Frontier technologies, the next big leap forward

James Shen, managing director of Qualcomm Ventures in Greater China, delivers a speech in Hangzhou, Sept 21, 2016. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Frontier technologies was the hottest buzzword as China's top angel investors and venture capitalists gathered at the 2016 Demo China Autumn Summit in Hangzhou last week.

Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm Inc, is a major venture capital company that focuses on the field.

"Currently we are paying more attention to the frontier technologies," James Shen, managing director of Qualcomm Ventures in Greater China, told chinadaily.com.cn.

From 2008 to 2015 when China's mobile internet experienced explosive growth, Qualcomm focused on mobile internet and invested in more than 30 related projects, including Xiaomi.

The strategic shift from mobile internet to frontier technologies began last year, and the frontier technologies Qualcomm is now focused on include artificial intelligence, VR/AR, drones, robot and internet of things.

A MacKinsey report said that six disruptive technologies - mobile internet, automation of knowledge work, internet of things, cloud, advanced robotics, and autonomous vehicles - could each deliver more than one trillion dollar in economic value around the globe by 2025.

Qualcomm expects that the information platform will develop from smartphones to other potential modes, like VR/AR, or drones and robots, or internet of things, Shen said.

"For instance, we started to promote the VR/AR technology five or six years ago, with the confidence that this will be a new interface for human-machine interaction."