South China Morning Pos / Tech

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1. Tesla signs deal to integrate Alipay into its cars as China competition heats up

   Tesla has agreed a deal to integrate Chinese fintech giant Ant Group’s Alipay digital payment software into its vehicles in China, as Elon Musk’s firm steps up efforts to offer localised smart features amid intense competition in the Chinese market. The agreement, signed on Tuesday, will see Tesla roll out an Alipay-powered smart parking service across its Chinese fleet, according to the fintech firm. Neither side revealed a launch date or which car models would receive the feature, though...

2. Washington’s DeepSeek ban may deter US firms from adopting Chinese AI models: experts

   The US government’s latest ban on Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek could have a chilling effect on the wider American business community and deter companies from adopting low-cost Chinese AI models, industry experts say. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party services built on the Chinese AI model from their IT systems, according to a directive signed in July and published on Monday. The...

3. Apec finance ministers reach consensus on AI, digital financing in Hong Kong

   Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) finance chiefs reached a consensus on economic policy coordination and cooperation on financing technology and artificial intelligence at a landmark two-day gathering in Hong Kong, according to China’s finance minister. Lan Foan said the outcomes achieved during the Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting would help shape discussions at the leaders’ summit in Shenzhen next month. “China will work with all member economies to implement the important consensus...

4. Nvidia CEO to deliver keynote speech in Berlin as his firm faces investor scrutiny over AI

   Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to take the stage in Berlin on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable company faces heightened investor scrutiny over whether the massive artificial intelligence spending boom – the engine behind the chipmaker’s meteoric growth – can deliver long-term returns. The conference agenda focuses on sovereign AI, industrial automation and operational infrastructure – key sectors where Nvidia hopes to drive demand beyond the handful of US tech giants currently dominating...

5. DeepSeek seeks ‘total victory’ over closed-source AI with new open-source tool

   Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model on both Nvidia’s SM100 Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and Huawei...

6. Why Anthropic has a major China problem ahead of its blockbuster IPO

   The growing popularity of Chinese artificial intelligence models has emerged as a key risk factor for Anthropic ahead of its blockbuster initial public offering, according to US research firm Hedgeye Risk Management. “It’s all about Chinese competition when analysing Anthropic,” said Felix Wang, managing director and global tech sector head at Hedgeye. “Many of my clients are asking the same question.” The assessment comes as Anthropic faces renewed investor jitters over whether its massive AI...

7. What is Discovery Loop, Chinese teen AI prodigy Nathan Chen’s rumoured next destination?

   Just days after announcing his departure from Moonshot AI, teen Chinese artificial intelligence prodigy Nathan Chen Guangyu seems to have found his next destination. On Tuesday, Arfur Grok, a widely-watched anonymous social media account that tracks AI talent movements in the US, posted that the former Moonshot AI researcher was joining Discovery Loop, an AI start-up founded by four former Google senior researchers including former chief scientist Jeff Dean. Launched just two months ago, the...

8. China creates state-owned firm in Xiongan to develop nation’s AI data resources

   China has set up a new state-owned enterprise dedicated to managing the country’s massive data resources, a significant move designed to turbocharge the nation’s artificial intelligence industry and bolster its digital economy. The National Data Group Co – based in China’s “city of the future”, Xiongan New Area in northern Hebei province – is tasked with “developing and utilising data resources, unlocking the value of data elements, serving AI development and fostering a data industry...

9. Who is Yuki Chen, China’s ‘superstar’ hacker who just joined AI leader Z.ai?

   Yuki Chen, a prolific Chinese cybersecurity researcher, has joined leading Chinese artificial intelligence model company Z.ai as the country’s AI sector grapples with the technology’s growing impact on global cyberspace. Chen’s appointment comes amid growing concern over AI-assisted cyberattacks and autonomous agents acting beyond their instructions, including recent cases involving Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings as well as US start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic. “New journey, new mission!” Chen...

10. Alibaba’s RISC-V IP powers over 6 billion shipped chips as tech giant targets AI, autos

    Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm, Damo Academy, has seen more than 6 billion chips shipped based on its XuanTie RISC-V architecture, marking a milestone as the tech giant doubles down on the open standard in artificial intelligence and automotive systems. Meng Jianyi, chief scientist at Damo Academy, announced the figure on Monday at the annual RISC-V Summit China in Shenzhen. The achievement comes as Chinese companies seek to play a greater role in the global RISC-V ecosystem, an...

