Asian Tech Press -- Chinese artificial intelligence company Yitu Technology is considering a Hong Kong IPO, seeking a $4 billion valuation, and will apply for a listing later this year, Bloomberg said Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company filed for an IPO on Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) in November last year in a bid to become China's "No. 1 AI stock". In March this year, Yitu and its sponsors took the initiative to suspend the review, which resumed three months later.

In June this year, the IPO of Yitu was suspended again, and in early July, the status of the company's IPO was changed to "terminated".

Since its inception in September 2012, Yitu has raised nearly 10 rounds of financing, and the total disclosed financing amount is close to $400 million, with investors including ZhenFund, Sequoia Capital China, Yunfeng Capital and other well-known investment institutions.

However, according to the data, from 2017 to the first half of 2020, Yitu has accumulated a loss of more than 7.2 billion yuan in net profit.

Based on the unpromising operation status, Yitu's Shanghai plan failed. However, Hong Kong has now become another IPO target for the company, which is in urgent need of IPO financing.