AgiBot Signals a Long-Term Malaysia Investment Plan
AgiBot Innovation has signaled a potential RM1 billion investment in Malaysia by 2035, with a possible 5,000 job opportunities, according to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
DAILY BRIEF · 10 STORIES
The September 24, 2026 brief
Damao Raises New Funding for AI-Energy Coordination
Damao Technology, known in Chinese as 达卯科技, has reportedly completed a new financing round of approximately RMB 200 million for software that links AI computing demand with electricity and energy operations.
Li Qiang Puts AI Manufacturing Services at the Center of a Shanghai Visit
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has again linked artificial intelligence to manufacturing, but his latest Shanghai visit focused on a more practical part of the policy agenda: the shared services that can help companies use the technology.
China’s AI Rollout Runs Into an ROI Reality Check
Chinese companies are moving more AI projects into production, but many executives say the financial case still falls short.
XIRRA Raises Early Capital for Its Physical AI Model Bet
A young Chinese physical-AI company called XIRRA says it has completed seed and angel financing worth several hundred million yuan, placing a reported US$500 million valuation on a business built around what it calls a native physical foundation model.
Paxini Takes Its First Formal Step Toward a Mainland IPO
Paxini has entered the tutoring stage for a planned mainland initial public offering, moving a tactile-sensing and robotics company closer to China’s public markets without yet beginning a formal listing review. The distinction is important. IPO tutoring registration is an early regulatory step, not an approval, a prospectus filing, or a completed flotation.
ByteDance Reworks Doubao’s Chat Teams After Its User Surge
ByteDance is reportedly changing the organization behind Doubao, its fast-growing AI app, as it shifts resources across chat, monetization, workplace tools, and model post-training.
Baidu Gives Kooko Its Overseas Agent Push
Baidu is turning an overseas productivity product into a more visible part of its AI strategy. At a September 21 Baidu AI Day event, the company said it would accelerate the international expansion of its AI productivity business and rebrand its overseas product, previously known as Oreate AI, as Kooko.
Alibaba Cloud Draws a New European Data-Center Map
Alibaba Cloud is planning another expansion of its European footprint, according to a September 23 report by the South China Morning Post. The report describes a one-year expansion window and names three planned markets: Turkey, Finland, and the Netherlands. It also discusses added capacity in several places where the company already operates.
DeepSeek Builds a Sandbox Layer for Agent Training
DeepSeek has described a less visible part of the agent race: the infrastructure needed to let an AI system try tasks safely, repeatedly, and at very large volume.