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Dora Zhang

Editor covering China's business and technology, focused on AI, electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and robotics, tracking industry developments, innovation, and market dynamics.

15 Embodied AI Unicorns in 6 Months: China’s Robot Race Hits a Reality Check

At least 25 Chinese embodied intelligence startups now carry valuations above RMB 10 billion (US$1.39 billion), with 15 of them crossing that threshold in the first half of 2026 alone — a concentration of capital formation that is rewriting the robotics investment landscape but also compressing the window for

LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 Passes Full-Stack Test, Eyes July Launch Window

LandSpace announced on June 29 that it has successfully completed a full-stack static fire test of its reusable Zhuque-3 Y2 launch vehicle at the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone, marking the final and most critical ground verification milestone before flight. The company said all systems performed stably

Kunlunxin’s IPO and Tencent’s Cross-Rival Bet Mark China’s AI Infrastructure Shift

As Baidu's AI chip unit targets a $50 billion Hong Kong IPO — 40% above its parent's entire market cap — a landmark cross-rival procurement deal reveals that China's internet giants can no longer afford to build everything alone. Tencent has become a significant customer

Geely's Xingyuan Tops China's Auto Market, but Structural Shifts Are Already Eroding Its Throne

Geely' Xingyuan compact EV has outsold every other passenger car in China for 18 consecutive months, but retail data through May 2026 and a tightening policy environment suggest the window for its dominance is narrowing faster than the headline numbers imply. According to data compiled by China Automotive Data

BYD's In-House Autonomous Driving Chip Set for 2027 Production Debut on Denza Models

BYD is on track to deploy its proprietary autonomous driving chip in a mass-production vehicle for the first time in 2027, marking a significant milestone in the Chinese automaker's push to vertically integrate its intelligent driving technology stack, according to an exclusive report. According to LatePost Auto&

XPeng’s X-Mind AI Framework: Autonomous Driving That “Sees the Future”

XPeng has launched X-Mind, a new technical framework designed to embed predictive world modeling directly into its onboard driving intelligence system, marking one of the company's most ambitious bets on advancing autonomous driving cognition. The framework addresses a persistent challenge in the industry: enabling AI models to

DeepSeek Doubles Peak-Hour API Prices — Still 17× Cheaper Than OpenAI

DeepSeek is doubling API prices during peak hours ahead of its V4 full commercial release in mid-July 2026 — a move that sounds aggressive until the numbers reveal it is still undercutting OpenAI's GPT-5.5 by more than 17 times, exposing the real ambition: pricing as a

ChinaBiz Briefing | DeepSeek DSpark, X Square's $2.8B Raise, AGIBOT 15k Unit, China Auto Share Slips

China's technology and industrial sectors delivered a dense set of signals on June 29 — spanning AI inference infrastructure, embodied intelligence capital formation, humanoid robot production scale, and a structural shift in global auto market share. Taken together, the day's headlines trace a single underlying theme: Chinese

Evoken Hits $2B Valuation as AI Aggregator Model Faces Its Next Test

Evoken Technology, parent company of AI creative platform Liblib, has closed a Series B+ round of nearly US$300 million, co-led by Granite Asia, Tencent, and Shunwei Capital, pushing its post-money valuation past US$2 billion — yet the company's model-aggregation strategy is drawing scrutiny over

China's Semiconductor Equipment Localization Rate Triples to 23%, With Path to 39% by 2030

A new industry analysis reveals that China's domestic semiconductor equipment sector has reached a critical inflection point, with localization rates surging and the country's two largest memory chipmakers simultaneously launching major capacity expansion programs that are set to generate billions of dollars in equipment procurement demand.