In the months leading up to President Xi Jinping’s planned September visit to Washington for a summit with US President Donald Trump, a series of smaller trade and technology rifts has emerged between the world’s two largest economies. From tensions over Chinese artificial intelligence models and new US restrictions on advanced robotics, to optical modules and an expanded forced labour blacklist, this piece breaks down the latest developments shaping US-China economic ties. 1. AI models under...

Rising cost efficiency and rapidly advancing capabilities from players like DeepSeek and MiniMax have prompted Goldman Sachs to raise its run-rate revenue forecast for China’s artificial intelligence model market by 30 per cent to US$13 billion. In a research note published on Monday, the US investment bank boosted its year-end annualised recurring revenue (ARR) projection for mainland Chinese AI models from US$10 billion, citing aggressive price cuts, technical breakthroughs and accelerating...

Chinese unicorn Moonshot AI has started and is expected to close its latest financing round by the end of this month, as it dismantles its offshore structure to pave the way for a potential Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) as early as the end of the year, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The company was expected to raise capital at a valuation of up to US$50 billion in this latest round, one of the sources said. The South China Morning Post, citing sources, reported last...

Tencent Holdings is ramping up its overseas push for its flagship Hy3 artificial intelligence model, joining a wave of Chinese technology firms taking aim at the world’s leading players. On Wednesday, the Shenzhen-based technology giant rolled out Hy3 to global developers, enterprises and users through its workplace agentic tool WorkBuddy, creation studio Tencent Design Miora and model platform TokenHub. According to Tencent, Hy3 would be available free of charge worldwide on WorkBuddy until...

When Liao Heng joined Huawei Technologies’ chip-design unit in 2016, he was sceptical about whether China could ever build world-class semiconductors. A former child prodigy who entered Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 1987 at age 14 before moving to Princeton University for postdoctoral research, Liao had spent over a decade in the United States watching what he described as a “long sunset” for American chip start-ups. Working abroad, he noted, often bred a “blind arrogance” that...

Robbyant, the embodied artificial intelligence division of Ant Group, has begun seeking external funding, becoming the fourth unit of the fintech giant to step up capital-raising efforts. The unit said it was in talks with investors on Monday. As Ant Group’s “core initiative in embodied intelligence”, a Robbyant spokesperson said it would remain focused on developing a general-purpose “robot brain”, investing in technologies designed specifically for embodied AI and accelerating commercial...

China has revised regulations on the protection of chip design, a critical move to push for tech self-sufficiency amid US export controls. Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree to promulgate the revised rules on the protection of layout designs of integrated circuits, Xinhua reported on Monday. The new rules will take effect on October 15. The revision clarified financial penalties for infringement as well as licensing, transfer and co-ownership rights, aiming to accelerate the...