china

According to Reuters, Apple has trained a large language model for the Chinese market in collaboration with Alibaba. This move is different from Apple's previous strategy of relying on third-party models.Insiders revealed that Apple's AI toolkit, Apple Intelligence, is expected to launch in China in the coming months after an iOS update.

According to a report by Reuters, influenced by multiple factors such as the tense Sino-U.S. relations, China's push for domestic software alternatives, and U.S. export controls, Microsoft has closed at least 15 branches and joint ventures in China over the past five years, executing a strategic contraction. In 2023, the company internally considered exiting the Chinese market, as some executives believed that "the geopolitical risks outweighed the limited economic returns," but ultimately did not proceed with the exit. Microsoft disclosed in 2024 that its business in China accounted for only about 1.5% of its global revenue.The report states that Microsoft's final decision to remain in China was primarily due to the establishment of a profitable path—providing Azure cloud and AI services to Chinese companies like ByteDance and Shein, helping them operate compliantly in overseas markets. Additionally, the company believes that retaining its business in China remains strategically significant for acquiring engineering talent. However, analysts question the sustainability of this AI business model: the service relies on third-party models like OpenAI, and Chinese companies are increasingly adopting domestic alternatives like Kimi, which offer comparable performance at lower costs.Microsoft's research and development presence in China is also contracting. Its predecessor, Microsoft Research Asia, has successively established new labs in Vancouver, Singapore, and Tokyo. In 2024, the company offered job opportunities to 1,000 top engineers to relocate to the U.S. and three other countries, but only about one-third accepted, with most senior engineers moving to domestic universities and tech companies. A Microsoft spokesperson responded that the company will continue to commit to the Chinese market but did not comment on specific decision details. ByteDance and Shein did not respond to related inquiries.

Tencent Holdings fell 4.46%, with a market value of 4 trillion Hong Kong dollars, approximately 3.44 trillion yuan. Changxin Technology's closing market value today is 3.5 trillion yuan, surpassing Tencent Holdings to become the largest listed company by market value in China.

According to Gate market data, the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index widened its decline to 3%, Bilibili (BILI.O) fell over 5%, and NetEase (NTES.O) dropped nearly 4%.

According to reports from Fast Technology, Changxin Memory's 17nm DDR5 chip yield has surpassed 90%, which is only about 2 percentage points lower than Samsung's same-generation products at 92% to 93%, marking a technical indicator that has entered the global first tier. Several major PC manufacturers have completed certification for Changxin DRAM chips around mid-year and have begun to incorporate them in small batches into certain laptops.The strategies adopted by different brands show significant differences: Dell has completely banned the use of Changxin chips; HP restricts their use to the mainland China market; Acer and ASUS have incorporated them into models aimed at the mainland China and emerging markets. Currently, the impact of Changxin products on the overall market prices of the three major memory giants remains limited, mainly because Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are currently more inclined to supply LPDDR5, while Changxin's current strategic focus is on expanding DDR5 shipments. Executives from PC companies have stated that the three major manufacturers hold over 90% of the global DRAM market share, and large-scale adoption must be approached with high caution. Currently, the number and usage of models using Changxin chips are quite limited.

The People's Bank of China proposed in the "Fifteenth Five-Year Reform and Development Plan of the People's Bank of China" to optimize financial infrastructure and the central bank service system, improve payment, treasury, and cash services, steadily develop the digital renminbi, and promote high-quality development of the credit reporting industry, as well as strengthen anti-money laundering supervision, to support the construction of a strong financial nation and high-quality economic development.Strengthen the governance foundation for the central bank's responsibilities, and comprehensively promote the construction of a law-based central bank and a digital central bank.

According to the latest supply chain survey by TrendForce, despite the United States implementing export controls on high-end GPUs, China's AI industry has not slowed down; instead, it is accelerating the construction of a domestic AI supply chain. The report points out that the supply structure of high-end AI chips in China is shifting from reliance on imported GPUs to a dual-track model of "domestic GPUs plus self-developed ASICs," with domestic solutions expected to capture nearly 90% of the Chinese high-end AI chip market by 2026.This year, the Chinese government is actively promoting the adoption of domestic AI chips, with policies prioritizing support for high-potential local manufacturers to significantly expand their market share in the high-end AI server market. Meanwhile, the domestic ecosystem is gradually maturing in key areas such as advanced processes, advanced packaging, and thermal management. TrendForce expects that, against the backdrop of an accelerated domestic substitution process, domestic chip manufacturers like Huawei Ascend, Cambricon, and Haiguang are likely to continue benefiting, and the related industrial chain will usher in structural growth opportunities.

