(Yicai Global) March 28 -- CloudWalk Technology Co., an artificial intelligence (AI) developer under the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), will cooperate with Zimbabwe's government, exporting artificial intelligence technology and devices to the country, making it the Chinese AI sector's first project in Africa.

Senior Zimbabwean government officials attended the signing ceremony at CloudWalk's Guangzhou headquarters in China's southeastern province of Guangdong on March 26, news website NetEase Technology reported. The cooperation will encompass finance, security and aviation to promote China's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road development initiative.

China leads its competitors in AI, and Zimbabwe hopes to become the benchmark for AI applications in Africa via this cooperation, government officials said.

CloudWalk formed in 2015 and its founder Zhou Xi studied under Prof. Thomas S. Huang, father of the interdisciplinary machine- and deep-learning Computer Vision field, who is an academician with CAS' National Academy of Engineering and a foreign academician. Cloudwalk had turnover of CNY800 million (USD127.57 million) last year, and the company finished series-B funding worth CNY500 million in November, China News reported.