China

China

Inside China's State-Backed $8.2 Billion AI Investment Strategy

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Chris McKay• April 11, 2025 • 2 min read

China has launched a 60 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) state fund focused on early-stage AI projects, marking a significant step in Beijing's state-led approach to technological advancement.

Manus China

Manus, a New AI Agent From China is Going Viral—And Raising Big Questions

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Chris McKay• March 7, 2025 • 4 min read

Manus AI, China’s new autonomous agent, is making waves with its ability to independently analyze, plan, and execute tasks. With industry leaders calling it “the AI agent we were promised,” it’s raising the stakes in the global AI race.

Alibaba China

Alibaba's Latest AI Model, QwQ-32B, Beats Larger Rivals in Math and Reasoning

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Chris McKay• March 6, 2025 • 2 min read

Despite having far fewer parameters, Qwen’s new QwQ-32B model outperforms DeepSeek-R1 and OpenAI’s o1-mini in mathematical benchmarks and scientific reasoning, showcasing the power of reinforcement learning.

Apple China Alibaba

Apple Reportedly Partners with Alibaba for AI in China

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Chris McKay• February 11, 2025 • 2 min read

Apple apparently dropped Baidu as its initial AI partner and rejected models from other Chinese firms, including DeepSeek.

DeepSeek China Open Source

DeepSeek R1 is a Fully Open-Source "Reasoning" AI Model

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Chris McKay• January 20, 2025 • 2 min read

DeepSeek-R1 is not just a model but a statement on behalf of the open source community. It offers performance that matches OpenAI's o1 in critical areas such as reasoning, mathematics, and coding.

China Open Source

MiniMax Releases Open-Source Model with Massive 4M Context Window

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Chris McKay• January 14, 2025 • 2 min read

It is 10x cheaper than GPT-4o, with API costs at $0.20/M input tokens and $1.10/M output tokens.

EngineAI China Robotics

A Viral Video of EngineAI's SE01 Robot Walking puts Chinese Robotics Firm in Spotlight

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Chris McKay• January 10, 2025 • 1 min read

At CES 2025, EngineAI presented its lineup of humanoid robots: SE01, SA01, and PM01, each designed for specific use cases in industry, education, and development.

Adobe Research China

Adobe's New AI, TransPixar, Adds Transparency to Generated Videos

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Chris McKay• January 9, 2025 • 2 min read

TransPixar generates videos with RGBA channels, integrating transparency for effects like smoke, fire, and glass reflections.

DeepSeek China Open Source

DeepSeek-V3 Achieves Frontier AI Performance at a Fraction of the Cost

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Chris McKay• December 27, 2024 • 4 min read

DeepSeek's new AI model demonstrates that top-tier performance doesn't require massive resources, raising questions about the economics of AI development.

EngineAI Robotics China

EngineAI Expands Lineup with PM01: A Lighter, More Agile Humanoid Robot for $12,000

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Chris McKay• December 26, 2024 • 3 min read

The developer-focused model arrives as companies race to make humanoid robots more accessible and practical

Alibaba China Open Source

Alibaba Unveils QVQ, an Open-Weight AI Model Focused on Visual Reasoning

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Chris McKay• December 24, 2024 • 2 min read

QVQ is built upon Qwen2-VL-72B's architecture but incorporates refinements tailored to multimodal reasoning.

China Venture Capital Startups

Chinese AI Firm Zhipu AI Secures $412M as Competition Intensifies

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Chris McKay• December 17, 2024 • 2 min read

The funding follows multiple investment rounds in 2024, with the company's valuation reaching approximately $2.75 billion

DeepSeek China Open Source

Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek Challenges OpenAI with New Reasoning Model

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Chris McKay• November 20, 2024 • 2 min read

You can try the model via their web-based chatbot, DeepSeek Chat and assess it for yourself.

China Chips Geopolitics

Huawei's AI Chip Ambitions Hit Hard by US Sanctions

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Chris McKay• November 19, 2024 • 2 min read

This setback impacts not only Huawei but also China's broader ambitions to lead in AI technology.

Robotics China

XPENG Unveils Iron Humanoid Robot, Already Operational in EV Factory

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Chris McKay• November 6, 2024 • 3 min read

The robot features over 60 joints with 200 degrees of freedom, allowing it to mimic human movements including standing, sitting, and lying down. Its hands contain 15 degrees of freedom with tactile feedback, enabling it to grasp and manipulate objects with precision.

China Open Source

Tencent Unveils Hunyuan-Large, an Open-Source MoE Model that Outperforms Llama

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Chris McKay• November 5, 2024 • 2 min read

This is the largest open-source Transformer-based MoE model to date, capable of handling sequences up to 256K tokens.

EngineAI China Robotics

EngineAI Unveils SE01, an Impressive Robot the Walks Like a Human

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Chris McKay• October 24, 2024 • 2 min read

The SE01's development team focused heavily on solving the "choppy steps" problem that has long plagued humanoid robots.

China Robotics

Astribot S1 Shows off Impressive Capabilities in New Video

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Chris McKay• August 20, 2024 • 2 min read

In the video, the Astribot S1 can be seen executing a variety of tasks, from household chores to delicate manual operations. For example, it effortlessly prepares a waffle, makes kung fu tea, shoots a basketball and plays the yangqin.

China Robotics

Zhiyuan Robotics Unveils Five New Humanoid Robots, Open-Source Plans, and Outlines Technology Roadmap

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Chris McKay• August 20, 2024 • 4 min read

Zhiyuan aims to ship over 300 robots in 2024, including about 200 bipedal and 100 wheeled models. Mass production is slated to begin in October.

Robotics China

Unitree Launches Production Version of G1 Humanoid Robot

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Chris McKay• August 19, 2024 • 3 min read

This version can perform even more complex actions such as spinning, navigating stairs, bouncing, and maintaining balance when pushed or stumbled.

China

Kuaishou Unveils Kling: A Text-to-Video Model To Challenge OpenAI's Sora

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Chris McKay• June 6, 2024 • 3 min read

Kling uses a 3D spatio-temporal joint attention mechanism which enables it to effectively model complex movements, resulting in fluid and natural-looking motion in its generated content.

Robotics China

Meet Tiangong, China's First Full-Size Electric Running Humanoid Robot

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Chris McKay• April 28, 2024 • 2 min read

It is equipped with advanced sensors, including a high-precision Inertial Measurement Unit capable of an impressive 550 trillion operations per second, 3D vision sensors, and six-axis force sensors for accurate force feedback.

China

China Unveils Vidu: A Powerful Text-to-Video Generator

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Chris McKay• April 27, 2024 • 1 min read

Vidu is based on a Universal Vision Transformer architecture, which the company says allows it to simulate the real physical world with multi-camera view generation.

Robotics China

Stardust Intelligence's Impressive S1 Robot Demo Raises Eyebrows

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Chris McKay• April 26, 2024 • 1 min read

If the claims made by Stardust Intelligence are indeed accurate, and the S1 robot's performance in the video demo is genuine, it would undoubtedly represent a significant leap forward in humanoid robotics.

China Alibaba Venture Capital Startups

Alibaba Leads $600 Million Funding Round for Chinese AI Firm MiniMax

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Chris McKay• March 6, 2024 • 2 min read

If confirmed, the MiniMax deal would mark Alibaba's second major AI investment this year, following its lead role in a $1 billion funding round for Beijing-based Moonshot AI in February.