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With the first wave of commercial Chinese real estate investment trusts (REITs) set to launch in the next two years, Greater Bay Area assets are likely to be in strong demand, according to Deloitte China. “GBA assets will likely be oversubscribed,” according to Ryan Wu, deputy managing partner for Hong Kong Chinese enterprises services with Deloitte China. He was speaking at the recent APREA GBA Conference on the fast-growing C-Reits market, which has recently expanded to include commercial......

Hong Kong property developers are bringing new trophy homes to market, as Wharf Holdings kicked off a tender on Friday for three mansions at its ultra-luxury Plantation Road project on The Peak. The tender marked one of the most closely watched super-luxury home offerings in 2025, following a recent string of high-value transactions that pointed to renewed confidence in the market among affluent buyers. The three mansions, with saleable areas ranging from 5,629 to 6,122 square feet, include the......

Dozens of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers face a do-or-die moment in 2026, according to analysts, amid weakening domestic demand that is expected to see perennial loss-making firms exit the world's largest car market. About 50 unprofitable mainland Chinese EV makers are under pressure to scale down their business or wind down operations, as the country's automotive sector is projected to report a sales drop next year – the first such contraction since 2020 – owing to the industry's......

Despite intense competition that has pushed one US company into bankruptcy, the global robotic vacuum cleaner market has plenty of room for growth given low penetration rates, according to Meng Jia, president of Dreame Technology's robotic vacuum division. Meng anticipates steady growth for robotic vacuum sales over the next few years, noting that market penetration remains low – less than 10 per cent in China and under 20 per cent overseas. “The robotic vacuum category hasn't fully realised its......

The “AI Plus” strategy emerging from China's State Council, which promotes artificial intelligence teaching across all levels of education, comes amid reports that AI classes are now compulsory for primary and secondary schools in Hangzhou. These show a new urgency attaching to AI talent development. Asia is becoming a leader in upskilling workers for an AI-driven world. In a region of ageing societies, there is perhaps no greater economic imperative than ensuring that all workforce demographics......

Only one thing matches the excitement, bordering on hysteria, about artificial intelligence having the potential to transform just about every aspect of our lives – and that is the exuberance AI has generated in stock markets. Yet both phenomena are coming under increasing scrutiny as we enter the new year. Some question the extent to which AI can in fact substitute for human intelligence across business and society while others challenge the technology on environmental and ethical grounds. Yet......

Nexperia China, the estranged unit of the Dutch chipmaker, is pushing forward with efforts to secure new wafer suppliers in six months, as the firm's Netherlands head office and mainland Chinese owner Wingtech Technology started direct talks last week. In its shareholders meeting in Shanghai on Friday, Wingtech said Nexperia China's plant in Dongguan, in southern Guangdong province, continued to operate amid “a significant gap in wafer supply”, reports from several state-backed media......

After a year-long rally in Chinese stocks powered by multiple expansion as confidence recovered, investors now say that the bull run could find fresh legs in 2026 – this time underpinned by stronger earnings growth. Supportive macro policy, the push for technological self-reliance and Beijing's effort to retire obsolete capacity in parts of the green industry are expected to lift margins and profits. That would make earnings, not valuation, the key driver for equities in the year ahead. With......

A new technique called TurboDiffusion claims to be able to accelerate artificial intelligence video-generation speeds by up to 200 times at scale, without compromising overall image quality, according to a recently published paper. The technique reduced the time needed to generate a five-second, standard-definition video clip from more than three minutes to just 1.9 seconds – a nearly 100 times acceleration – when it was tested on a consumer-grade system with Nvidia's RTX 5090 graphics......

Prosecutors in South Korea have indicted 10 people, including former Samsung Electronics executives, for allegedly leaking the company's technology to Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Tuesday said five people had been arrested, including a former Samsung executive who allegedly recruited key personnel and leaked the company's proprietary technology to CXMT, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency. They face charges for......

Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI said it would step up efforts next year in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) while continuing to open source its AI models after its initial public offering. In 2026 “we're going to contribute more substantially to the AGI journey,” Zheng Qinkai, a researcher at the company, which markets itself internationally as Z.ai, said in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session hosted on US social media site Reddit. AGI, referring to technology that matches human......

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world's largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, has partnered with semiconductor developer Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics to form a new automotive chip firm in Beijing. CATL-owned Wending Investment, Guoxin Micro subsidiary Tongxin Micro and five affiliates have agreed to establish Tongxin Micro Technology with a registered capital of 300 million yuan (US$43 million), according to a Thursday filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. With its 153......

The fascination with cryptocurrencies shows no sign of fading. With the passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act in July, US lawmakers added to the sense that crypto is here to stay. But an uncomfortable issue remains unresolved: are cryptocurrencies a genuine innovation capable of serving the common good, or a speculative threat to financial and social stability? Not all cryptocurrencies are alike. Unbacked ones, such as bitcoin or Ethereum,......

The Chinese commerce ministry's latest remarks on the TikTok deal in the US signalled acceptance rather than approval, as Beijing “hopes” the arrangement will comply with Chinese laws and strike a balance between rival interests, analysts say. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which oversees trade and export controls, declared its position a week after TikTok announced the formation of a joint venture, controlled by a consortium of American investors, that would take over its operations in the......

China's biggest tech groups and a clutch of fast-rising consumer electronics brands are battling for coveted sponsorship slots at the Spring Festival Gala, as intensifying competition in artificial intelligence turns the country's most watched television broadcast into a rare nationwide marketing battleground. Major players including ByteDance, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding had all held discussions with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) over high-stakes partnership......

Shanghai, China's financial and tech hub, is aiming to foster over 200 open-source projects over the next two years as part of the city's ambitious road map to build a world-class ecosystem amid the heated AI race with the US. By 2027, the city would see the establishment of one to two “internationally influential open-source communities”, along with 100 companies focused on related technologies and over 200 high-quality open-source projects, according to an action plan unveiled on Thursday by......

China's private rocket makers are stepping up their dash for public funding, with Beijing-based LandSpace becoming the first commercial launch provider to clear a key regulatory “tutoring” milestone ahead of a planned listing on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Market. LandSpace completed its initial public offering (IPO) tutoring process on December 23, according to information published on the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) – a step that typically precedes the......

The Beijing municipal government has further relaxed home buying curbs by lowering the threshold for individual income tax payments and by allowing multi-child families to purchase extra properties. The move was seen as a precursor to more national supportive policies expected in 2026 aimed at shoring up the sluggish property market, an industry expert said. China aims to stabilise the nation's property market as part of its 15th Five-Year Plan, which kicks off in 2026, according to a national......

Hong Kong is emerging as a neutral hub bridging the technological strengths of East and West while leveraging its robust education and financial systems to drive the next wave of artificial intelligence transformation in businesses, according to PwC executives. As companies worldwide pushed to move AI from isolated experiments to capabilities deployed at scale, not just to solve problems but to unlock new revenue opportunities, Hong Kong was “well‑positioned” to harness the technology's......

Chinese drugmakers have signed a late-year burst of out-licensing agreements with overseas partners, underlining China's growing role as a source of novel medicines as multinational pharma groups hunt for new assets. Jacobio Pharmaceuticals said it expected to receive an upfront payment of US$100 million from AstraZeneca, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on December 21. The British-Swedish drugmaker was paying for exclusive rights to research, develop, register, manufacture......