The deal was signed during the Luxembourg finance mission to China, the last of ten missions to the country by finance minister Pierre Gramegna since taking office.

The press release said the that DeepBlue Technology and the Luxembourg National Laboratory issued a “Sino-European New AI Pattern Declaration” to share knowledge and research findings in artificial intelligence to grow the European manufacturing sector and “partner with Fortune 500 companies in Europe”.

The joint laboratory will reportedly focus on AI R&D in relation to autonomous cars, smart manufacturing, data analysis and financial security.

DeepBlue Technology is reportedly beginning the venture with strategic partners PwC, KPMG, Farvest and Telindus.

The firm was founded in Shanghai in October 2014 by a group of Australian entrepreneurs to focus on technological retail and payment solutions. Their flagship product is “quiXmart”, the first system to use deep learning algorithm, computer vision, biometric recognition and payment into one integrated system to create smart stores, promising “no lines, no checkout, just touch to enter and touch to exit”. It supports a fully automated enclosure that has the ability to self-operate and transact, which in turn streamline traditional retail processes.