https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/rss/518950/feed Wency tells stories that explore how technologies are reshaping society, with a focus on cross-border e-commerce, AI, the supply chain and others. Before joining SCMP, Wency contributed to KrASIA, Wired, Rest of World, World of Chinese, Tech in Asia, Vice China (BIE), Harper's Bazaar, etc. She attended Columbia Journalism School. en https://assets-v2.i-scmp.com/production/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg Wency Chen Wency Chen This article was first published by The Korea Times in a partnership with the South China Morning Post. Chinese humanoid robot makers are accelerating efforts to gain a foothold in South Korea, moving beyond dance performances and showroom displays to factory trials and commercial deployments, as Seoul ramps up investment in physical artificial intelligence. A growing number of Chinese robotics companies – including Hong Kong-listed UBTech Robotics, start-up Anyverse Dynamics, Shanghai-based... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3371888/chinas-humanoid-robots-hunt-work-south-korea-seoul-bets-physical-ai https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3371888/chinas-humanoid-robots-hunt-work-south-korea-seoul-bets-physical-ai Fri, 23 Oct 2026 08:00:33 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Even as geopolitical frictions and market swings unsettle venture investors, Hong Kong-founded Hermitage Capital is sticking to a global strategy of backing frontier technology companies wherever they emerge. With a US$1.5 billion war chest that is 80 per cent in US dollars, with the remainder in renminbi, the private equity firm is ramping up investments across artificial intelligence, semiconductors and robotics, mainly in the US and China, capitalising on a market turnaround triggered by the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3369872/hong-kongs-hermitage-capital-stays-devoted-top-tier-tech-stocks-amid-jitters https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3369872/hong-kongs-hermitage-capital-stays-devoted-top-tier-tech-stocks-amid-jitters Tue, 06 Oct 2026 06:00:07 +0000 Wency Chen,Howard Liu Wency Chen,Howard Liu China has set a five-year goal for the expansion of intelligent computing capacity to drive artificial intelligence (AI) that calls for a more than fourfold increase on what was in place at the end of June this year. To reach the 2030 target while being blocked by the United States from importing the most advanced Western-made AI chips will require innovation, adaptation and the application and coordination of vast resources. Judging by the 177 per cent increase in capacity achieved in the year... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/policy/article/3369537/chinas-ai-compute-ambitions-demand-innovation https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/policy/article/3369537/chinas-ai-compute-ambitions-demand-innovation Fri, 02 Oct 2026 07:05:21 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen The artificial intelligence road map presented at its flagship Apsara Conference this week showcased a pragmatic pivot by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, offering a clearer path to monetisation despite a sharp escalation in capital expenditure, analysts said. The conference, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday under the theme “Intelligence goes beyond”, highlighted “Alibaba’s disciplined execution across its full-stack AI ecosystem”, said Cathy Chan, an analyst at CCB International. She... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368650/alibaba-unveils-pragmatic-ai-road-map-drive-monetisation-infrastructure-efficiency https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368650/alibaba-unveils-pragmatic-ai-road-map-drive-monetisation-infrastructure-efficiency Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:30:22 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud business unit, is set to launch data centres in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands over the next 12 months, speeding up an overseas push as it seeks to win enterprise customers through its “full stack AI capabilities” spanning chips, cloud infrastructure and multimodal models. The first of these new data centres will open in the Netherlands in October. The cloud unit will also add to existing data centre capacity in Malaysia, Germany, the United Arab... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368454/alibaba-cloud-set-open-new-data-centres-europe-next-year-overseas-push-speeds https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368454/alibaba-cloud-set-open-new-data-centres-europe-next-year-overseas-push-speeds Wed, 23 Sep 2026 04:00:10 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has introduced what it called China’s most powerful artificial intelligence chip and teased plans to train an AI model with up to 10 trillion parameters, as top executives reaffirmed the tech giant’s ambition to pursue artificial superintelligence (ASI). Speaking at the company’s annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou on Tuesday, group chairman Joe Tsai highlighted Alibaba’s commitment to building end-to-end capabilities. “Alibaba is firmly investing in building full-stack AI... