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Yiyun Cai

Manus Parent Butterfly Effect Raises $500M+, in China’s Largest AI App Deal

Backed by Boyu Capital and IDG, the autonomous agent startup reclaims independence from Meta and bets on a domestic product launch to challenge Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance on their home turf. Butterfly Effect, the parent company of AI agent platform Manus, has closed a funding round exceeding $500 million, the

Huawei-Qualcomm Patent Pact Signals China's Rising Royalty Power

A landmark cross-licensing agreement between Huawei and Qualcomm Incorporated redraws the boundaries of global intellectual property competition, pushing Huawei's cumulative patent licensing revenue toward a projected $6.9 billion threshold while handing Qualcomm a targeted shortcut into AI and computing patent territory. The deal, announced October 5

XPENG Launches YOYO Robotaxi Brand in China’s Shift to Commercial Autonomy

XPeng has formally branded its robotaxi service "XPENG YOYO"and simultaneously launched a public-facing WeChat mini-program, marking the company's pivot from closed-loop R&D validation to open commercial operations — a threshold few Chinese L4 autonomous driving ventures have crossed at this speed.

J.P. Morgan Calls CATL September Selloff Overdone as Market Share Data Contradicts "De-CATL-ization" Narrative

A 19% share-price collapse in one month has handed investors what J.P. Morgan argues is a structurally mispriced entry point into the world's dominant EV battery maker — one whose China passenger-EV market share actually rose during the same period the market was pricing in its

Huawei Rewrites AI Interconnect Rules With Peerium Architecture and UnifiedBus, Claiming China Market Lead Over Nvidia

Huawei Technologies has unveiled a system-level computing architecture it believes renders single-chip benchmarking obsolete, staking a claim to global leadership in large-scale AI interconnect at a moment when the race to train 40-trillion-parameter models is redefining what infrastructure actually means. At Huawei Connect 2026 in

Volkswagen, Gotion High-Tech Commit €3.2 Billion to Build Europe's Next Battery Backbone

Volkswagen AG's battery arm PowerCo and Chinese cell maker Gotion High-Tech are committing €3.22 billion (approximately RMB 24.52 billion, or US$3.40 billion) to construct three joint-venture facilities across Spain, Slovakia and Morocco — a deal that simultaneously advances Volkswagen's 240GWh European

Tencent, Alibaba Wage AI Context War as Agent Harnesses Emerge as China's Next Platform Battleground

China's two largest internet platforms are pursuing sharply divergent strategies to capture the agentic AI layer, with Bernstein analysts arguing that neither Tencent Holdings nor Alibaba Group Holding is currently priced for the option value embedded in their respective harness buildouts — both trading at 11-12x 2027 estimated

China's Smartphone Makers Face a Pricing Trap as Apple Tightens Its Grip on the High End

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro series outsold its predecessor by 30% on launch day while Android flagships cratered — exposing a structural contradiction at the heart of China's premium smartphone push: manufacturers are raising prices faster than they are building brand equity. The September 2026 launch cycle delivered

China's Auto Surge Mirrors Japan's U.S. Playbook — and Europe Is Already Responding

A new research note from UBS Global Research, published September 29, 2026, draws a striking historical parallel that deserves serious attention from anyone tracking geopolitical trade dynamics and the global automotive industry: China's current penetration of European car markets is following a trajectory nearly identical to Japan'

ChinaBiz Briefing: Huawei L3 SUV, SHEIN's Platform Pivot, Manus 2.0, Xpeng Restructures, Robot Milestone

China's technology and mobility sectors delivered a dense slate of strategic moves on September 28, underscoring a market in active transition: from hardware differentiation toward platform economics, from demo-stage ambition toward commercial accountability. Across EVs, AI agents, humanoid robotics, and fast fashion, the common thread is the