Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 510
Alibaba’s Qwen3.5 Appears in Hugging Face Transformers — A Quiet Move That Could Amplify China’s AI Reach
A pull request adding Qwen3.5 to the Hugging Face Transformers repository surfaced on February 9, signaling Alibaba’s latest model is being integrated into the world’s primary open‑source AI toolkit. Whether the change includes usable weights or only interface support, the move lowers barriers for developers, broadens the model’s reach, and raises questions about licensing, safety and geopolitics.
Free Milk Tea and Crashed Servers: China’s AI Giants Spend Billions to Buy Users — But Will They Keep Them?
China’s largest tech firms turned the Lunar New Year into a costly marketing contest, using red packets and free-order campaigns to drive downloads for their AI assistants. The promotions produced massive short-term engagement but exposed operational and product weaknesses, and highlighted that long-term success will hinge on embedding AI into daily services rather than on discount-driven spikes.
Tianya Plans June Relaunch — Selling 1,999‑Yuan Founder Packs to Rescue an Internet Archive
Tianya, one of China’s most influential online forums, says it will restore access on June 1, 2026, and is selling 9,999 limited “founder” packages at 1,999 yuan each to fund data preservation and relaunch costs. The initiative combines nostalgia-driven crowdfunding with a commercial pivot that highlights broader tensions about digital heritage, platform sustainability and user trust in China’s changing internet landscape.
China’s ‘Attack‑11’ Signals a New Wave of Stealthy Unmanned Strike Aircraft
China’s Attack‑11, a tailless flying‑wing unmanned combat aircraft highlighted in recent Chinese media, is presented as a stealthy platform for deep‑penetration strike and electronic suppression. While the design underscores a global trend toward pairing stealth with autonomy, key performance and operational details remain unverified and implications for regional defence postures are significant.
AI Boom and Raw‑Material Costs Spark Broad Chip Price Rises — A Turning Point for the Semiconductor Cycle
A surge in AI compute demand and rising commodity costs have triggered industry‑wide price hikes across the semiconductor supply chain. The combination of supply tightness in memory chips and higher manufacturing inputs may mark a transition from a structural upswing to a broader cyclical recovery, with significant implications for manufacturers, OEMs and investors.
Apple Readies iOS 26.4 Beta and Early Spring Hardware Push — Siri, AI and MagSafe Move Down the Lineup
Apple is reportedly preparing an iOS 26.4 developer beta the week of Feb 23 that will include parts of a new Siri, and plans a product event the week of Mar 2 unveiling an iPhone 17e, a new A18-powered entry iPad with Apple Intelligence, and an M4-upgraded iPad Air. The moves signal Apple’s strategy to push AI features and accessory monetisation into broader parts of its product line while maintaining competitive entry pricing.
Apple to Seed Siri Upgrades and New Hardware in Late February–Early March, Gurman Says
Mark Gurman reports Apple will release the first iOS 26.4 developer beta the week of Feb 23 with partial Siri enhancements, followed by a hardware push the week of March 2. Planned devices include a $599 iPhone 17e with new chip and MagSafe tweaks, an entry iPad with A18 and Apple Intelligence, and an iPad Air upgraded to M4 silicon.
China’s Qingtianzu Launches ¥999 ‘Robot Experience’ as Robotics Hits Consumer Stage
Qingtianzu launched a ¥999 nationwide robot experience plan during a livestreamed robot gala, offering event-focused, rental-style access to robots for social occasions. The initiative reflects a broader push in China to commercialise robots through service and rental models that lower adoption barriers while testing demand for consumer-facing robotic experiences.
Google Goes All‑In on AI: $180bn Capex Bet Turns Search Giant into Infrastructure Warfighter
Alphabet reported strong 2025 results, with revenue growth and rising search and cloud momentum, yet surprised markets by guiding roughly $180 billion of capital expenditure for 2026 to accelerate AI infrastructure. The plan deepens Google’s hardware‑and‑energy play, raises barriers to competition and creates short‑term pressures on earnings through higher depreciation and cash burn.
China’s Attack-11: A Pilotless Stealth “Flying Wing” Built to Penetrate High-Risk Airspace
China’s Attack-11 is a publicly unveiled stealth unmanned combat aircraft using a flying-wing layout designed to reduce radar signature and operate in high-risk airspace. Its combination of stealth and unmanned operation could expand PLA options for deep strike and electronic suppression, while complicating regional air-defence calculations.
China’s Viral AI App Crashes as Free ‘Milk Tea’ Giveaway Overwhelms Servers
Qianwen’s app crashed amid overwhelming demand for a widely publicised free milk-tea promotion, prompting the operator to ask users for patience and to confirm voucher validity until Feb 28. The outage exposes tensions between explosive AI-driven marketing and the logistical and regulatory realities of fulfilling mass consumer promotions.
China’s EV Makers Escalate the Flagship SUV Wars — Bigger, Smarter and More Expensive
This week’s announcements from Xpeng, Li Auto, Avita and Leapmotor underline a shift in China’s EV industry toward high‑end SUVs that sell on software, chassis electronics and compute as much as battery range. Manufacturers are betting that steer‑by‑wire, 800V electrification and lidar‑led autonomy will justify premium pricing, though execution, safety certification and clear consumer benefits remain the decisive hurdles.