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Brief Consumer Tech, Media & Telecom

Alibaba commits RMB 3BN to Lunar New Year AI subsidy war

Alibaba has committed RMB 3 billion ($432 million) to promote its AI chatbot Qwen, report Caixin. This move escalates a Lunar New Year subsidy war with rivals Tencent and Baidu as China’s tech giants compete for consumer mindshare. Under the “Spring Festival Treat Plan,” Alibaba aims to attract new users and encourage habitual use of AI-driven […]

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Brief Tech, Media & Telecom

Alibaba’s T-Head unveils new AI chip to rival Nvidia

Alibaba Group’s semiconductor design arm, T-Head, has unveiled details of its advanced AI chip with capabilities said to be on par with Nvidia’s H20, reports the South China Morning Post. The unveiling comes days after the unit was reportedly being prepared for a potential spin-off and public listing. According to information on T-Head’s website, the Zhenwu 810E was a “fully self-developed” parallel processing unit […]

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Brief Law & Regulation Tech, Media & Telecom

Beijing approves Nvidia H200 chip imports

China has given approval for three of its largest tech companies to buy Nvidia’s H200 chips, reports Reuters, citing four people familiar with the matter.  ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have been approved to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total, with other firms now joining a queue for subsequent approvals, the sources said, speaking on […]

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Brief Consumer Politics & Society Tech, Media & Telecom

China’s tech giants to hand out millions for Lunar New Year

As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, Chinese internet and tech giants are handing out enormous amounts of cash in the form of digital red envelopes to lure new users of their artificial intelligence (AI) apps, reports Caixin. Following the Chinese tradition of young people receiving red envelops stuffed with cash from their elders, China’s internet […]

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Brief Tech, Media & Telecom

Computing constraints force Z.ai to restrict sign-ups for new AI product 

Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai and the main competitor to OpenAI, is restricting sign-ups for its new flagship AI coding product, reports the South China Morning Post. The move comes as existing users face performance issues amid a computing crunch that continues to beset Chinese AI firms. On Wednesday, the Beijing-based firm announced in a WeChat post that it would […]