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China’s investors double down on AI frontrunners as StepFun raises RMB 5 billion

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Xiaomi SU7 outsells Tesla Model 3 in China

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SCMP
Xiaomi sold more units of its SU7 electric sedan than Tesla’s Model 3 in China last year, with 258,164 deliveries, about 30% higher than Tesla’s 200,361, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. The milestone ends Tesla’s five-year reign atop the country’s premium EV market, though its Model Y still dominates the SUV segment.

BYD to boost global deliveries by 25%

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IT Zhijia
BYD said it plans to boost overseas vehicle sales to 1.3 million units in 2026, up about 25% from last year’s total. The automaker is expanding in Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia while ramping up local production in Thailand, Brazil, Uzbekistan, and Hungary to meet growing global demand.

Li Auto trims retail network amid slowdown

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Guancha
Li Auto is preparing to close some of its retail stores to improve operational efficiency, insiders said, after delivery volumes fell 19% in 2025. The automaker expanded its network from 206 to 548 outlets nationwide but faced weaker demand as new car models awaited upgrades.

Vivo halts smart glasses project

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36Kr
Vivo has halted its smart glasses project after months of joint development with partners including Goertek and ThunderSoft. Executives reportedly concluded the product lacked differentiation in a crowded market. The move highlights the broader challenges facing AI-powered eyewear, from hardware complexity to a thin software ecosystem.

GAC Aion, Didi launch R2 robotaxi

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GAC
GAC Aion and Didi have officially launched the R2 robotaxi, with the first units rolling off the line in Guangzhou and receiving road test permits. Equipped with 33 sensors and AI-driven safety redundancy, the vehicle is built for commercial deployment and paves the way for large-scale rollouts across Chinese cities.

Unitree clarifies 2025 robot sales data

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Unitree Robotics
Unitree Robotics said online reports about its 2025 robot shipments were inaccurate, confirming that actual deliveries exceeded 5,500 humanoid units, with total production surpassing 6,500. The company stressed that these figures cover humanoid robots only, not other product lines.

Genki Forest dismisses IPO rumors

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Sina
Genki Forest told media outlets that reports of it considering a Hong Kong IPO are inaccurate, saying the company has “no listing plan.” The statement came after reports claimed the beverage maker had held early talks with potential advisers about a possible offering.

Baichuan launches M3 Plus with free API

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IT Zhijia
Baichuan AI has introduced M3 Plus, a new large model for evidence-based medical AI, cutting hallucinations to 2.6%. It introduces “evidence anchoring,” which ties each diagnostic statement to its source text for verifiable and accountable outputs. The firm also opened free API access to medical institutions.

Tencent moves to block chat exports

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The Paper
Tencent has filed complaints leading GitHub to remove more than 30 open-source projects that allowed users to export or analyze WeChat chat records. The company said the tools broke encryption via reverse engineering, risking privacy breaches and potential misuse by bad actors.

Geely’s CaoCao expands robotaxi plan

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CaoCao Mobility
CaoCao Mobility, a subsidiary of Geely, plans to deploy 100,000 fully autonomous robotaxis worldwide by 2030. The company is developing a next-generation taxi system focused on AI-driven safety, asset management, and automation, while expanding partnerships in China and overseas to scale operations.

Canada court overturns TikTok shutdown

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Reuters
Canada’s federal court has overturned a government order to dissolve TikTok’s operations, allowing the platform to continue while a new national security review is conducted. The 2024 order cited security concerns over its Chinese ownership. TikTok, which has about 14 million users in Canada, said it welcomed the ruling and will cooperate with the review.

China widens power gap with the US

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Nikkei Asia
China added 470 GW of new power capacity in 2025, roughly seven times the US increase, as it moves to secure cheap, abundant energy for AI development. Renewable sources accounted for 80% of the new capacity, while 27 nuclear reactors are under construction. The expansion underscores Beijing’s growing advantage in its technology rivalry with Washington.

Alibaba forms power venture for AI needs

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Bloomberg
Alibaba Group has launched a RMB 250 million joint venture with China National Nuclear Power and others to develop electricity generation projects, according to Tianyancha. The move could help secure reliable, clean power for Alibaba’s expanding AI data centers as tech firms race to meet rising energy demands.

iQiyi doubles global viewership in 2025

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iQiyi
iQiyi's international platform recorded a 114.5% YoY increase in global views in 2025, driven by strong demand for Chinese and Thai dramas. The company also launched new content charts across six categories, including drama, film, and animation, to track global viewing trends. Dramas and original content remain its key growth drivers.

Qwen tops global open-source models

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IT Zhijia
Alibaba’s Qwen has become the world’s leading open-source large model, with more than 200,000 derivative models and over one billion downloads, according to Hugging Face. Developers worldwide are creating about 200 new Qwen-based models daily across fields such as robotics, translation, and content generation, highlighting its influence.

Z.ai limits coding tool signups

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Z.ai
Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, will restrict new subscriptions to its GLM Coding Plan to 20% of current daily levels starting January 23, citing resource strain from a surge in demand following its GLM-4.7 model launch. Existing users remain unaffected.

Kuaishou’s Kling AI tops 12 million MAUs

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WSJ
Kling AI, a video generation platform developed by Kuaishou, has surpassed 12 million monthly active users. The tool generated more than USD 20 million in revenue in December 2025, prompting the company to raise its full-year forecast to USD 140 million.

Douyin refutes discount app rumors

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36Kr
Douyin E-commerce has denied online claims that it launched a discount shopping app, clarifying that no such product exists. People familiar with the matter said the effort stems from small-scale tests in Douyin’s local group buying business, aimed at convenience rather than cost-saving, and that the final name may differ.

China Telecom trains AI models on Huawei chips

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SCMP
China Telecom has developed mixture-of-experts AI models trained entirely on Huawei’s Ascend 910B chips, marking a milestone in China’s domestic large model development. The TeleChat3 models, which scale up to trillions of parameters, were built using Huawei’s MindSpore framework but still lag behind leading US models on key benchmarks.

Xiaomi, Transsion cut 2026 phone targets

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SCMP
Chinese smartphone makers are slashing 2026 shipment targets as a global memory shortage squeezes supply chains. Xiaomi reduced its forecast by up to 70 million units and Transsion by 30–45 million, sources said. The cutbacks follow rising chip prices as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron divert capacity to AI demand, weighing heavily on the handset sector.
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