DeepSeek funding round nears 80 billion yuan, sources say
Bloomberg reports DeepSeek's new funding round may near 100 billion yuan, with Tencent and CATL leading as the AI firm preps for an early 2027 listing.
China AI News and Analysis
38 verified stories covering China AI, product updates and industry developments.
MIIT plans 9,800 EFLOPS of AI compute by 2030
China's MIIT sets a 2030 target of 9,800 EFLOPS in intelligent computing power, backed by 3.8 trillion yuan in planned information-infrastructure investment through 2030.
Office Agent Report: Top 5% of Users Consume Half the Compute
The top 20% of users burn 87.4% of an office agent's compute, and the top 5% alone use over half of it — a first look at real China office-AI usage data.
China's Supreme Court Issues 24-Article AI Dispute Guidance
China's top court issued 24 AI-dispute rules covering voice cloning, algorithmic pricing, deepfake endorsements and self-driving liability.
AI Short-Drama Prices Crash to a Few Hundred Yuan Per Minute
China's AI short-drama pricing has crashed from 5,000 yuan to a few hundred yuan per minute as the market surges 138% year over year.
China Approves First AI-Assisted Drug From 49 Billion Compounds
China's drug regulator has conditionally approved an AI-assisted original drug for COVID-19, screened from a 49-billion-compound DNA-encoded library in three and a half years.
China’s Second-Phase AI Crackdown Punishes 49,000 Accounts
China’s cyberspace regulator wraps up phase two of its AI misuse crackdown, punishing over 49,000 accounts as enforcement shifts from products to the people using them.
China's Daily AI Token Calls Surge to 500 Trillion in Three Months
China's daily AI token calls hit 500 trillion in June, up from 140 trillion in March, as AI agents push inference costs past training costs.
DeepSeek's Losses Widen to ¥715M Despite ¥475M Revenue
DeepSeek made ¥475M in revenue but lost ¥715M in early 2026, as an 82.9% API margin gets erased by free-tier subsidies and a new peak-pricing scheme.
AI lifts homework scores 18%, but exam scores fall 20%
A 30-month study tracking 26,811 Chinese students finds AI-assisted homework scores jump 18%, but the same students' exam scores fall 20% within six months.
China Sets Mandatory L3/L4 Driving Rules
China approved GB 44721-2026, its first mandatory national safety standard for L3 and L4 automated driving systems.
DeepSeek's $7.4B round locks control with Liang and the state
The financing structure accepts outside capital while keeping voting power away from commercial investors.
DeepSeek raises $7.4B without giving investors control
DeepSeek closed its first outside round at a valuation above $50 billion, but commercial backers get no voting power.
China rewires university majors around AI
China has cut 12,200 undergraduate programs while adding 10,200 new ones, shifting seats from humanities-heavy areas toward AI, robotics and embodied intelligence.
Kimi sends 300 agents to forecast the 2026 World Cup
Moonshot AI used a cluster of Kimi agents to simulate all 104 matches and identify probability gaps, including a higher chance for Germany than betting markets imply.
Chinese models reset the floor for AI pricing
Enterprise workload estimates show Claude, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM separated by nearly 9x in cost, forcing OpenAI and Anthropic toward price pressure.
China's humanoid robot makers race toward Hong Kong IPOs
EngineAI's confidential filing shows how Chinese robotics startups are trying to lock in valuations before demand has fully caught up with production.
EngineAI chases a 10B-yuan valuation in Hong Kong
EngineAI is highlighting factory speed and funding while leaving investors to wait for the revenue line that will decide the IPO story.
China sketches a $295B AI compute network
China is preparing a five-year AI infrastructure plan that could spend about $295 billion while requiring at least 80% domestic hardware and software.
BYD confirms humanoid robot work
BYD says its manufacturing, software and hardware stack can carry into humanoid robots, with dealer channels and enterprise use cases in view.
DeepSeek Nears a 50 Billion Yuan Round, With Liang Wenfeng Putting In 20 Billion
Reuters says DeepSeek’s first major financing could value the company at 350 billion to 400 billion yuan while its founder remains the largest investor.
3D Model Startup Vast Raises $200M, Becomes China's Newest AI Unicorn
Chinese 3D model generation startup Vast has raised nearly $200 million in a new funding round, crossing the $1 billion valuation mark.
