Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 297
Wenchang Gears Up for a Launch Surge: Hainan Aims to Support Nearly 30 Missions in 2026
Hainan's Wenchang launch-support company plans to back almost 30 launches in 2026, prioritising mature-vehicle missions, inaugural flights of new models and activation of new workstations. The push underscores Beijing's drive to scale commercial launch capabilities but will test logistics, range capacity and supply chains while reshaping competitive dynamics in the global launch market.
Moore Threads Unveils Homegrown AI Coding Service as China Pushes for Software Sovereignty
Moore Threads has introduced a domestically hosted intelligent programming service intended as an onshore alternative to foreign AI coding assistants. The launch reflects China's push for an indigenous AI stack, and its success will hinge on technical reliability, enterprise integrations, and handling of IP and data-compliance issues.
China's Zhiyuan Stages a Robot Gala as Humanoid Industry Moves from Demos to Products
Zhiyuan Robotics will forgo the 2026 Spring Festival Gala to host Robot Wonderful Night, a live-streamed spectacle featuring hundreds of performing robots, as it concentrates resources on embodied intelligence R&D. The event underscores a broader industry pivot from demonstration to productization amid booming forecasts for humanoid robots, rising memory costs driven by AI demand, and shifting infrastructure needs for compute and power.
Alibaba Stakes 3 Billion RMB on 'Action' AI to Win the Spring Festival Battleground
Alibaba is investing RMB 3 billion in a Spring Festival campaign that stitches its Qianwen AI into commerce and local services to serve as an action-capable assistant. The move contrasts with Tencent’s cash-driven social push and ByteDance’s entertainment-focused AI experiences, and could determine which platform secures the mainstream AI entry point in China.
China’s Tech Giants Burn Billions in a New Year ‘Red-Envelope’ Bet to Buy AI Habit
China’s leading tech firms have poured 45 billion yuan into Spring Festival promotions that tie cash rewards to usage of AI assistants, aiming to convert holiday curiosity into habitual use. The campaign marks a strategic shift from traffic grabs to direct competition for the status of ‘AI super‑entry,’ but its long‑term success will depend on retention and differentiated product value.
Tencent’s Billion‑Yuan Red‑Envelope Push: A Sprint to Seed Long‑Term AI Habits
Tencent distributed RMB 1 billion in red envelopes to promote its AI app Yuanbao ahead of the 2026 Lunar New Year, briefly overloading servers and generating broad, short‑term engagement. The campaign bought reach inside Tencent’s vast social graph, but turning festive trials into lasting AI habits will depend on product depth, day‑to‑day usefulness and sustained infrastructure investment.
Materials and Manufacturing Tie-Up Aims to Push China’s Humanoid Robots into Mass Production
Zhongke Huiling has signed a three‑party agreement with Guangda Tongchuang and Delos to co‑develop lightweight structural and exterior materials for its CASBOT Lingbao humanoid robots, pairing materials R&D with manufacturing capacity to accelerate engineered, scalable delivery. The move highlights materials as a critical enabler of commercial humanoids but does not remove remaining technical and market hurdles.
Why SpaceX Bought xAI: Musk’s Vision to Move Big AI into Orbit and Power It with Stellar Energy
SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk’s xAI and, via an internal memo, framed the move as the first step toward hosting large AI systems in orbit powered by solar energy. The plan leverages SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and launch capabilities to propose a new, space‑based infrastructure for AI, but faces major technical, environmental and regulatory hurdles.
AI Demand Frays CPU Market: Stable Consumer Prices, Fragmented Server Tightness in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei
A Shenzhen market survey finds consumer CPU prices largely unchanged while server CPUs show fragmented pricing moves tied to AI demand and model-specific tightness. Traders are shifting attention to memory amid dramatic DRAM and NAND price increases, and analysts expect continued structural divergence between consumer stability and server-side episodic volatility.
Musk Bundles xAI into SpaceX to Chase a Radical Vision: AI Computes in Orbit
SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk’s xAI with the stated aim of building solar‑powered data centres in orbit, a strategy Musk argues will solve the energy and scale limits of terrestrial AI. The plan links Starlink connectivity and Starship launch capacity into a long‑term bet that could reshape AI compute economics but faces steep technical, regulatory and financial hurdles.
Musk Merges SpaceX and xAI, Betting on an Orbital AI Datacentre and a $1.25tn Giant
Elon Musk has merged xAI into SpaceX in a stock-swap that values the combined entity at roughly $1.25 trillion and lays out a plan to move large-scale AI compute into orbit using Starship, Starlink and lunar resources. The integration aims to create virtually unlimited solar-powered compute capacity but faces steep technical, regulatory and geopolitical hurdles.
Waymo’s $16bn Windfall: A Record Bet on Robotaxis That Comes with Regulatory Risk
Waymo has secured a record $16 billion financing round valuing the company at about $126 billion, signalling investor confidence in robotaxis. The deal accelerates global expansion plans but arrives amid safety incidents and federal probes that underscore regulatory and operational risks.