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Wednesday 8 July 2026
Dongfeng Nissan seeks turnaround amid weak Chinese auto market
China's car market is increasingly divided between weak domestic demand and strong overseas growth, with electric vehicles (EVs) pushing further into the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. For global readers, the shift signals a more competitive export-driven auto industry, even as makers at home face intense pricing pressure and faster model turnover.
Wednesday 8 July 2026
China cost cuts put US$1T robotaxi market within reach by 2040

China's falling robotaxi supply chain costs could help push the global autonomous taxi market to US$1 trillion by 2040, with Waymo and Tesla leading worldwide as Baidu, Xpeng and WeRide scale rapidly in China, according to Morgan Stanley.

Wednesday 8 July 2026
China unveils memristor chip for real-time neural dynamics, pushes computing into millisecond range

A Chinese research team has developed a phase-change memristor-based neural dynamical system chip, offering a potential hardware path for real-time brain modeling, brain-computer interfaces, and brain disease diagnosis.

Wednesday 8 July 2026
Chinese equipment maker wins first large-format PLP lithography order for AI packaging equipment
Circuit Fabology Microelectronics Equipment (CFMEE) has secured China's first commercial order for a large-format panel-level packaging lithography tool, marking the company's entry into the AI advanced packaging equipment market.
Wednesday 8 July 2026
China eyes AI model curbs as tech rivalry moves beyond chips

For years, Washington and Beijing focused much of their tech rivalry on silicon. Now the front line may be moving to the AI models themselves.

Wednesday 8 July 2026
China's AI labs race to build custom AI chips while ASICs threaten Nvidia's dominance
China's leading AI model developers are moving deeper into custom chip design, a shift that could reshape the country's AI hardware market as inference demand rises, US export controls tighten access to Nvidia GPUs, and Huawei's domestic alternatives face capacity and software constraints.
Wednesday 8 July 2026
Meituan open-sources LongCat-2.0 as China's domestic AI stack gains momentum

Meituan has open-sourced LongCat-2.0, a trillion-parameter AI model trained and deployed entirely on Chinese computing infrastructure, turning the once-anonymous Owl Alpha into a key test of China's domestic AI model and chip ecosystem.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
LGES posts higher second-quarter sales, supported by US production credits
LG Energy Solution (LGES) reported stronger second-quarter sales and a swing back to operating profit, a result that could matter for global investors tracking how policy incentives are shaping vehicle manufacturing profits. The company said US production credits boosted its results, while underlying operating performance would have been weaker without those subsidies.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Exclusive: Soaring lithium prices and China's mass production ignite a global sodium battery race

A more than 3x rise in China's lithium carbonate price over the past year has pushed sodium-ion batteries back into the spotlight, with the technology increasingly seen as a potential mainstream alternative to lithium batteries. But US industry players say sodium batteries made in the US still cost more than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, and subsidies from federal and local governments have yet to create a viable market in the near term.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
LGES targets humanoid robot battery boom as Tesla Optimus supply looms

LG Energy Solution (LGES) is emerging as a key battery supplier for humanoid robots, as demand for high-performance batteries shifts from electric vehicles to physical AI systems with tighter space, weight and runtime requirements.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
CATL's profit surge widens China's battery lead over global rivals

China's battery industry is widening its lead at home and abroad. Market leader CATL posted record profits while expanding its dominance in overseas electric vehicle (EV) markets. The results underscore the growing imbalance between battery suppliers and automakers.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
World models can lift South Korea in self-driving tech
The global autonomous-driving industry is locked in fierce competition around end-to-end (E2E) self-driving technology, but a world model that can reason through unknown scenarios is the real key to physical AI autonomy, according to an automotive tech researcher in South Korea.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix reportedly seek China-free chip tool buffer against US controls
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are reportedly accelerating efforts to reduce China's role in their semiconductor supply chains in preparation for the possibility of tighter US export controls. The two companies are said to be restructuring their sourcing of materials, components, and manufacturing equipment that rely heavily on China, while gradually replacing some Chinese-made semiconductor tools with alternatives from South Korea, the US, and other countries.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Huawei's Mate 90 to debut Kirin 2026 processor built on Tau Law

Huawei's next-generation flagship Mate 90 smartphone series has reportedly entered the chip packaging and testing stage, according to sources within China's supply chain. The lineup is expected to launch in September 2026 and will be the first to feature Huawei's new Kirin 2026 flagship processor, which is based on the company's Tau Scaling (τ) concept. The device is expected to be one of Huawei's flagship demonstrations of its post-Moore semiconductor strategy.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
AI's bottleneck has shifted from chips to infrastructure — China plans it centrally, US fights it out locally

The cancellation of Blackstone-owned QTS' planned Digital Gateway data center project in Virginia underscores a new challenge for the artificial intelligence industry: securing enough land, power, and community support may now matter as much as securing enough AI chips.