China has launched a new international AI organization headquartered in Shanghai, bringing together 29 founding member countries in a push to shape global technology governance outside the United Nations system, reports Caixin.

The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) was formally established Thursday during the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Founding members include Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, Ethiopia and Cameroon. UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the signing ceremony.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, delivering the keynote address at Friday’s opening ceremony said China would balance development and security by improving laws, regulations, policy frameworks, application standards and ethical guidelines to ensure AI remains safe, reliable and controllable. He also pledged that over the next five years China would provide 5,000 AI-focused training slots for developing countries, establish international AI application cooperation centers with regional and multilateral groupings including ASEAN, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, and promote deployment of China’s “Mazu” AI-enabled weather early-warning system in 30 countries.

China’s securities regulator has approved Tencent-backed AI chip startup Shanghai Enflame Technology’s application for an initial public offering on Shanghai’s STAR Market, where the company plans to raise RMB 6 billion ($883 million), reports Caixin.

Tencent Holdings has participated in five funding rounds for Enflame, investing a total of RMB 5.1 billion. Together with its affiliates, Tencent holds a 20.3% stake in the company. It is also Enflame’s largest customer, accounting for 83.8% of the chipmaker’s revenue in 2025. The company said in its prospectus that it expects to turn profitable in 2026 or 2027, despite accumulated losses of RMB 4.4 billion as of the end of 2025.

The listing marks another step in the commercialization of China’s homegrown AI chip sector, as domestic suppliers move to capture demand created by restrictions on advanced foreign processors.

Ant Group has completed a strategic investment in Chinese health management startup Boohee, reports Caixin. This makes it the largest external shareholder with a stake of more than 28%.

The two companies, which announced the tie-up on Wednesday, plan to co-develop AI health services with a focus on weight management. Following the deal, Boohee founder and CEO Ma Haihua remains the company’s largest shareholder. The first joint feature has already rolled out on Ant Afu, Ant Group’s AI-powered health app. When users take photos of their meals to log calories, the system taps into Boohee’s database to offer tailored dietary guidance. 

The transaction marks another step in the fintech giant’s aggressive expansion into the rapidly growing AI healthcare sector, where it is increasingly competing with both domestic tech rivals and global players.

A cybersecurity platform operated by China’s industry ministry ​has warned that it had identified ‌a serious security “backdoor” risk in Anthropic’s AI coding tool, Claude Code, reports Reuters.

In a statement posted on its WeChat account, the National Vulnerability Database said Claude Code contains a built-in monitoring mechanism capable of transmitting sensitive information, including users’ geographic location and identity-related identifiers, to remote servers without user consent.

The database advised organizations and users to review affected systems and either uninstall them or upgrade to the latest secure release in which the alleged backdoor has been removed. 

Chinese startup DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip, reports Reuters citing inside sources. The push could reduce the company’s reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips, which it has depended on to train and run its globally popular models.

The chip is designed ‌for inference—the stage of AI computing in which a trained model generates responses for users—rather than for training new models, the sources said.

If successful, DeepSeek’s expansion into semiconductor development would mark a major strategic shift for a company widely hailed in China as the country’s AI champion, potentially adding to challenges faced by Chinese tech giant Huawei.