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Ant International, the overseas spin-off of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has connected more than 150 million merchants with over 2 billion consumer accounts around the world, as it positions its payments network as core infrastructure for the emerging AI commerce economy. The figures, disclosed at the company's MoMents 2026 forum in Kuala Lumpur, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, underscore the scale Ant is seeking to leverage amid the rising adoption of artificial intelligence agents. Ant......

China is bracing for a record surge in cross-regional travel over the coming Labour Day holiday, as the country's tourism sector continues to see strong demand amid government efforts to boost consumption. The domestic transport network is projected to handle 1.52 billion cross-regional trips – about 304 million trips per day – over the five-day public holiday, up 4 per cent compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Transport announced on Tuesday. Public transport passenger flows......

Geely Automobile Holdings, Chery Automobile and BYD, the most profitable listed Chinese carmakers last year, all reported double-digit declines in net profit in the first quarter, highlighting a squeeze at home amid reduced purchase incentives. Hangzhou-based Geely, the country's second-largest carmaker behind BYD, said in a filing on Wednesday that its net profit for the January-March period slid 27 per cent year on year to 4.17 billion yuan (US$610 million). The profit slump came even as......

China's home-grown software and operating systems like Huawei Technologies' HarmonyOS are gaining traction, according to an official of China's technology ministry, as the country accelerates its push to cut reliance on foreign technology. More than 55 million smartphones ran on the HarmonyOS mobile platform as of the end of March, according to Ke Jixin, vice-minister of industry and information technology. “Domestic software like operating systems and databases has been improving steadily,” Ke......

Hong Kong's monetary authority has held its base interest rate steady, following the lead of the US Federal Reserve, as analysts said the inflationary impact of the US-Israel war with Iran had reduced the chances of a rate cut this year. The city's base rate would stay at 4 per cent, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Thursday, hours after the US Federal Reserve kept its target rate in the range of 3.5 to 3.75 per cent following the third meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] At present, the global wave of AI technological innovation and the computing industry revolution is surging forward, driving explosive growth in data center construction and the demand for high-end hardware. As the “skeleton and nerves” of electronic products, printed circuit boards (PCBs) have already become the core components that determine the performance ceiling of AI computing equipment. The industry is currently......

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has added multimodal capabilities to its flagship chatbot for the first time – meaning that it can process images and video in addition to text – bringing it in line with rivals that already offer the function. The limited release to select users comes just days after the Hangzhou-based company released its new flagship model V4, which was followed by extensive price cuts. According to DeepSeek multimodal team leader Chen Xiaokang, who made the......

Chinese chip designers Cambricon Technologies and MetaX Integrated Circuits reported substantial growth in the first quarter, as the artificial intelligence boom, lingering US export-control risks and China's self-sufficiency push drove the country's demand for home-grown computing power. Cambricon's first-quarter revenue jumped 160 per cent from a year earlier to 2.89 billion yuan (US$423 million), while profit soared 185 per cent to 1 billion yuan, the company said in a filing on......

The impact of sky-high costs for memory chips is spreading from smartphones to cars, as China's electric vehicle (EV) king BYD announced a 21 per cent price increase for its high-end driver-assistance system. Starting on Friday, the price of the optional DiPilot 300 assisted-driving system would rise to 12,000 yuan ($1,757) from 9,900 yuan, BYD said on Tuesday, attributing the decision to “the sharp rise in global storage hardware costs”. The system, which allows cars to navigate themselves on......

A top-floor residence at High Peak in Hong Kong's Mid-Levels West neighbourhood has sold for HK$420 million (US$53.7 million) as activity in Hong Kong's high-end housing segment remains heated after a strong first quarter. The penthouse unit at 23 Po Shan Road sold to a company called Shine Action on April 8, Land Registry records showed. The buyer is believed to be a mainland resident, based on the name of Shine Action's director in the Companies Registry, Zheng Jiang. Momentum at the pinnacle......

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has issued HK$19 billion (US$2.4 billion) of multi-tranche senior notes, the largest Hong Kong dollar-denominated bond offering to date, drawing nearly three times oversubscription. The success of the offering reinforces the Hong Kong dollar's position as a reliable funding currency and the city's role as a fixed income and currency hub, according to bankers. The notes were “well received” by investors including sovereign wealth funds, asset managers,......

China's robotaxi sector has hit a speed bump after regulators tightened licensing requirements while reviewing the causes of a recent incident in Wuhan that left passengers stranded and disrupted traffic for hours. Authorities had begun scaling back the issuance of autonomous driving licences, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The curbs, however, do not amount to a complete halt. Officials still......

China has appointed a senior sovereign wealth fund executive as a deputy head of its securities regulator, in the latest leadership reshuffle aimed at steadying the country's capital markets. Liu Haoling was named vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) by the State Council, according to a statement posted on the agency's website on Wednesday. He was also appointed to the regulator's Communist Party committee. It was not immediately clear which portfolios Liu would......

Multinational furniture retailer Ikea says it will open its first small-format store in Beijing on Thursday, aiming at convenience and efficiency that analysts believe could lift footfall by bringing the brand closer to consumers amid shifting trends. The move comes after the company shut seven large outlets across mainland China in early February, as it grapples with the country's rapidly changing consumer trends and declining demand for new-home furnishing amid a sluggish property......

BYD and Geely Auto, vying to be China's biggest carmaker, both rose in Hong Kong stock trading as higher exports offset concerns about domestic price competition. Electric-vehicle giant BYD climbed 4.4 per cent on Wednesday even after reporting a 55 per cent drop in first-quarter net income to 4.09 billion yuan (US$590 billion), the lowest quarterly profit in three years. Geely gained 2.6 per cent, overcoming a 27 per cent decline in earnings to 4.2 billion yuan. BYD sold 46 per cent of its......

Financial officials from Hong Kong and mainland China met on Tuesday to discuss strengthening cross-border connect schemes, according to a statement from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). The meeting between Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man and People's Bank of China (PBOC) deputy governor Zhu Hexin, who is also SAFE administrator, touched on ways to bolster the city's role as an international financial centre, the statement said. SAFE......

Three Chinese companies – Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and Zhipu AI – have been named among Time magazine's “10 Most Influential AI Companies of 2026”, marking the first time the publication has introduced an artificial intelligence-specific sub-list under its broader Time100 Most Influential Companies ranking. Of the remaining seven companies on the list, six are based in the US, while France's Mistral AI is the only European representative. The launch of a dedicated AI ranking underscores......

We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China's EV and battery makers race to cut charging times to under 10 minutes Battery makers and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have seized on the Beijing Auto Show to showcase technologies promising shorter charging times in a race triggered by BYD and Contemporary Amperex......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Dreame Technology is holding its biggest overseas launch to date this week, a four-day event at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, as the Chinese company expands its global footprint. The event features Turing Award laureate David Patterson, former NASA scientist Sylvia Acevedo and Stanford's Sebastian Thrun, a lineup that reflects the attention the Chinese company has begun to attract in Silicon Valley. And for good......

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), operator of Asia's third-largest stock market, reported a record quarterly profit in the first three months of 2026, buoyed by more new listings and increased turnover. Net profit rose 27 per cent to HK$5.19 billion (US$662 million) – or HK$4.10 per share – from a year earlier, the company said on Wednesday. The result beat the HK$4.6 billion consensus among analysts. It is the highest quarterly profit on record, surpassing the HK$4.9 billion in the third......