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 (26/07-01/08)
1.China’s Open-Source AI Models Surpass 10 Billion Global Downloads, Take the Top Share
2.Moonshot AI（月之暗面）Completes USD 3.5 Billion-Plus Series F Round at USD 35 Billion Valuation
3.Geely（吉利）Takes Stake in Ford（福特）Spain Plant in Asset-Light European Entry
4.Momenta（初速度）Wins Germany-Wide Level 4 Testing Permit, Becomes First Chinese Company Approved
5.SHEIN（希音）Clears HKEX Hearing, Eyes Hong Kong’s Largest Cross-Border E-Commerce IPO
6.United States Imposes Import Restrictions on Advanced Robots; China Responds
7.Baidu’s Apollo Go（萝卜快跑）Begins Public-Road Testing in London With Uber（优步）and Lyft
8.XPeng（小鹏汽车）Overseas Deliveries Surpass 100,000 Units
9.Zhongji Innolight（中际旭创）Debuts Below Offer Price in Hong Kong, as Year’s Largest IPO Gets Off to a Weak Start
10.China State Construction Engineering（中国建筑）Signs CNY 22.4 Billion Wastewater-Treatment Project in Kuwait
11.Chinese Wind-Power Companies Win Major Overseas Orders: Envision（远景）Secures 4.4 GW, Dajin Heavy Industry（大金重工）Holds More Than CNY 10 Billion in Orders
12.Temu Partners With Pošta Slovenije（斯洛文尼亚邮政）to Deepen Its Presence in Southeast Europe
13.BYD（比亚迪）Launches RACCO（海獭）Electric Kei Car in Japan, Receives More Than 5,000 Pre-Orders in First Week
14.AgiBot（智元创新）Launches Hong Kong IPO Process
15.XCMG（徐工）Opens Its First Overseas New-Energy Factory in Indonesia
16.Yongding Co.（永鼎股份）Wins CNY 1.133 Billion Long-Term Overseas Order for High-Power Laser Chips
Selected Developed
1.Chinese Open-Source AI Models Account for 41% of Hugging Face Downloads, Testing the Depth of Their Global Ecosystem
【Event】According to a July 31 report by CCTV Finance, cumulative downloads of Chinese open-source AI models have surpassed 10 billion, the highest total globally. Hugging Face’s Spring 2026 report found that Chinese-developed open-source models accounted for 41% of downloads on the platform over the previous year, overtaking the United States. Chinese teams also occupied the top six positions in a mainstream global ranking of large-model usage.
The figures point to a new route for China’s AI expansion overseas. Models are no longer simply a display of domestic technical capability; through open weights, model communities, and local deployment, they are entering overseas developers’ toolchains. Over the past 12 months, Chinese models maintained the global open-model scale frontier for nine months, suggesting that frequent iteration is translating individual releases into more sustained developer adoption.
The competition is also shifting from individual model capability to ecosystem strength. Closed models generally reach overseas users through APIs and usage-based pricing, while open models lower adoption barriers through downloads, fine-tuning, and local deployment. For Chinese developers, continued overseas use will depend on licensing, inference-framework compatibility, multilingual documentation, community maintenance, and compliance support—not only parameter counts and benchmark results.
Downloads do not equal commercial revenue or actual usage, but they are an important indicator of technological diffusion. The next test for Chinese open-source models is whether downloads can be converted into enterprise deployments, application development, and durable ecosystem partnerships. Only when models enter more production environments can open AI move from technology export to ecosystem export.
2.Geely（吉利）Plans to Take Stake in Ford（福特）Valencia Plant Through European Manufacturing Partnership
【Event】Geely plans to invest EUR 221 million to acquire a 34% stake in the operating entity of Ford’s Valencia plant in Spain, while Ford will retain 66%. The two companies plan to establish a new venture to manage the factory and prepare it for the future production of vehicles from both sides. The transaction remains subject to further procedures, while model plans, production schedules, and capacity allocation have yet to be disclosed.
The partnership offers Geely a different route into European manufacturing from building a factory from scratch. By investing in an existing plant, Geely can gain access to established production lines, supply chains, and labor relations; Ford, meanwhile, could introduce new projects and partners to improve the plant’s long-term utilization.
