused on community development, caregiving for the elderly and revitalising less-developed areas on the mainland.

Midea Group’s headquarters is in the town of Beijiao, part of Shunde district in Foshan, a prefecture-level city in southern Guangdong province. Photo: Handout
The He family made 1.03 billion yuan in endowments last year to rank ninth on the 2022 Hurun China Philanthropy List.
That list was led by JD.com’s billionaire founder Richard Liu Qiangdong, Meituan founder and chief executive Wang Xing and Xiaomi Corp founder and chief executive Lei Jun with endowments of 14.9 billion yuan, 14.7 billion yuan and 14.5 billion yuan, respectively.
Shenzhen-listed Midea, with 166,000 employees worldwide, recorded 29.6 billion yuan in net profit last year on total revenue of 345.7 billion yuan.
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