Deepseek releases V4.1-Flash, a multimodal model with 552 billion parameters that cuts KV cache memory to a quarter of its predecessor. On the DeepSWE coding benchmark, it narrowly beats Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, even though only 16 billion parameters are active per token. The model ships under the MIT license and targets much cheaper AI agents.

The article New Deepseek model V4.1-Flash cuts memory needs for AI agents appeared first on The Decoder.

ASML has won over Samsung, TSMC, and Intel to switch to larger photomasks, which should boost the throughput of its newest EUV machines by 40 percent. Meanwhile, Huawei is orchestrating China's counter-strategy, aiming to break its dependence on the Dutch lithography technology through equipment maker Yuliangsheng and its own suppliers.

The article ASML locks in TSMC, Samsung, and Intel while Huawei races to break its grip appeared first on The Decoder.

Deepseek wants to put 160,000 Huawei Ascend-950DT chips into an Inner Mongolia data center for inference only, not training. It would be the largest known Huawei chip cluster. But production bottlenecks mean Huawei probably can't deliver for over a year.

The article Deepseek plans the largest known Huawei chip cluster with 160,000 processors in Inner Mongolia appeared first on The Decoder.

President Trump has pushed back hard against growing opposition to AI data centers across the US.

The article Protests against AI data centers play into China's hands, Trump says appeared first on The Decoder.

China's top memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is producing HBM3E for the first time in small quantities, a fast memory found in many current AI processors.

The article China's CXMT makes its first HBM3E chips, closing the AI memory gap appeared first on The Decoder.

In China, 95 percent of the 128,000 short dramas released in Q1 2026 were AI-generated. Some actors are being forced to hand over their voice and likeness to AI tools before getting fired, the Financial Times reports. AI-related labor disputes are rising fast.

The article AI-generated videos are already displacing actors and livestreamers across China's entertainment industry appeared first on The Decoder.

Chinese state-backed hacking groups have more than doubled their attacks since they started using AI models like DeepSeek to write exploit code and scan networks, according to Taiwanese security firm TeamT5. Hackers also used ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude Code. A UK study shows the cyber capabilities of open models are catching up fast.

The article Taiwanese cybersecurity firm warns that AI tools have more than doubled Chinese state-backed cyberattacks appeared first on The Decoder.

Alibaba's video generation model Wan3.0 creates clips up to 30 seconds long from text, PDFs, and PowerPoint files. A 30-second 1080p clip costs $6. Alibaba's quarterly profit dropped 75 percent year-over-year as the company ramps up AI spending.

The article Alibaba's Wan3.0 generates AI videos up to 30 seconds long from text, images, and documents appeared first on The Decoder.

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J&T Global Express has expanded automated sortation across its express network to 435 sets of automated sorting machines, adding 22 sets in the first half of 2026, while deployment of unmanned delivery vehicles rose 87 percent to more than 1,900 units. J&T Global Express disclosed the figures in its interim results for the six months […]

Anthropic's strict access controls against China, from geoblocking to selfie verification, are being systematically bypassed through a thriving network of so-called "transfer stations." Chinese developers can buy Claude tokens for as little as ten percent of the list price. Analyst Zilan Qian warns that the circumvention infrastructure weakens export controls and Anthropic's own safety systems.

The article How China's gray market sells Claude tokens at a fraction of the price appeared first on The Decoder.

Cheap energy, abundant land, and proximity to Beijing have turned a city in Inner Mongolia into a crucial hub for data centers.

The US is drafting a letter to partner countries telling them to pick a side in the AI standoff between Washington and Beijing, according to Reuters.

The article US wants to force partner countries to choose between Washington and Beijing in the AI race appeared first on The Decoder.

Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3 are now within striking distance of the best US models. Western labs blame distillation, and there's real evidence for it. But guilty or not, the conclusion is the same: a model lead can't be defended. This issue looks at what can.

The article Frontier Radar #4: China has caught up, so what's left of the Western AI lead? appeared first on The Decoder.

Unitree Robotics rose 460 percent in its Shanghai IPO, hitting a valuation of around $50 billion. But an FT report shows much of the demand for its robots comes from state-backed training centers that buy the machines and sell the resulting data back to the manufacturers, a circular business model that echoes the Nvidia criticism in the US.

The article China now has its own AI circular financing scheme appeared first on The Decoder.

China is letting small batches of Nvidia's H200 chips onto the mainland to help domestic AI firms in the race with the US.

The article China lets Nvidia's H200 chips trickle onto the mainland to help its AI firms keep pace with the US appeared first on The Decoder.

GLM-5.3, the AI model from Chinese startup Z.ai, scores 60 points on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. That ties it with Kimi K3 for the top spot among open models, and it's seven points ahead of the previous GLM-5.2.

The article GLM-5.3 tops the open-model rankings and undercuts rivals on price, but its release is delayed appeared first on The Decoder.

The Unitree G1 has found online fame as a relatively affordable robot that can charm a crowd. But can it ever hold down a real job?

The rapidly expanding global robotics industry could require 363 TWh of electricity annually by 2035 – equivalent to the yearly consumption of around 35 million average US households – according to new research from Wood Mackenzie. The finding arrives as energy capacity planning is already under pressure from AI data centres, making robotics a second […]

China is the country most prepared for self-driving cars, according to a new report. The new study by the B2B car company eCarsTrade analyzed robotaxi deployment, road infrastructure, legal frameworks, and public sentiment across 15 countries to see which nations are actually putting driverless vehicles on the road. Driven by massive robotaxi deployment, nearuniversal 5G […]

Chinese robotics company Unitree has priced its initial public offering at a valuation of approximately $9 billion, becoming the country’s first mainland-listed humanoid robot manufacturer and highlighting growing investor interest in AI-powered robotics despite rising geopolitical tensions. The Hangzhou-based company said it has priced its Shanghai STAR Market IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.34) per share, […]