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Xiaomi
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João Scandiuzzi, partner at BTG Pactual. Photo: Elson Li
Artificial intelligence

Exclusive | BTG Pactual eyes Hong Kong expansion as China and Brazil strengthen ties

BTG took a delegation of more than two dozen Brazilian entrepreneurs and family offices on a tour of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong last week.

Banking & finance

Exclusive | More attention coming to China advancements in AI, humanoid tech: Morgan Stanley

Artificial intelligence

Samsung nears wide-ranging deal with Perplexity for AI features

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

XPrize founder Diamandis projects hope for AI, biotech amid US-China tech war

The entrepreneur says biotech should be less contentious than AI, as a breakthrough in Beijing is just as usable in Boston.

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Robotics

Self-driving mining trucks offer a glimpse of China’s hi-tech future

A coal mine in Inner Mongolia showcases Beijing’s determination to transform traditional industries with advanced technologies.

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Robotics

Unitree Robotics changes to joint stock limited company, fanning IPO speculation

A joint stock limited structure lets a company issue and transfer shares, allowing it to raise more capital as it scales up its operations.

A Unitree robot shakes hands with a convention guest at the Robotics Summit & Expo, April 30, 2025, in Boston. Photo: AP
A Unitree robot shakes hands with a convention guest at the Robotics Summit & Expo, April 30, 2025, in Boston. Photo: AP
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.

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.

Foxconn

Foxconn expects robust revenue growth from AI despite US tariffs

The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer plans to enter the US market by the end of this year, chairman Young Liu says.

Foxconn’s headquarters in New Taipei City. Photo: AFP
Robotics

Shanghai embraces embodied intelligence as it boosts policy support for robotics

University students competed in a skills contest using robots in various tasks, from soccer matches to practical applications.

A controlled robotic arm attempts to fold clothes at an event in Shanghai on Thursday. Photo: Wency Chen
A controlled robotic arm attempts to fold clothes at an event in Shanghai on Thursday. Photo: Wency Chen
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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Artificial intelligence

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta AI bot is used a billion times monthly

Use of Meta AI is growing the fastest on WhatsApp, the company says, as it competes against Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.

E-commerce

PDD faces profit challenge amid Trump tariffs, domestic e-commerce competition

‘Macroeconomic uncertainties and significant investments in the ecosystem’ are expected to continue affecting PDD’s earnings outlook, UBS analysts say.

Changes in US trade policies have created significant pressure for merchants on PDD Holdings’ Temu shopping platform. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

Honor enters robotics race after pledging US$10 billion AI investment

Honor’s foray into robotics comes after its CEO announced a high-profile AI initiative earlier this year called the ‘Honor Alpha plan’.

An Honor store in Shanghai, China, on July 31, 2022. Photo: Shutterstock Images
An Honor store in Shanghai, China, on July 31, 2022. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Alibaba

Alibaba’s healthcare AI model on par with senior physicians in medical exams

Benchmark data provided by Quark indicates the healthcare model outperformed DeepSeek’s R1 and V3, and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, in test accuracy.

Artificial intelligence

Southern China’s Zhuhai backs new firm in race to be AI, robotics hub

The city also announced over US$80 million in subsidies, as local governments in China race to nurture the next DeepSeek.

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Electric & new energy vehicles

Tesla’s brand is losing its shine, lagging BYD and Xiaomi: UBS poll

Tesla lost favour with global customers, with 18 per cent of buyers considering it their top pick last year, down from 22 per cent, UBS says.

A man placed a sign outside a Tesla dealership during a protest against Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk outside a Tesla dealership in Los Angeles on March 14, 2025. Photo: Reuters
A man placed a sign outside a Tesla dealership during a protest against Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk outside a Tesla dealership in Los Angeles on March 14, 2025. Photo: Reuters
TSMC

TSMC to open chip design centre in Munich amid Europe’s AI push

TSMC is building the US$11 billion microchip manufacturing plant through a joint venture, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Tencent

Tencent raises K-pop exposure by buying BTS agency Hybe’s SM Entertainment stake

The nearly 10 per cent stake, valued at about US$180 million, would mark Tencent’s first major deal in South Korea’s music industry in years.

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E-commerce

Delivery war: Alibaba vies for Meituan’s on-demand throne in China

Alibaba’s Taobao Instant Commerce service and Ele.me have surpassed 40 million daily orders within a month of launch, the company says.

An Ele.me food delivery rider eats at a restaurant in Beijing. Photo: AP Photo
E-commerce

Temu-owner PDD Holdings misses quarterly revenue estimates

A prolonged property crisis in the world’s second-largest economy has cast a shadow over consumer spending.

The Temu logo is seen in this illustration taken May 4, 2025. Photo: Reuters
The Temu logo is seen in this illustration taken May 4, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

ByteDance upgrades Doubao AI app with real-time interactive video call function

The chatbot can now serve as a real-time interactive docent during a museum tour and an analyst when studying charts, graphs or videos.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi refutes claims of using Arm-designed chip for XRing O1

Xiaomi’s first smartphone chip uses Arm’s Cortex cores, leading to speculation that it was using a customised solution from the British firm.

Semiconductors

Huawei pushes Ascend AI chip-based ‘Supernode’ architecture to developers

Huawei’s Supernode 384 computing architecture reflects the company’s efforts to overcome tightened US tech restrictions.

Huawei Technologies’ Ascend chip-based, high-performance computing architecture, Supernode 384, is touted as best-suited for training next-generation artificial intelligence models. Photo: Shutterstock
China Future Tech
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
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Policy

Southern China’s Zhuhai backs new firm in race to be AI, robotics hub

A view of Zhuhai, Guangdong province in southern China. Photo: Edmond So

Big Tech

Nvidia builds new AI chip for China with computing cluster capabilities: report

Nvidia is expected to introduce its latest China-tailored graphics processing unit in July. Photo: Shutterstock

Business

Chinese biotech firm Akeso sinks after US partner’s cancer-drug setback

Akeso’s clinical trials in China showed that ivonescimab allowed half of its patients to go 11.1 months without their cancer progressing. Photo: Shutterstock

Business

Novo Nordisk faces fierce competition in China’s diabetes drug market

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Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide product. Photo: Handout

Science

China’s 2030 metrology action plan targets chip, quantum wins in race with US

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Metrology research will be carried out in fields including artificial intelligence, miniaturised sensing technology and robotics, according to the action plan. Photo: EPA-EFE
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