Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 2661
SoftBank Eyes Giant $30 Billion Top-Up to OpenAI — A High‑Stakes Bet in the AI Arms Race
SoftBank is reportedly negotiating to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, a potential marquee financing that would deepen the capital race among AI developers. The move would expand OpenAI's resources for compute, talent and product rollout while raising governance and regulatory questions for both companies.
SoftBank Eyes Up to $30bn Bet on OpenAI as Valuation Nears $830bn
SoftBank is negotiating a potential investment of up to $30 billion in OpenAI that could value the company at about $830 billion. The move would mark one of the largest private bets on an AI firm, accelerating compute and product expansion but raising questions about valuation sustainability, market concentration and regulatory scrutiny.
Anthropic’s Big Bet: $20bn Fundraise Propels AI Rival to a $350bn Valuation
Anthropic is lining up about $20 billion in investor commitments at a roughly $350 billion valuation, twice its initial fundraising target and driven by strong demand from institutional investors. The round, led by GIC and Coatue with large commitments from Microsoft and Nvidia, highlights investor confidence in Anthropic's enterprise focus even as the company readies an IPO and publicly emphasises AI safety.
Shanghai Stakes a Claim to 120 ExaFLOPS of Smart Compute and Pitches Space–Ground 'Supernode' Architecture
Shanghai announced that its aggregate smart‑compute capacity has surpassed 120,000 petaFLOPS and outlined an agenda to build a self‑reliant compute ecosystem linking domestic chips, models and cloud services. Officials and industry groups also floated an integrated space–ground architecture that would treat LEO satellites as programmable compute clusters to achieve global, low‑latency coverage for selected applications.
Open‑source AI Agent Goes Viral — Cloudflare Rides a Two‑Day Stock Surge as Markets Price an Edge‑Infrastructure Tailwind
An open‑source AI agent, Moltbot, has gone viral for its ability to run locally and call major language models, prompting a two‑day surge in Cloudflare’s stock as investors bet edge infrastructure will benefit from agent‑driven traffic. The boost raises questions about whether increased traffic will convert into revenue, and spotlights security, governance and competitive risks for the AI ecosystem.
Chinese Solar Suppliers Push Back on Space-PV Hype as Investors Eye New Frontier
Jinlang Technology and Tongguang Cable publicly denied involvement in supplying components for space-based photovoltaic systems, pushing back on market rumours. Their statements highlight the technical, commercial and regulatory gaps between terrestrial solar manufacturing and the nascent industry of space photovoltaics.
Li Auto’s Big Bet: From Electric SUVs to Humanoid Robots and the Push for ‘Embodied Intelligence’
Li Xiang told Li Auto staff that the firm will evolve from an electric‑vehicle maker into an "embodied intelligence" company, pursuing base models, inference chips, an OS and humanoid robots. The strategic shift reflects investor pressure for higher‑margin AI products, recruitment of robotics talent, and significant technical and regulatory hurdles ahead.
China’s QCraft Sees 2026 as the Start of a ‘Golden Decade’ for Driverless Cars — City NOA to Reach Mass Market
QCraft CEO Yu Qian says 2026 will mark the start of a decade‑long expansion in autonomous driving, with city NOA expected on mass‑market cars priced around ¥100,000. The company has passed one million vehicle deployments and argues that end‑to‑end learning, VLA and world models plus massive data loops will drive safety and scale, while pragmatic sensor choices and local adaptation will shape competition.
SK Hynix Weighs U.S. AI Investment Hub to Centralise Group’s AI Bets
SK Hynix is exploring the creation of an AI investment arm in the United States to centralise group-level AI investments and speed strategic decisions. The plan would place the company closer to cloud customers, AI start‑ups and investors, and could shift SK Hynix toward higher‑value participation in the AI infrastructure ecosystem.
Retail Demo Backfires: Xiaomi Staff Tosses Phone to Prove Durability — Screen Cracks, Public Questions Follow
A Xiaomi store employee’s attempt to demonstrate a phone’s drop resistance ended with the device’s screen cracking, and the clip sparked online mockery and questions about who should pay for repairs. The incident underscores how live retail demonstrations can backfire, creating reputational and liability headaches for manufacturers and retailers.
Ma Huateng’s AI U‑Turn: From Caution to a High‑Stakes Bet on WeChat and Compute
Over three years Tencent’s stance on AI has shifted from cautious integration to active, capital‑heavy deployment. Ma Huateng has reorganised AI teams, beefed up compute spending and launched a CNY 1bn promotional push to seed an AI assistant inside WeChat, betting the company’s social graph and ad franchise can translate into AI dominance.
Robots Invade China’s Spring Festival Gala: A High‑Stakes Pre‑IPO Roadshow
China’s top New Year variety show has become a critical marketing stage for domestic robot start‑ups seeking valuation uplift and orders before IPOs. Three robot companies — Unitree, Magic Atom and Galaxy General — have secured gala roles, prompting industry debate over whether polished performances obscure the tougher work of scaling and commercialization.