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China's drive for chip manufacturing equipment self-sufficiency advanced so rapidly in 2025 that even the country's planners were caught by surprise, as the ratio of domestically developed semiconductor equipment surged to 35 per cent by the year's end, up from 25 per cent in 2024. The ratio was higher than Beijing's target of 30 per cent, set in early 2025 to encourage China's semiconductor industry to favour local suppliers over US rivals such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA,......

Shanghai-based AgiBot topped global humanoid robot shipments in 2025, with nearly a 38 per cent share, as China's robotics firms dominated the market, leaving in the dust major US players like Elon Musk's Tesla. According to data released on Thursday by Omdia, AgiBot shipped 5,168 humanoid robots last year to lead five other Chinese companies in the research firm's top 10 list. Unitree Robotics, headquartered in Hangzhou, ranked second with 4,200 humanoids shipped last year, which accounted for......

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group Holding, is stepping up its overseas push with a new service crossing the US-Mexico border. The cross-border logistics service, a first for Cainiao in the Americas, was designed to handle parcel flow between the two countries, which was one of the region's high-traffic corridors, the Alibaba unit said on Friday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The service was expected to reach 99 per cent of the Mexico market and would be priced at around 60......

The red-hot Hong Kong initial public offerings (IPOs) of Zhipu AI and MiniMax Group, two of China's hopefuls to take on US giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, have given a boost to Beijing's ambitions in the artificial intelligence sector, according to executives and industry watchers. While Zhipu's valuation of about US$9 billion and MiniMax's market cap of US$14 billion remain tiny compared with the US giants – OpenAI is worth about US$500 billion and Anthropic's valuation is estimated at about......

Chinese artificial intelligence-related stocks are expected to continue driving Hong Kong and mainland markets, though the pace of growth will slow, according to investment banks. Julius Baer projected Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index to reach 29,500 by year-end, which would represent a 12.8 per cent advance from Thursday's close of 26,149. The Swiss bank set a 12-month target for the mainland's CSI 300 Index at 5,100, which would be 7.6 per cent higher than Thursday's close of......

Hong Kong stocks rebounded on Friday after falling for two days as official data showed easing deflationary pressure in China. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.4 per cent to 26,258.21 as of 10.06am local time. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.7 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.3 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6 per cent. Alibaba Group Holding rallied 4.1 per cent to HK$148.40 and peer JD.com surged 3.7 per cent to HK$115.90. Gold producer Zijin Mining Group......

Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence start-up MiniMax surged on their Hong Kong debut on Friday, reflecting investor confidence after securing substantial support from global institutional backers. The company's shares first changed hands at HK$235.40, up 42.7 per cent from the initial public offering (IPO) price of HK$165, valuing it at HK$72.8 billion (US$9.3 billion). MiniMax raised HK$4.8 billion after pricing the shares at the top of the marketed range and exercising an upsized option......

Chinese household appliances maker Dreame Technology unveiled more than 20 new artificial intelligence-embedded products at this year's CES trade show in Las Vegas, showing a glimpse of the future when smart devices would run almost all chores in a house. Those formed part of more than 150 products that Dreame, one of the world's top five vendors of robot vacuum cleaners, exhibited at the four-day trade show that concludes this Friday. Dreame's new “AI-powered whole-home smart ecosystem”......

McDonald's has sold another Hong Kong retail property for HK$118.7 million (US$15.2 million), bringing the proceeds from its ongoing asset disposal programme to about HK$490 million, as well-capitalised investors continue to snap up prime real estate. The 10,000 sq ft-plus property at 46-47 Yee Wo Street in Causeway Bay was sold to Evergreen Capital Partners. Ng Yin was listed as director of the firm, according to the Companies Registry. The deal, which was signed on December 10, included the......

