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Artificial intelligence (AI)
Self-driving cars and autonomous vehicles
China digital currency
Alibaba
Tencent Holdings
Pinduoduo
Xiaomi
Baidu
JD.com
Kuaishou
Chinese AI companies are optimising software to cope with surging workloads. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Artificial intelligence

Chinese AI firms forced to optimise software as local chips trail Nvidia’s

Surging token usage as artificial intelligence moves into large-scale deployment spurs search for new approaches.

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Artificial intelligence

Semiconductors | China’s supernodes go mainstream as AI model sizes grow

US-China tech war

SpaceSail’s record funding fuels China’s satellite challenge to Musk’s Starlink

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Artificial intelligence

Shanghai lays out digital economy plan to catch up with Beijing, Shenzhen

Government to accelerate use of blockchain, build AI infrastructure in line with national mandate to boost digital contribution to GDP.

A button shaped like a silicon chip unlocks the exhibition hall at a Shanghai AI research institute. Photo: Wency Chen
A button shaped like a silicon chip unlocks the exhibition hall at a Shanghai AI research institute. Photo: Wency Chen
Robotics

From spectacle to scale: why China’s robotics firms face a ‘critical juncture’

China’s robots have won global attention with a string of viral stunts. But firms now face growing pressure to generate real-world returns.

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Robotics

Unitree Robotics surges 629% to US$66 billion valuation in Shanghai share debut

Stock jumps as first listing by humanoid robot maker draws 9.8 million retail investment accounts competing for just 9.7 million shares.

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Artificial intelligence

Meet the Chinese AI star who splashed a reported US$70m on a California mansion

Tony Wu Yuhuai, co-founder of Elon Musk’s AI lab, reportedly buys 12-acre estate, putting a spotlight on China’s Silicon Valley talent.

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A 31-year-old Chinese AI star reportedly just purchased the sprawling 12-acre Californian estate at 3000 Ralston Ave, Hillsborough, for US$70 million. Photo: Youtube/Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty
A 31-year-old Chinese AI star reportedly just purchased the sprawling 12-acre Californian estate at 3000 Ralston Ave, Hillsborough, for US$70 million. Photo: Youtube/Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty
US-China tech war

Exclusive | Nokia to close almost all sites in mainland China by year end: sources

Retreating from China, once Nokia’s largest single-country market globally, would mark an acquiescence to domestic competition.

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Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s lightweight Qwen takes on OpenAI, DeepSeek, Zhipu’s larger AI systems

Chinese tech giant’s latest offering performed on par with OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna and nearly matched DeepSeek, Zhipu’s open-weight models.

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Artificial intelligence

Zhipu AI’s answer to Project Glasswing marks shift for Chinese cyber safety

Company’s ‘Shield of Open Source’ programme offers free security audits to help users patch software vulnerabilities.

The logo of Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI on a smartphone. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

Next silicon? AI data centre material faces price spike amid China supply crunch

Beyond GPUs and memory chips, the rapid AI buildout is sparking demand for indium phosphide, a substrate used to power next-generation optical transmission.

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Indium phosphide is used to make lasers that convert electrical signals into light, crucial to the development of fibre-optic cables. Photo: Shutterstock
Indium phosphide is used to make lasers that convert electrical signals into light, crucial to the development of fibre-optic cables. Photo: Shutterstock
Video gaming

Alibaba sheds gaming business Lingxi to double down on AI and e-commerce

The landmark deal sees Citic Capital’s private equity arm acquiring the unit famous for strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics.

Semiconductors

Ingenic taps Hong Kong market to raise HK$3.2 billion for chip expansion

The semiconductor maker is set to raise a share offering in the city and begin trading later this month.

Semiconductors

AI chipmaker Biren projects up to 22-fold revenue surge in first half of 2026

Massive financial gains across domestic chipmakers underscore how the push for self-sufficiency is reshaping demand for home-grown hardware.

In July, Biren unveiled its next-generation “supernode” solutions, using optical data transmission to bypass current hardware limits. Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

Hong Kong firm bets on Chinese open-weight models to rival CoreWeave

‘Neo-cloud’ provider Antimatter is helping businesses shift away from the US’ frontier AI models, promising lower costs and greater data sovereignty.

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A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI data centre in the United States. Photo: Getty Images
A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI data centre in the United States. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

24 hours with Tencent’s WeChat AI agent: successes and stumbles

The new Xiaowei agent promises hands-free control across WeChat’s vast digital ecosystem. I set out to see whether it delivers.

Tencent

Honor of Kings great ‘Cat’ reflects on his past and future in esports

Chen Zhengzheng, legendary competitor in Tencent’s top mobile game, looks back and forward as he transitions to coaching at 28.

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Artificial intelligence

Chinese AI models gain foothold in Europe despite Brussels’ trepidation

Chinese models will be ‘significant’ for European firms, as their ‘performance and efficiency are increasingly competitive’, analyst says.

European Union flags fly in front of the Berlaymont building, the EU Commission headquarters, in Brussels on June 9, 2026. Photo: TNS
European Union flags fly in front of the Berlaymont building, the EU Commission headquarters, in Brussels on June 9, 2026. Photo: TNS
Artificial intelligence

Back in the Harness: DeepSeek continues its pivot towards agentic AI

With the launch of Harness, China’s DeepSeek continues to build the foundational digital scaffolding for autonomous AI agents.

Artificial intelligence

Zhipu launches GLM-5.3 model as China seeks Mythos-level edge in cyber defence

Company says GLM-5.3 outperformed leading US systems in cybersecurity tests, beating Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 on CyberGym.

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Artificial intelligence

Chinese doctor stuns maths world by cracking decades-old problem using ChatGPT

Jin Shanmu, a Beijing-based neurosurgeon, was trying to solve a problem related to brain ultrasounds. Instead, he made mathematical history.

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Frontier artificial intelligence models are making rapid progress in mathematics. Photo: Shutterstock
Alibaba

Alibaba adds commercial restrictions to open-weight Qwen3.8-Max AI model

In a strategy shift, Alibaba’s flagship Qwen3.8-Max model comes with terms for certain companies using it to generate revenue.

Alibaba’s decision to release Qwen3.8-Max’s weights is a shift from its strategy of keeping its most advanced Max models proprietary. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Alibaba’s decision to release Qwen3.8-Max’s weights is a shift from its strategy of keeping its most advanced Max models proprietary. Photo: Shutterstock Images
E-commerce

JD.com’s second-quarter profit rises 15% as food-delivery losses narrow

Net revenue dips, but still beats analysts’ estimate, as e-commerce giant contends with weak demand and fierce competition.

Semiconductors

Chinese chip foundries surge as AI boom drives triple-digit profit growth

SMIC, Hua Hong Grace results highlight how local foundries are aggressively running their plants at full capacity to meet domestic needs.

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Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek’s flagship AI model update underwhelms – except in cybersecurity

Chinese AI start-up’s model impresses in niche areas like cybersecurity but leaves some developers disappointed in its overall capabilities.

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Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek quietly released an updated version of its latest flagship model, DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
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