Tencent launches a space program

Tencent launches a space program

Chang Che
Radio telescope FAST in Guizhou not for tourism: vice governor
Tencent’s artificial intelligence will process data from the world's largest radio telescope: the Chinese National Observatory’s FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) in southwestern China's Guizhou Province. Reuters/ Oriental Image.

At the 2021 World AI Conference today in Shanghai, Tencent announced that it is partnering with the Chinese National Observatory to launch a space exploration program, per China Daily.

  • The CEO, Pony Ma (马化腾 Mǎ Huàténg), announced the “Star Exploration Program,” which will use AI technology to detect pulsars and other objects in the universe.
  • The collaboration appears to use Tencent’s AI capabilities to process and analyze the troves of data collected by Chinese telescopes. Computing capabilities will use Tencent’s vaunted cloud service.
  • Tencent’s foray into space comes after China has just reached a major milestone by landing its first rover on Mars and amid China’s private sector space boom.

Chang Che was The China Project’s Business & Technology staff writer. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Nikkei Asia, and The LA Review of Books. You can follow him on Twitter at @changxche. Read more

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