Central SOEs launch 51 billion yuan strategic industries fund
A special fund for the development of strategic emerging industries by central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was launched in Beijing on Oct. 29. The fund, initiated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) and managed by China Reform Holdings Corp. Ltd., has an initial size of 51 billion yuan ($7.2 billion), of which China Reform Holdings plans to contribute about 15 billion yuan. The fund has a five-year investment period, which can be extended by up to two years, and an eight-year management and exit period, for a total of 15 years. It will focus on supporting strategic emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, high-end equipment, and quantum technology, as well as future industries including next-generation energy, information, and manufacturing.
U.S. to suspend 50% or more “affiliates rule” for one year
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce stated on the afternoon of Oct. 30 that Chinese and U.S. trade teams reached a number of agreements during talks in Kuala Lumpur. Among them, the U.S. will suspend for one year the enforcement of its “Entity List” 50% ownership-penetration rule announced on Sept. 29. In return, China will suspend for one year its related export control measures announced on Oct. 9 and will study more detailed implementation plans.
DJI under investigation in Italy
On Oct. 29 local time, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) announced it had opened an investigation into Chinese drone maker DJI and its Italian importer, Nital S.p.A. The authority alleges that the companies manipulated the resale prices of DJI drones in Italy and restricted dealers from sourcing products from abroad or offering discounts.
AI chipmaker Moore Threads gets nod for STAR Market IPO
The China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved the registration for an initial public offering on the STAR Market by Moore Threads, according to a statement on the regulator’s website on Oct. 30. Founded in 2020 by a team of former Nvidia executives, Moore Threads develops domestic AI chips. Its IPO application was accepted less than three months ago and passed review on September 26.
Meituan launches Keeta food-delivery service in Brazil
On Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. local time, Keeta, the international food-delivery brand under Meituan, officially began operations in Brazil, launching in the cities of Santos and São Vicente. Keeta said it plans to expand gradually across Brazil, entering the country’s largest city, São Paulo, by the end of the year. The brand first debuted in Hong Kong in May 2023 and has since expanded to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE.
BAAI unveils Emu 3.5 multimodal AI model
The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) on Oct. 30 released Emu 3.5, a multimodal large world model with 34 billion parameters based on an autoregressive transformer architecture. According to BAAI, the model can learn intent parsing, causal reasoning, and multi-step action path planning from large-scale multimodal data. The model also uses Discrete Diffusion with Adaptive computation (DiDA) technology, which improves the generation efficiency of autoregressive models by nearly 20 times.
