Topic

AI

In-depth analysis of China’s AI industry, covering artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, robotics, AI chips, and large language models. This section tracks policy shifts, commercialization progress, and competitive dynamics shaping China’s rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.

ByteDance's Net Profit Plunges Over 70% in 2026 Amid Surge in AI Spending, Report Says

ByteDance Ltd.'s net profit declined by more than 70% in 2026 as the company significantly ramped up investment in artificial intelligence operations, according to people familiar with the matter cited by a Chinese financial publication. According to Securities Times' report published recently, the sharp drop in profitability

DeepSeek Seeks $300M at $10B Valuation as Nvidia Dependence Becomes Existential Liability

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI model developer that vowed never to court venture capital, is now seeking approximately US 300 million in a funding round valuing the company at US10 billion, according to reports emerging April 17, 2026. The dramatic reversal marks a 360-degree shift from founder Liang Wenfeng'

DeepSeek’s DeepGEMM Overhaul Signals Nvidia Blackwell Integration Amid Compute Squeeze

Chinese artificial intelligence developer DeepSeek has restructured its core computing library to radically optimize Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architectures, deploying a "Mega MoE" framework that strongly indicates the company is leveraging Nvidia Corp.’s advanced Blackwell hardware despite ongoing semiconductor export restrictions. The quiet update to the open-

ChinaBiz Briefing | CATL Mining Push, Huawei Regains Crown, Alibaba AI App Layer, MiniMax Agents

China’s tech and industrial ecosystem is moving deeper into a phase defined by resource control, AI commercialization and platform competition. CATL is expanding upstream to secure raw materials, while Alibaba and MiniMax are pushing into the AI application and agent layers. At the same time, smartphone competition is reshuffling,

MiniMax Launches MaxHermes, a Cloud-Based Self-Evolving AI Agent

MiniMax has launched MaxHermes, which it describes as the world’s first cloud-based “sandbox” for the Hermes Agent, positioning the product as a long-running AI assistant that improves through continuous use. MaxHermes is built around a learning loop designed to turn completed complex tasks into reusable “Skills.” The

Rednote Open-Sources “Relax,” Boosting Multimodal RL Training by 76%

Rednote has open-sourced a reinforcement-learning (RL) training engine, “Relax,” claiming up to a 76% end-to-end speedup for multimodal model training—an efficiency gain that could lower compute costs and shorten iteration cycles for Chinese AI teams racing to deploy agentic and multimodal applications in 2026. The

Alibaba’s New ATH Unit Pushes “Meoo” No‑Code Builder as China Races to Own the AI App Layer

Alibaba Group Holding is using a new consumer-facing AI product to pull non-engineers onto Alibaba Cloud’s stack, betting that the next battleground in 2026’s generative-AI race will be who controls application creation—not just model performance. The company’s newly formed Alibaba Token Hub has

ChinaBiz Briefing | Alibaba Agents Expand, Amap Enters Robotics, XPeng Pushes AI SUVs, CATL-Wuling Battery Scale

China’s tech and industrial ecosystem is accelerating toward AI execution, embodied intelligence and infrastructure scale. Alibaba and MiniMax are pushing AI from chat into real-world workflows, while Amap extends into robotics hardware. At the same time, XPeng and Wuling are embedding AI and energy infrastructure deeper into vehicles,

Stanford’s 2026 AI Index Says China’s Top Models Are Closing the Gap With the US

Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index report argues the China–US AI race has shifted from a clear US lead to a near-parity contest at the model frontier, with performance gaps narrowing to low single digits even as funding, patents, talent flows and data-center scale remain structurally asymmetric.

MiniMax rolls out Pocket and “Computer Use” to push its desktop agent beyond the command line

MiniMax has expanded its desktop AI agent from a command-line helper into a screen-operating worker, betting that real productivity gains require control over local apps, internal systems and graphical interfaces that APIs can’t reach. The company on Tuesday launched two desktop updates: Pocket, a beta feature that

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