eChina.news

Innovation

China thinks big on brain-computer interfaces after world-first surgery

Chinese surgeons last month completed the world’s first commercial surgery to implant an invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) device in a patient with a spinal cord injury, a milestone in the neurotechnology development race with US companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. This month a Chinese company, state-owned PICC Property and Casualty, launched the world’s first commercial insurance policy covering BCI implantation surgery. September will see the first undergraduates in China to major in...

August 28, 2026

Innovation

Crypto slump, AI boom overshadow CZ’s bullish pitch at Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Asia

Capital, talent and public attention have moved from crypto to AI, leaving the digital asset industry feeling ‘smaller’, says organiser Zhao, known in the industry as “CZ”, struck a bullish tone during his highly anticipated appearance on Thursday. Speaking to a large crowd, the 48-year-old billionaire entrepreneur drew applause and cheers by declaring that bitcoin “will for sure become more important than gold”. His optimism stood in stark contrast to the prevailing mood at the conference. “Psychologically, I think this has been one of the hardest bear markets we’ve had, because this time it wasn’t just the price of bitcoin that took a hit,” said Brandon Green, CEO of conference organiser BTC, during his opening address. Capital, talent and public attention had moved from crypto to artificial intelligence, leaving the digital asset industry feeling “smaller”, Green noted.

August 27, 2026

Innovation

Unitree’s stock slump since IPO stokes fears of a bubble in Chinese humanoid robotics

Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value is more than four times the top of the range indicated by lead underwriter Citic Securities The stock rose nearly 4 per cent to close at 615 yuan on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalisation of 248.8 billion yuan (US$37 billion), after touching a record low of 571 yuan on Wednesday. That low marked a 48 per cent drop from its peak of 1,100 yuan on its August 19 debut, wiping out 200 billion yuan in market value. “Given that level of uncertainty, Unitree’s high valuation is probably not justified,” said Dong Chen, chief investment officer for Asia at Bank J. Safra Sarasin, citing the stock’s lofty price-to-earnings ratio and the difficulty in staying ahead in an “infant level” industry where competition was intensifying.

August 27, 2026

Innovation

Nvidia ships first H200 chips to China, but forecasts no data-centre computing revenue

AI chipmaker upbeat on global demand, saying it expects revenue to grow by about 70 per cent in 2028 financial year Nvidia has confirmed its first shipments of H200 data-centre processors to China under a new US licensing scheme, ending a months-long lockout. However, the sales accounted for less than 1 per cent of the company’s US$89 billion data-centre revenue in its second quarter, which ended on July 26. The US chip giant’s US$108 billion third-quarter revenue forecast continued to assume no data-centre computing revenue from China. Despite the muted contribution from China, Nvidia struck an upbeat tone on global demand. The company said it expected revenue to grow by about 70 per cent in its 2028 financial year, describing the forecast as supply constrained. CEO Jensen Huang said actual demand was “much greater than 70 per cent”, adding that Nvidia’s available supply allowed it to confidently forecast growth at that level. “The unconstrained [growth] would be a lot higher,” Huang said in an earnings call webcast on Wednesday, adding that the company had secured significant capacity but still needed “a lot more”.

August 27, 2026

Innovation

AI server boom fuels record supply crunch for the ‘rice of electronics’

UBS data shows a major squeeze on MLCCs, setting the stage for what some believe could be the longest demand cycle in the sector’s history Global inventories of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) – tiny components dubbed “the rice of the electronics industry” – have dropped to a record low as the industry grapples with surging demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure. Worldwide distributor inventory volume for the components – which act as electrical buffers in circuit boards and are increasingly used in massive volumes in high-performance servers – declined 8 per cent by August 9 compared with four weeks earlier, extending a downward trend, according to a Wednesday report by UBS Evidence Lab. MLCCs have emerged as the latest AI-driven investor darling following memory chips and optical modules. With average unit prices continuing to climb, the total value of distributor inventory jumped 10 per cent over the same period, the UBS report showed. Year-on-year data to the end of July showed a 13 per cent rise in the unit price index, distributor volumes plunging 22 per cent and inventory value up 6 per cent.

August 26, 2026

Innovation

AI boom, profit surge fuel China’s ambitious chip assembly buildout

Chinese chip packaging firms launch multibillion-dollar expansion drive after logging triple-figure profit growth on surging AI demand China’s leading semiconductor packaging and testing companies have launched a multibillion-dollar capacity expansion drive, as they ride a surge in artificial intelligence demand, stellar first-half profit growth, and Beijing’s urgent push for tech self-sufficiency. In the first half of the year, China’s three leading outsourced chip packaging companies – Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), Tongfu Microelectronics and Huatian Technology – announced capacity expansion investments exceeding a combined 15 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion). Packaging and testing are the final steps in chip manufacturing. The fresh capital is aimed at scaling the firms’ high-end advanced packaging for AI accelerators, after the companies reported robust earnings growth in the first six months of 2026. JCET, China’s largest packaging and testing firm, saw its net profit surge 79.4 per cent year on year to 845 million yuan, while revenue hit a record 19.5 billion yuan on strong computing electronics sales, according to its earnings report last week.

