Ant International raises $1.2bn to fund its payments push beyond China
Ant International raises $1.2bn to fund its payments push beyond China

Ant International, the overseas affiliate of Chinese fintech group Ant Group, has raised about $1.2 billion in a fresh equity round to fund its expansion into markets beyond its home turf. The company confirmed the raise, describing it as capital to sp…

Kai-Fu Lee stopped building AI models and started selling enterprise data infrastructure. Now 01.ai is heading for a Hong Kong IPO.
Kai-Fu Lee stopped building AI models and started selling enterprise data infrastructure. Now 01.ai is heading for a Hong Kong IPO.

Kai-Fu Lee’s 01.ai is raising a pre-IPO round ahead of a planned Hong Kong listing in 2027, the former Google China chief told Bloomberg at the World AI Conference in Shanghai. The company is unwinding its offshore holding structure, the same prerequis…

Neo exits stealth with $100M from a16z and Bessemer to build a control layer for agentic AI software
Neo exits stealth with $100M from a16z and Bessemer to build a control layer for agentic AI software

Neo emerged from stealth on Monday with $100 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, with Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures also participating. The company, founded by former SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks …

The firm that wires AI data centres is chasing Hong Kong’s biggest IPO since Alibaba.
The firm that wires AI data centres is chasing Hong Kong’s biggest IPO since Alibaba.

One of the quiet winners of the AI boom is about to test the public markets. Zhongji Innolight, a Chinese maker of high-speed optical transceivers, has started gauging demand for a Hong Kong listing worth as much as $8bn. The Shenzhen-listed company wo…

A British AI lab signed up Nvidia, Meta and Samsung to invent materials that don’t exist yet
A British AI lab signed up Nvidia, Meta and Samsung to invent materials that don’t exist yet

A two-year-old British AI lab wants to build the search engine for materials that do not exist yet. On Monday it gathered an unusual crowd to help. Cambridge-based CuspAI launched the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition of more than 45 companies and rese…

Prysmian signs €5.5bn fibre deal with Molex to wire AI data centres
Prysmian signs €5.5bn fibre deal with Molex to wire AI data centres

Prysmian has signed a €5.5bn, 10-year agreement with Molex, the Koch Industries-owned connector and cable maker, to supply optical cable for use inside AI data centres. Unusually for a supply deal of this size, Molex is putting €550m on the table upfro…

Blackstone invests in South Korea’s Futronic to ride the robotics boom
Blackstone invests in South Korea’s Futronic to ride the robotics boom

Blackstone is buying into Futronic, a South Korean maker of the high-precision actuators that let machines move, in a wager that the least visible hardware in a robot is where the next returns will sit. The firm did not disclose the size of the investm…

Korea’s AI chip market is now the opening bell for global stocks
Korea’s AI chip market is now the opening bell for global stocks

Fund managers in London, New York, and Tokyo have added a new step to their morning routine: checking South Korean stocks. Korea’s $4 trillion equity market is now offering an early read on global AI risk appetite, as swings in SK Hynix and Samsung rip…

Moonshot plans to list in Hong Kong within six months at a $30 billion valuation
Moonshot plans to list in Hong Kong within six months at a $30 billion valuation

Moonshot AI has told investors it is preparing to list in Hong Kong in as soon as six months, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. The company has distributed a shareholder resolution seeking backing for the IPO and is wrapping a fundraising round that may …

Nebius raised $775 million by borrowing against its GPUs. It has $40 billion more contracts to securitise.
Nebius raised $775 million by borrowing against its GPUs. It has $40 billion more contracts to securitise.

Nebius raised $775 million in its first secured debt facility, borrowing against deployed GPU infrastructure and contracted cash flows from an investment-grade customer. The facility matures on October 31, 2030, and is priced at SOFR + 2.50%, roughly 6…