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Unitree soars in Shanghai debut, a milestone for China's humanoid robotics sector

Unitree soars in Shanghai debut, a milestone for China's humanoid robotics sector

By Samuel Shen and Eduardo Baptista SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Shares in Unitree, China's best-known humanoid robot maker, soared nearly six-fold in its Shanghai trading debut, in a landmark moment for the country's robotics sector which has become a key battleground in the Sino-U.S. tech
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Shares in Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree soar in Shanghai trading debut

Shares in Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree soar in Shanghai trading debut

Shares of Unitree, one of China's largest humanoid robot makers, have soared as much as 629% in its public stock trading debut in Shanghai
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How U.S. military funding propelled China’s robot dogs

How U.S. military funding propelled China’s robot dogs

By Michael Martina WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - China’s Unitree Robotics – among the world's biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots – based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and
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Exclusive-Shein cuts company valuation to around $25 billion in Hong Kong IPO, sources say

Exclusive-Shein cuts company valuation to around $25 billion in Hong Kong IPO, sources say

By Summer Zhen and Kane Wu HONG KONG, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is eyeing a company valuation in its planned Hong Kong IPO of just a quarter of the nearly $100 billion number seen in a share sale four years ago, sources said, as its growth has slowed.
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Morning Bid: Dancing robots, dumping bonds

Morning Bid: Dancing robots, dumping bonds

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook Long bond yields steadied near multi-decade highs and China's humanoid robotics giant Unitree leapt out of the blocks on debut on Wednesday, trading six times above its offer price.
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China's LandSpace lands rocket booster; joins SpaceX and Blue Origin with reusable tech

China's LandSpace lands rocket booster; joins SpaceX and Blue Origin with reusable tech

BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Chinese startup LandSpace on Wednesday recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket, joining SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only private companies to land an orbital-class booster and narrowing China's gap with the U.S. in reusable rockets.
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World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing Highlight Challenges in Real-World AI Deployment

World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing Highlight Challenges in Real-World AI Deployment

The second World Humanoid Robot Games recently took place in Beijing, featuring 23 robots in a simulated firefighting mission. This year's competition emphasized 'realistic simulation,' moving beyond laboratory settings to a real fire brigade for the challenge. Each robot was allotted 30 minutes to complete three tasks: identifying hazardous materials, shutting off valves, and extinguishing a fire. The event underscored the significant gap between controlled laboratory demonstrations and reliable real-world application, as only three out of the 12 participating teams successfully completed the entire challenge. This initiative is part of China's broader strategy to advance its burgeoning humanoid robot industry, which is receiving substantial state support and investment.
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U.S. Military Funding Contributed to Chinese Robot Dog Development, Raising National Security Concerns

U.S. Military Funding Contributed to Chinese Robot Dog Development, Raising National Security Concerns

China's Unitree Robotics, a major producer of humanoid and quadruped robots, developed designs for its successful robot dogs based on innovations initially funded by the U.S. military. According to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top researchers involved in the original project, Unitree's popular Go2 model, launched in 2023, rapidly dominated the global quadruped robot market. These Chinese robots draw on breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs. Ben Katz, a researcher involved in the U.S. project, noted that the dimensions of Unitree's Go series are almost identical to the groundbreaking Mini Cheetah robot he helped develop. While Unitree did not act underhandedly, as the research findings were openly published to stimulate progress, this situation highlights a broader issue: the U.S.'s struggle to commercialize its own high-tech innovations at scale compared to China's state-directed manufacturing sector...
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Baidu revenue misses as advertising slide outweighs AI cloud gains

Baidu revenue misses as advertising slide outweighs AI cloud gains

Aug 18 (Reuters) - China's Baidu missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter revenue on Tuesday as declines in its core advertising business offset growth in AI-linked cloud services, sending its U.S.-listed shares down 3.5% in premarket trading.
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Carnegie Endowment Senior Fellow Discusses China's AI Open-Weight Model Policy Amidst Security Concerns

Carnegie Endowment Senior Fellow Discusses China's AI Open-Weight Model Policy Amidst Security Concerns

Graham Webster, a lecturer and research scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and editor-in-chief of the DigiChina Project, analyzes China's approach to open-weight AI models. Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent call for 'open source and openness, cooperation and sharing' in AI development, there's an underlying tension with the need for 'security and controllability.' This duality, enshrined in Chinese legal texts, suggests that while China embraces open models, it also prioritizes security. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Matt Sheehan notes that 'control' extends beyond AI systems going rogue to include broader disaster prevention. Chinese companies like DeepSeek, Z.ai, and Moonshot continue to release open-weight models, offering lower-priced, customizable competition to closed models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. The Chinese government has not yet barred these releases, indicating that officials do not view them...
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China Orders State Agencies to Uninstall Government-Only Windows 10 Edition Over Data Security Concerns

China Orders State Agencies to Uninstall Government-Only Windows 10 Edition Over Data Security Concerns

China's Ministry of State Security has reportedly instructed several state-linked entities to remove a customized version of Windows 10 from their systems. This directive, reported by Bloomberg, accelerates the planned retirement of the software, which was originally scheduled for February 2027. The affected software is a government-specific edition developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a joint venture between Microsoft and the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, with the Chinese side holding a majority stake. This custom build, based on Windows 10 Enterprise, was designed to meet Chinese government requirements by stripping out consumer-facing components like OneDrive, disabling certain native functions, localizing updates and activation within China, and allowing the use of Chinese encryption algorithms. The move has led to a surge in shares for Chinese operating system vendors, including Hunan Kylinsec and Archermind, which hit Shanghai's 20% daily limit, and China National Softw...
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Trump crypto firm backs venture offering AI from restricted Chinese companies

Trump crypto firm backs venture offering AI from restricted Chinese companies

By Lawrence Delevingne BOSTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with a Hong Kong-based venture offering artificial-intelligence models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns.