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Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
ORI Capital founder Simone Song Hong Fang, pictured at her Sun Hung Kai Centre office in Wan Chai on April 17, 2021, sees a big opportunity in biotechnology. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Artificial intelligence

Hong Kong healthcare investor looks for biotech’s ‘DeepSeek moment’ in China

ORI Capital is planning a US$350 million fund to focus on Chinese biotech, with hopes that AI will help beat the market.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek offers new details on using 2,048 Nvidia chips to train its V3 model

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Artificial intelligence

Chinese AI stalwart Zhipu eyes expansion on back of Belt and Road Initiative

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba pushes global adoption of Qwen3 AI models via more developer platforms

The Qwen3 family of AI models can now be deployed via large language model platforms Ollama, LM Studio, SGLang and vLLM.

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The Qwen3 AI model family’s expanded availability reflects Alibaba Group Holding’s growing leadership position in the global open-source community. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

China’s Manus AI makes registration free amid increasing AI agent competition

Manus has ended its invite-only approach after US$75 million in new funding, while facing increasing competition from tech giants.

Artificial intelligence

China’s StepFun aims to stand out in AI race with multimodal models

Players in China’s AI industry are struggling to differentiate their products after DeepSeek’s success triggered a surge in reasoning models.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s humanoid robot makers lack unified ‘end-to-end’ AI system: Unitree CEO

That system allows robots to execute general tasks, which dispenses with running separate programs for specific activities.

The G1 humanoid robot model from Unitree Robotics gives a hug at the firm’s exhibition hall in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, on April 23, 2025. Photo: Xinhua
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Quark, China’s most popular AI app, launches ‘deep search’

The upgrade combines the reasoning capabilities of AI models with online search to answer complex user queries.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng ‘takes no short cuts’, Li Auto CEO says

That assessment reflects how Liang, an ‘extremely self-disciplined person’, led DeepSeek to become a true innovator in AI.

Robotics

China’s Unitree fixes flaw that gives hackers remote control of robots

The start-up has downplayed the impact of the vulnerability, noting that the affected model has been discontinued.

Unitree’s Go2-W robot interacts with an attendee during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek’s AI system gets faster with Tencent’s open-source boost

The leading Chinese AI start-up has adopted an open-source technical solution from Tencent, leading to a ‘huge speed boost’.

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DeepSeek says it has used an open-source technical solution from Tencent to improve its AI system. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen3 unseats DeepSeek’s R1 as world’s top-ranked open-source AI model

Qwen3 surpassed R1 in LiveBench tests that gauge open-source AI models’ capabilities including coding, maths and data analysis.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek tech is ‘overblown’ and not a threat, Anthropic co-founder says

Jack Clark, a former journalist turned AI policy expert, said DeepSeek ‘might become a closer competitor’ if it had access to more computing resources.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s answer to Autodesk is betting on AI to build a ‘world model’

As it plans for an IPO in Hong Kong, Manycore is touting its data advantage in building towards an AI-powered future.

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Manycore Tech is one of China’s “Six Little Dragons” based in Hangzhou. Photo: Sina
Hong Kong property

Meitu founder buys Hong Kong’s Ginza-style building for US$84 million

Meitu founder invests US$84 million in Hong Kong property to create a crypto/AI start-up hub.

Mike Cai Wensheng of Meitu. Photo: Felix Wong
Robotics

Why car park operator Shoucheng is doubling down on China robotics investment

The company, a subsidiary of Chinese steel giant Shougang, plans to invest in about 50 robotics firms over the next two to three years.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s new maths-solving model is generating buzz, but mostly about R2

The Prover-V2 release has captured attention online, with many on social media wondering what it means for the start-up’s next reasoning model.

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Artificial intelligence

The SMC: what to see at the Shanghai AI incubator visited by Xi Jinping

The Chinese president toured the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Centre on Tuesday to highlight the country’s vast potential in AI.

An AI sign at the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Centre. Photo: Wency Chen
Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek quietly updates open-source model that handles maths proofs

The Chinese start-up has released the Prover-V2 model a day after Alibaba released Qwen3, and ahead of an anticipated release of DeepSeek-R2.

US-China tech war

Chinese AI and robotics start-ups respond to Xi’s self-reliance call

The Chinese president met representatives from several AI and robotics start-ups during a visit to Shanghai.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek speculation swirls online over Chinese AI start-up’s R2 model

The latest speculation includes R2’s imminent launch and the new benchmarks that it set in terms of cost-efficiency and performance.

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DeepSeek’s R2 artificial intelligence model was said to have been trained on a server cluster of Huawei Technologies’ Ascend 910B chips, according to Chinese social-media posts. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

China’s UBTech, Midea push humanoid robots into factories amid push for adoption

UBTech’s Walker humanoids are headed for a car plant, while Midea plans to have its own robots in an appliance factory by next month.

A demonstration of one of UBTech’s Walker-series humanoid robots during a media tour of the company’s offices in Shenzhen on April 23. Photo: Edmond So
Venture capital market

China life sciences-focused Dalton Venture expands operations to Hong Kong

The venture capital firm expects the size of its potential new fund in Hong Kong to range between US$103 million to US$129 million.

Artificial intelligence

Baidu offers new AI models at lower cost than DeepSeek’s products

The lower cost would help developers focus on creating ‘more super interesting and useful’ AI applications, Baidu CEO Robin Li says.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek on recruitment drive as start-up remains tight-lipped on new AI model

This marks the first time DeepSeek has published product-related job openings, as it has largely focused on fundamental AI model research.

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DeepSeek is also in the process of hiring a chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Photo: Shutterstock
Electric & new energy vehicles

Intel, Chinese partners ModelBest and Black Sesame push smart car systems

The collaborations reflect demand in China, the world’s largest electric vehicle market, for more computing power in sophisticated cockpits.

Intel’s latest collaborations come amid the rapid development of intelligent cockpits in China’s electric vehicle industry. Photo: Shutterstock
Hong Kong science and tech

Hong Kong, Zhejiang to boost links in 13 key areas including AI, smart cities

City leader John Lee also calls on entrepreneurs of Ningbo descent to invest in border innovation hub.

Hong Kong science and tech

Is Hong Kong the key to helping mainland China’s rising tech stars go global?

Presence of mainland tech firms in Hong Kong would also improve local R&D landscape, observers say.

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