Tesla weighs selling China business to clear path for SpaceX merger
Tesla weighs selling China business to clear path for SpaceX merger

Tesla is looking at cutting loose its China business to clear a path toward a merger with SpaceX, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
If true, it would be a massive deal in the auto industry. Tesla’s Shanghai factory builds more than half of…

BYD’s answer to its car-sales slump: a humanoid robot in every showroom
BYD’s answer to its car-sales slump: a humanoid robot in every showroom

BYD sells more electric cars than anyone. Next month, it wants to sell you one using a robot. China’s biggest EV maker will unveil its first humanoid robot in August, at its Di Space experience centres in Zhengzhou, the company told the South China Mor…

China threatens ‘resolute’ retaliation over the US robot ban, and it holds the rare-earth card
China threatens ‘resolute’ retaliation over the US robot ban, and it holds the rare-earth card

The US wanted to keep Chinese robots out. Beijing’s answer: do this, and we will hit back where it hurts. China has threatened “resolute” retaliation after Washington moved to bar imports of Chinese-made humanoid robots. Its commerce ministry called th…

US senators warn Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips to escape the shortage
US senators warn Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips to escape the shortage

Apple wants to buy cheap memory chips from China to ease a shortage. That shortage is already pushing up the price of its gadgets. A bipartisan group of US senators has just told Tim Cook not to. The senators wrote to Cook, urging Apple to drop any pla…

ByteDance quietly makes $4bn a year from AI. It just broke up an app to make more.
ByteDance quietly makes $4bn a year from AI. It just broke up an app to make more.

ByteDance is quietly winning a race in China that most people are watching in America. The company behind TikTok now makes about $4bn a year from artificial intelligence. That is the largest figure any Chinese firm has publicly claimed, the South China…

US government bans new foreign-made humanoids, robot dogs, and solar inverters, citing risks to national security

The ban largely affects U.S. imports from China, which currently dominates the global market for making humanoid robots and solar inverters.

Shein’s app runs on the tricks the FTC calls ‘dark patterns.’ Now the FTC is investigating.
Shein’s app runs on the tricks the FTC calls ‘dark patterns.’ Now the FTC is investigating.

Shein wanted its Hong Kong listing to be about growth. Instead, the filing meant to sell that story revealed a US regulator is investigating the company, and Shein will not say why. The disclosure sits in the draft prospectus for Shein’s planned IPO, R…

China drafts cyberbullying rules that reach AI-generated abuse
China drafts cyberbullying rules that reach AI-generated abuse

China’s internet regulator has published draft rules to combat cyberbullying, and, according to Reuters, the measures are written to reach abuse generated with artificial intelligence. The Cyberspace Administration of China released the draft for publi…

Mark Zuckerberg says the US should not block Chinese AI models
Mark Zuckerberg says the US should not block Chinese AI models

Mark Zuckerberg has come out against one of Washington’s favourite ideas about artificial intelligence: that the way to beat China is to shut its models out. In an interview with the Financial Times published this week, Meta’s chief executive said bann…

The US just banned ‘foreign’ robots and inverters, and it means China
The US just banned ‘foreign’ robots and inverters, and it means China

The United States has moved to block new imports of foreign-made robots and power inverters. Officials fear a hostile power could spy through them, or switch them off from afar. The order never says China. It does not need to. The Federal Communication…