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368338/alibaba-teases-10-trillion-parameter-model-debuts-chinas-most-powerful-ai-chip https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3368338/alibaba-teases-10-trillion-parameter-model-debuts-chinas-most-powerful-ai-chip Tue, 22 Sep 2026 05:59:40 +0000 Minxiao Chang,Wency Chen Minxiao Chang,Wency Chen Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai is facing a trust crisis after developers discovered that its coding assistant tool, ZCode, was silently uploading local workspace data to external servers without explicit user consent. Even though the company, also known as Zhipu AI, apologised and patched the vulnerability, developers said the incident was likely to weaken its reputation, especially at a time when cybersecurity is becoming a central issue in the AI industry. The issue came to light... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3368159/chinese-ai-firm-zai-faces-reputation-hit-after-users-spot-unauthorised-uploads https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3368159/chinese-ai-firm-zai-faces-reputation-hit-after-users-spot-unauthorised-uploads Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:00:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Ant International, the overseas affiliate of China’s Ant Group, is executing an artificial intelligence overhaul across its entire suite of global financial services, introducing AI agents designed to help manage payments, foreign exchange and treasury operations. Described by the company as its largest-ever product upgrade, the initiative embeds AI-native solutions across all platforms: cross-border payment network Alipay+, merchant services provider Antom, account and treasury platform... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3367998/ant-international-embeds-ai-agents-across-all-platforms-biggest-ever-product-upgrade https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3367998/ant-international-embeds-ai-agents-across-all-platforms-biggest-ever-product-upgrade Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:07 +0000 Wency Chen,Ben Jiang Wency Chen,Ben Jiang As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the second part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Ben Jiang examine the country’s strategy and progress on reusable rockets – a field where the US has a tremendous lead. US commercial space firm SpaceX has been eager to tout its deployment of reusable first-stage rocket boosters, claiming to have flown more than 600 missions with the cost-cutting launch components. Despite... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3367874/china-has-gained-pace-space-race-recovering-rockets-can-it-relaunch-one https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3367874/china-has-gained-pace-space-race-recovering-rockets-can-it-relaunch-one Thu, 17 Sep 2026 22:00:12 +0000 Wency Chen,Mia Nurmamat Wency Chen,Mia Nurmamat As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the first part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Mia Nurmamat examine how the southern island province of Hainan is betting on a growing aerospace cluster to rewrite its economic playbook beyond tourism. On Hainan’s northeastern coast, launch towers rise abruptly from a flat landscape of coconut palms and open sky. At Pad 1 of the commercial spaceport in Wenchang, an... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3367752/chinas-rocket-boom-turns-hainan-space-hub-can-launches-fuel-wider-growth https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3367752/chinas-rocket-boom-turns-hainan-space-hub-can-launches-fuel-wider-growth Wed, 16 Sep 2026 22:00:08 +0000 Wency Chen,Ben Jiang Wency Chen,Ben Jiang China’s Moonshot AI has attracted global investor interest spanning Europe, Asia and the Middle East, people familiar with the matter say, as international capital scrambles for access to Chinese frontier artificial intelligence labs, betting on their high-stakes race against US rivals. The Beijing-based developer of the Kimi family of AI models has seen mounting interest from overseas players ranging from European investment firms to Middle East family offices, with some seeking indirect... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3367723/kimi-creator-moonshot-draws-global-investors-seeking-top-tier-chinese-ai-developers https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3367723/kimi-creator-moonshot-draws-global-investors-seeking-top-tier-chinese-ai-developers Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:46:58 +0000 Wency Chen,Ben Jiang Wency Chen,Ben Jiang Z.ai, the Chinese artificial intelligence model developer listed in Hong Kong, is seeking to raise about HK$15.7 billion (US$2 billion) through a placement of roughly 21.97 million new H shares at HK$714 apiece, according to a company filing on Sunday. The company also announced a 20.14 billion yuan (US$3 billion) convertible-bond sale, according to its filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, closed at HK$793 on Friday, down 73 per cent from its intraday high of... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3367364/seeking-cash-ai-chinas-zai-eyes-new-us5b-fundraising-push-after-july-share-sale https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3367364/seeking-cash-ai-chinas-zai-eyes-new-us5b-fundraising-push-after-july-share-sale Sun, 13 Sep 2026 13:34:59 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen From low-quality “slop” such as soap operas starring humanlike cats and dating shows featuring anthropomorphic fruit, to increasingly slick productions realistic enough to pass for live action, artificial intelligence-generated video dramas have become almost inescapable on Chinese social media feeds. This week, the format graduated to prime time. A fully AI-generated adaptation of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West debuted on Hunan Satellite Television, a major state-owned... