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Unpacking China | Key Chinese Firms to Watch This Week （26/07/2026-01/08/2026）

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.

DeepSeek Restarts CNY 50 Billion Funding Round as V4-Flash Tops Global AI Usage Rankings

DeepSeek (深度求索) has reportedly restarted its second funding round, seeking CNY 50 billion at a pre-money valuation of around CNY 500 billion, as the Chinese AI company simultaneously strengthens its position in the global large-language-model market. The financing is expected to be signed in late August, according to Chinese financial media reports.

Global AI Innovators Return to Paris as the Second Global Artificial Intelligence Forum For Sustainable Development Innovation Collaboration Prepares to Open

From Innovation to Impact.

DeepSeek V4 Flash Tops OpenRouter’s Weekly Call Chart After 0731 Update

DeepSeek V4 Flash has taken the No. 1 position in OpenRouter’s latest weekly model-call ranking following the rollout of its 0731 update, while DeepSeek V4 Pro also remained among the platform’s leading models. The result is a notable signal for China’s AI industry: on a major gateway where developers can move between US, Chinese and European models with relatively little friction, DeepSeek is attracting production traffic on cost-performance grounds.

Unpacking China | Key Chinese Firms to Watch This Week （26/07/2026-01/08/2026）

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.

Chinese Models Account for 41% of Hugging Face Downloads, Overtaking US

Chinese-developed AI models accounted for 41% of downloads on Hugging Face over the past year, overtaking models from the United States in both monthly and overall downloads, according to the platform’s Spring 2026 report on the open-source AI ecosystem.

OceanBase reportedly seeks up to CNY 3 billion for AI platform and overseas expansion

OceanBase（海扬数据库）, the database company developed within Ant Group and now operated independently, is in talks to raise between CNY 2 billion and CNY 3 billion in a proposed Series A round, according to people familiar with the matter.

Unpacking China | Key Chinese Firms to Watch This Week （19/07/2026-25/07/2026）

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.

01.AI Targets 2027 Hong Kong IPO as Contracted Orders Top CNY 1.5 Billion

Kai-Fu Lee says overseas markets generate about half of the company’s business, but the figure should not be conflated with its recurring-subscription share

Alibaba Previews 2.4-Trillion-Parameter Qwen3.8, Promises Open-Weight Release

Alibaba Group（阿里巴巴集团）has previewed Qwen3.8, its latest flagship artificial-intelligence model, saying the system has 2.4 trillion total parameters and will eventually be released with open weights.

WeRide Launches Fully Driverless Robobus Service in Singapore, Marking Southeast Asia’s First Public Deployment

Chinese autonomous-driving company WeRide (文远知行) began operating its Robobus autonomous minibus in fully driverless mode on Singapore’s Sentosa island on July 17, becoming the first autonomous vehicle in Southeast Asia to provide public passenger service without a safety driver onboard. The milestone marks a significant step in the overseas commercialization of China’s Level-4 autonomous-driving technology, moving beyond pilot programs toward regular public operation.

Moonshot AI Nears $50 Billion Valuation in Pre-IPO Round, Highlighting China's AI Investment Momentum

Moonshot AI（月之暗面）, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup behind the Kimi chatbot, is reportedly in talks to raise a final pre-IPO financing round at a pre-money valuation of around $50 billion, a valuation that would place the company among the world's most valuable private AI companies and highlight the rapid growth of China's generative AI sector.

LLVision Showcases End-to-End AR+AI Deployment Capabilities at WAIC as AI Moves into Real-World Business

As artificial intelligence shifts from competing on model capabilities to delivering real-world business value, AR+AI is emerging as a key interface connecting digital intelligence with physical environments.

Moonshot AI Unveils 2.8-Trillion-Parameter Kimi K3, With Open Weights Due by July 27

Moonshot AI（月之暗面）on July 16 unveiled Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter artificial intelligence model featuring native vision capabilities and a context window of up to one million tokens. The Chinese AI startup describes K3 as the first open model in the roughly three-trillion-parameter class and says it will release the model’s full weights by July 27.

Alibaba's Qwen to Power Apple Intelligence in China, Bringing a Chinese Foundation Model into Apple's AI Ecosystem

Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴)'s large language model Qwen (通义千问) will provide core AI capabilities for Apple Intelligence in mainland China, following regulatory approval for Apple's AI services in the country.

WAIC 2026 Guide | AI Partnership for a Brighter Future

The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) will take place in Shanghai, China from July 17 to 20, Centered on the theme "AI partnership for a brighter future".

Alibaba Leads Series C+ as AIsphere’s Total Series C Funding Reaches RMB 2.98 Billion

Chinese AI video-generation company AIsphere (爱诗科技) has completed its overall Series C financing, raising a cumulative RMB 2.98 billion across the round to support model development, international product growth and commercial deployment.

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Work Agent, Pushing AI from Conversation Toward Autonomous Task Execution

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Work, an AI agent designed to complete complex tasks over extended periods, marking another step in the evolution of artificial intelligence from conversational assistance toward autonomous workflow execution.

Synthetic Biology: Who Will Emerge as the Winner?

The 21st century is the century of biology. Synthetic biology is believed to be a ‘World Changing’ industry. But the potential risks like cost control and commercialization pathways are fatefully tied to the ups and downs of countless investment decisions and the destiny of the many new start-ups getting involved. We look forward to seeing an emerging ‘giant’ on the horizon of this exciting industry.

Bloomage: Injecting Biotechnology into Beauty Care

Listed on the Chinese Star Market in November 2019, Bloomage was trading at CNY 138.01 as of June 24, 2020, over 38% higher than the IPO price of CNY 100.