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From winning Prince William’s Earthshot prize to reviving corals in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong start-ups add gloss to city’s greentech hub ambitions

17 Mar From winning Prince William’s Earthshot prize to reviving corals in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong start-ups add gloss to city’s greentech hub ambitions

Posted at 02:00h in Asia

Having started commercial production in April last year, Hung estimated that its maiden factory in Zhejiang province might have generated sales of about US$8 million last year, mainly from batteries for electric bikes.The firm, which is based in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP),...

17 Mar Opinion | Time to see ‘marketplace magic’ as the voodoo economics it really is

Posted at 01:30h in Asia

Even allowing for the long-standing tendency towards excess on the part of stock investors – which has all too often resulted in boom-and-bust cycles – the apparent inability of markets to see more than one step ahead is alarming. The latest manifestation of this is...

17 Mar Tech war: ASML’s threat to expand outside the Netherlands is watched with interest in China

Posted at 01:00h in Asia

While China is not known to be a primary consideration in ASML’s expansion plans, pundits and social media users in the country seem to have projected their own frustrations onto the European company. 03:30World’s largest contract chip maker TSMC inaugurates its first plant in JapanWorld’s largest...

16 Mar Chinese selfie app Meitu finds its footing with AI, as profit triples after a raft of failed bets

Posted at 10:30h in Asia

Chinese selfie apps giant Meitu on Friday posted a more than three-fold jump in net profit last year, as the company hailed the success of its refocus on artificial intelligence (AI) following a series of misfired bets ranging from cryptocurrencies to smartphones.The Hong Kong-listed company,...

16 Mar China’s Zhipu AI says it is developing Sora-like technology as a path to artificial general intelligence

Posted at 03:00h in Asia

Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co (Zhipu AI), an early pioneer of Chinese large language models (LLM), said it is developing Sora-like technology as a pathway to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), underlining domestic ambition to catch up with US advances.Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, will be...

16 Mar US lawmakers want a TikTok sale or ban, but China’s ByteDance won’t give up without a fight

Posted at 02:00h in Asia

The bill is headed to the US Senate, where both Democratic and Republican leaders have rejected the idea of fast-tracking its passage. 03:10Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwideProtests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially...

15 Mar Hong Kong property: sale of historic Pok Fu Lam mansion for US$26.5 million signals luxury market rebound after curbs lifted

Posted at 23:30h in Asia

A 90-year-old converted manor house in Pok Fu Lam has changed hands for HK$207 million (US$26.5 million), adding to evidence that the recent scrapping of property curbs may be starting to revive the luxury housing market.Shun Ho Property Investments bought the 12,288 square-foot Jessville Manor...

15 Mar Hong Kong securities watchdog places major crypto exchange Bybit on alert list as local unit seeks licence in the city

Posted at 23:00h in Asia

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has warned investors about trading on Bybit, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, after placing the platform on an alert list, even as its local unit is applying for a licence in the city.A number of Bybit’s...

15 Mar Alibaba to invest US$1.1 billion in South Korea as international operations outperform domestic market

Posted at 14:00h in Asia

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding plans to invest US$1.1 billion in South Korea over the next three years, according to a local media report, amid a probe by regulators into its consumer protection and data practices.Alibaba will spend US$200 million this year to build a...

15 Mar Tencent’s new AI video-generation tool brings static images to life in collaboration with Tsinghua and HKUST

Posted at 13:10h in Asia

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has introduced an image-to-video artificial intelligence (AI) model in collaboration with academic partners on Friday, a release that comes amid the rising fervour around content-generating tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sora.The image-animation tool called Follow-Your-Click, released on Microsoft’s open-source code...

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