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3366335/new-reality-chinas-entertainment-sector-ai-drama-goes-prime-time https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3366335/new-reality-chinas-entertainment-sector-ai-drama-goes-prime-time Sat, 05 Sep 2026 07:00:07 +0000 Iris Deng,Wency Chen Iris Deng,Wency Chen One by one, Tesla Model Y Ls roll out of the company’s end-of-line inspection bays, gleaming in black, white and gold. They are a mix of left-hand and right-hand drive – one of many signs the electric vehicles (EVs) produced here are destined for ports around the world. The company touts a total assembly time of less than 40 seconds at its sprawling Gigafactory in Lingang, a coastal area on the far southeastern edge of Shanghai. From there, Tesla says, a finished car can reach the port and be... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3366387/talk-growing-tesla-spacex-merger-will-geopolitics-throw-spanner-works https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3366387/talk-growing-tesla-spacex-merger-will-geopolitics-throw-spanner-works Fri, 04 Sep 2026 22:00:07 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Chinese rocket maker Galactic Energy has successfully sent its Pallas-1 medium-to-large reusable rocket into orbit, marking the latest milestone in Beijing’s drive to develop reusable launch capabilities and narrow the gap with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The two-stage, liquid-propellant rocket lifted off at 10am on Tuesday from a self-built launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre’s commercial pilot zone in northwestern China’s Gansu province before entering its designated orbit, according to... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365964/pallas-1-sees-chinas-galactic-energy-join-reusable-launch-push-closing-spacex https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365964/pallas-1-sees-chinas-galactic-energy-join-reusable-launch-push-closing-spacex Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen As China ramps up its efforts to build an orbital data ecosystem and counter the US in the commercial space race, Shanghai – home to several major domestic players – has kicked off an inaugural space-computing forum alongside a new industry hub. The dedicated centre in the city’s southwestern Songjiang district, unveiled at the forum on Sunday, brought together aerospace developers, semiconductor makers, artificial intelligence specialists, cloud vendors, as well as researchers and investors to... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3365839/china-us-space-race-heats-shanghai-unveils-space-computing-hub https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3365839/china-us-space-race-heats-shanghai-unveils-space-computing-hub Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:30:13 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Some of the world’s biggest music publishers have launched a fresh lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the artificial intelligence giant of conducting “one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history”. The case adds to the legal challenges facing Anthropic as the firm eyes a potential blockbuster initial public offering, as the AI industry confronts growing pushback over its use of human-made material to train its models. Sony Music Publishing, Warner... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365770/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-blatant-theft-major-new-lawsuit https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365770/sony-music-warner-accuse-anthropic-blatant-theft-major-new-lawsuit Sun, 30 Aug 2026 13:44:43 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Leading chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has joined a growing list of Chinese technology companies suing the US government over their additions to Pentagon blacklists, as legal experts said US courts had shown a willingness to hold the Department of Defence to account. Recent rulings involving Chinese tech firms including lidar sensor maker Hesai Group, drone manufacturer DJI and biotech firm WuXi AppTec indicated that judges were prepared to scrutinise the US government’s evidence... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365751/cxmt-joins-growing-list-chinese-tech-firms-suing-us-pentagon-over-blacklists https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365751/cxmt-joins-growing-list-chinese-tech-firms-suing-us-pentagon-over-blacklists Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:46:26 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Shares in Chinese robotics star Unitree Robotics rebounded on Thursday following five straight days of losses that erased nearly half of its market value, although it did little to cool fears of a Chinese humanoid robot bubble. The stock rose nearly 4 per cent to close at 615 yuan on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalisation of 248.8 billion yuan (US$37 billion), after touching a record low of 571 yuan on Wednesday. That low marked a 48 per cent drop from its peak of 1,100 yuan on its... