China just closed a gap in chipmaking that nobody talks about. The wafer size tells you how far it has to go.
China just closed a gap in chipmaking that nobody talks about. The wafer size tells you how far it has to go.

Hwatsing Technology, China’s leading producer of chemical mechanical polishing equipment, announced a metrology system for six-inch wafers on Thursday that can be built directly into the polishing workflow. The company describes it as China’s first six…

American models broke into Hugging Face. A Chinese model was used to investigate.
American models broke into Hugging Face. A Chinese model was used to investigate.

Hugging Face chief executive Clément Delangue told CNBC that China is winning the AI race, with Chinese-developed models accounting for 41% of downloads on his platform over the past year, the largest share of any single country. China has now surpasse…

China’s new AI bottleneck isn’t chips. It’s running out of Chinese-language training data.
China’s new AI bottleneck isn’t chips. It’s running out of Chinese-language training data.

China’s AI race has a new constraint, and it is not chips. The country is running out of high-quality Chinese-language training data. While US export controls on advanced semiconductors have dominated the debate over China’s AI capabilities, Chinese ex…

DeepSeek made AI cheap. Now it is raising $8bn and buying robots
DeepSeek made AI cheap. Now it is raising $8bn and buying robots

DeepSeek spent early 2025 proving that a good AI model did not have to cost a fortune. This week it has been busy proving it can spend one. In a handful of days, the Chinese lab reopened a multi-billion-dollar fundraising. It took a stake in the countr…

Forbidden fruit: Buick Electra gets 435 mile range and 376 hp for $25,000
Forbidden fruit: Buick Electra gets 435 mile range and 376 hp for $25,000

In the “Why don’t they sell that over here?” and “Why can’t we have nice things?” columns this morning, GM has announced range and pricing for its gorgeous new Electra L7 sedan in China, and it is a screaming deal.

China opens a cybersecurity review into Palo Alto Networks
China opens a cybersecurity review into Palo Alto Networks

China has trained its regulators on one of America’s biggest security companies. Authorities have launched a cybersecurity review into Palo Alto Networks, a move that deepens an already tense standoff. The review is a powerful instrument. In China, thi…

Unitree’s IPO could value China’s robot champion at $7bn or more
Unitree’s IPO could value China’s robot champion at $7bn or more

China’s best-known robot maker is about to test the public markets. Unitree could be worth more than 50 billion yuan, roughly $7bn, after its Shanghai listing, according to its IPO sponsor.The estimate comes from CITIC Securities. As the deal’s sponsor…

World’s first sodium-ion electric haul truck gets to work in China
World’s first sodium-ion electric haul truck gets to work in China

While Americans fret over whether or not electric vehicles are up to the challenge of hauling them back and forth to the Piggly Wiggly, Tonly is putting a fleet of advanced sodium battery electric haul trucks to work mining heavy ore.

The US wants Chinese optics out of its AI data centres. Amazon and Microsoft pay first.
The US wants Chinese optics out of its AI data centres. Amazon and Microsoft pay first.

China’s two biggest optical module makers took a beating on Wednesday. Zhongji Innolight fell as much as 16%, according to the South China Morning Post. Bloomberg put the intraday drop at 14%. Eoptolink Technology slid with it. The trigger was a Reuter…

Chinese carriers were pushed out of US networks. A House report says they never left
Chinese carriers were pushed out of US networks. A House report says they never left

The Salt Typhoon hack that breached America’s biggest phone carriers had a back door hiding in plain sight. A bipartisan House report has a blunt finding. Three Chinese state-owned carriers, pushed out of the US years ago, never fully left. Their lefto…