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Start-ups

Start-ups
Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
DeepSeek’s logo is reflected in the glasses of a student. The company recently released its V4 model. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek mystery: who is speaking for start-up amid CEO Liang Wenfeng’s absence?

Researcher Chen Deli is emerging as DeepSeek’s new public face as speculation over the whereabouts of the company’s founder and CEO lingers.

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Millionaires and billionaires

Elon Musk’s trial against Sam Altman reveals power struggle for OpenAI

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Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek takes step away from Nvidia amid export curbs on China

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek unveils next-gen AI model as Huawei vows ‘full support’ with new chips

The company says its cost-efficient new V4 model is competitive with top closed-source models from OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

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The logo of Hangzhou-based AI start-up DeepSeek. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Beijing sounds alarm over urgent need to clean up online ads

Market watchdog flags AI abuse and traffic-driven tactics as it launches first campaign to overhaul online advertising.

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek isn’t short of cash: so why has it decided to raise funds anyway?

DeepSeek is raising a small funding round not for cash, but to set a valuation benchmark and retain talent as rivals ramp up poaching.

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Artificial intelligence

‘State-of-the-art’ models can struggle with basic office work, says AI executive

Advanced AI can ace Olympiad maths yet falters in routine office tasks as enterprises turn to smaller models for everyday use: David Meyer.

While advanced models such as Anthropic’s Claude are powerful at coding, they could lag in tasks like data engineering compared with models with significantly more specialised training and data in this area, according to an AI unicorn executive. Photo: DPA
United States

White House and Anthropic CEO discuss working together amid Mythos AI fears

The model’s capabilities give it a potentially unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities – and to ‌exploit them.

IPO

Manycore, one of Hangzhou’s ‘Six Little Dragons’, surges on Hong Kong IPO debut

The company’s listing highlights its pivot from design tools to advanced AI-driven spatial platforms as it eyes overseas growth.

Artificial intelligence

Black market workarounds scale up for Claude as Anthropic tightens ID checks

Chinese developers are bypassing new ID checks as demand for Claude remains strong despite official restrictions.

New ID requirements have reverberated across China’s developer community, where many programmers rely on the company’s Claude models. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

China’s AI world model edge: abundant data and faster deployment, executive says

China’s strong industrial base, abundance of factory data give its world models a decisive push, says executive from leading start-up GigaAI.

GigaAI, a company specialising in embodied intelligent models, has secured another round of financing. Photo: Handout
Robotics

Video | Humanoid robots to compete in Beijing half-marathon

Test run was held to replicate the official race to be held on April 19.

Artificial intelligence

Opinion | Despite its hype, AI is just a means to economic resilience

To survive the shift from winner-takes-all capitalism to true sustainability, the learning curve is steep. AI is just the latest tool to help us climb it.

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Robotics

Unitree to debut cheapest humanoid robot globally via Alibaba: sources

The international launch of the company’s cheapest humanoid robot next week is expected to cover North America, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

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Unitree Robotics’ R1 is one of the world’s most affordable humanoids. Photo: Handout
IPO

Hangzhou ‘Six Little Dragons’ member Manycore seeks US$130m from Hong Kong IPO

The spatial design software developer is selling 161 million shares priced between HK$6.72 and HK$7.62 each, with listing set for April 17.

Manycore’s flagship products include its spatial design platform Kujiale, also known as KuSpace, and its international offering Coohom. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

China’s DeepSeek adds expert chatbot mode ahead of much-awaited V4 release

The Hangzhou start-up’s latest chatbot update sparks speculation over whether the expert mode is linked to the long-delayed V4 model.

Artificial intelligence

Chinese AI glasses maker Rokid planning Hong Kong IPO: sources

Listing plan comes as giants Apple, Meta, Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi and Huawei, plus start-ups like Xreal, Rayneo, anticipate market growth.

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Singapore

From ‘Unicorn Land’ to Singapore: Estonian start-ups chase tech dream in Asean

Veriff and other unicorn companies are targeting Singapore for their regional headquarters, citing similarities in digital advancement.

A view of the old town in Tallinn, Estonia. Start-ups in the northern European country are increasingly eyeing the fast-growing Southeast Asian market. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

What Zhipu and MiniMax’s first post-IPO earnings say about the 2 AI start-ups

The two Chinese start-ups show promising commercialisation of AI models, which are reflected in rising demand and revenue.

Banking & finance

Hong Kong tycoon-backed start-up raises US$300 million to scale battery push

The California-based firm will use new funding to scale manufacturing and expand globally, with Hong Kong anchoring its regional push.

IPO

Breathing fire: Manycore first of the ‘Six Little Dragons’ to near Hong Kong IPO

Spatial intelligence firm moves ahead of tech peers after clearing a key Hong Kong listing hurdle.

Hangzhou-based Manycore, operator of the world’s largest spatial design platform. Photo: Weibo
DeepSeek

‘I no longer knew how to work without it’: DeepSeek outage cuts off millions

Chinese AI start-up restores chatbot service by Monday morning after overnight disruption affects millions of users.

DeepSeek issued fixes between 1am and 9am on Monday. Photo: Xinhua
Robotics

Why China’s humanoid robots are still waiting for their ‘ChatGPT moment’

Limited training data and unresolved hardware challenges continue to hold back humanoid robots from mass adoption, say experts.

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Robotics

Video | Here’s what it takes to get a robot ready for the world

Each robot requires eight hours of rigorous testing to be ready for customers.

Banking & finance

HKIC, Gobi Partners and HKU launch fund to back university research start-ups

Gobi-HKU Fund I makes first bets at launch, investing in robotics and AI drug design spin-offs born from university research breakthroughs.

The partnership with HKU will help bridge the gap between research and commercialisation, according to Gobi Partners. Photo: Dickson Lee
US-China trade war

US panel credits China’s AI edge to open-source models, manufacturing dominance

American Congressional commission concludes China’s open ecosystem has seen performance gaps narrowed with top Western large language models.

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China’s lower-cost AI language models surged in popularity in 2025 with the release of DeepSeek R1. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

OpenClaw, government support fuel rise of 1-person companies in China

Guangdong is the first provincial-level government to roll out comprehensive action plans to support AI-powered OPCs.

US-China relations

US sounds alarm over China’s humanoid robots amid security concerns

AI and robotics executives warn American lawmakers that China’s rapid advances – led by Unitree – threaten US dominance.

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