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3365459/unitrees-stock-slump-ipo-stokes-fears-bubble-chinese-humanoid-robotics https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3365459/unitrees-stock-slump-ipo-stokes-fears-bubble-chinese-humanoid-robotics Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:30:06 +0000 Ben Jiang,Wency Chen Ben Jiang,Wency Chen DeepSeek is nearing the completion of a new funding round valuing the company at about 500 billion yuan (US$74 billion) before investment, as the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up moves closer to a potential listing on Shanghai’s Star Market, according to people familiar with the matter. The company was seeking to raise about 50 billion yuan in the round, which was expected to close before the end of August, according to one person. Investors included incumbents from the company’s last... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365280/deepseek-nears-pre-ipo-funding-round-2027-market-debut-takes-shape-sources https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365280/deepseek-nears-pre-ipo-funding-round-2027-market-debut-takes-shape-sources Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:01:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen For generations, Wenchang, on Hainan’s northeastern coast, was better known for coconuts, its namesake chicken and the emigrants who left for Southeast Asia in search of a living. Now the rhythms of life here have been altered, gradually and then all at once, by China’s space programme. Wenchang Space Launch Site staged its first launch in 2016. Since then it has become one of the country’s top name-cards for rocket launches. I was near the site over the weekend, excited to witness the planned... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365209/moon-mission-delay-hiccup-chinese-rocket-city-wenchang-remains-march https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3365209/moon-mission-delay-hiccup-chinese-rocket-city-wenchang-remains-march Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:30:17 +0000 Ann Cao,Wency Chen Ann Cao,Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday reported revenue growth of 45 per cent for its cloud and artificial intelligence division in the June quarter, driving adjusted profit to a better-than-expected 27.3 billion yuan (US$4 billion). The company assured investors that its soaring spending on AI infrastructure would pay off, with executives noting in an earnings call that its AI computing investments would break even within three years – or possibly two as gross margins rose. AI Cloud and Compute... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364705/alibabas-ai-cloud-growth-surge-drives-earnings-despite-soaring-tech-spending https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364705/alibabas-ai-cloud-growth-surge-drives-earnings-despite-soaring-tech-spending Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:16:24 +0000 Wency Chen,Ann Cao Wency Chen,Ann Cao Supernodes were everywhere at last month’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Assemblies of dozens or hundreds of computer chips and associated hardware, supernodes are China’s way around the United States’ ban on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Using greater quantities of domestic chips to deliver world-class computing power, they allow China to dodge the chokehold the US is trying to place on its AI aspirations. At this year’s WAIC,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/big-tech/article/3364660/chinas-supernodes-go-mainstream-ai-model-sizes-grow https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/big-tech/article/3364660/chinas-supernodes-go-mainstream-ai-model-sizes-grow Thu, 20 Aug 2026 06:54:50 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Shares of Unitree Robotics surged 629 per cent above their initial public offering price to open at 1,100 yuan in their Shanghai trading debut on Wednesday, giving China’s best-known humanoid robot maker a market capitalisation of about 445 billion yuan (US$66 billion). The opening pop from its IPO price of 150.80 yuan gave way to a pullback later in the session, with the stock closing at 845 yuan. That still represented a 460 per cent gain on day one, leaving the company with a market valuation... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3364499/unitree-robotics-surges-629-us66-billion-valuation-shanghai-share-debut https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3364499/unitree-robotics-surges-629-us66-billion-valuation-shanghai-share-debut Wed, 19 Aug 2026 01:57:38 +0000 Minxiao Chang,Wency Chen Minxiao Chang,Wency Chen Finnish telecoms equipment giant Nokia plans to cut most of its workforce in mainland China and close sites in stages by year end, marking a sweeping retreat after more than four decades as it loses ground to domestic rivals, according to sources familiar with the situation. One Shanghai-based source said teams in both Nokia’s mobile networks and network infrastructure businesses in mainland China were set to undergo lay-offs in batches, with most of the cuts expected to be completed by the end... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364425/nokia-close-almost-all-sites-mainland-china-year-end-sources-say https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364425/nokia-close-almost-all-sites-mainland-china-year-end-sources-say Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:00:06 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has agreed to sell its wholly owned gaming business Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital as the Chinese technology giant pivots away from noncore sectors to prioritise e-commerce and artificial intelligence, according to an internal letter issued on Monday. “As part of Alibaba’s broader strategy to sharpen its focus, the group has decided to entrust Lingxi to Trustar Capital,” stated the letter seen by the South China Morning Post and signed by Lingxi CEO Zhou Bingshu. The... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364287/alibaba-sells-gaming-arm-lingxi-games-tech-giant-sharpens-focus-ai-and-e-commerce https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3364287/alibaba-sells-gaming-arm-lingxi-games-tech-giant-sharpens-focus-ai-and-e-commerce Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:00:11 +0000 Wency Chen,Daniel Ren Wency Chen,Daniel Ren Did the stair-climbing Chinese robot vacuum or flying robovac prototypes that wowed visitors at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas go into production? American consumers will probably not find out. Nor will US businesses and households get to buy Iron, Xpeng’s humanoid robot, so lifelike it had to be unzipped on stage to convince onlookers it was a machine. Even Elon Musk, whose Tesla is developing Optimus, praised his Chinese competitor’s model. The next generation of the dancing... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/tech-war/article/3364234/chinese-robots-march-despite-tech-war-hurdles https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/plus/tech/tech-war/article/3364234/chinese-robots-march-despite-tech-war-hurdles Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:15:11 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen While Unitree Robotics’ early backers are poised for a windfall in one of China’s most closely watched technology initial public offerings (IPOs), retail investors are scrambling for a tiny chance of securing shares. Nearly 9.8 million accounts competed in the Hangzhou-based robot maker’s online subscription process on Monday, fighting for just 9.7 million shares, its filings in the evening showed. The final online allocation rate was just 0.018 per cent – roughly one winning lot for every 5,500... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3363570/unitree-ipo-frenzy-leaves-chinese-retail-investors-1-5500-odds https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3363570/unitree-ipo-frenzy-leaves-chinese-retail-investors-1-5500-odds Tue, 11 Aug 2026 01:00:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen The long-awaited initial public offering of Unitree Robotics, which values the Hangzhou-based firm at 60.99 billion yuan (US$9 billion), is set to serve as a valuation benchmark for China’s booming embodied-AI sector, buoyed by retail investor excitement and high-profile AI backers like DeepSeek. Widely billed as “mainland China’s first humanoid stock”, Unitree has priced its IPO on Shanghai’s Star Market at 150.8 yuan per share, according to a filing released Thursday evening. The firm will... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3363251/backed-deepseek-unitree-ipo-tests-investor-appetite-chinas-ai-robotics-boom https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3363251/backed-deepseek-unitree-ipo-tests-investor-appetite-chinas-ai-robotics-boom Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:23:35 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Robbyant, the embodied artificial intelligence division of Ant Group, has begun seeking external funding, becoming the fourth unit of the fintech giant to step up capital-raising efforts. The unit said it was in talks with investors on Monday. As Ant Group’s “core initiative in embodied intelligence”, a Robbyant spokesperson said it would remain focused on developing a general-purpose “robot brain”, investing in technologies designed specifically for embodied AI and accelerating commercial... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3362822/ant-groups-embodied-ai-arm-robbyant-kicks-external-funding https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3362822/ant-groups-embodied-ai-arm-robbyant-kicks-external-funding Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:30:20 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has made its next-generation flagship artificial intelligence model Qwen3.8-Max widely accessible to global users ahead of an open-weights release next week. The move marks Alibaba’s return to open-sourcing its top-tier AI models after keeping several recent flagship releases proprietary earlier this year. It also signals the firm’s entry into a recent round of powerful releases by Chinese developers aggressively narrowing the gap with leading US labs. The massive... