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Start-ups

Start-ups
Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
AI chip designer Enflame on Wednesday entered the inquiry stage of its initial public offering on Shanghai’s Star Market. Photo: Handout
IPO

Will Chinese AI chip designer Enflame’s Shanghai IPO be another blockbuster?

Tencent-backed Enflame’s listing on the Star Market could follow successful recent flotations from peers Moore Threads, MetaX and Biren.

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek boosts AI model with 10-fold token addition as Zhipu AI unveils GLM-5

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Artificial intelligence

Funding surge powers Chinese robotics firms as focus shifts to humanoid ‘brains’

Artificial intelligence

Compact AI model from China’s StepFun outshines rivals from DeepSeek, Moonshot

StepFun says its lightweight model Step 3.5 Flash aims to redefine efficiency and reasoning in China’s growing AI race.

Chinese AI developers are rushing to launch new models around the Lunar New Year to capitalise on the festive season. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

Video | World’s first ‘biomimetic AI robot’ debuts in Shanghai

The robot, which is able to replicate human micro-expressions and walking postures, will be priced at 1.2 million yuan (US$173,000).

Artificial intelligence

China’s AI labs race to debut latest models before Lunar New Year

More firms expected to follow Alibaba and Moonshot with model releases, as the festival becomes a key period to establish visibility.

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Robotics

Forget soulless humanoid robots like Tesla’s Optimus. This one’s more Wall-E

Fauna Robotics’ humanoid robot Sprout is an attempt to start a focus on ‘approachable’ robots inspired by Wall-E and BB-8, not Terminator.

Fauna Robotics’ new humanoid robot Sprout shows off its dexterity while being operated remotely at the company’s headquarters in New York on January 14, 2026. Photo: AP
Icons and Influencers

Nadya Okamoto on challenging norms through menstrual care activism

With nearly 4.5 million TikTok followers, the entrepreneur – who also started a non-profit to combat period poverty – has clearly struck a chord.

Artificial intelligence

Moonshot’s newest release narrows US-China AI model development gap: analysts

Kimi K2.5 raises questions about the potency of US controls on advanced chips to constrain China’s AI efforts, Brookings’ Kyle Chan says.

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Banking & finance

Hong Kong’s US$8 billion wealth fund eyes fintech, aerospace and AI for growth

The Hong Kong Investment Corporation will use the city’s advantages amid global competition, geopolitical challenges, CEO Clara Chan says.

The Hong Kong Investment Corporation made HK$2.34 billion in investment income in 2024, according to its annual report released in December. Photo: Jonathan Wong
China technology

Opinion | How Hangzhou’s tech ecosystem nurtures dragons and rockets

It’s not one factor but a ‘rainforest’ of policy, capital, talent, universities and research institutions operating within clear boundaries.

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A mechanical horse dragon spits fire during a parade on December 16, 2023, in Hangzhou in China’s Zhejiang province. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen-3 becomes one of world’s first AI models to operate in orbit

The entire Qwen-3 process – from uploading queries to on-orbit inference and sending results back to Earth – took less than two minutes.

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Artificial intelligence

Geely-linked veteran Yin Qi joins Chinese AI start-up StepFun as chairman

StepFun closes US$690 million B+ funding round as the company doubles down on “physical AI”.

Robotics

Chinese tech giants Tencent and Baidu join fight for Spring Festival spotlight

The two companies launch digital red packet campaigns following tie-up moves by ByteDance and Alibaba with CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala.

The Spring Festival Gala has become one of the most important promotional platforms for tech giants. Photo: Handout
Robotics

China’s Eyou opens world’s first automated line for humanoid robot joints

Manufacturer adds line in anticipation of surge in global demand for humanoid robots, with one estimate projecting 100,000 shipments by 2027.

Eyou supplies domestic humanoid robot makers, including AgiBot. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

Next level: why China’s game makers are quietly bankrolling generative AI

From scripts and storylines to customer service and user-generated worlds, developers are deploying LLM tools across the gaming pipeline.

IPO

From labs to listings: capital markets are the next battleground in the AI race

Stock exchanges have become another barometer in the US-China tech rivalry as markets assess a wave of start-ups in real time.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s ‘infrastructure first’ effort a major edge in AI arms race: Davos panel

A rapid energy buildout and strategic data centre expansion give China unique advantages in developing its AI industry.

China’s “AI Plus” panel discussion at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday included, from left, moderator Guan Xin, Tencent Holdings’ Dowson Tong, Moonshot AI’s Zhang Yutong and Nankai University’s Gong Ke. Photo: SCMP
Artificial intelligence

China-founded Shanda’s AI lab boosts Singapore operation, pulling China research

MiroMind asks some staff in Shanghai to relocate and continue their AI research work in Singapore, sources say.

Artificial intelligence

Beijing outlines tech push with focus on AI, 6G, humanoid robots

Tech ministry’s plan targets breakthroughs in AI models, agents and chips, as well as AI’s spread into diverse sectors.

HKEX

New energy, AI, EV and biotech to drive Hong Kong IPO growth: HKEX

11 companies raised US$4 billion in Hong Kong in the first three weeks of 2026, with hundreds more lining up to list, Bonnie Chan says.

HKEX will continue to help innovators access capital more efficiently, says Bonnie Chan. Photo: Edmond So
China technology

China’s nuclear fusion start-ups power up with record funding round

Startorus Fusion raised US$143 million, a record for a private firm, while Supermag New Energy received ‘several hundred million yuan’.

China has launched an association specifically tasked with accelerating funding for the commercialisation of nuclear fusion technology. Photo: Shutterstock
DeepSeek

DeepSeek a year on: how a Chinese start-up sparked a global AI arms race

DeepSeek’s meteoric rise propelled the growth of the open-source AI ecosystem by spurring its competitors to join the movement.

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Robotics

China’s Unitree ships over 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, surpassing US peers

The Hangzhou-based firm’s output far outstripped the roughly 150 units each shipped by Tesla, Figure AI and Agility Robotics last year.

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Robotics

China dominates global humanoid robot market with over 80% of installations

AgiBot and Unitree help China capture bulk of global deployments in 2025 as market heads for sixfold growth by 2027, report says.

Visitors take pictures of Unitree robots at a fair in Paris. Photo: Reuters
China stock market

China pushes slow bull run with tightened margin financing rules

‘Investors should reduce their leverage levels to guard against the risk of volatility,’ BOC International’s Wang Jun says.

The tightened margin trading rules’ immediate impact was to cool market sentiment. Photo: Shutterstock
Semiconductors

SpacemiT to launch server-class RISC-V processor following capital injection

CEO Chen is betting on Edge AI – which can run AI algorithms locally rather than in the cloud – to boost the adoption of RISC-V chips.

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek stays mum on next AI model release as technical papers show frontier innovation

Hangzhou-based start-up’s technical papers bode well for potential advances in its next major AI models.

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