Kuang-Chi Group (; ) is a Chinese company that develops and invests in metamaterial, telecommunication, aerospace, smart-city, AI and digital health technologies.
Kuang-Chi was founded in 2010 by five Chinese PhD scholars, led by Ruopeng Liu. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, it has public and private subsidiaries, research facilities and investments in several countries. In 2017, KuangChi Science, the Hong Kong publicly-listed affiliate, was valued at a market capitalization of over US$2 billion and Kuang-Chi Technologies, the Shenzhen-listed affiliate, at a valuation exceeding US$6 billion.
While Kuang-Chi is not a state-owned enterprise, the Chinese government has supported the company's research. In 2012, Kuang-Chi was the first company Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party visited as party leader. In 2017, Kuang-Chi joined other leading Chinese technology companies such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent in investing nearly US$12 billion into the state-owned telecommunications company China Unicom, the start of a government initiative to introduce private-sector expertise and innovation into China's state owned enterprises.
Kuang-Chi has participated in Chinese government initiatives, including the Go Out Policy of investing in international technology and the One Belt One Road Program of engaging with countries in the "Silk Road Economic Belt". In 2016, Kuang-Chi set up an international fund operating out of Shenzhen and Tel Aviv, Israel. The fund planned to invest up to US$300 million as of 2017.
History
Background
Kuang-Chi was founded by five PhD students that had recently concluded their studies at Duke and Oxford University: Liu Ruopeng, Lin Luan, Chunlin Ji, Yangyang Zhang, and Zhiya Zhao. They remain the senior executives of Kuang-Chi. Zhang and Luan are the co-CEOs of KuangChi Science, and Zhao is the CEO of Kuang-Chi Technologies.
Liu was part of a team of researchers at Duke University that researched metamaterials, developing a device capable of "cloaking" an object from visual light, thus making it invisible. Upon graduation, Liu and his colleagues decided to return to China and launch a high-tech research institute. With support from Shenzhen, the commercial city bordering Hong Kong in mainland China, Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology was established with the slogan “Future is Now,” in the center of China's special economic zone.
Kuang-Chi was named after Chinese scientist Xu Guangqi (pinyin: Guāng Qǐ) from the Ming Dynasty, who made important contributions in math, agriculture, astronomy and other scientific fields. The name, which literally means "to enlighten," was chosen as a symbol of the company's commitment to advancing the frontier of science and bridging western and eastern knowledge.
Thanks to the rapid growth of the company and the advanced nature of its technology - particularly in aerospace - Kuang-Chi is often compared to SpaceX by media, while Ruopeng Liu is referred to as the "Chinese Elon Musk."
2010–2014
On July 13, 2010, Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology was officially founded.() A state-level Laboratory of Metamaterial Electromagnetic Modulation Technology was also established at Kuang-Chi, led by Kuang-Chi's chairman Liu Ruopeng and vice chairmen Ji Chunlin and Zhao Zhiya .
Around the same time, Kuang-Chi displayed its Intelligent Photon product series at the China High Tech Fair. The first to try the product was Wang Yang, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council. On September 22, 2014, Kuang-Chi's subsidiary KuangChi Science () was first publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.() The Reorient Group was chaired by Johnson Ko, currently a director of KuangChi Science.
In November 2014, KuangChi Science signed a contract with Airways New Zealand to begin work on Traveler, China's first near-space commercial platform. Xi Jinping and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key attended the signing ceremony. In December, Kuang-Chi launched the Appollo Base in Shenzhen and exhibited the Cloud, a multifunctional aerostat that aims to provide smart-city solutions. The Dongguan Institute of Advanced Technology was founded the same year to further research in the Cloud.