Analysts believe that BYD's complimentary provision of autonomous technology will stimulate electric vehicle purchases and the uptake of intelligent driving. BYD's founder and chairman, Wang Chuanfu, asserts that this step ushers in a revolutionary period where every customer can utilize smart driving.

Jefferies' analyst, Johnson Wan, reported on Tuesday that BYD has made significant progress from scratch in autonomous driving technology. This advancement is expected to speed up the feature's acceptance in the mainstream market and prompt a surge of updates among current users.

Shenzhen's BYD held an unveiling ceremony for its autonomous driving system known as "God's Eye" on Monday. They announced that the system will be incorporated into at least 21 of its electric vehicle models, without any price alterations.

During the occasion, the founder and Chairman of BYD, Wang Chuanfu, stated that this initiative signifies "a novel period where all users can utilize intelligent driving".

Wan expressed that the launch of God's Eye will help BYD preserve its prominent presence in the Chinese automobile industry. As of 2024, the company held a significant 15% of the passenger vehicle market and a dominant 34% of the country's electric vehicle market, as per the data provided by the China Passenger Car Association.

Wealthy investor David Tepper increases his China investments to make up 37% of his company's portfolio. The hedge fund manager fulfills his vow to purchase 'everything' related to China, raising his stakes in Alibaba, JD.com, ETFs.

Wealthy financier David Tepper amplified his stakes in several China-associated shares and ETFs in the previous quarter, even amid doubts concerning tariffs and China’s sluggish economic progression.

The head and originator of Appaloosa Management, who asserted in September that he would purchase "everything" connected to China, amplified his company's stake in businesses such as JD.com, Alibaba Group Holding, and PDD Holdings during the final quarter of 2024.

Tepper's purchasing rampage in China raised Appaloosa's stakes in JD.com by 43%, Alibaba by 18%, Baidu by 7%, KE Holdings by 18%, and PDD by 1%, as per the report filed on Monday. The holdings in two ETFs – KranShares CSI China Internet and iShares China Large-Cap – saw an increase by 21.5% and 14%, respectively.

Approximately 37 per cent of Tepper's portfolio was made up of stocks and ETFs associated with China by the end of December.

Chinese shares experienced a surge beginning in late September, following the announcement by Beijing of numerous initiatives to bolster the economy. This led to Tepper's pledge to invest in "everything" associated with China, even though the American did diminish his stakes in Alibaba and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF during the third quarter.

The surge in the market slowed down during the last quarter due to investor dissatisfaction with Beijing's execution of economic stimulus, but it regained speed the previous month. In more current news, the sudden popularity of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek resulted in a surge in Chinese tech stocks, driving the Hang Seng Index to achieve its most successful weekly outcome in the past four months last week.

Commentary | Trump's recent trade attack is more about control than finance

Trade taxes can be a two-sided weapon, but the government has chosen to leverage economic strain to accomplish wider tactical goals.

The conduct of Trump has sparked curiosity both domestically and globally about the precise nature of tariffs and their impact on international commerce. Essentially, tariffs are import taxes. For instance, if a Chinese shoe manufacturer aims to market its products in the US, that firm could be subject to a tariff imposed by the American authorities. If a US retailer purchases a pair for US$100, a 10 per cent tariff, similar to the one Trump recently instituted on Chinese goods, necessitates that the retailer remit an additional US$10 to the US government.

The price of those $100 shoes has now risen to $110. But who's footing the bill for the additional $10? During his initial term, when Trump increased tariffs on goods imported from China, the brunt of the expense fell on American importers, especially if they were unable to locate other sources. As a result, retail prices stayed fairly steady, at least for the first year.

The head of a Hong Kong restaurant franchise is planning to sell a building in Sha Tin due to escalating retail troubles. Fulum Group's chairman, Yeung Wai, has put up for sale the Big Orange, a property purchased in 2013 for US$64 million, through a tender process.

The proprietor of Big Orange, a nine-floor structure in Tai Wai, has designated real estate consulting firm CBRE to oversee a public auction for the property in April, as of Monday.

