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Kristen Cheung

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is partnering with tech giants to offer on-site artificial intelligence (AI) laboratories at its expanded Shanghai campus, which welcomed more than 300 students for the new term earlier this week.
The campus in Zhangjiang Science City is also expected to expand its intake next year, when the university’s medicine and engineering programmes launch there. Its computing and data science school opened a base in Shanghai in mid-January.
The university signed memorandums of understanding with 17 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese companies, including Unitree Robotics, BrainCo and AgiBot, on Sunday to open joint labs specialising in AI and fintech at the campus.
The labs are housed in one of the two new buildings inaugurated at the university’s Shanghai campus the same day.
Two other blocks housing teaching and research facilities opened in mid-January, while three other buildings will open later. The entire campus spans more than 30,000 square metres.
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the new buildings, university president Xiang Zhang said the Shanghai campus would draw on the mainland city’s strengths in innovation and industry to advance partnerships involving AI and frontier technologies.
“As the university that has achieved the best global integration in China, and currently holds the highest QS ranking in the country, we must have the confidence to lead educational reform,” he said, referring to the annual Quacquarelli Symonds league tables.
“Our funding is only half that of Tsinghua University, yet our research output and overall academic ranking are comparable to or even higher than Tsinghua’s, so we have the efficiency.”

Professor Ma Yi, director of HKU’s computing and data science school, said the Shanghai campus would put computing and AI as its core and explore robotics, engineering and healthcare.
He said Hong Kong and Shanghai were highly complementary, with the former having a more internationalised student body.
“Shanghai is very rich, especially in technology and computing. Its industry is very complete, covering the Yangtze River Delta and even the whole country,” he said.
Ma said students would benefit from the collaboration with companies on campus.
“They have on-site space, so our students can do internships and participate in frontier technology without leaving our campus,” he said.
The school offers programmes spanning the two campuses, with master’s students spending a semester in Shanghai and undergraduates completing 2½ years in Hong Kong before moving to the other campus for the final leg of their studies and internships.
The Shanghai campus has welcomed more than 1,000 students since its launch, including over 300 who started the new term on Monday.
Zhangjiang Science City is one of Shanghai’s core artificial intelligence clusters, hosting more than 600 AI enterprises and over 30,000 staff.
The various fields represented at the science city include foundation models, computing power, data services and embodied intelligence.
Marcus Law, a second-year computer science student from Hong Kong, said he chose the programme to experience Zhangjiang’s research environment and access the mainland’s technology ecosystem.
He said that he was primarily interested in bioinformatics and hoped to observe how companies operated, as well as their systems and research directions, during his semester in Shanghai.
He said the mainland offered a more vibrant environment for development. “Everything is digitised and convenient – the facilities, transport and food are all very accessible – and the investment in AI is greater than in Hong Kong,” he said.
Asked whether he would stay in Shanghai or return to Hong Kong after graduation, Law said he was keeping an eye on developments in the Northern Metropolis and the Greater Bay Area.

Tunige Tuerxunbieke, a Kazakh computer science master’s student who grew up in Xinjiang, enrolled at HKU after graduating from Tsinghua University in the same field.
She had also applied to universities in the United States but ultimately chose HKU due to uncertainties about the admission of mainland students to AI programmes in the country this year and HKU’s willingness to accept Tsinghua graduates, she said.
She said visits to Hong Kong’s Cyberport and the Science Park had left her impressed with the city’s support for student innovation.
“Hong Kong universities provide a lot of help for student innovation and place great emphasis on an innovative atmosphere,” she said. “This programme also gives us a lot of freedom. We can intern both on the mainland and in Hong Kong.”
She added that she hoped to work in Hong Kong and eventually launch her own start-up there, while continuing to specialise in AI agents.
In addition to the campus at Zhangjiang Science City, HKU operates from three other locations in Shanghai.
They include the Bund SOHO Base, led by the business school. It became operational in December 2025 and delivers programmes that include executive master of business administration and doctor of business administration degrees for working professionals.
The campus at Zhangjiang Science City launched alongside the Bund 22 alumni hub on February 28 this year, while the third location is the Caohejing Base, which opened on March 1 and houses research institutes focused on healthy ageing and urban science.


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HKU partners with tech giants to offer AI labs at expanded Shanghai campus

An AgiBot robot undergoes training in Shanghai. The company is among tech firms that have signed memorandums of understanding with HKU. Photo: Xinhua

The university signed memorandums of understanding with 17 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese companies, including Unitree Robotics. Photo: Eugene Lee

HKU president Xiang Zhang has said the Shanghai campus will draw on Shanghai’s strengths in innovation and industry to advance partnerships involving AI and frontier technologies. Photo: Nora Tam

Shanghai and HKU officials mark the launch of new facilities at the campus. Photo: Kristen Cheung

The University of Hong Kong’s Zhangjiang Base in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

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University’s campus in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai, welcomed more than 300 students for new term, with plans to expand intake


University’s campus in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai, welcomed more than 300 students for new term, with plans to expand intake.


HKU partners with tech giants to offer AI labs at expanded Shanghai campus

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}University’s campus in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai, welcomed more than 300 students for new term, with plans to expand intake

University’s campus in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai, welcomed more than 300 students for new term, with plans to expand intake