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An Indian university was kicked out of the prestigious AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday. A professor had passed off a commercially available robot dog from China as her own groundbreaking innovation.

India actually wanted to use the summit to present itself as a new AI superpower alongside the US and China. But then this happened:

• The fraud: A professor from Galgotias University proudly explained on state television that the robot dog "Orion" had been developed at their own center of excellence.

• The exposure: Internet users identified the machine as a Unitree Go2 within minutes.

• The consequence: The university had to clear its booth, power was cut, and India's IT minister hastily deleted his celebratory posts on X.

High-stakes summit becomes chaos stage

The "robo-lie" is particularly explosive because the summit was attended by the absolute world elite: Prime Minister Modi, Emmanuel Macron, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were on the guest list.

India is investing massively in "IndiaAI" to develop sovereign AI models and not be dependent on US tech giants.

The country wants to establish a "third way" between the US and China – with open-source models, 7,000 public datasets, and planned investments of $200 billion in data centers.

But the path is still rocky so far.

Fei-Fei Li, known in the industry as the “Godmother of AI,” has raised $1 billion with her startup World Labs.

🤝 Rocket start: Li only founded World Labs in 2024. In September 2024, World Labs had already raised $230 million. Since then, the valuation has more than doubled. The new round values the company at around $5 billion.

The details

World Labs is developing “Spatial Intelligence”: AI that can understand and model the physical world in 3D. The first product is called Marble and generates interactive 3D worlds from images or text.

The round is led by Autodesk with $200 million alone, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, AMD, Fidelity, and Singapore’s Sea Limited.

Who is Fei-Fei Li?

Born in Beijing and later moving to the United States, she is now a central voice in the U.S. AI scene.

She is one of the most influential researchers in modern AI, especially due to ImageNet, the dataset that massively accelerated computer vision in the 2010s.

Li previously served as Chief Scientist for AI/ML at Google Cloud before returning to Stanford and later launching World Labs.

Why everyone is betting on Spatial Intelligence

The thesis: AI must understand the physical world in 3D, not just process text and images. This opens up applications in robotics, AR/VR, and scientific simulation.

Meta’s chief scientist Yann LeCun is pursuing a similar approach with AMI Labs, and Google DeepMind is developing its own system called Genie. The participation of Singapore’s Sea Limited highlights the interest of Asian tech giants.

The investor logic: After the LLM boom, spatial intelligence will be the next growth market.

👉 Full Story: Bloomberg, AI Insider, Tech Funding News

Japan and the US have agreed on the first three megaprojects of their $550 billion investment package. Trump celebrates it as proof of his tariff policy. Tokyo is under pressure – and pays.

The three projects

The gas power plant alone equals nine nuclear reactors and could supply 7.4 million households. Japanese companies like Toshiba, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi Electric are to deliver turbines.

The fine print

The profit participation is extremely one-sided. After repayment of the initial investment, the profit split shifts to 90:10 in favor of the US, according to reports.

• Additionally, after Trump's approval, Tokyo has only 45 days to physically transfer the promised funds.

⚠️ Reality check

"Strategic, but hardly bankable," is how Japanese financial circles describe the projects. Politicians and corporate leaders have openly criticized Trump's tactics as "blackmail."

But dependence on the US market and especially Washington's security policy role against China, North Korea, and Russia left no choice.

A Blackstone-led consortium is putting up to $600 million in equity into Neysa, an Indian startup founded in 2023 that builds and operates GPU-based AI infrastructure for enterprises.

• On top of that, Neysa plans to secure another $600 million in debt financing, bringing the total to $1.2 billion for a company that isn't even three years
  old.

🤝 Blackstone's Amit Dixit, head of Asia private equity, will partner with Neysa co-founder and CEO Sharad Sanghi to scale the business.

The details

Neysa deploys GPU clusters inside India - for banks, tech firms, hospitals and government agencies. The fresh capital will fund the rollout of more than 20,000 GPUs across the country, specifically for AI training and high-performance computing.

Joining Blackstone in the round are Teachers' Venture Growth, TVS Capital, 360 ONE and Nexus.

The key thing here: Neysa designs and operates its systems entirely within India. Data stays onshore. Modi's government is pushing hard on "sovereign compute" under the IndiaAI Mission banner.

The bigger picture

For Blackstone, Neysa fills the India gap in a global AI infrastructure portfolio that already includes QTS and CoreWeave in the US, AirTrunk across APAC and Firmus in Australia.

