📰 Latest News

A China Electronics Technology Group institute has completed tape‑out and initial testing of a high‑performance RISC‑V CPU and a first-generation AI inference chip aimed at edge and endpoint uses. The milestone advances China's push for indigenous compute and RISC‑V adoption, though commercial performance and volume production remain uncertain.

Haiguang Information’s DCU has completed Day‑0 adaptation and joint fine‑tuning of Zhipu AI’s newly open‑sourced GLM‑5 model, using its DTK stack to optimise operators and hardware acceleration. The move highlights China’s push to pair domestic models with domestic compute, reducing reliance on foreign accelerators and accelerating production deployment.

DeepSeek has begun limited testing of a model that supports a 1 million token context window and uses training data up to May 2025, a significant expansion from its previous 128k limit. The change suggests material architectural or pipeline upgrades and signals intensified competition among Chinese AI providers to ship more capable, enterprise‑ready models.

ByteDance has begun grey testing Seedance 2.0 in its Doubao app, allowing select users to generate short (4–15s) multimodal videos that use images, audio and text as references. The staged rollout, short-duration limits and quota system show a cautious path to embedding advanced generative video tools into ByteDance’s creator ecosystem while managing technical and policy risks.

ByteDance has started a limited rollout of Seedance 2.0, a next‑generation video‑generation model, inside its Doubao AI assistant app. The grayscale test lets select users try the new model while ByteDance evaluates performance and safety before a wider release, with implications for creators, platform engagement and regulatory oversight.

Zhipu AI released GLM‑5 as open source on Feb. 11, and Haiguang DCU completed Day‑0 adaptation and joint fine‑tuning to provide immediate, deployable solutions for developers and enterprises. The move highlights accelerating integration between Chinese model creators and infrastructure providers, shortening the path from research release to commercial use.

China plans to advance 'high‑level' two‑way opening of its capital account in 2026 while strengthening supervision to limit cross‑border risks. SAFE and the PBOC will widen access for institutional investors, broaden multinational cash‑pooling and green financing pilots, and tighten middle‑ and post‑event monitoring to prevent systemic shocks.

An enforcement order has placed Buchang Pharmaceutical founder Zhao Buchang on China’s restricted‑consumption list after a family‑owned hotel failed to fully repay a Rmb16 million loan. The case is legally separate from the listed company but raises governance and related‑party concerns given the Zhao family’s recent local property acquisitions and the founder’s controlling stakes in non‑listed assets.

Sichuan securities authorities ordered corrective measures and issued warning letters to Huatu Shanding and four senior executives after finding undisclosed financial support for an affiliate and delayed reporting of related‑party transactions totaling about RMB 69 million. A Huatu education subsidiary in Daqing was also fined and had exam materials confiscated for failing to register publications. Regulators recorded the actions in the market integrity database, signalling reputational and compliance risks for the group.

China’s mainland markets closed with mixed results as investor caution pushed combined turnover below Rmb2 trillion for the first time in 31 sessions. Cyclical pockets—chemicals, fiberglass and tungsten—outperformed while tech‑and‑growth boards, including ChiNext, fell more than 1%, and cinema stocks plunged sharply.

Ahead of the Lunar New Year, a sudden, concentrated flood of Xijiu’s Yuan Xijiu into a Zhengzhou wholesale market caused wholesale prices to crash from about 500 yuan per box to as low as 330 yuan, revealing persistent inventory pressure and weak channel controls. The incident undermines the company’s recent pledges to stabilise supply and price, and raises questions about execution of its Marketing 2.0 reforms and broader implications for brand positioning in China’s softening baijiu market.

Capgemini and Microsoft have agreed to deliver a managed sovereign cloud service that prioritises data residency, regulatory compliance and business continuity. The partnership combines Capgemini's regional integration and services capabilities with Microsoft's Azure stack to serve governments and regulated industries seeking stronger local control of data.

Capgemini and Microsoft have launched a managed sovereign-cloud service aimed at regulated customers that need stronger guarantees on data residency, compliance and resilience. The partnership marries Microsoft’s cloud platform with Capgemini’s local integration and operational controls to offer a middle ground between hyperscale convenience and national/regulatory demands for data control.

Zhiyu Zhishan Investment has built an integrated AI system, “AI Cybertan,” that embeds machine learning across research, trading, risk and backtesting rather than treating AI as a mere efficiency tool. The firm argues this infrastructure approach yields more consistent decision‑making across global markets, but warns that AI’s opportunities come with heightened uncertainty and governance demands.

Tencent has embedded its AI assistant into Yuanbao Party to offer shared, AI‑augmented viewing of the 2026 NBA All‑Star weekend, tying live sports streaming to the company’s broader social and content ecosystem. The move coincides with a larger Lunar New Year “AI traffic” battle that mixes subsidies and product experiments, and it follows publication of a Tencent‑led benchmark showing current models struggle to learn consistently from conversational context.

The EU has approved Google’s $32 billion acquisition of cloud‑security firm Wiz, following U.S. clearance and capping a major strategic move by Google Cloud to bolster its enterprise security offerings. The purchase is likely to accelerate consolidation in cloud security and sharpen competitive pressure on rivals and independent vendors.

The EU has approved Google’s $32 billion acquisition of cloud-security startup Wiz, following U.S. clearance, underscoring Google's push to strengthen Google Cloud’s security capabilities. The transaction sets a high-water mark for valuations in cloud security and will reshape competition among cloud providers and security vendors.

Two prominent xAI founders quit within 48 hours after a series of earlier exits left half the original founding team gone, undermining Elon Musk’s AI ambitions. The exits, heavy cash burn, and product scandals around Grok have coincided with xAI’s absorption into SpaceX — a deal that looks like a financial bailout but raises fresh strategic and regulatory headaches.

China’s central bank says the recent shift of household and corporate savings into asset-management products is reshaping the composition of bank funding rather than draining funds from the banking system. Most AMP assets are invested in fixed income and interbank deposits, meaning that much reallocated money ultimately remains within bank balance sheets when viewed on a consolidated basis.

President Trump publicly congratulated Japan’s newly strengthened LDP government while privately pressing Tokyo over slow progress on a $550 billion investment package pledged to the United States. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s March visit will bring proposals such as joint rare-earth development and the first tranche of investments, but deep mutual distrust and high American demands risk turning the bargain into a geopolitical lever rather than a simple economic pact.