11. China’s milestone in polar region satellite broadband narrows gap with Elon Musk’s Starlink

    China’s recent milestone in extending its home-grown satellite internet coverage to polar regions has given the country “fully self-controlled polar communications”, ending its long-time reliance on foreign technology to achieve the same capability, according to state media and industry experts. The breakthrough came during trials conducted as part of China’s 16th Arctic expedition – launched in early July and expected to conclude this month – when scientists aboard vessels in the Arctic...

12. CXMT shares fall 7.8% despite blockbuster earnings figures

    Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) saw its shares fall more than 8 per cent in early Monday trading, despite forecasts of strong profits and plans for a share buy-back amid a global sector-wide market rout. CXMT shares dropped 7.8 per cent on Monday to close at 41.52 yuan. The company’s stock surged to a peak of 61.8 yuan in August – up as much as 614 per cent from its initial public offering price of 8.66 yuan in July – before paring back gains. The market reaction...

13. The AI promise was automation. The reality? Managing digital workers

    When artificial intelligence agents first arrived, they came with a tantalising promise: autonomous “digital workers” that would finally free humans from corporate drudgery. As businesses across Asia are discovering, however, the reality is quite the opposite – more work, new friction and a whole new layer of management. When Xiao Mengjie, an AI product marketing manager at a Big Tech firm in Shanghai, recently assigned two AI agents what she described as a simple task, she expected efficiency....

14. Rokid launches ‘no man’s land’ retail experience with Hong Kong flagship store opening

    When shoppers step into Rokid’s brand new flagship store in Hong Kong, they are greeted not by eager sales associates, but by glowing monitor screens and a robotic system waiting at the exit. In what the Chinese augmented reality (AR) gadget pioneer called an experiment in “no man’s land” retail, customers navigate the entire journey independently: testing artificial intelligence smart glasses, making payments on a screen and receiving their new devices directly from an automated system on their...

15. China’s proposed AI tech export bans may create short-term costs, long-term gains: analysts

    China’s proposed export bans and controls of artificial intelligence technologies aim to tighten Beijing’s grip in the strategically vital sector, casting a cloud over the commercial prospects of domestic model developers in the global AI race, analysts say. The new measures come as concerns mount globally over the risks of advanced AI systems, following a string of recent cyberattacks, while also underscoring AI’s growing national security importance for both Beijing and Washington. Zhang Yi,...

16. Reporter’s notebook: Kimi’s AI credit card turns spending into computing quotas – with limits

    China’s artificial intelligence companies have spent years persuading consumers to pay for their technology. Now, Moonshot AI, the start-up behind Kimi, is taking a different approach: offering AI computing benefits through a credit card. The company has teamed up with the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and American Express for what it calls “the world’s first AI native credit card”. After getting one for myself, the experience offered an intriguing way to bring AI services into everyday...

17. Alibaba to embed AI throughout Taobao, Tmall merchant operations in 2027: executive

    Alibaba Group Holding’s two major domestic online marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall, plan to greatly expand the use of artificial intelligence across merchants’ operations next year, a senior executive said, as the e-commerce giant doubles down on the technology to drive growth amid a challenging consumer landscape. “Starting next year, AI will comprehensively enter the internal enterprise workflows of merchants,” Liu Bo, president of Tmall, said at the company’s Singles’ Day media briefing on...

18. ASML eyes hybrid bonding, report finds, as Chinese firms adopt chip packaging technique

    Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML is expanding into next-generation hybrid bonding, a technique that creates dense electrical connections by directly joining chips or silicon wafers, according to a new report. Major Chinese companies are also adopting the technology to improve chip performance. ASML submitted 27 patent families related to hybrid bonding tools between December 2022 and November 2024, according to a report published by semiconductor and AI supply chain research firm...

19. China’s AI boom, self-sufficiency push fuel earnings surge for local chip firms

    Chinese chip and tech firms have flagged as much as six-fold growth in unaudited third-quarter profits, as huge demand for home-grown processors and artificial intelligence infrastructure filters through links in the supply chain amid the country’s push for self-reliance. Shanghai-listed Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology expected its quarterly net profit to land between 403 million yuan and 453 million yuan, up 579 per cent to 660 per cent from a year earlier. The maker of laser chips for optical...

20. Who is Nathan Chen, the Chinese teen AI prodigy being courted by Silicon Valley?

    A 17-year-old artificial intelligence researcher formerly with Moonshot AI has announced his departure for the United States, sparking intense speculation about his next move amid heated competition for elite talent between Silicon Valley and China’s tech hubs. Nathan Chen Guangyu wrote on social media on Thursday that he had left the Beijing-based start-up after less than a year, describing his time there as “the best [year] of my life so far”. The announcement caught many industry observers by...