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Submission + - Jensen Huang: The U.S. Sanctions on China Are the Dumbest Thing (binance.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: nVidia CEO Huang held a closed-door meeting in a top private room at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. There were only 12 invited guests, all heavyweight figures—executives from TSMC, Quanta, Wistron, and Hon Hai, as well as partners from two American venture capital firms. Just after the meeting ended, three participants leaked the content verbatim to a Financial Times reporter who published Huang's words (paywalled) and Reuters and Bloomberg verified it with all 12 attendees present that day, and everyone confirmed the authenticity of the report. The key sentences in the speech are explosive:
  • The opening conclusion: "If you ask me who’s going to win the generative AI race in the next 5-10 years — China is going to win. Period."
  • "They have one million people working on this 24/7. One million. Not 100,000 — one million. You know how many we have in the entire Silicon Valley working full-time on foundation models? Maybe 20,000 on a good day."
  • "And they’re not going to quit. They’re not going to quit. The more you sanction them, the harder they work. You can’t stop them. The more you stop them, the more determined they get."
  • On Huawei: ""Don’t underestimate Huawei. Their Ascend 910C is already within 8-12% of H100 performance in most workloads — and they make 200,000 of them per month now. Two hundred thousand. Per month. While we’re sitting here arguing about CFIUS."
  • "These export controls? They’re the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. You just gave them the best national mobilization mission in 50 years. It’s like a Sputnik moment on steroids."
  • "Washington thinks they’re stopping China. They’re not stopping China — they’re accelerating China. By 2027, China will have more AI compute than the rest of the world combined. Mark my words."
  • The concluding remakr: "So yeah, keep the sanctions if you want. Just understand: you’re handing them the trophy."

Submission + - China Achieved Thorium-Uranium Conversion within Molten Salt Reactor (scmp.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: South China Morning Post, citing Chinese state media, reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy. It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor according to a report by Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. One mine tailings site in Inner Mongolia is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years. At the heart of the breakthrough is a process known as in-core thorium-to-uranium conversion that transforms naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 – a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself. Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor. Thorium fuels therefore need a fissile material as a ‘driver’ so that a chain reaction (and thus supply of surplus neutrons) can be maintained. The only fissile driver options are U-233, U-235 or Pu-239. (None of these is easy to supply) In the 1960s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, derived externally from thorium as the main fissile driver.

Submission + - China's DeepSeek and Qwen AI Beat US Rivals in Crypto Trading Contest (yahoo.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Two Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models, DeepSeek V3.1 and Alibaba’s Qwen3-Max, have taken a commanding lead over their US counterparts in a live real-world real-money cryptocurrency trading competition, posting triple-digit gains in less than two weeks. According to Alpha Arena, a real-market trading challenge launched by US research firm Nof1, DeepSeek’s Chat V3.1 turned an initial $10,000 into $22,900 by Monday, a 126% increase since trading began on October 18, while Qwen 3 Max followed closely with a 108% return. In stark contrast, US models lagged far behind. OpenAI’s GPT-5 posted the worst performance, losing nearly 60% of its portfolio, while Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro showed a similar 57% decline. xAI’s Grok 4 and Anthropic’s Claude 4.5 Sonnet fared slightly better, returning 14% and 23% respectively. “Our goal with Alpha Arena is to make benchmarks more like the real world — and markets are perfect for this,” Nof1 said on its website.

Submission + - Dutch Seize Nexperia, EU Floats Forced Tech Transfer on China Investment (aljazeera.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: The Dutch government said on Sunday that it had intervened in Chinese-owned Netherlands-based Nexperia, which makes chips for cars and consumer electronics. It cited worries about possible transfer of technology to its Chinese parent company, Wingtech. In a statement released on Sunday, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had invoked the “highly exceptional” Goods Availability Act to intervene and take control of Nexperia on September 30. The Act allows the Netherlands to intervene in privately owned companies in exceptional circumstances, such as if the government perceives a threat to the country’s economic security or if it is necessary to ensure that critical goods remain available. However, the move came after rising U.S. pressure on the company to remove its Chinese CEO, a court ruling released on Tuesday showed, underscoring how the firm has been caught in the crossfire between Washington and Beijing. On Tuesday, Nexperia announced that it had suspended Zhang, founder of Wingtech, as a director and removed him as chief executive officer (CEO). It has appointed Stegan Tilger, chief financial officer (CFO), as interim CEO. China responded immediately by banning Nexperia from exporting from China.

