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Semiconductors
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)
Huawei Technologies
Meng Wanzhou
TikTok
ByteDance
WeChat
DJI
Smartphones
Alibaba chip unit T-Head has become the latest firm to join a broader push by AI chipmakers seeking to provide alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant CUDA toolkit. Photo: Handout
Semiconductors

Alibaba targets Nvidia’s dominant software ecosystem with open-source AI stack

The firm’s chip unit T-Head aims to lower migration barriers to Zhenwu AI computing architectures, following similar initiatives by Huawei and Moore Threads.

Semiconductors

Chinese chip start-up Biren bets on light-based ‘supernodes’ to match Nvidia

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Artificial intelligence

Xi’s call on AI, Trump blasts China, US tariffs

Artificial intelligence

Xi Jinping warns against creating ‘new historical injustices’ in AI era

Chinese leader’s presence at World AI Conference signals Beijing’s push to elevate AI from tech priority to pillar of geopolitical strategy.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for a group photo with other attendees before the opening ceremony for the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday. Photo: AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for a group photo with other attendees before the opening ceremony for the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday. Photo: AP
Semiconductors

Chinese Nvidia alternatives project massive sales as AI chip demand surges

Moore Threads and Hygon are capitalising on surging demand for AI computing power as they race to fill the void left by Washington’s export controls.

Artificial intelligence

BrainCo claims mind-to-robot link at China’s World AI Conference

Hangzhou-based firm says users can control robots using only their thoughts via EEG headsets, marking a leap in embodied AI tech.

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Artificial intelligence

Top takeaways from Xi Jinping’s opening address at the World AI Conference

The speech marks the Chinese president’s first-ever keynote address at the nation’s premier artificial intelligence summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony for the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday. Photo: EPA
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony for the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday. Photo: EPA
Artificial intelligence

Xi Jinping says ‘one country’ cannot monopolise AI – as it happened

President’s personal attendance seen as a sign of China’s inclusion of artificial intelligence into broader geopolitical strategy.

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Semiconductors

TSMC pledges extra US$100b for Arizona fab expansion amid soaring AI chip demand

Riding on the AI boom, the Taiwanese chipmaker’s net income jumped 77 per cent to NT$706.6 billion (US$22 billion) in the second quarter.

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Artificial intelligence

Sam Altman signals OpenAI price war as rivalry with Anthropic, China heats up

American AI pioneer eyes 75 per cent fee cut for flagship software to counter market gains by Claude and low-cost alternatives from Chinese providers.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at an event in Tokyo, Japan, last year. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

China’s DeepSeek eyes US$70b valuation in new talks weeks after first round

Company’s fresh fundraising talks come straight off its landmark Series A, as investors scramble to back national AI champion.

DeepSeek has launched a new financing round shortly after closing a landmark deal. Photo: Getty Images
DeepSeek has launched a new financing round shortly after closing a landmark deal. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

China’s StepFun beats Apple and OpenAI to ‘world’s first AI phone’

Tencent-backed firm launches the AI-native StepX Neo smartphone, challenging US tech giants amid Apple-OpenAI legal clashes.

Artificial intelligence

Will a new focus help Chinese AI labs challenge Thinking Machines Lab?

AI labs Yoolee and InfiX.ai say they aim to rival US start-up with industry-specific AI solutions, reduced costs and enhanced privacy.

US-China tech war

Nvidia’s future challenger? Chinese start-up reveals aggressive AI chip road map

As US sanctions block access to advanced lithography, a Shanghai-based firm bets on chip redesign, 3D memory stacking to break bottlenecks.

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Dongfang Suanxin’s DF1000 chip, which is expected to enter mass production in late 2026. Photo: Dongfang Suanxin
Artificial intelligence

Beyond Claude Code: the Chinese AI tools poised to benefit after back-door alert

As Beijing flags a security risk in Anthropic software, domestic tech firms are rapidly embracing local alternatives such as ByteDance’s Trae and Alibaba’s Qoder.

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Anthropic’s models – including Claude Code – have long been officially inaccessible in China, but they remain popular in the country due to their advanced capabilities, with domestic developers routinely finding workarounds to maintain access. Photo: Shutterstock
Anthropic’s models – including Claude Code – have long been officially inaccessible in China, but they remain popular in the country due to their advanced capabilities, with domestic developers routinely finding workarounds to maintain access. Photo: Shutterstock
Semiconductors

Chinese chip start-up launches 8-inch production line pilot for 2D chips

The company says the production line launch marks a critical step towards China’s drive for tech self-sufficiency.

US-China tech war

Nvidia gets China boost, Iran ceasefire breaks, GDP release

This week: China allows limited imports of Nvidia H200 chips, the US and Iran resume attacks in the Middle East, and a Chinese submarine fires a test missile into the Pacific Ocean. Next week: Second-quarter GDP numbers come out, CXMT starts mainland IPO, Hong Kong Book Fair opens its doors, and more.

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Semiconductors

Why Chinese AI labs like DeepSeek and Zhipu are looking beyond models to chips

Custom silicon allows for hardware optimisation tailored to specific architectures, such as the DeepSeek-R1 model.

Custom AI chips offer better performance per dollar and per watt when designed around a hyperscaler’s own software stack and data-centre architecture. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Custom AI chips offer better performance per dollar and per watt when designed around a hyperscaler’s own software stack and data-centre architecture. Photo: Shutterstock Images
US-China tech war

FCC denies US firm with Chinese links approval to provide telecoms services

The Federal Communications Commission said it was adding Digitalsystem Technology to a list of firms posing risks to US national security.

Artificial intelligence

World working together ‘as one ecosystem’ on RISC-V chip research: executive

Alibaba vice-president Qi Xiaoning says global tech firms continue to build a unified, open-standard ecosystem amid rising geopolitical barriers.

Alibaba

Alibaba bans staff from using Claude Code over Anthropic spyware concerns

The Chinese tech giant has listed Claude Code as ‘high-risk’ software, after discovering Anthropic had tracked Chinese users using hidden code.

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A man walks past the Alibaba Group Holding logo at a business expo in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Semiconductors

Can China’s memory chip giant CXMT keep thriving after IPO and AI boom?

CXMT is taking orders for its advanced DDR5 server memory from Tencent and ByteDance after completing customer validation, a source says.

The CXMT logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in this photograph take on May 28, 2026. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
The CXMT logo is displayed on a smartphone screen in this photograph take on May 28, 2026. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Robotics

Now hiring: Nvidia’s robotics team ramps up its China talent hunt

The US chip giant says it is recruiting for more than a dozen roles as it looks to move robots from research labs to real-world deployment.

US-China tech war

US agency to extend ban on Chinese telecoms tech to cover legacy gear

In December, the FCC banned the import of new models of Chinese drones, including those made by DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer.

Semiconductors

Top China chip toolmakers consolidate to build national champions, defy US curbs

Big Fund-invested Piotech plans to acquire Wuxi Shangji and diversify into wafer-bonding, leveraging a big revenue surge to capture the local tool market.

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China aims to boost its semiconductor self-sufficiency as Washington's export controls have tightened its access to advanced foreign chipmaking tools. Photo: Shutterstock
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