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3362738/alibabas-ai-model-qwen38-max-made-widely-accessible-ahead-open-weights-release https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3362738/alibabas-ai-model-qwen38-max-made-widely-accessible-ahead-open-weights-release Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:01:39 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Inside the exhibition hall of a Shanghai-based artificial intelligence research institute, an ink-wash map covered an entire wall, immediately drawing your attention. It was a cartography of AI: chipmakers were rendered as mountains on islands and algorithms as jagged mountain ranges, while questions of privacy, fairness and machine consciousness drifted at the edges like uncharted islands. Foreign guests and I leaned in, tracing the brushstrokes. “Why is Huawei’s chip placed right at the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362548/what-visit-chinas-ai-labs-reveals-about-battle-global-soft-power https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362548/what-visit-chinas-ai-labs-reveals-about-battle-global-soft-power Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:30:07 +0000 Coco Feng,Wency Chen,Ann Cao Coco Feng,Wency Chen,Ann Cao Chinese tech investors are hearing warning bells after volatility in US tech stocks forced a fast-rising Wall Street hedge fund to clear its stock portfolio at a steep discount within a few days. “Don’t use leverage! Don’t use leverage! Don’t use leverage!” Shanghai-based public-markets analyst Harry Shen repeated to the South China Morning Post in an interview on Friday. Another warning came from Shanghai-based mainland Chinese stock market veteran Michael Zhang: “Don’t trade with borrowed... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362574/how-sell-flashy-ai-focused-us-hedge-fund-wake-call-chinese-investors https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362574/how-sell-flashy-ai-focused-us-hedge-fund-wake-call-chinese-investors Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:30:09 +0000 Xiaofei Xu,Wency Chen Xiaofei Xu,Wency Chen Unitree Robotics will launch its initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai next week, the firm announced late on Thursday, as China’s robotics start-ups race to go public amid an intense rivalry with their counterparts in the United States. The Hangzhou-based company plans to sell 40.45 million shares, or 10 per cent of its enlarged share capital. It is another closely watched debut on Shanghai’s Star Market, following the recent listing of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), whose market... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362441/unitree-launch-ipo-next-week-us-china-robotics-rivalry-intensifies https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362441/unitree-launch-ipo-next-week-us-china-robotics-rivalry-intensifies Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:24:39 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen China’s robotics firms have run into a fresh obstacle in their global expansion, after the United States banned imports of new foreign-made models, which analysts say could benefit Tesla and other American developers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) added foreign-produced “advanced robotic devices” to its Covered List on Tuesday, blocking new models from obtaining the authorisation required to be imported and sold in the US. The ban will cover all new humanoids, quadrupeds and a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3362277/what-will-us-foreign-robot-ban-mean-chinas-world-leading-start-ups https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3362277/what-will-us-foreign-robot-ban-mean-chinas-world-leading-start-ups Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:30:15 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Zhipu AI have not only seen their share prices skyrocket, but they have also handed a windfall to their common backer: Alibaba Group Holding. Before the listing of China’s memory-chip giant on Monday, Alibaba owned nearly 5 per cent of CXMT, making it the chipmaker’s largest industrial shareholder, according to the prospectus. Alibaba has invested about 7.6 billion yuan in CXMT since 2021. Based on Tuesday’s closing market capitalisation of about 3.14... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362156/cxmt-zhipu-how-alibabas-investment-pays-growing-ai-and-chip-portfolio https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3362156/cxmt-zhipu-how-alibabas-investment-pays-growing-ai-and-chip-portfolio Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:30:06 +0000 Ann Cao,Wency Chen Ann Cao,Wency Chen As the size of artificial intelligence models expands beyond 1 trillion parameters, a new concept is dominating the computing landscape: “supernode”. At this year’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), China’s top AI summit, domestic chipmakers from Huawei Technologies to Biren Technology showcased new hardware designed to knit hundreds or thousands of chips together to act as one giant supercomputer, which they called a supernode. The focus on supernodes at WAIC reflected a shift in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3361562/what-supernode-and-why-does-it-matter-china-us-tech-rivalry https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3361562/what-supernode-and-why-does-it-matter-china-us-tech-rivalry Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:00:08 +0000 Wency Chen,Peggy Ye Wency Chen,Peggy Ye China’s market regulator has imposed a 5.2 billion yuan (US$765 million) penalty on Trip.com Group, the country’s largest online travel services provider, for “monopolistic conduct”. Trip.com – operator of its namesake international platform, China-focused siblings Ctrip and Qunar, and global site Skyscanner – had “abused its dominant market position”, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said on Saturday. The penalty includes the confiscation of 1.658 billion yuan in illegal... