Chinese investors favor S. California

Artificial intelligence company ObEN employees gather for a photo. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Alibaba acquired a minority stake in director Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners in 2016 and has also invested in streaming video startup NewTV.

ObEN, an artificial intelligence company co-founded in 2014 by Nikhil Jain and Adam Zheng, the co-founder of the Chinese dating site baihe.com, is another example of a startup that fuses entertainment content with new technology.

The company, headquartered in Pasadena, uses AI techniques to create personalized artificial intelligence, an avatar secured on the blockchain, which can run on users' smartphones.

According to ObEN's marketing manager Zheng Weijin, one of the company's key focuses is creating personal artificial intelligence for celebrities. ObEN has partnered with South Korea's SM Entertainment, Tencent and Shanghai Star48 Culture and Media to launch celebrities' avatars that create new interactive experiences for fans.

Outside of the entertainment realm, other sectors such as finance have also seen collaboration between the two countries.

ZestFinance, a big data company that specializes in providing credit scores, announced a partnership with Baidu and JD in 2016 and 2015, respectively, to provide more accurate credit scores and credit risk evaluation services for users in China.

"Things change very rapidly in China. It continues to be a very entrepreneurial market that is setting new standards and innovation, and it's giving the US, and Silicon Valley, some challenges," Fannin said

"These are very powerful trends, very impactful trends that Silicon Valley, and other Silicon Valleys around the world, need to pay attention to."