The China-US AI gap has narrowed to around three months from more than a year, thanks in part to the influx of AI talent, fast technology iteration and a boom in AI applications on the mainland, said Tony Zhang, head of China technology research at CLSA, in a media briefing on Tuesday. While Chinese companies…
China switched on 21 gigawatts of new coal power capacity in the first half of this year, the highest since 2016, according to a recent energy report. This came after electricity demand hit a historic high in July, driven by extreme heatwaves. Hydropower faltered, and coal plants were fired up to meet the load. At…
Since the launch of the Made in China 2025 plan a decade ago to foster industrial upgrading, it has been widely depicted in the West as a state-led market distortion and doomed to fail. Yet the outcome is far from failure. State-led efforts under the 10-year plan have provided a solid foundation for advancements, especially…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that export controls alone are not an effective strategy to curb China’s development of artificial intelligence (AI). He’s absolutely right. China’s rapid ascendancy in the global AI race is becoming increasingly evident, driven by its strategic focus on engineering, application-driven development and alignment with national policy. While the US…
SenseTime has significantly narrowed its losses while achieving robust growth in its generative artificial intelligence business in the first half of 2025, as China pushes a nationwide initiative to advance the AI industry. The Hong Kong-listed company on Thursday posted revenue of 2.36 billion yuan (US$330 million) for the six months ended June 30, marking…
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…
A record high number of private-sector executives and chief scientists have been shortlisted this year to compete for academicianship in China’s top institute for engineering science and technology. Nineteen are included on the newly released candidate list for the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), including Hu Guoping, 48, principal researcher and co-founder of AI specialist…
Nvidia is developing a new artificial intelligence chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture that will be more powerful than the H20 model it is currently allowed to sell there, according to two people briefed on the matter. US President Donald Trump last week opened the door to the possibility of more advanced…
In another show of support for China’s private sector, Beijing has released the details of a speech from President Xi Jinping which included vows the country would guarantee a level playing field for private firms, safeguard entrepreneurs’ lawful rights and interests, and step up efforts to solve their long-standing challenges, including overdue payments. The full…
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had personally negotiated a deal with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, letting the tech company sell a lower-end chip in China in exchange for part of those sales revenues being paid to the US government. The highly unusual deal was first reported on Sunday by the…