Amid fast-paced changes that fill the business community with excitement, angst and trepidation, EqualOcean will publish a series of roundup articles to document the major events related to Chinese companies going global every week.
Weekly Overview（14/12-20/12）
1. Shenzhen-based RayNeo retains the global No.1 position in AR glasses sales, with overseas shipments surging 3.8x year-on-year
2. Temu launches an integrated app, enabling Shopify merchants to list products directly
3. Mixue Ice Cream & Tea responds to the trial operation of its first U.S. store
4. BYD secures an order for 268 electric buses in Belgium
5. China’s overseas NEV sales are expected to reach 8 million units by 2026
6. Hainan Free Trade Port officially launches island-wide customs closure
7. Daxiao Robotics unveils industry-first ACE embodied intelligence R&D paradigm
8. China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng meets AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su
9. AI-related talent supply is expected to exceed demand for the first time in the second half of 2025
10. Singapore awards contracts for 660 electric buses, with Chinese automakers including BYD and Yutong winning bids
11. Momenta and Grab enter a strategic partnership to jointly advance autonomous driving in Southeast Asia
12. MiniMax clears Hong Kong listing hearing, targeting a January 2026 IPO
Selected Developments
1. RayNeo Retains Global AR Glasses Sales Lead as Overseas Shipments Surge 3.8x
[Event] According to a report released by Counterpoint Research, Shenzhen-based AR brand RayNeo (雷鸟创新) captured a 24% global market share in Q3 2025, ranking first worldwide in AR smart glasses sales for the second consecutive quarter. Despite intensified competition from major players including Meta, Alibaba, and Google, RayNeo consolidated its dual leadership position in both global and domestic markets. Overseas shipments surged 3.8 times year-on-year, with cumulative users exceeding 500,000.
Technological breakthroughs remain central to the company’s sustained leadership. RayNeo’s flagship product, the RayNeo X3 Pro, was recently named to TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2025” list, becoming the only AR glasses product to receive the honor. The device features the world’s smallest mass-produced full-color MicroLED optical engine, delivering peak brightness of 6,000 nits, and integrates a proprietary “AR application virtual machine” compatible with the Android ecosystem.
In the consumer segment, the newly launched RayNeo Air 4 series is equipped with the world’s first AR-dedicated image processing chip and is the first to support the HDR10 standard. Meanwhile, the RayNeo Air 3s Pro achieved “Best Seller” status in both the AR glasses and entertainment eyewear categories during Amazon’s 2025 Black Friday sales event, underscoring the brand’s strong competitiveness in global markets.
2. BYD Secures Record Single Electric Bus Order in Europe
[Event] BYD (比亚迪) has secured an order for 268 electric buses from Belgian public transport operator De Lijn, marking the largest single electric bus order in Europe to date. The deal represents the full execution of a 500-unit framework agreement signed by the two parties in 2023.
The newly ordered B12.b model is equipped with BYD’s proprietary Cell-to-Chassis (CTC) blade battery technology, which enhances safety performance while enabling a low-floor design that significantly improves passenger accessibility. Li Ke, Executive Vice President of BYD, said the company will fully support De Lijn’s goal of achieving zero-emission public transport by 2035. To date, BYD’s commercial vehicles have been delivered to more than 26 European countries, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 5,000 units.
3. Singapore Awards Contracts for 660 Electric Buses to Chinese Manufacturers
[Event] On December 15, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the award of six contracts worth a total of SGD 322.2 million (approximately RMB 1.75 billion) for the procurement of 660 new electric buses, including 360 single-deck and 300 double-deck units. The tender marks Singapore’s first large-scale introduction of electric double-decker buses.
Chinese automakers and their partners secured all awarded contracts. A consortium led by ST Engineering and CRRC (中国中车) won contracts worth SGD 114.7 million for 100 single-deck and 150 double-deck buses. BYD (比亚迪)’s Singapore unit secured a SGD 105.8 million contract for 160 single-deck and 50 double-deck buses. A joint bid by Cycle & Carriage and Zhongtong Bus (中通客车) won a SGD 57.8 million contract for 100 double-deck buses, while a consortium led by Yutong Bus (宇通客车) secured a SGD 43.9 million order for 100 single-deck buses.
Deliveries will begin from the end of 2026, replacing aging diesel buses and supporting Singapore’s goal of electrifying 50% of its bus fleet by 2030 and transitioning the entire fleet to clean energy by 2040.
4. Hainan Free Trade Port Launches Island-Wide Customs Closure
[Event] As of December 18, 2025, the Hainan Free Trade Port (海南自由贸易港) officially commenced island-wide customs closure, marking a transition from policy experimentation to a comprehensive institutional framework. A series of core policies and supporting measures—including import tax item lists, cargo circulation tax rules, and tax exemptions for domestic sales of value-added processed goods—came into effect simultaneously.
Under the new regime, Hainan adopts a “first line liberalization, second line control, and internal free circulation” management model. The proportion of zero-tariff goods has been raised to 74%, covering more than 6,600 product categories. On the first day of implementation, large volumes of zero-tariff petrochemical raw materials and value-added processed goods cleared customs smoothly. Authorities aim to leverage the customs closure to position Hainan as a key gateway for China’s next phase of high-level opening-up.
5. Daxiao Robotics Unveils Industry-First ACE Embodied Intelligence R&D Paradigm
[Event] On December 18, Daxiao Robotics (大晓机器人)—chaired by SenseTime co-founder Wang Xiaogang and led scientifically by Academician Tao Dacheng—officially unveiled the industry’s first ACE embodied intelligence R&D paradigm, aiming to break the bottleneck of traditional machine-centric development models. The company also released the first open-source, commercially deployable Kairos World Model 3.0 and the A1 embodied super-brain module.
Daxiao Robotics advocates a human-centered development approach. Through environment-based data collection, the company can generate tens of millions of hours of high-quality data annually, which are further amplified to hundreds of millions of hours through world modeling. Kairos 3.0 is capable of understanding, generating, and predicting multi-dimensional spatial patterns and has completed deep adaptation with domestic chips from Moore Threads, Biren Technology, and Sugon.
The company has also entered strategic partnerships with Zhiyuan Robotics, Galaxy General, and Insta360, aiming to accelerate large-scale commercialization of embodied intelligence across security, warehousing, and commercial service scenarios through a fully self-controlled ecosystem.
6. MiniMax Clears HKEX Hearing, Targets January 2026 IPO
[Event] Chinese large-model unicorn MiniMax (稀宇科技) has completed filing with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and successfully passed its listing hearing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company plans to be listed in January 2026.
Founded in early 2022, MiniMax is pursuing an IPO just four years after its establishment. If successful, it would set a global record for the shortest time from founding to listing for an AI company and position MiniMax as the market’s first “globalized AGI pure-play.” The company currently operates in more than 200 countries and regions, serving 212 million users and over 100,000 enterprise clients. Supported by a mature monetization model combining paid subscriptions and API usage, MiniMax has already achieved sustainable profitability, highlighting the global competitiveness and commercialization potential of China’s large-model AI sector.
Since 2018, EqualOcean has been dedicated to tracking and analyzing the global expansion of Chinese enterprises. We welcome contributions from industry professionals to share your expertise and insights. Companies seeking international growth, media exposure, or discussions on overseas strategies are also encouraged to contact us directly.
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