SenseTime founder loses half of his fortune after shares plunge

The co-founder of SenseTime Group Inc., Bloomberg, lost half of his fortune after shares of the artificial intelligence giant plummeted 47% on Thursday.

Tang Xiaoou, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and information engineering professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has a 21% stake in the company. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth fell by about $2.4 billion to $2.8 billion based on the closing share price, dropping him off a list of the world's 500 richest people.

The fall of SenseTime occurred after the lock-up period on a portion of shares held by cornerstone investors and stakeholders expired a day earlier. Some executives, including Chief Executive Officer Xu Li, pledged to extend the lock-up of their shares until December 29th.

The tech company completed a Hong Kong listing in December despite US sanctions, and surged as much as 23% on debut. Thursday s slump dragged the stock below the initial public offering price for the first time.

SenseTime's technology has been deployed in a number of areas, including assisting police in China, providing product placements in films and creating an augmented reality scene in a mobile game by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

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