The Chinese artificial intelligence firm increased revenue by 2.7 per cent in the second half of 2019, compared with a more than tripling of sales in the first half of the year. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: The dropoff followed Megvii being blacklisted by Washington over alleged facilitation of human rights abuses in China. Megvii was last valued at US$4 billion on the strength of offerings like face-scanning technology for businesses and sensors that improve traffic management and public safety for governments. The company is a leading light on the China side of an increasingly public fight between Washington and Beijing for domination of the global AI industry. Megvii is trying to reduce its reliance on the U.S. by making its deep-learning platform open source. Nearly all small- and medium-sized Chinese AI firms rely on open source platforms from the U.S.