Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 300
Tencent Dumps ¥1bn in New-Year 'Red Envelopes' to Seed Yuanbao AI and Reboot Social Play
Tencent has launched a 1 billion yuan red‑envelope campaign to promote its Yuanbao AI assistant and new social features, aiming to recreate WeChat’s viral momentum. The stunt forms part of a broader New Year push by Chinese tech giants to capture AI users, with long‑term winners likely to be those with superior models and practical use cases rather than the biggest marketing budgets.
Jensen Huang’s Taipei Night: Nvidia Reaffirms Taiwan Ties as Supply Chain Faces a ‘Very Tight’ 2026
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hosted nearly 40 senior Taiwanese supply‑chain executives in Taipei, using the occasion to thank partners, apologise for recent production disruptions around the Grace Blackwell platform, and warn that 2026 will be "extremely tight" for memory and packaging supply. He confirmed Nvidia’s participation in OpenAI’s next financing round, reaffirmed the company’s full‑stack strategy versus ASIC competition, and underlined Taiwan’s indispensable role in Nvidia’s success.
Nvidia’s $20bn Bet on ‘Extreme’ Inference Chips Signals a Shift from Training to Cheap, High‑Throughput AI
Nvidia’s roughly $20 billion acquisition of Groq’s technology and team marks a strategic bet that AI’s commercial future lies in low‑cost, high‑throughput inference rather than giant training clusters. Chinese startups and spin‑outs are racing to produce specialized inference chips, aiming to slash per‑token costs and capture regional markets as AI applications scale rapidly.
Apple’s AI Brain Drain Deepens as Researchers Jump to Meta and DeepMind
Apple has lost at least four AI researchers — Yinfei Yang, Haoxuan You, Bailin Wang and Zirui Wang — who have joined Meta and Google DeepMind, following a recent departure of a senior Siri executive. The departures highlight a fierce talent competition in AI and raise concerns about Apple’s ability to rapidly scale advanced large‑model capabilities while maintaining its product and privacy constraints.
ByteDance's High-Risk Climb: Doubao as the Company's Bid to Own the AI-Assistant Summit
ByteDance has declared its 2026 priority: make the Doubao/Dola AI assistant the central interface that links its consumer apps and cloud services. The company has scaled user adoption rapidly, advanced its model capabilities and pushed into phone‑level automation, but now faces fierce competition from Alibaba and Tencent, regulatory scrutiny, and practical permission barriers from other app and device owners.
China’s 55‑Yuan iPhone 4S Boom: Nostalgia Fad or a Canary for Consumer Downshift?
A sudden surge in sales of the decade‑old iPhone 4S in China — often traded for about 55 yuan — reflects a mix of nostalgia, affordability pressures and the growing strength of the secondhand market. The trend coexists with strong demand for Apple’s latest flagships, suggesting a split in consumer behaviour rather than a straightforward downgrade.
Huang Says Nvidia Will Join OpenAI’s New Fundraise — But $100bn Claim Is Off the Table
Jensen Huang confirmed Nvidia will participate in OpenAI’s current fundraising round but denied the company would invest anywhere near $100 billion, a figure that had been reported earlier. His comments aim to reassure markets that Nvidia–OpenAI ties remain strong while tempering expectations about the scale of Nvidia’s financial commitment.
China Claims Near-Universal 5G in the Countryside — A Major Push for Rural Digitisation
China reports that by the end of 2025 all townships and 95% of administrative villages have 5G access, supported by extensive fibre rollout and thousands of rural base stations. The government says the build‑out underpins rural modernisation, education and telemedicine, but challenges remain around service quality, affordability and the last 5% of unconnected villages.
Zhejiang Builds an Offline Hub for China’s Largest Open‑Source AI Community — A Bet on Industrial AI
Zhejiang has opened a 10,000+ sqm developer centre in Hangzhou as the offline anchor for Moda, China’s largest open‑source AI community. Backed by Alibaba Cloud Valley and local government, the centre offers cheap co‑working, technical support for model deployment and a curated pipeline of industry pilot opportunities to accelerate industrial adoption of AI.
SpaceX Proposes a Million‑Satellite 'Orbital Data Center' to Power AI — but Approval, Cost and Safety Are Up in the Air
SpaceX has applied to the FCC for permission to deploy and operate up to one million satellites as an "Orbital Data Center" designed to host AI compute in space, linking to Starlink via optical intersatellite links and relying on Starship launches. The plan raises immediate questions about regulatory approval, collision risk, financing, and geopolitical and commercial consequences for cloud and satellite sectors.
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Confirms Company Will Invest in OpenAI — but Not the $100bn Hype
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company will participate in the current OpenAI funding round and that the investment could be Nvidia’s largest ever, though it will be far below earlier $100 billion speculation. The pledge strengthens ties between a leading GPU supplier and a top AI-model developer, with strategic benefits and regulatory complexities for both firms and their customers.
China’s L3 Breakthrough Reignites a Strategic Split: Regulated Stepwise Rollout vs. Skipping Straight to L4
China’s first L3 automated‑driving permits, issued at the end of 2025, have intensified a strategic divide between firms that favour a regulated, scenario‑limited rollout and those aiming to leap directly to L4 autonomy. The debate is shaped by rapid L2 adoption, certification standards that increasingly demand L4‑like fail‑safe behaviour, and the commercial limits of narrow ODDs.