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Technology

Kuaishou Technology may spin off King AI in bid to capture AI market frenzy

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 tech company Kuaishou Technology is considering spinning off its AI video-generation unit Kling AI for a separate initial public offering next year, according to market sources, as investor enthusiasm surrounding AI continues to fuel demand for AI-related stocks. The company has reportedly begun discussions with potential investors over a pre-IPO fundraising round for Kling AI, which is said to be valued at around $20 billion. Kuaishou has not yet commented on the matter. Launched in 2024, Kling is Kuaishou’s flagship AI model for video generation and quickly gained attention in China’s fast-growing generative AI sector. The model takes a technical approach similar to OpenAI’s Sora, while adding in-house developments, and is generally considered to perform at a comparable level. [TechWeb, in Chinese]

May 12, 2026

Technology

MiniMax Affiliated Company Increases Registered Capital 300% to 4B RMB

Shanghai Xiyu Jizhi, the entity behind AI startup MiniMax, has increased its registered capital from 1B to 4B RMB, a 300% surge signaling major AI infrastructure scaling.

May 11, 2026

Technology

LaST-R1: New Physical Reasoning Paradigm Achieves 99.9% Success Rate on LIBERO Benchmark

A joint research from Simplexity Robotics, Peking University, and CUHK proposes LaST-R1, a new embodied AI paradigm that achieves 99.9% success on LIBERO benchmark — 22.5% higher than π0.5 in real-world tasks.

May 11, 2026

Technology

Vbot Raises ~500M RMB in Pre-A, Debuts Consumer Robot Dog

Vbot (维他动力) completes ~500M RMB Pre-A round — largest single investment in China's consumer humanoid robotics track to date. First 500 units of the Vbot Super Robot Dog already delivered.

May 11, 2026

Technology

Lumos Robotics Closes ~1B RMB Across A1 and A2 Rounds, Mitsubishi Electric Leads

Lumos Robotics, a Tsinghua-founded embodied AI company, raises ~1B RMB total across A1 and A2 rounds led by Mitsubishi Electric, targeting industrial and logistics deployment.

May 11, 2026

Technology

LDROBOT Robotics Jumps 103% on HK IPO Debut, Market Cap Hits $2.4B

LDROBOT Robotics surges 103% on its Hong Kong IPO debut, becoming China's second listed robot company after UBTECH. The DTOF LiDAR maker counts Ecovacs and Dreame as clients.

May 11, 2026

Technology

Oppo issues renewed apology over Mother’s Day ad controversy, senior China head demoted

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. Oppo today issued a fresh apology over a controversial Mother’s Day marketing campaign, saying it deeply regrets the incident and acknowledging failures in both its content approval process and its initial response. In a statement, the company said the ad content and its dismissive handling afterward reflected a serious lack of values and respect. It will overhaul its internal review and approval mechanisms and reinforce alignment with mainstream values. Oppo also confirmed disciplinary measures against multiple executives. The head of its China operations, Duan Yaohui, has been demoted by two levels and will have his salary frozen for 36 months. Several other staff members, including a direct supervisor, a PR director, and project managers, have also been demoted and held accountable.

May 11, 2026

Technology

Huawei Pura X Max Sells Out; Collector Edition Outshines Standard Model

Huawei's premium foldable Pura X Max sells out with collector's edition (55%) outselling standard model (45%), a rare countertrend in China's contracting smartphone market where the more expensive variant outperformed despite overall industry weakness.

May 11, 2026

Technology

DeepSeek Seeks Up to $7.35B in First-Round Financing, Drawing Tencent, Alibaba, and State Fund Bidding War

DeepSeek seeks up to $7.35B in first-round financing with Tencent, Alibaba, and state funds in a bidding war, while founder Liang Wenfeng insists on keeping DeepSeek independent—a key test case for China's AI startup ecosystem.

May 11, 2026

Technology

ByteDance boosts AI infrastructure spending by 25% to $28 billion this year

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. TikTok parent company ByteDance has increased its planned spending on AI infrastructure by 25% this year, raising the total to RMB 200 billion ($28 billion), as rising memory chip costs continue to push up expenses, according to people familiar with the matter. The company had initially set its AI capital expenditure budget at RMB 160 billion ($22.5 billion) late last year, but has since revised it upward to RMB 200 billion ($28 billion). ByteDance is also planning to allocate a larger share of its investment toward domestically produced AI chips. A source said the budget increase reflects both the company’s deepening commitment to AI and the rising cost of memory chips. [IThome, in Chinese]

May 11, 2026

Technology

Xiaomi YU7 Entry-Level Version Spotted: 73 kWh Battery, 633 km Range

Xiaomi's YU7 lineup expands with a new entry-level variant featuring a 73 kWh battery and 633 km range, positioned as the most affordable model in the series.

May 11, 2026

Technology

Huawei HDC 2026 Set for June 12–14: HarmonyOS 7 Officially Confirmed

Huawei's annual developer conference returns June 12–14, with HarmonyOS 7 officially confirmed after months of speculation.

May 11, 2026