The timing could hardly have been better. On the same day, Adani announced $100 billion for AI data centers by 2035. Modi had flown in Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google's Sundar Pichai and half a dozen other tech chiefs for the India AI Summit in New Delhi. AMD simultaneously signed an expanded AI partnership with Tata.

India is clearly serious about this. Whether the country can actually build compute capacity as fast as the cheques are flying is the real question.

👉 Full story: Bloomberg, DealStreet Asia, CRN Asia

Radical shift in the world's most technologically advanced car market: China is ending the era of buttonless cockpits.

China's Ministry of Industry has published a draft of new safety regulations mandating physical buttons for life-critical functions.

From July 1, 2027, all newly manufactured vehicles in the People's Republic must have "real" controls again.

The new mandatory buttons

The following functions may no longer be operated exclusively via touchscreens:

• Gear shift and turn signals

• Hazard lights and window controls

• Emergency call (eCall)

• Minimum size: 10 x 10 mm per button

The reason: distraction at the wheel. In many electric cars, even mechanical functions run through the central display. In the Tesla Model Y, the driver has to tap the display to change gears.

Not the first reversal

China is systematically cleaning up design trends that are problematic from a safety perspective:

Retractable door handles can jam after accidents and trap occupants. Yoke steering wheels don't meet airbag standards – according to the ministry, the steering column is involved in 46% of all driver injuries.

China is not alone. The European testing organization Euro NCAP has also already announced that from 2026, it will no longer award five stars if safety-critical functions can only be operated via screens.

• The message is clear: futuristic aesthetics are all well and good – but not at the expense of safety.

MiniMax surged as much as 30% in Hong Kong before closing up 25%. Since its IPO in January 2026, the stock is now up more than 400%.

Rival Zhipu also posted double-digit intraday gains. Both names are currently among the hottest AI bets in Asia..

The driver

Optimism around China’s generative AI startups is rising, fueled by model upgrades ahead of Lunar New Year, a period when platforms traditionally compete for maximum user traffic.

• MiniMax last week released version M2.5 of its flagship model.

On the SWE benchmark, M2.5 performs “very close” to Claude Opus 4.6, with analysts pointing to “significant performance improvements.”

Why so hot?

First: China is investable again.

• After years of regulatory uncertainty and weak tech performance, investors are searching for a new growth anchor. Chinese AI offers exactly that: structural growth, strategic relevance and state backing.

Second: valuation arbitrage.

• U.S. AI stocks trade at extreme multiples. In Hong Kong, newly listed AI players are entering the market at far lower starting valuations.

Third: technological catch-up.

• MiniMax’s M2.5 and Zhipu’s GLM models are being publicly benchmarked against U.S. frontier models. “Close enough” is sufficient to support the thesis that China is not permanently behind in the LLM race.

Fourth: geopolitical logic.

• Semiconductors, AI and compute capacity are strategic sectors. Investors understand that these areas are politically prioritized in China, reducing the risk of sudden domestic policy headwinds.

👉 Full story: Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance

China's most-watched television show, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, became a global stage for Beijing's technological ambitions on Monday.

In a blend of tradition and science fiction, four leading robotics startups – Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab – demonstrated the rapid progress of Chinese "Embodied AI."

📈 Market Dominance and Industrial Policy

Behind the spectacle lies a hard-nosed industrial strategy: Beijing is betting on robotics to boost productivity despite an aging workforce.

• Global leadership: China was responsible for 90% of the approximately 13,000 humanoid robots delivered worldwide last year.

• Growth forecast: Morgan Stanley expects sales of Chinese humanoid robots to more than double to 28,000 units this year.

• Political tailwind: President Xi Jinping met with five robotics startup founders last year – visibility typically reserved only for sectors like semiconductors or e-mobility.

🔬 The Players and Their Roles

The gala served as a "direct pipeline" from industrial policy to the spotlight, often securing government contracts and investor interest for the companies.

⚠️ Reality Check: Hype vs. Hardware

Despite the impressive show, technical hurdles remain:

• "Brains" vs. bodies: While hardware (motors, joints, balance) is making enormous progress, AI intelligence ("cortex") still lags behind.

• Data shortage: The industry faces a "data scarcity" for real work scenarios, as simulations alone are not sufficient.

• Stage vs. reality: The controlled environment of the gala (flat floor, constant light) is a "comfort zone" scenario that is not yet replicable one-to-one in factories or households.

Elon Musk, who sees his biggest competition in Chinese companies, recently described China's progress as "ass-kicker next level."

🍿 Full performance & behind the scenes: Unitree YouTube

The United States and Taiwan have finalized their bilateral trade agreement. Washington confirms a 15% tariff rate on Taiwanese imports, putting Taiwan on par with Japan and South Korea.