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361818/china-hits-tripcom-us765-million-antitrust-penalty-after-six-month-investigation https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361818/china-hits-tripcom-us765-million-antitrust-penalty-after-six-month-investigation Sat, 25 Jul 2026 02:32:54 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen On the surface, China’s cutting-edge tech sector – from the algorithmic breakthroughs of DeepSeek and Zhipu AI to the hardware of Unitree Robotics and ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) – mirrors Silicon Valley’s venture capital-backed ecosystem. But a closer look at their financing histories reveals a common investor: the Chinese state. Beijing’s strong presence underscores a more profound structural shift in how China’s frontier technology is being funded. As Western venture capital and... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361779/investment-chinese-characteristics-how-beijings-money-reshaping-tech-ventures https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361779/investment-chinese-characteristics-how-beijings-money-reshaping-tech-ventures Sat, 25 Jul 2026 02:00:15 +0000 Wency Chen,Iris Deng Wency Chen,Iris Deng Chinese robotics companies lack both sufficient data and a good “brain” to improve the interaction of their products with the physical world, according to industry insiders at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which concluded on Monday in Shanghai. The most critical challenge for the embodied AI industry was to “link hardware, data, models and real-world scenarios into a closed-loop iterative system”, said Wang Xiaogang, co-founder of SenseTime and chairman of its robotics... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3361243/chinese-robot-makers-lament-if-we-only-had-better-brain-and-more-data https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3361243/chinese-robot-makers-lament-if-we-only-had-better-brain-and-more-data Mon, 20 Jul 2026 23:00:09 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Greater global cooperation and development-focused AI regulations are urgently needed to prevent a widening digital divide, scholars and international figures said at China’s premier AI conference on Saturday. The message aligned with a broader pitch on display at the annual World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, where Beijing is courting the Global South with an artificial intelligence package centred on training, infrastructure and a bid for greater influence over global governance. “We need... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361057/china-ai-summit-hears-global-south-needs-equal-access-avoid-digital-divide https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3361057/china-ai-summit-hears-global-south-needs-equal-access-avoid-digital-divide Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:49:54 +0000 Wency Chen,Howard Liu Wency Chen,Howard Liu China will use its largest annual artificial intelligence gathering this week to showcase an ambition that extends beyond catching up with the United States in foundation models to building dominance in autonomous agents, scientific research, humanoid robots and consumer devices. The World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai comes amid an intensifying technology rivalry with the US, whose restrictions continue to constrain China’s access to advanced computing chips. Beijing has responded by making... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3360800/humanoids-huawei-what-watch-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai-rivalry https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3360800/humanoids-huawei-what-watch-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai-rivalry Fri, 17 Jul 2026 01:00:05 +0000 Ben Jiang,Wency Chen Ben Jiang,Wency Chen Chinese frontier artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek is in talks with investors to raise a new financing round at around US$70 billion pre-investment valuation, shortly after closing a landmark first round, reflecting unquenched investor enthusiasm for the company. The plan comes on the heels of the Chinese AI darling’s recently closed Series A funding round in June – its first external funding round – which brought in about US$7 billion and valued the Hangzhou-based firm at nearly US$60... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3360626/ai-investor-mania-chinas-deepseek-chases-us70-billion-valuation-fresh-round https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3360626/ai-investor-mania-chinas-deepseek-chases-us70-billion-valuation-fresh-round Wed, 15 Jul 2026 06:11:30 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding and Honor are set to deepen their tie-up over an operating system for AI-powered devices, as competition in the nascent “AI phone” genre gains momentum in China. The partnership is expected to be announced at the coming World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which kicks off on Friday in Shanghai, alongside demonstrations of new agent capabilities developed by both, according to people familiar with the matter. Shenzhen-based Honor, spun off from Huawei... