A gigawatt bet on domestic silicon DeepSeek plans to build a large intelligent-compute centre in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, deploying at least 160,000 of Huawei’s next-generation Ascend 950DT chips. The order is worth about USD 2.56 billion. If completed it would rank among the largest domestic AI chip clusters ever assembled. The centre is planned at … Read more
Google has released Gemini 4 Argon, a frontier model it positions for long, complex workflows in software engineering, legal and financial knowledge work, and cyber defence. Unlike its consumer launches, Argon will roll out in stages, reaching trusted cyber-defence partners first through the Fairwind Program. The headline change is the output ceiling. Argon can generate … Read more
On 22 September Huawei released what it calls the world’s first 3D data centre, reshaping AI data-centre infrastructure by stacking functions vertically instead of spreading them horizontally, decoupling cooling, power, backup and IT equipment to break the space, power and heat bottlenecks of the AI compute era. Huawei’s vertically stacked 3D data centre. (Source: Zhidx) … Read more
China’s embodied-AI field is re-examining its own advantages. The supply chain and data edges it once took for granted are being questioned: many suppliers does not mean fit for embodied use, and large data volume does not guarantee intelligence. As one company puts it, distribution matters more than raw volume. What China needs next is … Read more
A humanoid robot from NOWIN, whose GLOW model learns actions from demonstration without coding (Source: Gasgoo) Past RMB 1 billion in twelve months On 29 September Gasgoo Embodied Intelligence learned that NOWIN, also known as K-Nuo, announced another angel-plus-plus financing round of several hundred million renminbi, taking the company’s cumulative fundraising past RMB 1 billion … Read more
A dual-arm robot performing a flexible production task, the scenario Oak Fruit targets with its instinct-driven model (Source: Zhidx) A two-round year for a non-consensus thesis Robot Forefront reported on 10 August that Oak Fruit Robotics closed an angel round led by China Merchants Venture and NIO Capital, with Tsinghua alumni seed fund following. Four … Read more
A robotic hand fitted with tactile sensing, the class of hardware Shutu’s SynaTac line targets (Source: Leiphone) Third round in a month Shutu Technology recently closed a Pre-A round of nearly RMB 100 million, co-led by CDH Investments’ BaiFu arm and the Kunpeng Fund, a national-level data fund, with Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Yihe Capital … Read more
A nineteenth-century pattern, rebuilt for silicon In July 2026 Nvidia announced a new line of business. It carried no fancy technical name, but its nature was clear: exchange compute for profit. AI startups no longer have to pay cash up front for GPUs. Nvidia will accept a share of their future revenue or profit in … Read more
Four moves in one day On 20 September, Zhishen Technology announced a Series B round of several hundred million renminbi. The round was led by the UAE’s Stone Venture, with industrial investors including Neusoft, Haopeng Technology and Riying Electronics joining. By June the company had passed 15,000 units in cumulative production, lifted its monthly capacity … Read more
A market that doubled in half a year Frost & Sullivan has published its 2026 global humanoid robot market study, and the headline numbers are striking. In 2025 the world sold 35,000 units for US$500 million of revenue. In the first half of 2026 alone it sold 36,000 units for US$540 million, passing the whole … Read more