Chinese financial institutions raised over US$10 billion last year to fund their overseas expansion and boost the yuan's internationalisation in line with Beijing's go-global push, with the trend continuing this year. GF Securities is raising HK$6.12 billion (US$780 million) from the placement of over HK$3.97 billion worth of new shares and HK$2.15 billion from zero-coupon convertible bonds. The Guangzhou-headquartered brokerage planned to use the proceeds to inject capital into its offshore......

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant Xpeng Motors has launched a new hybrid version of its G7 that it says offers the world's longest range among SUVs, capable of covering the distance from Seattle to Los Angeles without charging. The updated G7 could travel 1,704km – longer than the distance between Beijing and Shanghai – with a 60-litre fuel tank and a 55.8kWh pack, the company said at a launch event in Guangzhou on Thursday. The model combines batteries with a small petrol engine that......

Shanghai, mainland China's commercial and financial hub, has pledged to step up policing its manufacturing sectors to curb prolonged payment cycles that affect thousands of supply-chain vendors. Gu Jun, deputy secretary general of the municipal government and director of the city's development and reform commission, told a press conference on Thursday that a task force had been set up to ensure money owed to vendors would be paid promptly. “Supervision will be strengthened to avoid delayed......

Beijing has given the green light to an asset-restructuring deal involving the country's largest oil refiner and a leading distributor of jet fuel, continuing efforts to streamline operations of major state-owned juggernauts. China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, better known as Sinopec, and China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF) will conduct a revamp of their assets after receiving the nod from the State Council, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said in a......

Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has updated the technical paper of its landmark R1 model, showcasing the contributions of the 18 core scientists who powered its AI ambitions and capabilities, as anticipation heightened about a potential new major model release. The paper suggested that DeepSeek retained all 18 scientists behind its AI model development efforts, as well as many of the R1 project's 176 contributors, despite fierce competition for talent in China's AI industry. The......

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) manufacturers are gearing up to go public in Hong Kong, aiming to tap the market for international expansion. TCM firms have joined the queue for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the city to test foreign investors' appetite for their shares. The latest to join the queue are Sichuan Neautus Traditional Chinese Medicine and Hong Kong-based Herb Standard. “Hong Kong will serve as our hub for capital, research and development, as well as international......

Influential Chinese semiconductor expert Wei Shaojun urged caution for mainland companies that place orders for Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips, as it remained a puzzle why the US government would make these advanced integrated circuits available to the country. “The US' inconsistent stance on advanced chips – alternating between limited easing and renewed pressure – has left users struggling to discern its true strategic intent,” Wei, vice-president at the China Semiconductor......

A Hong Kong delegate to China's National People's Congress (NPC) bought a luxury residential project in the seaside enclave of Stanley for 44 per cent less than the seller paid six years ago, in the latest sign that deep discounts are drawing wealthy buyers back into the city's high-end property market. Bunny Chan Chung-ban, also the chairman of the apparel firm Prospectful Holdings and a former district councillor, acquired Villa Mortini at 8 Stanley Beach Road for HK$310 million (US$39.8......

China's Ministry of Commerce says it will conduct a review and investigation into Meta's acquisition of Manus regarding export controls and technology exports, confirming an earlier report by the Post. The Post reported that Chinese authorities were considering whether to step in over Meta Platforms' acquisition of Manus – an artificial intelligence agent developer with Chinese roots – amid concerns the deal could breach technology export controls and encourage more start-ups to relocate......

Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses artificial intelligence to help you figure out the best time to conceive. Technology and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues – especially as the US federal government eases up on regulation. The US Food and Drug......

Personal computer giant Lenovo Group has unveiled a new personal AI agent and a host of enterprise artificial intelligence initiatives at CES this year, in a splashy display of its AI ambitions. Lenovo on Tuesday announced Qira, a “personal AI super agent” designed to work across multiple devices including Lenovo laptops, tablets and Motorola smartphones. Qira can summarise notifications, offer real-time transcriptions and translations, and coordinate other AI agents for tasks such as travel......