August 26, 2026

Innovation

Huawei, HP settle disputes with multi-year Wi-fi patent cross-licensing deal

Huawei has been pushing for the monetisation of its patent portfolio to generate returns on its investments in research and development The two companies signed a multi-year global patent cross-licensing agreement, which granted HP the right to use certain Huawei Wi-fi patents on its PCs for a fee. “This agreement is a strong testament to Huawei’s persistent independent innovation in cutting-edge fields in information and communications technology,” Alan Fan, Huawei’s chief intellectual property officer, said in a statement. “Through patent licensing, Huawei shares its innovation with the industry, particularly in the area of standardised technologies.” The agreement came after Huawei filed a lawsuit against HP in 2025 over Wi-fi 6 patents, but the disputes were resolved in November last year after the American PC maker became a licensee of the patent pool of Italian intellectual property management firm Sisvel, gaining access to some of the contested patents. The latest cross-licensing agreement further expanded the cooperation between Huawei and HP on patent licensing.

August 26, 2026

Innovation

Divergent results for Apple suppliers highlight memory price squeeze ahead of new iPhone

Foldable handsets will be a rare bright spot this year, fuelled by Apple’s highly anticipated entrance this autumn, says Counterpoint Two major Chinese suppliers to Apple posted divergent first-half results, underscoring how soaring memory prices are squeezing profits even as component makers pin their hopes on upcoming iPhone releases for a second-half rebound. Lens Technology, a Shenzhen- and Hong Kong-listed maker of smartphone glass screens, saw its net income nearly halve to 577 million yuan (US$85.8 million) in the six months through June, as revenue dropped 12.4 per cent to 28.9 billion yuan. The company blamed the sales slump on soaring memory costs in the consumer electronics industry, which dampened market demand and forced the firm to scale back production in its Xiangtan factory. Exchange rate fluctuations also squeezed profits, the company said. To reverse the downturn, Lens is banking on high-end components for an upcoming foldable device project with its key client, widely understood to be Apple. The supplier expected that deliveries of ultra-thin glass (UTG), colourless polyimide film and 3D glass covers would boost sales in the second half, according to a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

August 25, 2026

Innovation

Jack Ma buys HK$600 million of Alibaba shares, signalling AI confidence: sources

Founder’s HK$600 million personal investment comes as Alibaba chairman and CEO also purchased shares after company’s first issuance since 2019 Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma has bought more than HK$600 million worth of the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares on consecutive days, according to people familiar with the matter, a show of confidence in the firm’s long-term prospects for artificial intelligence. The purchases showed Ma’s “strong confidence for Alibaba to realise its AI ambitions and capture the long-term growth opportunities ahead”, one source said. Meanwhile, Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai and CEO Eddie Wu Yongming spent a cumulative HK$202 million acquiring shares over the past two days, according to Hong Kong stock market filings. Tsai bought about HK$82 million in shares on Tuesday, following an HK$80 million purchase on Monday – the same day Wu chipped in roughly HK$40 million. The personal investments came after a new share issuance announced by the company on Sunday, one of the biggest fundraising efforts by a Chinese firm dedicated to AI development. Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

August 25, 2026

Innovation

DeepSeek leads surge in low-cost Chinese open-weight models on US platform

Open models reached a record share of 62 per cent on a US web development platform on Saturday, a reversal of figures in June The usage of open-weight AI models from China hit a record high on a popular US web development platform, driven largely by DeepSeek’s latest lightweight model, as business demand for Anthropic’s cutting-edge Fable 5 stalls due to high costs. Open-weight models accounted for 54 per cent of token volume on Vercel’s AI Gateway on Tuesday, surpassing the 46 per cent consumed by proprietary models, according to data on its website. Open models reached a record share of 62 per cent on the platform on Saturday, dwarfing closed systems’ 38 per cent, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch said on social media. This was in stark contrast to the breakdown on June 24, when open-weight models accounted for only 28 per cent of Vercel AI Gateway’s token volume, compared with 72 per cent for closed ones, according to Rauch.

August 25, 2026

Innovation

Why is Xiaomi doubling down on in-house chips amid a profit slump?

Chinese tech giant’s Xring O3 3nm AI processor scheduled to debut aboard folding smartphone in September Xiaomi’s long-term push into proprietary silicon is laying the groundwork for complex artificial intelligence workloads on smartphones and cars, analysts say, as the Chinese tech giant doubles down on self-developed chips despite an earnings slump and soaring component costs. On Monday it unveiled its flagship Xring O3 3-nanometre AI processor for smartphones, which is scheduled to debut in September aboard its Xiaomi 18 Fold smartphone. The company has also introduced the Xring O100 – a 6nm AI accelerator designed to boost Xiaomi’s MiMo large language model when paired with the O3 – alongside a 3nm Xring D100 chip for autonomous driving. Xiaomi said both the O100 and D100 will be deployed commercially next year. Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said Xiaomi’s semiconductor progress placed it in “the top tier of China’s self-developed mobile systems-on-a-chip (SoC)”.

August 25, 2026

Innovation

Malaysia’s data centre rules aim to green the sector, not slam the door

Unlike the US backlash, Malaysia is drawing up efficiency requirements to guide a sustainable tech boom In the first quarter of this year, at least 75 data centre projects worth around US$130 billion were delayed or blocked by local opposition, close to the total value of schemes stymied by local resistance during the whole of 2025. Last month, New York moved to become the first US state to impose a temporary ban on the construction of large new data centres because of fears that the scale and speed of development put too much strain on energy and water resources. Lawmakers in more than a dozen other states are mulling temporary bans on the facilities. Research group Data Centre Watch said “moratoria [have] expanded from local exceptions to a multi-front political battle”.

August 24, 2026