The building, which stands out with its unique orange exterior and spans 236,148 square feet, was purchased by Hansun Investments in 2013 for a sum of HK$498 million (equivalent to US$64 million), as per governmental documentation. Yeung Wai, the head of Fulum Group, is officially registered as a director of Hansun.

Reeves Yan, the executive director and chief of capital markets at CBRE Hong Kong, highlighted that Big Orange is linked to multiple key highways. He added that whether traveling to Hong Kong Island or to any significant regions in Kowloon, the location is just a 20-minute drive away, thus making it a highly strategic central location.

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Store occupancy rebounds in Hong Kong, yet empty shops remain noticeable throughout the city.

StairMed, a competitor of Neuralink, has received the most significant funding among Chinese companies specializing in brain-computer interfaces. This recent financial boost for the start-up, based in Shanghai, came from Qiming Venture, OrbiMed, and Lilly Asia.

StairMed, a brain-computer interface (BCI) company based in Shanghai that purports to exceed Neuralink, a venture by Elon Musk, in specific aspects, has amassed 350 million yuan (equivalent to US$48 million). This is the highest amount of capital ever raised by a Chinese start-up in this sector.

The firm, known for creating BCI devices that can be implanted and robots for surgery, announced that its latest round of funding was primarily driven by China's Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed, a healthcare-centric firm, and Lilly Asia Ventures, an offshoot of the renowned American pharmaceutical titan, Eli Lilly.

StairMed announced what it claimed to be the biggest fundraising round ever for a Chinese company specializing in implantable Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), as per their official WeChat post on Monday. The post also mentioned that the raised funds would be utilized to speed up clinical trials, support research and development efforts, and construct a new manufacturing plant. The last time StairMed had a fundraising round was in 2023, during which it managed to gather a sum amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan.

Lilly Asia Ventures lauded StairMed for being an international frontrunner in the field of flexible electrode technology and comprehensive BCI system development skills.

1:50 am

Scientists from China assert a significant advancement in brain-computer interface technology, achieved by utilizing signals

The new company announced that its extremely adaptable neural electrodes, employed in BCI devices for data collection, are only one-hundredth the size of a hair strand, or one-fifth the size of Neuralink's electrodes. According to the company, their product is also "hundreds of times softer" than Neuralink’s version, which makes it hard for the brain tissue to detect the electrode's 'invasion'.

YouTube, the biggest internet video platform globally, celebrates its 20th anniversary on Valentine's Day. Every single minute, over 500 hours of video content are uploaded on this platform.

On April 23, the feature to upload videos was introduced, with Karim sharing the inaugural video called "Me at the Zoo". This brief 19-second footage, which captures Karim at the elephant display of the San Diego Zoo, has attracted 348 million views.

In the following two decades, the platform has grown beyond the expectations set in 2005.

"Currently, it stands as the world's biggest digital video platform in both user engagement and advertising revenue – it's a complete giant."

Hong Kong's NWD increases costs for State Pavilia apartment sale due to 'excited' demand

Debt-laden builder hikes up costs for the third round of apartments in the State Pavilia scheme in North Point, set to hit the market on Saturday.

The developer expressed that the reaction towards the 388-unit State Pavilia project located on King's Road in North Point has been overwhelmingly positive, with over 4,800 potential buyers having shown their interest through monetary commitment for a chance to purchase one of the 168 units available, as per the status on Tuesday evening.

The latest price list, introduced on Tuesday, reveals that the 39 properties are valued from HK$6.35 million (US$815,000) to HK$20.39 million, post-discount, or HK$16,888 to HK$28,088 per square foot. This list includes 15 one-bedroom properties, 23 two-bedroom residences, and one three-bedroom unit, with sizes ranging from 321 square feet to 726 square feet.

Alibaba's Qwen fuels the leading 10 open-source models, demonstrating that China's AI expertise extends past DeepSeek. The highly-rated extensive language models in Hugging Face's recent evaluations confirm that they were all developed using Qwen's open-source offerings.