Chinese automakers’ European expansion has increasingly moved beyond vehicle exports toward local production, supply chains, and distribution. While BYD and SAIC have pursued greenfield factories or capacity expansion, Geely has chosen to operate an existing facility alongside a traditional European automaker. EU trade measures targeting China-made electric vehicles form part of the transaction’s backdrop, but neither party has identified them as a stated motive.
For Geely, the investment is only the first step toward entering Europe’s manufacturing system. Whether it can introduce models, upgrade production lines, and localize supply chains will determine whether the deal becomes more than an equity transaction and develops into sustainable European production capacity.
3.Momenta（初速度）Wins Germany-Wide Urban-Road Level 4 Testing Permit as Chinese Autonomous Driving Firms Pursue Market Access
【Event】Momenta announced that it has received a permit from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority to conduct Level 4 autonomous-driving tests on urban roads across the country. The company said it is the first Chinese company to obtain a nationwide urban-road Level 4 testing qualification in Germany. The permit covers testing access and does not amount to approval for commercial Robotaxi services open to the public, nor does it imply unrestricted driverless operation in all conditions.
The development reflects a broader shift in autonomous-driving expansion overseas. Competition is moving beyond vehicle and component exports toward software systems, testing approvals, and local operating capabilities. A wider testing footprint can give Momenta more opportunities to validate its systems in complex European urban environments and support future cooperation with local automakers and mobility platforms.
The permit is nevertheless only a first step. Turning a testing qualification into a scalable operating model will depend on city-level regulatory requirements, data governance, local teams, and commercial partnerships. For Chinese autonomous-driving companies, overseas competitiveness will increasingly be determined by compliance, validation, and delivery capabilities—not algorithms alone.
4.SHEIN（希音）Clears HKEX Hearing as IPO Push Coincides With Profit Pressure
【Event】SHEIN has passed its Hong Kong Exchange listing hearing and entered the final stretch of its Hong Kong IPO process. Market reports indicate that the company is seeking a valuation of USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion, although the final offering size and pricing remain undecided. If completed, the offering could rank among Hong Kong’s larger cross-border e-commerce IPOs.
Financial data disclosed alongside the listing process point to growing pressure on the company’s expansion model. SHEIN recorded a net loss of USD 99 million in the first quarter, compared with net profit of USD 395 million a year earlier. Slower revenue growth, higher fulfilment costs after the United States ended its small-parcel duty exemption, and a one-off accounting charge all affected quarterly earnings.
This leaves SHEIN’s IPO story with two parallel narratives. Its global supply chain and platform scale continue to support investor interest in cross-border e-commerce, but rising tariffs, logistics costs, and compliance expenses are testing the earnings resilience of its low-price, fast-fashion model. Its valuation will depend in part on whether the company can show that the first-quarter loss is temporary rather than structural.
At the same time, Temu has strengthened logistics cooperation with Pošta Slovenije, Slovenia’s national postal operator, to support fulfilment and local-seller initiatives in Southeast Europe. Cross-border platforms are moving beyond direct shipping toward deeper local logistics, merchant, and compliance operations. Overseas competition is increasingly being defined by fulfilment efficiency and operating quality, rather than customer acquisition and low prices alone.
5.United States Tightens Market Access for Foreign-Made Advanced Robots, Adding a New Compliance Challenge for Global Expansion
【Event】The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has tightened market-access requirements for certain foreign-made advanced robotic devices, affecting equipment authorization for new products entering the U.S. market. The policy applies to specific categories of new devices, and its exact scope will depend on regulatory documents and subsequent implementation rules. It should not be characterized as a blanket ban on all advanced-robot imports.
The move brings robotics further into the United States’ broader technology-security and supply-chain review framework. For Chinese robotics companies seeking entry into the U.S. market, the impact may extend beyond product exports to communications modules, data handling, component sourcing, certification procedures, and after-sales support. Regulatory effects may also vary by device category, product generation, and sales model.
Tighter U.S. rules mean robotics companies will need to treat compliance as an earlier part of overseas expansion. In the past, companies could rely primarily on performance, cost, and distribution; going forward, certification paths, regulatory documentation, and local supply chains will become prerequisites for entering high-barrier markets.
Growth in Chinese robot exports is the broader backdrop to the industry’s globalization, but it should not be presented as the direct cause of the new restrictions. A more practical response for companies is to diversify market risk and build local certification, service, and supply-chain capabilities across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
