China Executive Insights
Huawei Wallet and Shouqu Technology have jointly launched the world's first digital key solution for the two-wheeler industry, bringing automotive-grade security and connectivity standards to electric bikes and scooters.
Venmedtech has secured new funding to accelerate the commercialization of its medical device products, as the company looks to scale its presence in China's growing medical equipment market.
Euyo Semiconductor has closed a new funding round to advance domestic production of high-performance automotive chips, a critical step in China's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency in the automotive sector.
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 display panel firm BOE Technology Group is expected to further deepen its partnership with Apple this year, with an estimated shipment of around 35 million OLED displays in 2026, according to online reports. The supply is said to cover multiple iPhone models, including the iPhone 14, iPhone 16e, and iPhone 17e, and the iPhone 17 Pro series alone is expected to account for around 8.2 million panels. While South Korea’s Samsung Display and LG Display remain the primary suppliers of OLED panels for Apple’s premium iPhone models, BOE has reportedly been expanding production capacity and improving yield rates, gradually challenging the long-standing dominance of Korean display makers in Apple’s supply chain. [TechWeb, in Chinese]
Doubao, China's largest AI chatbot with 345 million monthly active users, has quietly introduced three paid subscription tiers on the Apple App Store: 68 yuan/month, 200 yuan/month, and 500 yuan/month. The move signals a broader industry shift toward token-based AI monetization.
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 has secured approval for a $25 billion data center expansion project in Thailand, as the Southeast Asian nation accelerates efforts to position itself as a regional digital infrastructure hub. Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) announced that it had approved six large-scale investment projects with a combined value of 958 billion baht (about $29 billion), part of a broader push to strengthen power supply capacity, expand access to clean energy and attract strategic foreign investment. The largest approved project comes from TikTok System (Thailand) Co., Ltd., which plans to invest around 842 billion baht (around $25 billion) to expand its digital infrastructure footprint across Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao provinces. The investment will add servers and enhance data storage and processing capabilities to support rising demand for digital services in the region.
Yuanxin Tech, connecting online doctors and offline pharmacies, files for its sixth HK listing attempt with a 19.5 billion yuan valuation backed by Sequoia China and Tencent.
Li Auto CEO Li Xiang confirms the company will abandon sedan development, saying sedan architecture is fundamentally incompatible with the brand's 'home'-focused design philosophy.
XPeng's GX Native Wire-Control Chassis integrates human and autonomous driving control into one system, clearing 49 hairpin turns on a Yunnan mountain road in a single run as proof of concept.
Tsinghua-spunout humanoid robot startup Wujie Power raises over $200M in angel-stage funding from Sequoia China, Linear Capital, Hillhouse, Baidu Ventures, and SF Express.
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. Kimi developer Moonshot AI is close to completing a new $2 billion funding round that would value the company at more than $20 billion, according to LatePost. The round is reportedly led by Meituan’s Long-Z Fund, with China Mobile and CPE joining as investors. Moonshot AI had already completed three funding rounds in January and February totaling $1.9 billion. With the new round, the company would have raised more than $3.9 billion in less than six months, making it the most-funded startup among China’s large model companies. [LatePost, 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. China’s state-backed semiconductor investment vehicle, known as the Big Fund, is in talks to lead DeepSeek’s first external fundraising, which could value the AI company at about $45 billion, according to the Financial Times. Tencent is also among the investors still in discussions, though the final lineup has not been decided. The reported valuation is up sharply from about $20 billion only weeks ago, as investors look to back DeepSeek despite its limited commercial focus. A deal would also mark the first known investment by the Big Fund in a Chinese large language model company. [Financial Times]