In a related development, the European Union is considering forcing Chinese companies to transfer technology to European firms if they want to invest and operate in the bloc. “If we invite Chinese investments to Europe, it must come with the precondition that we also have some kind of technology transfer,” EU trade chief and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen told a news conference on Tuesday. The EU says China has benefited from large-scale technology transfers from European businesses set up there, such as transfers made as a condition of market access or via rules that mandate joint ventures with Chinese companies. Technology transfer is used by developing countries as part of the bargain in which they have agreed to protect intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement aims to achieve the transfer and dissemination of technology as part of its objectives, and specifically requires developed country members to provide incentives for their companies to promote the transfer of technology to least-developed countries. There is no legal obligation for tech transfer in Chinese law but some argued that percentage cap on foreign ownership amounts to forced tech transfer, at least in spirit if no in letters; however, it is worth noting that, under WTO, foreign ownership cap is itself allowed even for China and each country commits to a schedule to remove the cap restrictions. Lastly, whether China is still a developing country, a self-declare status under WTO, is a subject of another heated debate — China is already the second largest economy with advanced technology capability, yet its per capita GDP still qualifies it as a middle-income developing country. Taken together these two contradictory developments, the western world is worrying about technologies being transferred to China on one hand while trying to snatch Chinese technologies on the other.

Submission + - China Expands Rare Earth Export Controls to Semiconductor, Block TechInsight (reuters.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Following U.S. lawmakers' call on Tuesday for broader bans on the export of chipmaking equipment to China, China dramatically expanded its rare earths export controls on Thursday, adding five new elements, dozens of pieces of refining technology, and extra scrutiny for semiconductor users as Beijing tightens control over the sector ahead of talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The new rules expands controls Beijing announced in April that caused shortages around the world, before a series of deals with Europe and the U.S. eased the supply crunch. China produces over 90% of the world's processed rare earths and rare earth magnets. The 17 rare earth elements are vital materials in products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars. Foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material, even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies, mimicking rules the U.S. has implemented to restrict other countries' exports of semiconductor-related products to China. Developing mining and processing capabilities requires a long-term effort, meaning the United States will be on the back foot for the foreseeable future. The Commerce Ministry also added to its "unreliable entity list" 14 foreign organizations, which are mostly based in the United States, restricting their ability to carry out commercial activities within the world's second-largest economy for carrying out military and technological cooperation with Taiwan, or "made malicious remarks about China, and assisted foreign governments in suppressing Chinese companies", it said in a separate statement, referring to TechInsights, a prominent Canadian tech research firm, and nine of its subsidiaries including Strategy Analytics which were among those blacklisted.

Comment 21st Centure Jones Act (Score 4, Informative) 48

by hackingbear (#65685972) Attached to: US Plans 1:1 Chip Production Rule To Curb Overseas Reliance

History has shown how this protectionism will work out eventually:

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a United States federal statute that provides for the promotion and maintenance of the American merchant marine ... It requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on ships that have been constructed in the United States and that fly the U.S. flag, are owned by U.S. citizens, and are crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. ...
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 has been revised a number of times; the most recent revision in 2006 included recodification in the U.S. Code.

and the end results:

In 2024, China captured over 53 percent of global market share in the commercial shipbuilding industry, while the United States accounted for only 0.1 percent. Just one Chinese firm, the state-owned juggernaut China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), built more commercial vessels by tonnage in 2024 than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II. [Japan and South Korea takes up 43% of global market share.]

Of course, US politicians never care about history. They will only drum up accusations (e.g. protectionism, government subsidies, etc.) against US rivals, even though the US itself has practiced such policies for long long time.