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3360525/alibaba-team-honor-race-build-ai-agentic-devices https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3360525/alibaba-team-honor-race-build-ai-agentic-devices Tue, 14 Jul 2026 10:30:07 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Dongfang Suanxin, a Chinese semiconductor start-up backed by state funds and domestic tech giants, has unveiled an ambitious plan to challenge American market leader Nvidia by using alternative chip architectures to sidestep United States-led export controls. The Shanghai-based firm announced on Monday that its strategy was built on software-defined computing and 3D-stacked near-memory architecture, which it said could reduce reliance on the advanced manufacturing processes and cutting-edge... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3360415/nvidias-future-challenger-chinese-start-reveals-aggressive-ai-chip-road-map https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3360415/nvidias-future-challenger-chinese-start-reveals-aggressive-ai-chip-road-map Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:00:14 +0000 Coco Feng,Ben Jiang,Wency Chen Coco Feng,Ben Jiang,Wency Chen For months, the United States and China have been locked in an unusual stand-off over cutting-edge chips – the building blocks of the artificial intelligence industry. In early 2026, Washington took the rare step of approving Nvidia’s H200 graphics processing unit for export to China, but Beijing has deliberately restricted Chinese firms from purchasing them as it pursues a tech self-sufficiency drive. Now, however, China’s stance is beginning to change, as the government plans to let selected... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3360027/game-changer-why-china-finally-letting-its-ai-firms-buy-nvidia-h200 https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/policy/article/3360027/game-changer-why-china-finally-letting-its-ai-firms-buy-nvidia-h200 Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:12:16 +0000 Wency Chen,Ann Cao Wency Chen,Ann Cao Chinese AI labs are increasingly pursuing proprietary chips, mirroring a global trend towards software-hardware integration, but industry insiders and analysts warn that the strategy carries risk due to the massive upfront investments required. “The core motivation for choosing in-house chips lies in pursuing [greater] hardware-software synergy and lowering long-term operating costs,” said Arisa Liu, chief director and research fellow at Taiwan Industry Economics Services. Paul Triolo, a partner... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3359963/chinese-ai-labs-pursue-custom-chips-lower-costs-heavy-upfront-investment-risk https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3359963/chinese-ai-labs-pursue-custom-chips-lower-costs-heavy-upfront-investment-risk Thu, 09 Jul 2026 08:00:11 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen The coming World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) is set to feature major new product releases, such as Huawei Technologies’ next-generation computing cluster, as China doubles down on AI in the global technology race. This year’s WAIC, the ninth since 2018 and running from July 17 to 20 in Shanghai, would include the first physical display of Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD, Tang Wenkan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatisation, said at a press briefing... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3359733/huaweis-new-computing-cluster-worlds-first-ai-agent-phone-debut-china-ai-summit https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/article/3359733/huaweis-new-computing-cluster-worlds-first-ai-agent-phone-debut-china-ai-summit Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:40:18 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Two of China’s major consumer-facing artificial intelligence apps, ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen, are moving to disable customised agent features, as new rules on humanlike AI interaction services are set to take effect, part of Beijing’s push to build a broader regulatory framework for the fast-growing sector. Doubao informed users in a Friday night notice that its agent feature would go offline on July 15 because of “product function adjustments”. After October 15,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3359482/bytedance-and-alibaba-disable-humanlike-ai-custom-agents-new-rules-loom https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/big-tech/article/3359482/bytedance-and-alibaba-disable-humanlike-ai-custom-agents-new-rules-loom Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:32:53 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Unitree Robotics has secured approval from China’s securities regulator for a Shanghai initial public offering that is poised to set a valuation benchmark for China’s sizzling embodied AI sector. The nod from the China Securities Regulatory Commission came about a month after the Hangzhou-based company cleared a review by the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s listing committee. Unitree is now finalising its underwriting plan, pricing and share subscriptions for a potential debut as early as late... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3359290/unitree-ipo-test-valuations-venture-capital-floods-china-robotics https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-trends/article/3359290/unitree-ipo-test-valuations-venture-capital-floods-china-robotics Fri, 03 Jul 2026 07:30:04 +0000