The State Taxation Administration of China responded to the recent discussions on taxing insurance income in Hong Kong, stating that Chinese tax residents are required to fulfill their tax obligations on global income according to the law, and that overseas insurance income also falls within the scope of taxable income. This is not a new policy and is not specifically aimed at the Hong Kong insurance market. The tax authority indicated that residents must declare and pay taxes on overseas insurance income and other investment income in accordance with the law, and the relevant rules treat overseas income from different countries and regions equally.Yesterday, Caixin reported that with the normalization of CRS information exchange, Chinese tax authorities can now fully obtain data on dividends and cash value from overseas insurance policies, gradually filling the gaps in tax administration. Currently, the taxation of insurance income from overseas sources has been initiated.

According to Bloomberg, informed sources revealed that the U.S. government department responsible for investigating violations of chip export controls is currently conducting a systematic review of how Chinese AI companies obtain advanced chips from Nvidia through legal means, focusing on their behavior of renting computing power in third countries. This move stems from recent technological breakthroughs achieved by Chinese AI companies, indicating that they still have the capability to acquire and use top-tier hardware despite U.S. export restrictions on chips to China. Analysts believe that this review may prompt the U.S. to further tighten regulatory rules on computing power leasing in third countries to close existing loopholes in the export control system.

A spokesperson for Nvidia (NVDA.O) responded to market rumors about its accelerated entry into the telecommunications operator market and its search for base station manufacturer partnerships in China, stating that the report is unfounded and the description is inaccurate.Previously, there were reports that Shenzhen Jiaxian Communication Co., Ltd. was involved in the collaborative development of Nvidia's 6GAI-RAN base stations.

The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China held a work meeting for the second half of 2026, during which it emphasized the need to firmly uphold the bottom line of preventing systemic financial risks. It will continue to strengthen the assessment and verification of bank institution ratings. Monitoring and analysis of systemically important financial institutions will be enhanced.There will be ongoing prevention and handling of risks related to speculative virtual currency trading. Efforts will be made to actively promote the standardization of financial product online marketing behaviors by local institutions. The mechanism for preventing and resolving systemic risks will be continuously improved. There will be a strengthened crackdown on illegal financial activities. The framework for macro-prudential management will be continuously refined. The level of cross-border financial risk monitoring will be comprehensively enhanced.

According to Counterpoint Research analysis, if the proposed import ban on Chinese optical modules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States is implemented, it will primarily impact American cloud providers rather than Chinese suppliers. InnoLight leads the global data center optical module revenue with approximately 27% market share, while Coherent ranks second with about 17%. Chinese manufacturers collectively account for about two-thirds of the global unit supply and approximately 60% of the optical communication module revenue.The analysis points out that Western suppliers like Coherent and Lumentum lack sufficient cleanroom capacity, automated packaging infrastructure, and yield scale in the short term, making it impossible to fill the capacity gap left by Chinese manufacturers within 12-24 months. This could lead to delays in AI cluster deployments by several quarters and increase material costs for cloud providers. At the same time, Chinese module manufacturers rely on high-end 800G/1.6T module revenue from North American hyperscale customers for over 90%, but have achieved partial capacity relocation by establishing factories in Thailand.Counterpoint emphasizes that the optical module supply chain is a highly interdependent system. Chinese manufacturers heavily procure DSP chips from Broadcom and Marvell, as well as lasers and optical chips from Lumentum, Coherent, and Mitsubishi Electric. A forced separation would disrupt the entire ecosystem.

According to Gate market data, as of the close, the China-Korea Semiconductor ETF (513310) had a total trading volume of 23.7 billion, marking the third highest record in history. The highest record was 25.9 billion on July 29, 2026, and the second highest was 24 billion on July 21, 2026. This ETF tracks the China Securities Korea Exchange China-Korea Semiconductor Index, with the top two holdings being Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.Today, the South Korean KOSPI index closed up 3.76%, with SK Hynix rising 5.8% and Samsung Electronics rising 2.5%.

