China Executive Insights
Xiaomi MiMo-V2.5 leads OpenRouter global call volume at 10.5T tokens/week and 31.2T/month, as Chinese models collectively claim 63.5% share vs US 35.5% as of July 2026.
When people think of advanced manufacturing, they typically picture multimillion-dollar industrial machines operating inside factories, not a compact device sitting on a desk. But that’s precisely the perception InfiMaker, a startup founded in 2024, is trying to change. The startup positions itself as a desktop manufacturing company, developing manufacturing tools for engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, and makers. By combining AI with software automation, it aims to make industrial-grade precision machining more accessible to individual users. Unlike most desktop CNC (Computer Numerical Control) manufacturers, InfiMaker chose not to enter the crowded market for 3-axis machines. Instead, it is introducing the K1, a desktop 5-axis CNC platform. According to Bowen Xie, Founder and CEO of InfiMaker, simply introducing another desktop 3-axis machine would not fundamentally change the user experience. Instead, the biggest obstacle to wider adoption of 5-axis machining is not the hardware itself, but the complexity of traditional software workflows and the expertise required to operate them, Xie said.
Tencent on Monday announced the return of its classic virtual pet service, QQ Pet, in a redesigned form. The new version features 3D character models and is powered by Tencent’s in-house Hunyuan Hy3 large language model, which supports more natural interactions and proactive responses. The updated QQ Pet retains classic gameplay elements such as feeding, bathing, and taking on jobs, while introducing a wider range of appearances and personality types for users to choose from. The virtual pets will also appear across core QQ experiences, including chat lists and chat windows. Tencent said the Hunyuan Hy3 model, which was open-sourced on July 6, is built on a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture with 295 billion total parameters and 21 billion activated parameters. It supports a context window of up to 256K tokens, providing the technical foundation for the pet’s AI-powered conversational capabilities. [TechNode Reporting] Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Your support helps TechNode continue to provide credible, on-the-ground journalism and industry insights about the Chinese tech industry.
easyh2power completes tens of millions angel+ round, liquid-cooled fuel cell from 30kW to 110kW, Comac supplier for hydrogen propulsion, air-cooled variant for drone long-endurance achieving 30-hour flight.
Alibaba delivers over 50 HarmonyOS-native innovations across 20+ apps including Amap AR walking, DingTalk AI meeting via Xiaoyi, Taobao immersive browsing, and Qwen unified drag-drop AI analysis.
Unitree R1 humanoid drops below 30K yuan, Morgan Stanley raises 2026 forecast to 50K units, as Leaderdrive and Shuanghuan Drivetrain cross into each other turfs and Zhaowei builds dexterous hand plant.
Moonshot AI open-sources Kimi K3 with 2.8T MoE parameters, 896 routed experts, 16 active per token, 1M context window, plus MoonEP, FlashKDA, and AgentEnv infrastructure tools.
Alibaba consolidates QoderWork, Wukong, and MuleRun into Qianwen Office as Tencent restructures QClaw into WorkBuddy and ByteDance drives Doubao, with top 3 holding 5622M of 6062M monthly desktop agent visits.
Hong Kong-listed CiDi plans to expand deployments of its autonomous mining equipment outside China, including a larger rollout of partially automated excavators in Australia this year. The company is also seeking contracts in the Middle East, South America, and Europe. CiDi expects overseas markets to contribute a double-digit share of revenue next year, up from a low single-digit level. Its revenue more than doubled to RMB884.8 million in 2025, while its global fleet grew to more than 1,700 vehicles across 30 mines and quarries. [Reuters] Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Your support helps TechNode continue to provide credible, on-the-ground journalism and industry insights about the Chinese tech industry.
Chinese humanoid robot maker AgiBot has initiated the process for a Hong Kong IPO. The move follows earlier reports that the Shanghai-based company had selected banks and was preparing for a listing. Founded in 2023, AgiBot develops humanoid robots and embodied AI systems for industrial and commercial applications. The company has also released AgiBot World, a large-scale dataset designed to support the development and training of embodied AI models. [Reuters] Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Your support helps TechNode continue to provide credible, on-the-ground journalism and industry insights about the Chinese tech industry.
Moonshot AI is set to release the model weights for Kimi K3 on July 27, allowing developers to download, modify, and host the model independently. Kimi K3 was launched earlier this month with 2.8 trillion parameters, native visual understanding, and a one-million-token context window. The Beijing-based company positions Kimi K3 as an open-weight model for long-horizon coding, knowledge work, and reasoning. It is also expected to release further details on the model’s architecture, training, and evaluations in a technical report. [The Business Times] Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Your support helps TechNode continue to provide credible, on-the-ground journalism and industry insights about the Chinese tech industry.
Chinese autonomous driving company Momenta has launched its Robovan autonomous freight business, with vehicles already operating in Suzhou’s Xiangcheng district. The company said the vehicles are being deployed for express delivery and overnight delivery, using its R7 world model and a map-free approach adapted from passenger-car deployments. Momenta said the same model platform will support passenger cars, Robovan, Robotruck, and Robotaxi applications, with potential expansion into embodied AI. More than 1 million production vehicles currently use Momenta systems, while the company has delivered systems for more than 100 vehicle models and secured design wins for over 210 models. [IT Home, in Chinese] Every Wednesday and Friday, TechNode’s Briefing newsletter delivers a roundup of the most important news in China tech, straight to your inbox. Your support helps TechNode continue to provide credible, on-the-ground journalism and industry insights about the Chinese tech industry.