Robyn Mak

Robot maker Unitree's $900 mln Shanghai ‌offering is 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors. Such exuberance for a firm valued at some 100 times ​earnings was once unthinkable in the ​tightly managed onshore market. Regulators are embracing animal ⁠spirits at a risky moment.

Startup Z.AI and e-commerce giant Alibaba boast ‌some of the world's most competitive open-weight models. Yet training the next frontier is expensive, capital markets whimsy, ​and retail sales stagnant. With its booming gaming ​and ad business, $513 bln Tencent could catch ⁠up.

Flush with record AI ‌profit, the memory chip giant will hand more money back to investors, including a $29 bln share repurchase. ​It's a good start to better balancing ​shareholder returns with future investment needs. And ⁠it'll put pressure on compatriot Samsung to ​follow suit.

The $286 bln Chinese firm's record ‌offering to fund new tech comes just days after reporting a 75% plunge in quarterly earnings. At least ​it reckons it can recoup AI ​hardware costs in three years. That kicks off ⁠an unusually specific deadline for boss Eddie ​Wu to deliver returns.

After a spectacular IPO debut, $36 bln Unitree's stock is down 30%. And ​this week's high-profile Robot Olympics ​showcasing the industry's progress revealed some ⁠basic shortcomings. As doubts about practical ​and commercial applications mount, Unitree's shares ​have further to fall.

Anthropic CEO Dario ‌Amodei wants guardrails to fend off threats to mankind. Such oversight would divert more investment — $1 trln this ​year — from developing to deploying AI ​models, propping up data-centre demand. Challengers to ⁠Nvidia, SK Hynix and others would ​benefit.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's ⁠calls to slow ​progress risk upending ​business models. For a glimpse of the ​future, labs can ​look to the People's ‌Republic, ⁠where chip curbs, scarce capital and price wars mean ​firms ​like ⁠the $40 bln Z.AI must ​prioritise efficiency to ​survive.

The Chinese giant unveiled new chips that mark ​its transformation from telecoms-kit maker ​to AI champion despite Western ⁠sanctions. Massive spending on ​innovation has eroded profitability and supersized ​its balance sheet, but that has equipped it to challenge the $5.5 trln ​titan.

OpenAI and Anthropic are ‌no saints but publish risk reviews ahead of model releases. Rivals like $38 bln Z.AI and Alibaba ​are less open on safety, partly ​because of a shortage of chips and ⁠capital. They'll have to up their game ​to retain access to markets from Brussels to ​Seoul.

The alleged spy with ​whom Jensen Huang had an affair facilitated $7.5 bln of ‌silicon shipments to China, per The Information. It spotlights how Singapore is used to skirt US export controls. How the city-state responds will risk angering Washington, Beijing ​or both.