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China's stock investors boosted their leveraged bets to an all-time high, helping fuel a record-setting run on technology stocks amid easing geopolitical tensions and earnings resilience. The outstanding value of margin trading on the mainland's exchanges reached 2.86 trillion yuan (US$420.8 billion) on Thursday, rising to a record for a seventh straight day, according to the data by China Securities Finance. Leveraged traders poured the borrowed funds mainly into electronics, semiconductor and......

Zhou Qunfei, the woman at the helm of manufacturing giant Lens Technology, found herself seated in a favourable position at the state banquet hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for US President Donald Trump on Thursday night, placed between two of her most important clients, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Several Chinese business leaders attended the banquet alongside US executives and officials, including Hisense chairman Jia Shaoqian, Lens Technology chairwoman Zhou......

Several major US-listed global hotel chains reported strong performance in China in the first quarter, driven by robust business and leisure demand, with momentum expected to continue through the year. As US President Donald Trump makes a state visit to Beijing this week, international arrivals to China also jumped in the first quarter, fuelled by the country's expanded visa-free entry policies for more countries. Four international hotel groups – Hilton Worldwide Holdings, InterContinental......

A star Chinese researcher laid off by Facebook owner Meta Platforms has co-founded a start-up focused on self-improving artificial intelligence systems, joining a wave of US and Chinese firms developing models capable of autonomously refining their own code and reasoning. Tian Yuandong, former research scientist director at Meta's FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) team, launched Recursive Superintelligence alongside seven other co-founders. The company said on Wednesday it had raised more than......

China's leading semiconductor foundries, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor, expect their second-quarter sales to rise amid a dynamic global market defined by surging artificial intelligence demand and a memory supply crunch, while Hua Hong said it hopes this week's Xi-Trump meetings could help relax US export controls. SMIC expected its second-quarter revenue to range between US$2.86 billion and US$2.91 billion, up from US$2.51 billion in the......

A Ford Motor electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan, edging closer to inauguration, has shed light on global marques' reliance on Chinese technologies to accelerate their EV transition amid US President Donald Trump's state visit to Beijing. With trade and investment among the top issues on the agenda for the summit between Trump and President Xi Jinping, the US$3 billion facility, with a capacity of more than 400,000 EVs a year, has heightened expectations for similar......

Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the private investment vehicle of Hong Kong property tycoon Henry Cheng Kar-shun's family, and related parties, has acquired a Taikoo Shing school campus from Swire Properties in a deal estimated at about HK$400 million (US$51 million), which analysts described as a bet on long-term demand for international schools in the city. The deal – nearly doubling the property's valuation from an internal transfer in late 2023 at HK$213 million – marks a change from leasing to......

Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings are doubling down on a massive artificial intelligence spending spree, betting that a new wave of Chinese-made chips will break the supply bottlenecks stifling their ambitions. While both Chinese tech giants saw revenues trail expectations this quarter, they pledged an aggressive acceleration in capital expenditure, as home-grown silicon from Huawei Technologies and Alibaba's in-house labs begins to reach scale. Alibaba was likely to “overshoot” its......

Shares of New World Development (NWD) – the beleaguered property developer owned by one of Hong Kong's richest families – fell on Thursday, after the firm acknowledged it had made no progress on plans to dispose of a mega shopping centre project and introduce new investors. The stock tumbled by as much as 4.7 per cent in Hong Kong, before paring some of the losses to close 4.3 per cent lower at HK$8.95. The Hang Seng Index remained largely unchanged for the day. NWD was still in talks with Hong......

Surging oil prices are prompting Chinese buyers to shift to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which dominated April sales rankings by taking nine out of the top 10 spots – a new high in China's electrification drive. Only one petrol car model was among the bestsellers across all power trains, with Geely's Binyue in eighth place on sales of 14,923 units, according to data from automotive platform Dongchedi. The rest were BEVs, which produce zero tailpipe emissions..

Two China-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs) targeting overseas chipmakers warned of investment risks arising from excessive premiums to net asset values and imposed a temporary trading halt, as the record-setting run in tech stocks has spurred Chinese investors to chase the global rally. Hutai-PineBridge CSI KRX China-Korea Semiconductor ETF, which invests in Chinese and South Korean chipmakers, was suspended from trading for an hour on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday, citing the......

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding jumped 8.2 per cent to close at US$145.81 in New York on Wednesday local time, as the firm ramps up its commitment to artificial intelligence. The company, which is also listed in Hong Kong, disclosed on Wednesday after markets closed that revenues from its AI-related products had hit 8.97 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) in the first quarter, and that the segment had registered triple-digit growth for an 11th consecutive quarter. It expected its annualised recurring......

Chinese memory module manufacturers are accelerating the release of consumer and enterprise storage products powered by domestic DDR5 chips, as breakthroughs by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the nation's leading memory chipmaker, filter through the supply chain. Powev, one of China's major memory module vendors, recently said its Sinker-branded DDR5 server memories had entered mass production and delivery. The 64GB DDR5-5600 RDIMM product passed testing by multiple major customers and was......

Office rents in Hong Kong's Central district are expected to rise faster in the second quarter of the year, according to analysts, a reversal of a multi-year slump that began in the second half of 2019. The latest forecast was made by US bank Citi, which said premium offices in the city's main business zone had seen rents rise 1.7 per cent from a trough in October, with room for further increments between the second half this year and 2027. “Lease negotiation dynamics had started to favour......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] The silent crisis in global trade In the world of global trade, businesses of all sizes face a common challenge: lengthy payment cycles and complex cross-border processes that stifle growth and operational efficiency. Take Chinese suppliers shipping goods to retail giants like Walmart or Target. After delivering their products, they typically wait 45 to 90 days to get paid. This long cash conversion cycle strains even......

E-commerce and AI giant Alibaba Group Holding on Wednesday disclosed quarterly revenue of AI-related products for the first time, reporting that the segment has registered triple-digit growth for an eleventh consecutive quarter. The surge helped bolster a 3 per cent overall revenue increase that was largely in line with market expectations. AI-related product revenue hit 8.97 billion yuan (US$1.32 billion), the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, as the segment continues to......

Tesla China has launched a new financing scheme to attract more budget-conscious buyers after its sales in the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) market fell behind its domestic rivals. The US carmaker said on Wednesday that the down payment for a Shanghai-made Model 3 vehicle – priced at 235,500 yuan (US$34,672) – would be slashed to 55,900 yuan from 79,900 yuan if the buyer chose a five-year car loan offered by Tesla. “Our strong products, combined with attractive incentives for car......

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings' first-quarter revenue missed estimates amid a slowdown in gaming sales growth, while the company pledged continued investment in artificial intelligence to fuel its future growth. First-quarter sales grew 9 per cent to 196.5 billion yuan (US$28.9 billion), following 180 billion yuan during the same period in 2025. It missed estimates of 199.4 billion yuan, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg. Net income for the March quarter reached 67.9 billion yuan on......

Henderson Land Development secured the first biodiversity loan in Hong Kong, receiving around HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) from HSBC and Hang Seng Bank for green initiatives at Central Yards, the company's flagship mixed-use development on the New Central Harbourfront. This loan would provide a “scalable blueprint” for companies to achieve their sustainability goals and enhance Hong Kong's position as a leading international sustainable finance centre, according to the two banks. The......

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. From Beijing to Berlin: Chinese EVs turn heads as brands eye European markets For German consumer Erik Böhme, a first visit to the Beijing auto show was an eye-opener – the world's largest car exhibition showcased a vast array of electric vehicle (EV) brands, many already gaining......