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Start-ups
Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books for AI training is fair use, a US judge has ruled. Photo: AP
Artificial intelligence

Anthropic wins ruling on use of copyrighted books to train AI

A US judge rules that training AI on copyrighted books is fair use, but the downloading of pirated books is not.

DeepSeek

How DeepSeek founder’s doubt led serial entrepreneur to embrace his gift of gab

Robotics

Unitree Robotics now a unicorn with ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent funding

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IPO

Former Hong Kong exchange CEO Charles Li aims to list start-up

Li’s Micro Connect is among six companies that filed for listings on Wednesday, joining 200 companies waiting to list in the city.

Former Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) CEO Charles Li, photographed in Central on September 26, 2022. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s updated R1 AI model matches Google, Anthropic in coding benchmark

The updated reasoning model, released in May, performed well against leading US models in the real-time WebDev Arena tests.

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek rival MiniMax says its first AI reasoning model halves compute of R1

The Shanghai-based firm said its open-source M1 model is more efficient in tasks including maths and coding than the popular DeepSeek-R1.

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China’s private sector

China internet pioneer urges students to put off graduate school, start-up plans

Sohu.com founder Charles Zhang says college students need to ‘gain some real experience’ by working for a company.

Charles Zhang Chaoyang, the founder, chairman and CEO of Sohu.com. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

China’s robotics market set to double in four years: Morgan Stanley

Robotics is a key part of the Made in China 2025 initiative, launched a decade ago to position the country at the forefront of hi-tech industries.

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Artificial intelligence

How a Chinese AI start-up helps Nike, Gap, Urban Revivo predict fashion trends

Hangzhou Zhiyi Technology’s operations reflect how AI adoption in mainland China is expanding and transforming various industries.

Artificial intelligence

Meet Goku, the Chinese quant fund with AI ambitions beyond finance

The Shanghai-based firm and subsidiary AllMind are pursuing AI-assisted scientific discovery, drawing comparisons with DeepSeek.

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Wang Xiao, founder and CEO of Chinese quantitative trading fund Goku and its AI-focused subsidiary, AllMind. Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

Hong Kong plans new AI supercomputing centre to boost tech hub status

The facilities will provide computing power for the Greater Bay Area and beyond, says innovation chief Sun Dong during a tech show in Paris.

Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, speaks at the VivaTech fair in Paris on Friday. Photo: Xinmei Shen
Banking & finance

US venture capital firm to unload stakes in 40 Chinese tech start-ups

Chinese venture capitalists, government-backed funds expected to fill a funding gap left by retreating international investors, analyst says.

Indonesia

How Indonesian fintech firm is bridging funding gaps for women entrepreneurs

Amartha leverages technology to provide loans to women running small businesses in remote areas, but challenges such as lack of digital literacy remain.

China technology

Hong Kong backs start-ups at VivaTech show in push for European market

Local start-ups from HKSTP and Cyberport will appear at the Hong Kong Tech Pavilion at VivaTech from June 11 to 14.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan visits the booth of a local tech company at VivaTech in Paris, on May 24, 2024. Photo: Handout
VR and AR

Chinese AR glasses maker Rokid is going global with Alibaba partnership

Rokid will launch its AR Spatial glasses on AliExpress through the platform’s ‘BigSave’ programme, shaving off about US$100 off the US$650 eyewear.

Rokid is launching its AR glasses overseas this month using Alibaba’s AliExpress platform. Photo: Rokid
Robotics

Unitree eyes pre-IPO fundraising, valuing robot maker up to US$2 billion: report

Raising fresh capital casts a spotlight on how China’s leading humanoid robot makers are pushing forward mass production this year.

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Robotics

Beijing academy unveils ‘RoboBrain’ AI model for China’s humanoids

The launch comes amid efforts to leverage rapidly advancing AI technology to improve the capability of robots.

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Fintech

Fintech start-up Syfe bolsters Hong Kong expansion after new funding round

Singapore-based Syfe’s expansion plans reflect the city’s position as the largest hedge fund and cross-border wealth management hub in Asia.

Syfe founder and CEO Dhruv Arora. Photo: Handout
Banking & finance

Opinion | As geopolitics hits venture capital, Asia must start funding its own tech

For all its technical firepower, Asia remains undercapitalised. With funds no longer flowing freely, it needs a financial system that serves its purpose.

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Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek rekindles US venture capital’s interest in China’s AI scene

Thrive Capital and Capital Group have made separate visits to the country to discuss AI with local companies and funds, sources say.

Artificial intelligence

Silicon Valley venture capitalists sit back from investing in AI

Amid sky-high valuations, even major venture capital firms can no longer compete with deep-pocketed backers like SoftBank and Microsoft.

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Silicon Valley venture capitalists are taking a wait-and-see approach in the AI sector amid sky-high valuations. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

Chinese robotics star Agibot adds JD.com as investor, joining Tencent

After a new funding round, e-commerce giant JD.com holds a 0.75 per cent stake in AgiBot, a high-flying start-up founded by Huawei veterans.

Robotics start-up AgiBot is attracting big-name investors amid China’s humanoid robot craze. Photo: Reuters
DeepSeek

China’s DeepSeek closes in on US rival OpenAI with upgraded model

Benchmark results cited by DeepSeek show that R1-0528’s performance surpasses Alibaba’s Qwen3 and matches models from OpenAI, Google.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s small update to R1 AI model draws big attention

DeepSeek’s R1-0528 went live on Hugging Face without any documentation or announcements, but benchmark performance has improved.

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China manufacturing

More than a show: China’s robot fights offer ringside view of tech advancements

China’s humanoid robotic firms are looking to KO the competition, and what they learn in the ring looks to advance the robotics industry by leaps and bounds.

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Humanoid robots square off in a fight on Sunday in Hangzhou. Photo: Handout
Robotics

Ready, set, fight: Unitree humanoid robots test skills in kickboxing competition

Unitree fielded four G1 humanoid robots in one-on-one kickboxing matches at an event held in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province.

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Unitree Robotics’ G1 humanoid robots square off at a kickboxing tournament in Hangzhou on Sunday. Photo: Handout
Robotics

Hong Kong surgical robot start-up Cornerstone takes aim at da Vinci

Company aims to raise US$70 million to develop its systems, which it claims rival the market-leading da Vinci units at lower cost.

Robotics

Chinese robot firms dazzle at Macau’s Beyond Expo amid AI boom

The significant presence of robotics companies underscores the intense domestic competition in the rapidly growing sector.

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