China Restricts Overseas Travel for Top AI Talent at Alibaba, DeepSeek
China is tightening controls on overseas travel for key AI personnel at private firms like Alibaba and DeepSeek, requiring government approval before leaving the country.
Alibaba's AI writes its own chip driver, achieving 10x speedup
Alibaba demonstrated its Qwen3.7-Max model autonomously writing kernel drivers for its new Zhenwu M890 chip, achieving a 10x performance boost in 35 hours.
Moonshot AI raises $2B as valuation hits $20B
Meituan-backed investors have pushed Kimi maker Moonshot AI to a $20 billion valuation, testing how far China's model-company pricing can run.
Moonshot AI Hits $20 Billion Valuation With Meituan-Led Round
Moonshot AI has raised $2 billion at a $20 billion-plus valuation, putting Kimi at the center of China’s race for open-source large models and a possible Hong Kong listing.
China builds 90% of humanoid robots, but buyers are not convinced
Morgan Stanley says Chinese suppliers dominate humanoid robot output, yet only 23% of surveyed buyers are satisfied and most still see the machines as pilot projects.
China’s Big Fund Puts DeepSeek on the Strategic-AI Map
DeepSeek is reportedly discussing a first funding round led by China’s national chip fund, pushing its valuation toward $45 billion and tying its next phase to domestic compute.
DeepSeek Seeks First External Funding Round, Targeting at Least $300 Million at Over $10 Billion Valuation
DeepSeek is seeking its first-ever external funding round, targeting at least $300 million at a valuation exceeding $10 billion, according to four anonymous informed sources. The move marks a major shift for the AI lab, which had long rejected outside investment.
Beijing half-marathon robot runs 50 minutes 26 seconds
A 169 cm tall red humanoid robot with liquid cooling, built by a smartphone maker, completed a half-marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating the human world record by nearly seven minutes.
China drafts rules to regulate AI companions, bans impersonation of relatives
China's Cyberspace Administration has released a draft regulation targeting AI services that simulate human personality and engage in emotional interaction, including mandatory breaks, a ban on impersonating users' close relatives, and requirements for psychological risk intervention.
China's AI consumes 140 billion tokens daily
China's AI industry is inventing a new unit of measurement, with daily token processing reaching 140 billion by early 2026, a 1,000-fold increase from early 2024. A wave of AI companies is heading for Hong Kong IPOs, while user trust in AI hits 87% in China versus 32% in the US, driving agent adoption and cost reductions.
MiniMax Surges 470%, Zhipu AI 570% on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Chinese AI startups MiniMax and Zhipu AI have seen their share prices soar by 470% and 570% respectively since their Hong Kong IPOs in January, defying heavy losses and outperforming expectations.
Japan's Labor Shortage Makes Robots the Main Stage for Physical AI
Japan is deploying physical AI at scale, driven by a severe labor shortage rather than a love of technology. The country faces a shrinking workforce, with robots now working in warehouses, construction sites, farms, and convenience stores.
DeepSeek Launches Fast and Expert Chat Modes
DeepSeek has quietly introduced two new chat modes, Instant and Expert, with the Expert mode offering higher quality for complex tasks but removing file upload support, hinting at a tiered service structure ahead of the anticipated V4 release.
DeepSeek V4 Runs on Huawei Chips
DeepSeek is set to release V4, a trillion-parameter MoE model running on Huawei's Ascend 950PR chips, marking the first frontier AI model built entirely for a domestic Chinese chip architecture and a potential shift away from NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem.
Hugging Face Report: China Model Downloads Surpass US for the First Time
Hugging Face's 2026 spring open-source ecosystem report reveals that Chinese model downloads account for 41% of the total, overtaking the US for the first time, while platform users, models, and datasets have nearly doubled year-over-year.
DeepSeek V4 vs Qwen 3.5: Two Chinese Open-Source Models Battle for the Same Market
DeepSeek V4 and Qwen 3.5 (also labeled Qwen 3.6-Plus) are two Chinese open-source AI models competing on cost and capability, challenging expensive closed-source giants with trillion-parameter scale, massive context windows, and rock-bottom API pricing.