Daily Tech Roundup: Funds Pour Into Chinese Video Generation Challenging OpenAI
Xiaomi shares surged after smartphone-maker set launch date for debut car, McKinsey report finds one in five Chinese EV owners won’t buy another
OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video model is displayed on a smartphone in Brussels, Belgium on Feb. 16. Photo: VCG
Welcome to the Daily Tech Roundup — a briefing of the top technology news making headlines in China and the rest of Asia.
Funds pour into Chinese startups challenging OpenAI’s Sora in video generation
Venture capital investors are pouring hundreds of millions of yuan into China’s burgeoning video generation startups, betting on their potential in the artificial intelligence (AI) race to rival OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora.
This week, two leading Chinese generative AI startups announced the successful closure of their latest funding rounds, with each securing more than 100 million yuan ($14 million). Both aim to catch up with Sora in the coming months.
Beijing-based generative AI startup Shengshu Technology (生数科技) said Tuesday it secured several hundred million yuan in a recent fundraising round to support its research on multimodal large models, product innovation and market expansion.
On Monday, another generative AI startup AIsphere (爱诗科技) said it has raised more than 100 million yuan in a round led by venture firm Fortune Capital Co. Ltd.
Analysis: Mounting competition in China comes at a bad time for Tesla
More of Tesla Inc.’s Chinese rivals are catching up in the sales race just as the U.S. electric-vehicle (EV) maker finds itself in a lull between product launches.
Tesla’s enviable sales growth is set to slow this year as it remains more than a year away from launching the next generation of models that it’s counting on to drive a new wave of growth.
Despite making history when its Model Y SUV passed Toyota Motor Corp.’s conventionally powered RAV4 as the world’s best-selling car in 2023, Tesla’s latest financials show it is struggling to maintain the high profitability that has kept investors’ mouths watering.
One in five of China’s electric car owners won’t buy another due to charging problems, McKinsey report reveals
A report by McKinsey China has shown significant disillusionment among Chinese electric car owners in 2023, with 22% saying they wouldn’t consider new-energy vehicles (NEVs) for their next car. This figure starkly contrasts with the 3% recorded in 2022.
The recent findings mark the first decline in NEV adoption in a decade, signaling a notable shift in consumer sentiment towards electric vehicles.
Xiaomi surges after setting sales date for debut electric car
Xiaomi Corp. shares rose as much as 7.5% in Hong Kong Tuesday, after the company announced it will start selling its long-awaited EVs later this month.
The Beijing-based electronics giant, best known for its smartphones, has made a multibillion-dollar bet on breaking into the red-hot contest in China’s EV market led by Tesla and BYD. Its SU7 series will go on sale on March 28 in 29 cities, the company said in a Weibo post, without disclosing pricing.
China Telecom unit to acquire majority stake in QuantumCTek for $265 million
QuantumCTek Co. Ltd., a developer of quantum-secure products, said it will issue 24.1 million shares to a unit of China Telecom for 78.94 yuan apiece, making the state-owned wireless carrier its largest shareholder.
The company said it will raise 1.9 billion yuan from the private placement, which will be used to replenish its working capital.
After the deal is complete, China Telecom Quantum Information Technology Group Co. will hold a 23.08% stake in QuantumCTek.
Chinese crane-maker denies claims its tech poses cybersecurity threat to U.S. ports
State-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. has reassured customers that its cranes pose no cybersecurity threat to any port, after a U.S. congressional investigation alleged some Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports feature ambiguous communications equipment.
The probe, conducted by the Committee on Homeland Security and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, scrutinized more than 200 Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports. It revealed that some contained undocumented cellular modems, as reported by CNN, citing a congressional aide familiar with the investigation.
House Homeland Security Committee chairman Mark Green accused Beijing of “systematically burrowing” into U.S. infrastructure, CNN reported.
Li Auto takes legal action after doctored photos mock its debut EV
Li Auto Inc. said it is taking legal action against those responsible for digitally altering photos of the automaker’s first-ever pure electric vehicle (EV) to imply that it looked like a hearse.
The doctored photos, which went viral over the past week, showed the Mega sporting the Chinese character traditionally used to show respect for the deceased, along with an additional label in Chinese that translates as “New-energy funeral vehicle.”
On Monday, in a social media post seen by Caixin, Li Auto CEO Li Xiang equated the incident with organized crime, saying that the company has taken legal measures to “fight back.”
NFRA seeks to accelerate new-energy vehicle sales by cutting loan down payments
New measures to reduce the size of down payments needed for car loans are being explored by authorities.
“We are currently working on lowering the down payment for passenger car purchase loans and improving the insurance policies for new-energy vehicles (NEVs) to encourage more households to buy cars,” said Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration.
China is counting on its booming NEV industry to drive both domestic spending and exports. In 2023, China’s NEV sales totaled 9.5 million unit, rising 37.9% from the year before, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed. NEVs accounted for 31.6% of new cars sales, 5.9 percentage points higher than 2022.
Chinese hospitals begin testing AI assistant for brain surgeons
China is testing an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for neurosurgeons at seven hospitals in Beijing and other cities in coming months, one of many initiatives the government is backing to try and harness the technology.
A Hong Kong-based agency under the Chinese Academy of Sciences — the country’s foremost state-backed scientific institute — on Monday introduced an AI model based on Meta Platforms Inc.’s Llama 2.0, the open-source large language model. Researchers trained and fine-tuned the model with papers, medical journals and manuals to act as a surgery consultant of sorts for doctors, said Liu Hongbin, the center’s executive director.
Apple to open new Shanghai store as China iPhone sales slump
Apple Inc. is preparing to open its eighth store in Shanghai this month, adding to its largest retail network after the U.S. at a time when iPhone sales in China are slowing.
The new retail space, Apple Jingan, is located in the center of the city that already hosts the largest number of Apple stores on the Chinese mainland. Opening on March 21, it will be one of 47 locations across the country.