Submission + - Did US Successfully Take Over TokTok, Or Not? (apnews.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that he says will allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns. Trump’s order will enable an American-led of group of investors to "buy the app" [up to 80% ownership] from China’s ByteDance, though the deal is not yet finalized and also requires China’s approval. However, much about the deal is still unknown. So did the US successfully snatch TikTok from ByteDance? It is probably up to individual's interpretation. As with any deals between U.S. and China, the devil is in the details. According Shen Yi, an internet influencer and a professor at Shanghai's Fudan university, what the US investor will eventually take control of is an entity known as TikTok US Data Security Company (“USDS”) which is a subsidiary of the TikTok US and is exclusively responsible to handle data security in the US. ByteDance will continue, through its U.S. subsidiary “ByteDance TikTok US Company,” to operate business and other related activities (such as e-commerce, advertising for brands, and cross-border commercial activities). It is important to stress that “Byte TikTok US Company” remains 100% owned by ByteDance through its global TikTok subsidiary—this arrangement has not changed. The TikTok algorithm remains the property of ByteDance, only licensed to USDS for use. This point was in fact explicitly clarified by a relevant official of China’s Cyberspace Administration at the press conference following the Madrid talks. After reaching the TikTok deal, Beijing and Washington are now selling it to their respective domestic audience, each highlighting the part of the deal that it can characterize as a win. Shen’s details are not in conflict with the widely-reported account given by Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, who emphasized “a new board with six American directors out of seven. Observers can also find the TikTok arrangement being very similar to that of Apple's iCloud operation in China being run by GCBD (AIPO Cloud (Guizhou) Technology Co. Ltd.) while Apple retain controls of the brand and business.

 

Submission + - BYD U9 Set Fastest Production Car World Record (caranddriver.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: China is known for boasting the world's cheapest EVs, and is now also home to the fastest. Chinese automaker BYD's YangWang U9 Xtreme just blew the whole competition out of the water. The U9 Xtreme just hit a top speed of 308.4 mph (496.32 km/h) on the ATP Papenburg oval track in Germany, making it the fastest car in production, after demolishing the top-speed record for production EVs a few weeks ago. It was once again driven by German racer Marc Basseng, who piloted the hypercar beyond the previous record-holding Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which managed 304.8 back in 2019. The U9 Xtreme sports an insane quad-motor powertrain on a 1200-volt system, combining for a total output of over 2959 horsepower. One small caveat that doesn't lessen the impressiveness of the feat is that while the U9 Xtreme does classify as a production model, it barely does. That's because BYD is planning to limit production of the top-speed version of the U9 to no more than 30 units. The Xtreme is a high-performance version of Yangwang U9, BYD's pothole-jumping hypercar, which costs around $233,000 in China.

Submission + - China Launched Stealth Jet from Electromagnetic Catapult Aircraft Carrier (usni.org)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has demonstrated its ability to launch and recover aircraft from its first electromagnetic catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the CNS Fujian. Official imagery released by the PLAN today confirms that the new J-35 naval stealth fighters, KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft, and J-15T fighter jet are carrying out carrier trials. Ben Lewis, a co-founder of PLATracker, told USNI News that the test was a “significant milestone” for the Chinese military’s carrier program. “Once operational, the PLAN will have the capacity to field fifth-generation stealth carrier aircraft, supported by fixed-wing carrier-based airborne early warning and command aircraft, across the first island chain and Western Pacific Ocean,” Lewis said. Electromagnetic catapults offer several advantages, not least the fact that they can be more finely tuned to very different aircraft types, including ones that are larger and slower (like the KJ-600), or which are smaller and lighter, such as smaller drones. In contrast to the U.S. Navy, which gathered decades of experience with steam-powered catapults, China opted for electromagnetic ones for its first catapult-equipped carrier. It’s worth noting that the U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford was the first carrier ever to get an aircraft into the air using what is also referred to as an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). However, it has not launched an F-35C so far, making the J-35 the first stealth jet to achieve this feat. Based on earlier predictions, the F-35C may not do the same for some years.

Submission + - China Testing Domestic Advanced Chipmaking Tool, Plan for AI Clusters (ft.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: The Financial Times reported that China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is testing a deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine made by Yuliangsheng, a Shanghai-based start-up, said two people with knowledge of the development. The ability to produce advanced DUV machines would represent a big victory in China’s ability to overcome US controls on chip exports, reduce reliance on western technology and increase the production capacity of advanced AI processors. China’s DUV effort has challenges to overcome. While the majority of its components in Yuliangsheng’s machine are made domestically, some parts are sourced from abroad, said those with knowledge of the effort. But they added the company was making efforts to make all parts in the country soon.

