Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 curbs target China. The backlash came from its own side.
Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 curbs target China. The backlash came from its own side.

Anthropic built the Claude Fable 5 curbs to keep China’s AI labs out of its most powerful public model. The loudest complaints came from its own side of the firewall. On 9 June, Anthropic released Claude Fable 5, a tamed, public-facing version of Mytho…

Alibaba is offering $1.5 billion for China’s last big independent grocer. The bidding war with Meituan is on.
Alibaba is offering $1.5 billion for China’s last big independent grocer. The bidding war with Meituan is on.

Alibaba Group is offering $1.5 billion to acquire Pupu, one of China’s last independent online grocery platforms, according to Bloomberg. The bid is more than double a $600 million proposal from Sun Art Retail, the former Alibaba affiliate now backed b…

Xiaomi gets approval to build extended-range EVs, plans full-size SUV to rival Li Auto
Xiaomi gets approval to build extended-range EVs, plans full-size SUV to rival Li Auto

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) granted Xiaomi regulatory approval to produce extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), clearing a key hurdle for the company’s expansion beyond battery-only EVs.
The approval paves the way…

AI bubble fears are spreading, even as SpaceX readies the biggest IPO ever
AI bubble fears are spreading, even as SpaceX readies the biggest IPO ever

On the day SpaceX prices the largest stock-market debut in history, the market underneath it has a case of nerves. The cause is not rockets. It is AI. Several warning lights are flashing at once. Together they amount to the first serious test of a trad…

China’s state-run Workers’ Daily calls for a ‘dam’ to protect labour rights as AI spreads
China’s state-run Workers’ Daily calls for a ‘dam’ to protect labour rights as AI spreads

China’s Workers’ Daily, the official mouthpiece of the country’s umbrella trade union, has published a pointed editorial urging government agencies to protect labour rights as artificial intelligence spreads across the economy. The newspaper, which is …

Meta has cut Manus off from its internal systems and told staff to sunset the AI platform
Meta has cut Manus off from its internal systems and told staff to sunset the AI platform

Meta has erected a data firewall between itself and Manus, the Chinese-founded agentic AI service it acquired for $2 billion in December 2025. Since the start of June, Manus and its staff have been barred from accessing Meta’s internal data systems, an…

OpenAI says China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to fuel opposition to US data centres
OpenAI says China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to fuel opposition to US data centres

OpenAI said a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to China attempted to stir up local opposition to US data centres by posing as Americans and posting AI-generated content about rising electricity costs. The company nicknamed the campaign “Data Center B…

A Chinese state-linked botnet has grown to 1,500 hacked routers and is mapping vulnerable targets within hours of disclosure
A Chinese state-linked botnet has grown to 1,500 hacked routers and is mapping vulnerable targets within hours of disclosure

A covert botnet linked to Chinese state-sponsored hackers has more than doubled in size and is now scanning for newly disclosed vulnerabilities within hours of publication. The JDY botnet comprises over 1,500 compromised small office and home office ro…

BYD threatens to sue Trump administration over Pentagon military list
BYD threatens to sue Trump administration over Pentagon military list

BYD is threatening to sue the US government after the Pentagon added the world’s largest EV maker to its list of “Chinese military companies” this week.

Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice-president, said the company will use every legal “weapon” at its…

Microsoft cuts hundreds of Azure jobs in China as the borderless cloud splinters
Microsoft cuts hundreds of Azure jobs in China as the borderless cloud splinters

The cloud was supposed to make geography irrelevant. Microsoft’s latest round of job cuts in China shows how quickly that promise is coming apart. Microsoft is laying off hundreds of staff at its Azure cloud unit in China, according to affected employe…