Business News
Latest business news and updates
Total: 749
Blackstone Backs Australian AI Play with $10bn Debt Package — A Bet on Data‑centre Nation
Firmus Technologies secured a US$10 billion debt package led by Blackstone to speed construction of AI‑focused data centres across Australia, including Project Southgate which targets up to 1.6GW of capacity by 2028. The deal underscores strong institutional demand for AI infrastructure while spotlighting operational, energy and market‑demand risks inherent in debt‑financed expansion.
NIO Issues Massive Recall of ES8/ES6/EC6 Fleet After Software Bug Blanks Instrument Cluster
NIO has recalled 246,229 ES8, ES6 and EC6 electric cars produced between March 2018 and January 2023 due to a software bug that can temporarily blank instrument and central displays, erasing critical driving information. The company plans to push OTA updates to affected vehicles and will service those that cannot be updated remotely.
Bitcoin Slips Below $69,000 as Market Risk-Off Ripples Through Crypto
Bitcoin dipped below $69,000 on February 9, 2026, declining 1.9% intraday amid a wider risk-off move in global markets. The drop highlights ongoing volatility in crypto markets, amplified by exchange operational issues and leveraged positions.
China Markets Rally as ByteDance Unveils Advanced AI Video Tool and Global Costs of Winter Games Reignite Debate
Chinese markets rallied on February 9, buoyed by gains in tech and semiconductor sectors even as gold and silver rose amid geopolitical caution. ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0, a generative AI video model that heightens both commercial opportunity and regulatory risk, while Italy’s Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics underscored the growing fiscal weight of hosting major events. Beijing also reported that its five‑year seed‑industry targets were met, strengthening agricultural self‑reliance.
From Nighttime Shock to a Daytime Rally: The Curious Case of China’s Silver Fund
Guotou Silver LOF, a Chinese public fund focused on silver futures, plunged after a late-night valuation adjustment caused a record one-day NAV drop of 31%, provoking over 17,000 investor complaints. After five straight limit-down sessions the fund reopened and rallied more than 8%, but the episode has raised concerns about valuation timing, platform settlement practices and retail protection in fast-growing commodity funds.
China’s ‘Pork Queen’ Goes Public: Qian Da Ma’s IPO Is a Bet to Rescue a Thin‑Margin Fresh‑food Empire
Qian Da Ma, China’s largest community fresh‑food chain by store count in South China, has filed to list in Hong Kong as it confronts slowing revenue, thin margins and heavy debt. The IPO seeks funds to deepen supply‑chain capacity, refine store economics and resume controlled expansion beyond its southern stronghold.
Once China’s TV King, Konka Stumbles into Crisis after RMB100bn Impairment ‘Bomb’
Konka, once China’s leading TV maker, warned of a record RMB125.8–155.7 billion loss in 2025 after massive impairment charges, pushing its net assets into negative territory and exposing it to delisting risk. Years of shrinking TV demand, sprawling diversification, governance lapses and heavy indebtedness have left few easy rescue options despite intervention by new majority owner China Resources.
Chinese Silver Fund Plunges into Sixth Straight Limit-Down While Trading at a 34% Premium
Guotou Silver LOF reopened on February 9 and hit the daily limit-down at ¥2.789 while still trading 34.15% above its net asset value, marking a sixth consecutive limit-down session. The episode highlights a severe disconnect between market price and NAV driven by speculative flows, limited arbitrage capacity and thin liquidity, and raises questions about regulatory responses and investor risk in China’s commodity fund market.
From Flagship to Fizzle: How Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra Lost Its Heat and Exposed an Ambitious Pivot
Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra began as a headline-grabbing flagship with record performance figures and rapid early sales, but a sequence of product, service and communication failures precipitated a sharp fall in demand. The collapse exposed weaknesses in Xiaomi’s ability to sustain a premium automotive offering and highlighted the importance of customer experience and specialist sales infrastructure in the high-end EV market.
Star Manager to Reputation Risk: How Wan Jianjun’s Rapid Rise at HuaAn Turned into a Trust Crisis
Wan Jianjun, once a top-performing fund manager at HuaAn, has seen five of seven funds he runs fall into loss and his assets under management shrink by about 60% amid large drawdowns and investor redemptions. The decline stems from high‑density fund launches at market peaks, forced takeovers of troubled mandates, and repeated, mistimed sector rotations that turned a once-coherent investment process into reactive hot‑money chasing. The episode highlights governance risks in China’s retail-driven fund industry and could prompt tighter scrutiny of product marketing and manager role expansion.
Broad A‑share Advance Led by ChiNext as Solar and AI Stocks Surge Amid Heavy Turnover
China’s A‑share market registered a strong mid‑day advance on February 9, led by a 3% jump in the ChiNext growth board and exceptionally broad participation with over 4,400 stocks rising. Solar, compute hardware and AI application sectors drove the gains amid elevated turnover of RMB 1.49 trillion, while oil and gas names lagged.
One Nomination, Many Aftershocks: How a Fed Pick and AI Fears Unleashed a Market Reset
Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Fed chair shocked markets by shifting expectations on monetary policy, triggering a dollar rally and deep declines in gold, silver and bitcoin. But the sell-off also reflected a broader reassessment of tech valuations as agentic AI threatens traditional SaaS economics and forces enormous corporate AI capital spending.