Chinese AI entrepreneur moves to Singapore for growth amid Beijing’s crypto curbs

As the 34-year-old Chinese national opened a packet of Fujian red tea leaves and carried out an elaborate tea-pouring ritual, he mused about the origin of the drink: “I always prefer Chinese tea, after all, tea-drinking started in China.”

But he was less glowing about his company’s prospects had he remained in his country.

“Our ambition wasn’t to be a small business which would make just enough money to feed ourselves in China. Our vision was to be an internationally successful enterprise, so we had to move abroad. Big whales have to swim in the sea,” Li told This Week in Asia.

Originally based in Hangzhou, GreaterHeat’s previous incarnation, Digicode, saw its business grow multifold for several years up to 2020.

However, with the Chinese government taking a tough stance on cryptocurrency from 2021, Li sought his fortunes elsewhere as crypto-mining was one of GreaterHeat’s core services.

“For Chinese people, major business and living hubs include mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. We had already decided we wanted to leave mainland China. Taiwan and Hong Kong have their issues and uncertainties, so we chose Singapore,” Li said in Mandarin.

Hong Kong never crossed his mind because it was too geographically close to China, he added. GreaterHeat moved to Singapore in 2021.

GreaterHeat is among the wave of Chinese AI companies moving to Singapore following American restrictions targeting the mainland’s access to top-range chips and other hi-tech equipment.

Singapore was home to more than 1,100 AI start-ups at the end of last year, according to media reports. The city state does not break down the data by country.

The exodus comes as AI and Web3 are hailed as the tech engines that will decentralise the internet through