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Alibaba from China has launched a new AI model, which reportedly surpasses rival technologies, Deepseek and OpenAI's GPT-4o.

CATL, the world's leading EV battery manufacturer, has submitted a proposal to list its shares in Hong Kong, potentially marking the city's most substantial Initial Public Offering (IPO) since 2021. The speculated deal, worth an estimated US$5 billion, would surpass the previous record set by Kuaishou's IPO in January 2021.

The draft indicates that BofA Securities, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), China Securities International, and JPMorgan Chase have been named as co-sponsors. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UBS are also involved in the agreement, though their specific roles have not been detailed.

Shares of CATL, which are priced in yuan, dropped by 2.6 per cent, landing at 251.80 yuan (equivalent to US$34.50) in Shenzhen prior to the company's announcement. This resulted in a market valuation of 1.1 trillion yuan (around US$150.5 billion). So far this year, they have seen a decrease of approximately 5 per cent, following a significant increase of 68 per cent in 2024.

"CATL is aspiring to broaden its global presence as it seeks greater profitability beyond mainland China," stated Davis Zhang, a top executive at Suzhou Hazardtex, a company that provides specialised batteries.

"Chinese electric vehicle companies, with their superior production capabilities and technological edge over international competitors, are frequently invited into foreign markets to adapt and apply their research and manufacturing skills."

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'Surpassing in a curve': the way China's electric vehicle sector surged forward to command the worldwide market

Semiconductor producer SMIC experiences a 45% decrease in profit in 2024 due to US-China trade disputes. The leading Chinese semiconductor firm reported an annual profit of US$492.7 million last year, a significant drop from the US$902.5 million in 2023.

SMIC disclosed in a submission to the Hong Kong stock exchange that the profit credited to the company's proprietors, which was not examined, amounted to US$492.7 million in 2024.

The data indicates a 45.4% drop from US$902.5 million in 2023, as reported by the firm based in Shanghai. They attributed this decline primarily to a reduction in investment and financial earnings.

The filing indicated a significant decline in profits in the last quarter of 2024, plunging 38.4% from the previous year to a total of US$107.6 million.

Meanwhile, SMIC saw a 31.5 per cent increase in their fourth-quarter revenue, which totalled US$2.2 billion, according to the company.

The total revenue for the previous year, which is yet to be audited, hit US$8 billion, marking an increase from US$6.3 billion in 2023.

In an exclusive update, it has been revealed that Alibaba is teaming up with Apple to create AI capabilities for iPhones in China, according to sources. The American tech behemoth is looking to Alibaba's Qwen AI model to compensate for the deficit of Apple Intelligence on its iPhones in the Chinese market.

Alibaba Group Holding from China has teamed up with American consumer electronics powerhouse, Apple, to work on AI functionalities for iPhones in China. This indicates an increasing acknowledgment of Alibaba's competencies in the rapidly evolving AI sector, according to those with knowledge on the subject.

Sources close to the situation have revealed that Apple has chosen to partner with Alibaba, recognizing the power of the Chinese firm's Qwen AI model and its advanced features.

The initial report about the news was made by The Information, a U.S. technology sector publication. The South China Morning Post is owned by Alibaba.

This agreement is in place while Apple is looking to establish a domestic AI collaborator to increase iPhone sales in mainland China. This is a significant challenge for the American corporation in the world's biggest smartphone market, as iPhone users don't have access to Apple's Intelligence feature.

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Alibaba from China introduces a new AI model, reportedly surpassing rivals Deepseek and OpenAI's GPT-4o in performance.

Apple is set to hold its developer conference in Shanghai, China on March 25. This has sparked rumors that the Apple Intelligence may be launched by that date.

Viewpoint | DeepSeek's growth sparks concerns of an AI-fueled cold war

The US needs to stop its clearly ineffective technological restrictions on China, and should instead collaborate to establish explicit guidelines for the implementation of AI.

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Could China's affordable DeepSeek signal the downfall of Nvidia's reign in the chip market?