Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 301
Chinese AI Firm Defends Restaurant‑booking Calls as Machine, Not Human — But Skepticism Lingers
Qianwen has denied claims that its restaurant‑reservation calling feature is operated by humans, asserting the service uses a fast emotion and intent recognition engine to produce humanlike speech. The response underscores tensions between the operational benefits of voice automation and concerns about deception, privacy and regulatory oversight.
Veteran Investor Behind Shanghai’s Semiconductor Push, Zhu Xudong, Dies at 62
Zhu Xudong, founder and investment committee chair of a Shanghai industrial investment firm focused on semiconductor equipment and materials, died on 25 January 2026 at 62. His career bridged Pudong’s early development and China’s recent drive to build domestic semiconductor capability, and his death removes an experienced investor at a pivotal moment for the industry.
China’s Commercial Space Race Eyes 2026 as the Year of Reusable Rockets
At a Beijing forum, chief engineers from three leading Chinese commercial space firms unveiled competing plans to prove reusable rocket technology in 2026. Their strategies differ—batch production and engine upgrades, large kerolox modular rockets, and a dual small/large vehicle path—yet all target lower costs and higher cadence to serve satellite‑internet constellations.
China Puts an Embodied AI on Its Biggest Stage: Galaxy General to Supply Robots for the 2026 Spring Gala
Galaxy General has been designated to provide embodied large-model robots for China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala, signalling a shift of advanced robotics from labs into mass cultural exposure. The move offers a high-profile marketing and technical proving ground while raising safety, governance and societal-acceptance questions.
China’s Big Tech Turns Lunar New Year Into an AI‑Fueled Cash War: Baidu and Tencent Pour Billions into Red‑Packet Promotions
Baidu and Tencent have launched multi‑hundred‑million‑yuan Spring Festival cash campaigns, coupling traditional digital red packets with AI demonstrations and ecosystem plays. The promotions highlight an emerging pattern: China’s tech giants are using culturally resonant incentives and AI showpieces to drive short‑term transactions and long‑term platform engagement, with implications for competition and regulation.
Baidu Throws Its Hat Into the New Year AI Bonanza with a RMB 500m Red‑Envelope Push
Baidu is offering users a share of RMB 500 million in cash rewards via its Wenxin assistant from Jan 26 to Mar 12, with individual prizes up to RMB 10,000, and has been named chief AI partner for the 2026 Beijing Spring Festival Gala. The promotion is a marketing gambit to boost engagement and legitimacy amid intense competition among Chinese tech firms for AI users, but it carries economic and regulatory risks.
LEO Satellite Boom Sparks High‑End PCB Arms Race in China
China's PCB industry is racing to capture a rising share of the booming low‑Earth‑orbit satellite market by investing in high‑frequency, high‑reliability boards and scaling production. Domestic firms have manufacturing scale and supply‑chain advantages, but still face certification and materials hurdles before they can fully capitalise on mass deployments.
Party-Led Push Accelerates PLA Unit’s Indigenous Tech Project, Turning Political Leadership into R&D Momentum
A January 2026 SoMi report describes how a PLA information support unit’s party committee intervened directly to revive a stalled indigenous equipment project, coordinating front-line research, universities and military institutes. The episode illustrates Beijing’s emphasis on party-led, rapid problem-solving to close technological gaps and strengthen combat readiness.
Cathie Wood Says Tesla’s Robotaxi Edge Is Its Low Cost — But Big Hurdles Remain
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest estimates Tesla could undercut autonomous rivals on cost by at least 50%, relying on vertical integration and high fleet utilisation. The claim highlights Tesla’s disruptive potential in Robotaxi economics but runs into technical, regulatory and competitive headwinds that make the outcome uncertain.
Honor Leans on Pop Mart’s MOLLY to Spark Sales with Limited‑Edition 500 Pro
Honor and Pop Mart have launched a limited‑edition Honor 500 Pro featuring the MOLLY character to coincide with MOLLY’s 20th anniversary. Priced at ¥4,499 (¥3,999 after subsidy), the phone exemplifies a broader industry shift toward pop‑culture collaborations to stimulate demand among younger consumers in a saturated smartphone market.
China’s Magic Atom Leaps from Lab to Limelight — But Commercial Robot Reality Remains Costly and Long-Dated
Magic Atom, a young Chinese humanoid‑robot start‑up, was named an official robotics partner for China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala, a high‑visibility sign that humanoid robotics are moving toward commercialisation. Its co‑founder warned that embodied intelligence remains a long‑cycle, capital‑intensive field: hardware costs, scarce effective real‑world data, and the difficulty of passing training costs to customers are the industry’s core challenges.
Why Jensen Huang’s Shanghai Market Stop Matters: Nvidia, Chinese AI Ambition and the Race for Compute
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s modest Shanghai market visit underscored the company’s ongoing commercial commitment to China even as export controls and rapid domestic innovation reshape the competitive landscape. Chinese advances in open‑source models, homegrown accelerators and emerging photonic computing are narrowing reliance on foreign GPUs and creating a more diversified global AI infrastructure.