In a related development, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei announced Thursday new computing systems for powering artificial intelligence with its in-house Ascend chips despite heavy American sanctions against the company. Huawei announced it would roll out three new versions of its Ascend chips through the end of 2028, with the aim to “double compute” capabilities with each year’s release, and build AI superpods and superclusters from the new chips. According to Huawei, the 950PR, to be released early 2026, will feature 128GB of its in-house HBM delivering up to 1.6 TB/s of bandwidth, while the 950DT increases those figures to 144GB and 4 TB/s, but Huawei hasn’t disclosed how its in-house HBM is manufactured, what packaging is used, or which foundry is producing the chip itself. That is followed by Ascend 960 and 970, to be released in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Its new Atlas 950 supernode would support 8,192 Ascend 950 chips, and that the Atlas 950 SuperCluster would use more than 500,000 chips. A more advanced Atlas 960 version, slated for launch in 2027, would support 15,488 Ascend 960 chips per node. The full supercluster would have more than 1 million Ascend chips, according to Huawei. In a speech Thursday, Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei, claimed that its forthcoming Atlas 950 supernode would deliver 6.7 times more computing power than Nvidia’s NVL144 system, also planned for launch next year, and the Atlas 950 supercluster would have 1.3 times the computing power of Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputer. China on Monday announced it was extending a probe into Nvidia over alleged monopolistic practices and ordered local tech giants to stop tests and orders of the Nvidia ("castrated by the US government") H20 and RTX Pro 6000D chips.

Submission + - China Develops Pregnancy Robot (mother.ly)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: China is taking a bold step in reproductive technology: researchers are building the world’s first “pregnancy robot”, a humanoid machine designed to carry a fetus for 10 months using an artificial womb. This innovation could open new paths to parenthood for couples struggling with infertility. Unlike an incubator that supports premature babies, this robot would replicate the entire gestational process from conception to delivery. The team expects a prototype to be ready within a year, priced below 100,000 yuan (around $14,000 USD). Ethical and legal discussions are already underway with officials in Guangdong Province, exploring policy frameworks to guide this unprecedented technology. The news quickly sparked debate on Chinese social media, with some celebrating the "final liberation of women" while others voiced ethical unease.

Submission + - Applied Materials Sued in China Over Alleged Trade Secret Theft (msn.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Top US chip-equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc. was sued by a rival in China over alleged trade secret theft, a further escalation in the technology war between the world’s two largest economies. Beijing E-Town Semiconductor Technology Co. filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court against Applied Materials accusing the later "illegally obtained, used and revealed its core technologies related to the application of plasma source in treating the surface of wafers," according to a company statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Applied Materials earlier hired two employees who were privy to the Beijing company’s proprietary plasma technologies from E-Town’s fully owned US subsidiary, Mattson, and filed a patent application crediting the duo as inventors with the National Intellectual Property Administration in China. “The patent application violated the rules of China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and it infringes on trade secrets, and has caused significant damage to the plaintiff’s intellectual property and economic interests,” E-Town said in the filing, adding that Applied Materials is also suspected of marketing and selling the technologies involved in the case to Chinese customers. E-Town is asking the court to demand that Applied Materials stop using its trade secrets and destroy related materials. It’s also seeking about 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) in recompense for damage.

Submission + - Japanese Company Staff Implicated in Alleged Theft of Key TSMC Technology (cnn.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Taiwanese authorities have detained three current and former employees of the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), for allegedly stealing trade secrets and took them to Japanese company Tokyo Electrons, prosecutors said Tuesday. Nikkei Asia first reported on Tuesday that TSMC had fired staffers suspected of illegally obtaining business secrets related to the manufacturing technology for the company’s 2-nanometer chip, the most advanced processor in the semiconductor industry that is expected to go into mass production this year. Taiwanese local media reported that a former TSMC employee now works at top chip manufacturing equipment supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd., and that the Japanese firm’s Taiwan office was raided by investigators. On Thursday, Tokyo Electron confirmed it had dismissed an employee of its Taiwan subsidiary who was involved in the case, and said the company was cooperating with authorities. “As of now, based upon the findings of our internal investigation we have not confirmed any evidence of the respective confidential information shared to any third parties,” it said in a statement.