🔄 In return, Taiwan commits to lowering or eliminating 99% of its tariffs on U.S. goods and granting preferential market access to American products.

The deal

The U.S. trade deficit with Taiwan rose to $126.9 billion in 2025. Taiwan secured exemptions for more than 2,000 product categories.

Deal optimism: President Lai Ching-te called it a “pivotal moment for Taiwan’s economy” and a “major transformation.”

Taiwan pledged purchases of more than $84 billion in U.S. goods through 2029, including:

• $44.4 billion in LNG and crude oil

• $15.2 billion in civil aircraft and engines

• $25.2 billion in power grid equipment and generators

Non-tariff barriers are also set to be reduced, including in autos, medical devices and pharmaceutical standards.

Market reality

Back in January, Taiwan pledged $250 billion in investments into U.S. production capacity, primarily in semiconductors, energy and AI — including $100 billion from TSMC. Another $250 billion in government-backed investment guarantees are expected to follow.

• Washington’s goal: more high-tech production on U.S. soil.

• Taipei’s goal: tariff stability and a strategic partnership.

From a small concession to a sweeping demand: The deal positions Taiwan as a key pillar in Washington’s chip strategy against China. Commerce Secretary Lutnick is calling for 40% of Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain to relocate to the U.S., a demand Taipei has labeled “impossible.”

• Beijing has sharply criticized the agreement, accusing the U.S. of economically “hollowing out” Taiwan and pressuring the island to shift its core industries abroad.

👉 Full story: Straits Times, CNBC, CNBC

ByteDance's AI video generator Seedance 2.0 caused a stir last week: Users generated videos of Tom Cruise against Brad Pitt, Wolverine against Thanos, Darth Vader clips.

Just days after launch, the biggest Hollywood studios are going to war against the TikTok parent company. Disney accuses the TikTok conglomerate of a "virtual raid."

From Viral to Illegal in 48 Hours

On Thursday, ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0. On Friday, Disney sent the first letter. The accusation:

Other players are also taking legal action:

• Paramount: Reports "blatant violations" of brands like South Park, Star Trek, and The Godfather. The AI-generated clips are visually and acoustically barely distinguishable from the originals.

• Japan investigates: The Japanese government has launched an official investigation into copyright violations of manga and anime characters (including Detective Conan).

The OpenAI Paradox

Interesting: Disney dealt with OpenAI completely differently. When Sora 2 produced similar Disney videos in September, there was no lawyer's letter – but a deal:

The difference: OpenAI asked first. ByteDance didn't.

ByteDance's Emergency Brake

The platform has already reacted: Since Sunday, users "temporarily cannot upload faces of real people as references."

• The voice cloning function was also restricted after Chinese users complained that the tool could reconstruct their voices from photos.

Playboy is selling 50% of its China business to United Trademark Group (UTG) for a total of $122M, handing over operational control across Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

UTG to rehabilitate the lifestyle empire: At least $50M will go directly toward debt reduction. The stock jumped ~30% on the news.

The reset

• Deal structure: $45M cash, $67M in guaranteed minimum distributions over eight years, and $10M in brand support payments over three years.

• Goal: Playboy transitions from managing a complex licensing web to becoming a high-margin pure brand owner.

Why UTG is the right partner

Playboy has operated in China since the 1990s primarily as a licensed fashion and accessories brand. Too many agents, too many sub-licenses and a massive counterfeit problem diluted the brand.

UTG manages brands such as Jeep and Pierre Cardin and generates more than $1.5B in annual retail sales.

• The alliance aims to reposition the iconic bunny logo as a premium lifestyle brand in China and put an end to uncontrolled sub-licensing.

Market reality

Shifting operational control to local partners like UTG, Boyu or TFI reflects a market environment where local speed, regulatory sensitivity and distribution power outweigh global brand authority.

Starbucks, Burger King and McDonald’s followed similar paths when they ceded control of their China businesses:

• Starbucks: 60% sale to Boyu Capital (valued at $4B)

• Burger King: CPE takes 83% of the China JV ($350M)

• McDonald’s: Majority stake sold in 2017, China structured as a semi-autonomous unit, currently holding 48% directly.

The logic is consistent: Local investors bring speed, market understanding and political networks that global corporations often lack.

For Playboy, the driver is primarily loss of control through fragmentation, brand dilution and balance sheet pressure. The company is now betting on structural rehabilitation through its Chinese partner.

👉 Full story: Caixin Global, Yicai, Playboy, DealStreet Asia