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Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
AI models from Chinese start-up DeepSeek are gaining worldwide interest. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

US and EU users open to Chinese AI models like DeepSeek: survey

More than half of US and EU respondents, however, say they will only use models hosted on non-Chinese infrastructure.

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Semiconductors

Singaporean chip tool maker ASMPT sees steady growth amid AI infrastructure boom

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba unleashes Qwen3 coding model for developers to push AI agent adoption

Artificial intelligence

US falling behind China in AI energy race, Anthropic says

The Silicon Valley start-up says it is ‘concerning’ that the US added only one-tenth of the power capacity that China added last year.

Power lines in Mountain View, California. Photo: Reuters
DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s chatbot sees a drop in downloads as AI apps for work, education rise

The average monthly download of DeepSeek’s chatbot fell 72 per cent to 22.6 million in the second quarter from the preceding three months.

China manufacturing

China’s humanoid-robot sales seen gearing up, with adoption push ‘very likely’

Robot models are trained on data, and one way to do that is to get them in the hands of people – so the government may expedite the process with incentives, Morgan Stanley says.

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Artificial intelligence

Moonshot’s Kimi K2 soars in popularity amid experts’ praise for Chinese AI

Downloads of the model double in a few days, an analyst says gap between open-source AI development in China and the US is ‘getting wider’.

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Moonshot AI launched Kimi K2 on July 11. Photo: Shutterstock
Fintech

HKSTP names Terry Wong as CEO in first top executive change since 2016

Wong joins HKSTP after leading the regional and urban mobility sectors at NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city project.

Artificial intelligence

Southern China launches ‘AI super league’ to groom start-ups for Asean

Bordering Vietnam, Guangxi has long been a centre for cooperation with Southeast Asia, where AI demand is set to boom.

Artificial intelligence

How open-source AI is helping China win hearts and market share

China’s free-for-all AI models, developed by firms like DeepSeek and Alibaba, present a viable alternative to US closed-source systems.

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China’s open-source AI models are competing against closed systems from the likes of Google and OpenAI. Illustration: Henry Wong
Business of climate change

UK start-up Barocal wins US$1 million TERA-Award for green energy innovation

The award, which is in its fourth year, has been set up by Hong Kong tycoon Peter Lee Ka-kit to find green solutions to tackle climate change.

Winners at the fourth TERA-Award. Photo: Handout
China’s Communist Party

China’s local governments urged to use legislation ‘propeller’ to power economy

People’s Daily calls for urban governments to develop and rule in ways suited to own characteristics and contribute to China’s modernisation.

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Robotics

Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree sees significant delivery growth in 2025

CEO Wang Xingxing says China’s humanoid robots have caught the world’s attention, signalling a potentially vast market for the sector.

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Artificial intelligence

Manus AI lays off China staff, scrubs social media, shelves mainland service

The start-up has relocated to Singapore with an eye on overseas clients and funding amid heightened US-China tensions.

Manus AI says it has started restructuring its operations after relocating to Singapore. Photo: Shutterstock
US-China trade war

What if Chinese, US firms make humanoid robots together? CEO calls for a collab

With advantages respectively held by China and the US, the founder of Unitree Robotics points to opportunities for their private companies to work together.

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The burgeoning field of humanoid robotics has become a new frontier in the broader technological competition between the US and China. Photo: SCMPOST
Robotics

Robot makers AgiBot, Unitree, UBTech land more orders from Chinese enterprises

A subsidiary of China Mobile has ordered US$17.3 million worth of humanoid robots from AgiBot and Unitree.

Artificial intelligence

OpenAI delays open-source AI model challenging DeepSeek

Founder and CEO Sam Altman says the release will be indefinitely delayed for additional safety tests.

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United States

Musk’s xAI apologises after Grok chatbot praises Hitler

The company blamed the offensive posts on a software update meant to make the artificial intelligence assistant act more like a human.

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Grok, which Elon Musk promised would be an “edgy” truthteller following its launch in 2023, has been mired in controversy. Photo illustration: dpa
Artificial intelligence

Chinese unicorn Moonshot launches AI model Kimi K2 in red-hot open-source market

Kimi K2 reflects a broader trend in the AI sector towards open-source development to improve efficiency and gain wider product adoption.

Artificial intelligence

Robinhood CEO raises US$100 million to build AI models for maths

Harmonic adopts a maths-first approach, which it hopes will make its model better at solving complicated problems than large language models.

American Samoa

US tech stocks remain top draw despite de-dollarisation trend, Swiss banks say

Swiss banks advise investors to keep US tech stocks as core holdings due to their innovation and strong earnings.

UBS and Julius Baer expect US equities to remain strong, supported by powerful structural drivers. Photo: Reuters
Robotics

Robot maker AgiBot seeks stake in Shanghai firm in potential back-door listing

The Tencent-backed start-up plans to acquire a controlling stake in Swancor Advanced Materials for US$279 million.

AgiBot’s acquisition plan reflects the growing need in China’s robotics industry to raise more funds, as a number of humanoid robot makers aim for mass production this year. Photo: AFP
Hong Kong innovators

Hong Kong start-up wins EQT Impact Challenge with precision surgical system

Syngular Technology tops 200 hopefuls to secure €100,000 (US$117,000) investment in pitch competition organised in partnership with the Post.

DeepSeek

Head of China’s state-owned firm regulator visits DeepSeek, Unitree

Zhang Yuzhuo says state-owned enterprises should learn from the agile innovation practices of private firms.

Artificial intelligence

Hong Kong’s IntelliGen AI takes on Google DeepMind in drug discovery

The start-up, which aims to raise tens of millions of US dollars in an angel funding round, hopes to compete globally, founder says.

IntelliGen AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up founded in Hong Kong, is positioning itself as a competitor to Google DeepMind in the field of drug discovery, as the city increasingly seeks to bolster its AI capabilities.
Artificial intelligence

Elon Musk unveils xAI’s updated chatbot, Grok 4, after antisemitism controversy

The world’s wealthiest person says Grok 4 is ‘smarter than almost all graduate students, in all disciplines, simultaneously’.

“At times it may lack common sense,” Elon Musk says of Grok 4, the latest iteration of start-up xAI’s chatbot. Photo: Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/AFP
United States

Musk’s AI company scrubs posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic remarks

The incident, which included praise for Hitler, adds to a string of controversies for Grok, developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI.

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Artificial intelligence

Chinese start-up Manus AI relocates to Singapore amid US chip curbs

Manus AI has begun recruiting in the city state, offering positions such as data analyst and AI agent engineer.

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