Submission + - China Reveals Top Line AI System and Model at WAIC (reuters.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: China's Huawei Technologies showed off an AI computing system on Saturday that can rival Nvidia's most advanced offering, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions. The CloudMatrix 384 system made its first public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai where companies showcase their latest AI innovations, drawing a large crowd to the company's booth. The CloudMatrix 384 incorporates 384 of Huawei's latest 910C chips, optically connected through an all-to-all topology, and outperforms Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 on some metrics, which uses 72 B200 chips, according to SemiAnalysis. A full CloudMatrix system can now deliver 300 PFLOPs of dense BF16 compute, almost double that of the GB200 NVL72. With more than 3.6x aggregate memory capacity and 2.1x more memory bandwidth, Huawei and China now have AI system capabilities that can beat Nvidia’s according to a report by SemiAnalysis. The trade-off is that it takes 4.1x the power of a GB200 NVL72, with 2.5x worse power per FLOP, 1.9x worse power per TB/s memory bandwidth, and 1.2x worse power per TB HBM memory capacity, but SemiAnalysis noted that China has no power constraints only chip constraints. Nvidia had announced DGX H100 NVL256 “Ranger” Platform [with 256 GPUs], but decided to not bring it to production due to it being prohibitively expensive, power hungry, and unreliable due to all the optical transceivers required and the two tiers of network. The CloudMatrix Pod requires an incredible 6,912 400G LPO transceivers for networking, the vast majority of which are for the scaleup network.

Also at this event, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba released a new flagship open-source reasoning model Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 which has already topped key industry benchmarks, outperforming powerful proprietary systems from rivals like Google and OpenAI. On the AIME25 benchmark, a test designed to evaluate sophisticated, multi-step problem-solving skills, Qwen3-Thinking-2507 achieved a remarkable score of 92.3. This places it ahead of some of the most powerful proprietary models, notably surpassing Google’s Gemini-2.5 Pro, while Qwen3-Thinking secured a top score of 74.1 at LiveCodeBench, comfortably ahead of both Gemini-2.5 Pro and OpenAI’s o4-mini, demonstrating its practical utility for developers and engineering teams.

Submission + - China Conducted Test Flight of Kerosene-based Hypersonic Vehicle (scmp.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: SCMP reported that, in a groundbreaking demonstration of technological prowess, China's Feitian 2 hypersonic vehicle successfully completed its test flight, showcasing advanced capabilities in seamless mode transitions and fuel efficiency, marking a significant leap forward in aerospace engineering. China's Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) said in a statement that the test represented the first successful acquisition of real-flight data for a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine using a kerosene-hydrogen peroxide propellant, proving key capabilities, including variable-geometry intake operation, thrust-varying acceleration and autonomous flight with variable angle of attack. The RBCC engine represents a revolutionary concept, integrating the benefits of traditional rocket engines and air-breathing ramjets within a single system. Its core objective is to maximize the use of atmospheric oxygen as the oxidizer during atmospheric flight, drastically reducing the oxidizer weight the vehicle must carry, thereby significantly boosting the payload capacity and fuel efficiency. Although it is less efficient at converting propellant to thrust than liquid hydrogen, the mixture of kerosene-hydrogen peroxide eliminates the need for complex cryogenic systems, allowing pre-fuelling and long-term standby readiness. The successful demonstration of RBCC engine capabilities and autonomous flight systems suggests that hypersonic vehicles could soon become a reality for both military and civilian applications. Moreover, the test evaluated the vehicle’s autonomous flight capabilities, enabling it to adjust its angles of attack based on mission parameters and environmental conditions. The ability to smoothly transition between flight modes and adapt to environmental conditions opens new possibilities for rapid global travel and advanced defense systems. Notably, NPU is subject to US sanctions and requires specific US Commerce Department approval to buy sensitive US-made research equipment and components, while Chinese authorities publicly accused the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) carrying out extensive cyberattacks against the university.

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