Baidu-backed drug discovery start-up Biomap challenges Google’s AlphaFold

Baidu-backed drug discovery start-up Biomap challenges Google’s AlphaFold

Biomap, a biotechnology start-up co-established by Baidu founder Robin Li Yanhong and backed by the Hong Kong government, says it has surpassed Alphabet subsidiary AlphaFold in commercialising artificial intelligence foundation models for drug discovery. Multinational pharmaceutical companies were seeing a “reverse” in the technological gap between Biomap and AlphaFold, Wei Liu, co-founder and CEO of…

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China Future Tech webinar | How US tactics could boost China’s chip self-sufficiency

China Future Tech webinar | How US tactics could boost China’s chip self-sufficiency

Date and time: Friday, September 19, 2025 10.30am-11.30am (HKT) The US-China chip war is escalating, with Washington’s goal of limiting Beijing’s technological advancement now sparking a counter-reaction that may accelerate China’s drive for chip self-sufficiency. The latest actions in this conflict – including US export controls and China’s push for domestic alternatives – are reshaping…

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What China’s self-reliance push means for its semiconductor industry as US hurdles mount

What China’s self-reliance push means for its semiconductor industry as US hurdles mount

China’s drive for economic self-reliance is raising the spirits and prospects of its semiconductor industry, as insiders expect more home-grown technologies after Washington revoked waivers for some foreign-owned chipmakers’ factories in China to use US technologies in their operations. The Chinese branches of South Korean chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix, as well as Intel Semiconductor…

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Tech war: DeepSeek’s V3.1 model emerges as ‘key pillar’ for China’s chip self-sufficiency

Tech war: DeepSeek’s V3.1 model emerges as ‘key pillar’ for China’s chip self-sufficiency

The Hangzhou-based start-up’s updated model, which supports an innovative data format called UE8M0 FP8, was “ushering in a booming domestic computing power chain”, Huatai Securities analysts said in a research note on Tuesday. That architecture showed that the synergy between mainland-designed software and chips would realise significant results, according to the report. FP8, known as…

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Changing times: Cambricon tops Moutai as China’s costliest stock as chips trump baijiu

Changing times: Cambricon tops Moutai as China’s costliest stock as chips trump baijiu

Cambricon Technologies became the costliest stock in mainland China’s equities market, as the Beijing-based chipmaker replaced the liquor distiller Kweichow Moutai in a sign of the rising significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world’s second-largest capital market. Trading under the symbol 688256 in Shanghai, Cambricon’s shares jumped 11.60 per cent on Monday to a…

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