Fortune magazine recently published a commentary article pointing out that with the rapid rise of China's open-source AI models, the competitive landscape of the global AI field is changing. The real contest has shifted from U.S.-China rivalry to the battle between open-source and closed-source models. The article cites data from the independent evaluation platform Artificial Analysis, stating that the intelligence index of DeepSeek V4 Flash is only 1 point lower than that of GPT-5.6 Luna. Even though OpenAI has reduced prices by 80%, the former's single-task cost is still 60% lower.The author notes that while U.S. export control policies aim to limit China's AI development, they have objectively stimulated innovation at the architectural level among Chinese companies, forcing them to shift towards open-source and low-cost routes. Chinese models attract global developers to participate in improvements by opening weights, while transferring inference costs to overseas cloud service providers, achieving a low-cost global layout. Regarding the viewpoint that open-source models "cannot be profitable," the article argues that their profit model is similar to that of open-source software: users pay for hosting services, and most companies are not inclined to self-deploy.The article also points out that recently, several figures in the U.S. tech community, including former White House AI official David Sacks, have begun to support open-source, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has also called for the industry to embrace open-source. The author urges both China and the U.S. to cooperate in the field of AI security, viewing open-source AI as a "global public good," rather than falling into a zero-sum competition that costs trillions of dollars.

According to Jinshi, the United States plans to ban the import of new data center equipment from China.The Chinese Embassy in the United States urges the U.S. to stop smearing Chinese companies and threatening sanctions.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Chinese officials are concerned that cutting-edge AI models from the U.S., such as Anthropic's Mythos, could be used as offensive cyber tools to launch cyberattacks against China. At the same time, the Chinese side questions why Anthropic does not allow Chinese companies to use the relevant models normally, yet cannot rule out the possibility of these capabilities being used to attack China. Anthropic has long advocated for the U.S. to tighten restrictions on advanced chips and AI capabilities related to China, and last year it stopped providing services to companies controlled by China.The report states that the Chinese side is currently not prepared to take immediate action, but if the U.S. further restricts Chinese AI companies, relevant departments are studying response plans, which may include imposing sanctions on U.S. AI companies or placing them on a restricted list. Currently, neither Anthropic nor relevant departments have publicly responded to this.

According to IT Home, IDC has released the report "China Exoskeleton Robot Market Share, 2025" for the first time. The market size of China's exoskeleton robot market will exceed 1.6 billion yuan in 2025, with a shipment volume of approximately 26,000 units. Among them, the medical rehabilitation market is the largest, with a scale of about 1.42 billion yuan and shipments of about 3,200 units; the consumer assistive market contributes over 70% of the shipment volume, approximately 19,000 units, with a market size of nearly 110 million yuan, driven by an aging population and declining costs, becoming the fastest-growing segment; the industrial application market is about 80 million yuan, with shipments of about 3,800 units, mainly applied in logistics warehousing, automotive manufacturing, and power energy scenarios.IDC pointed out that the three major segments have formed a collaborative development pattern, and the industry is accelerating its evolution from a single medical application to multi-scenario human capability enhancement equipment. In the medical rehabilitation field, companies like Fourier Intelligence, Cheng Tian Technology, and Mabu Robotics are leading; in the consumer assistive field, Cheng Tian Technology, Kenking Technology, and Jike are at the forefront; in the industrial application field, Ao Sha Intelligent, Cheng Tian Technology, and Mabu Intelligent occupy major shares.

According to CCTV News, the international standard led by China, "Technical Framework and Functional Requirements for Blockchain as a Service in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology," has recently been successfully initiated by the International Organization for Standardization. Countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, and Uganda will send representatives to participate in the formulation.This standard will clarify three aspects of technical requirements: in terms of infrastructure and network, it will standardize the construction and operation and maintenance of underlying resources and blockchain networks. In terms of service management and smart contracts, it will unify the platform service catalog and the contract lifecycle management process. In terms of data interaction and security protection, it will clarify on-chain data access, privacy protection, and security compliance mechanisms.

According to Jinshi, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission jointly announced new measures to deepen practical cooperation and closely coordinate development between the two markets, covering various areas such as listing financing, index cooperation, futures products, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), internationalization of financial institutions, green finance, and facilitation of professional qualifications.

According to Jinshi reports, multiple important economic data and events will be released this week. On Monday, China's July Manufacturing PMI and the U.S. June Construction Spending Month-on-Month will be announced; on Tuesday, attention will be on the U.S. June Trade Balance and JOLTs Job Openings; on Wednesday, the U.S. ADP Employment Change and ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI will be released; on Thursday, Switzerland's unemployment rate and the U.S. Initial Jobless Claims will attract attention; on Friday, key data including the U.S. July Unemployment Rate and Non-Farm Payrolls will be announced. In addition, SpaceX's financial report will be released after the U.S. stock market closes on Tuesday.