📰 Latest News

A new server production line in Jiangsu bundles Loongson CPUs with Taichu Yuange’s heterogeneous many‑core AI accelerators as China pursues an indigenous, energy‑efficient AI compute stack. Backed by policy and driven by demand for HPC+AI, this approach challenges the dominant GPGPU model but faces ecosystem, utilisation and commercialisation hurdles.

Mercedes‑Benz China has announced a managed leadership reshuffle: Duan Jianjun will step down as president and CEO of the Beijing sales company and remain as an advisor until 30 April, Li Desi will take over on 1 March, Zhang Mingxia will move from smart’s global marketing role back into sales on 1 April, and Kang Yi will become smart’s global CMO. The moves prioritise continuity and closer alignment between sales, marketing and finance as Mercedes navigates intense competition and rapid change in China’s automotive market.

JD.com says French police and the Chinese embassy helped recover most goods stolen from the company’s Paris warehouse in a December 2025 robbery. The recovery reduces immediate losses and reputational damage as JD presses ahead with a broader European expansion that includes a logistics network (JoyExpress), a new retail brand (Joybuy) and a major stake in Germany’s CECONOMY.

ByteDance has launched Doubao 2.0, a family of production‑oriented large models (Pro, Lite, Mini, and a Code variant) focused on efficient inference, multimodal ability and long‑chain task execution. The company claims strong benchmark performance versus rivals but faces scrutiny over IP and international review requests, highlighting the tension between rapid commercialisation and the need for independent validation and regulatory compliance.

PICC Property and Casualty has received at least 15 regulatory penalties since the start of 2026, with regional branches fined for falsified data, misuse of policy terms, fabricated intermediary fees and refusal to accept cash. Regulators have issued fines, warnings and long-term industry bans, exposing systemic weaknesses in internal controls across the insurer’s local operations.

NetEase reported that OpenAI is named in competing Pentagon bids to supply voice‑to‑digital translation for drone‑swarm command software, a narrowly defined role that stops short of direct control or targeting. The work is part of a $100m Pentagon prototype challenge to field autonomous swarms, raising technical, ethical and geopolitical questions about the integration of generative AI into weapons systems.

Anthropic has raised $30 billion at a roughly $380 billion valuation to accelerate research and infrastructure, while OpenAI released GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark on Cerebras hardware to lessen its reliance on Nvidia. The moves underscore a shift toward capital‑heavy model development and strategic chip diversification, with Chinese firms simultaneously open‑sourcing large models and pushing robotics and embodied AI.

Gold and silver surged as investors skittishly rotated away from technology stocks amid heightened geopolitical rhetoric from Washington and mixed macro signals. In China, regulators tightened rules on platform‑linked consumer lending while the central bank reported continued credit growth, underscoring Beijing’s dual focus on innovation and financial stability.

Waymo has begun paying DoorDash couriers in Atlanta to close car doors when passengers leave them ajar, a pragmatic fix for an operational snag that prevents autonomous vehicles from resuming service. The pilot highlights the persistent need for human intervention in advanced automation and raises questions about liability, labor and the pace of engineering solutions.

Zhiyuan Robotics launched the full‑size YuanZheng A3 humanoid, showcasing continuous martial‑arts style moves and claiming up to eight hours of mixed‑use battery life. The machine pairs hardware upgrades with a multimodal interaction stack and a company‑backed data platform, signalling a push to convert spectacle into deployable service robots and to outflank rivals such as YushU.

Anthropic has closed a $30 billion Series G at a roughly $380 billion valuation to fund research and infrastructure, while OpenAI has released GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark built to run on Cerebras chips, signalling a strategic push to diversify away from Nvidia. Simultaneous Chinese moves — open‑sourcing large models and new robotics funding — highlight global competition on models, hardware and deployment.

U.S. officials say military planning is underway for strikes on Iran that could last weeks and extend beyond nuclear targets to security and state institutions. Washington has bolstered forces in the Middle East while Tehran warns of retaliation, raising the risk of a protracted regional confrontation.

OpenClaw — an open‑source agent orchestration framework — has ignited a community frenzy, spawning new social and marketplace experiments and attracting attention from high‑profile Chinese tech figures. Its agent‑to‑agent model shifts productivity dynamics, creating structural opportunities in multi‑agent platforms, security tooling, elastic compute markets and edge hardware, while raising novel privacy and governance risks.

A Xinhua profile of a Northern Theater Command submarine unit highlights crew professionalism, endurance and technological progress, reflecting Beijing’s emphasis on undersea capabilities as part of broader naval modernization. The article serves both domestic narrative and international signaling purposes, underscoring how improved submarine operations complicate regional anti‑submarine efforts and shape strategic competition beneath the waves.

A knife-wielding man threatened a gendarme near the Arc de Triomphe on February 13 and was shot and hospitalized after being subdued by another gendarme. The national anti-terror prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation, and authorities are probing motive while reassuring the public that no one else was injured.

President Trump confirmed the deployment of a second U.S. aircraft carrier to the Middle East, increasing American naval presence amid heightened regional tensions. The move is designed to deter Iran and reassure partners, but it raises risks of escalation, economic fallout for shipping and energy markets, and diplomatic complications for other global players including China.

Israel’s chief of staff visited Rafah and declared Hamas “militarily defeated,” while warning the IDF is ready to switch from defensive to offensive operations and announcing a new 38th Division. The visit underscores Israel’s preparedness for further ground action in Gaza and raises the risk of escalation around sensitive border crossings and displaced civilian populations.

A Japanese Board of Audit review found extensive delays and maintenance problems in U.S. defence equipment bought through the Foreign Military Sales program, even as Tokyo increases spending to bolster its forces. The findings raise questions about the cost‑effectiveness, timing and strategic rationale of Japan’s heavy purchases of American arms.

NATO has launched "Arctic Sentinel," a multi‑domain operation led by Joint Force Command Norfolk to centralize allied command and strengthen presence across the Arctic and High North. The initiative reflects growing strategic competition in the region and a desire to improve coordination among Nordic and NATO partners in a challenging operational environment.

Iran’s foreign minister said a deal with the United States over Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme is possible if it is “fair and balanced” and provides credible security guarantees. The comments, made on the Revolution anniversary, come after indirect talks in Oman and high-level consultations in Washington and underscore both diplomatic openings and domestic constraints on any agreement.