HSBC Holdings will establish a global artificial intelligence centre of excellence in Singapore in the second half of this year, with plans to hire more than 100 AI experts. The centre will initially focus on enhancing client wealth management, introducing intelligent treasury solutions, and developing AI-powered digital payments. It aims to cultivate talent in natural language processing, data science, AI governance, and human-centric design, and will collaborate with top educational institutions and government agencies in Singapore.
Tesla plans to open source the design and software of its discontinued Model S and Model X, after dismantling their assembly lines at Fremont for conversion to Optimus production. Meanwhile, the US NHTSA is investigating Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, issuing 24 subpoenas with an August 12 deadline. Non-compliance risks up to $27,874 daily fines, reaching $139 million. A US court has ordered Tesla to pay $234 million for FSD-related deaths, with appeals rejected. The probe focuses on FSD's ability to detect performance degradation in low visibility, after nine accidents were identified.
Hangzhou Qichuang Ruigan Technology Co. , Ltd. has been established, with shareholders including Raytron and other investors. The company's business scope covers integrated circuit manufacturing and sales, as well as intelligent robot sales and research and development. The new entity is based in Hangzhou.
Chow Tai Seng said in a conference call on July 27 that the decline in gold prices is favorable for the sale of gold jewelry priced by weight. If the sales weight stabilizes and rebounds, it would provide strong support for revenue. The company added that the overall operating situation at its terminal gold jewelry stores has remained stable recently.
Nvidia has released Synthetic Video Detector NIM, which analyzes video frames using DINOv2 and DINOv3 vision models to detect AI-generated content. In internal tests with over 4,000 videos, it achieved 92% accuracy on uncompressed videos and 85.64% on H. 264 encoded MP4 files. Meanwhile, Chinese tools Tencent Zhuque AI Detection Assistant and the Anti-Fraud Center App showed inconsistent performance. Tencent Zhuque misjudged a real vlog as AI-generated, while the App's video upload function failed repeatedly. Google and Adobe are advancing SynthID and C2PA standards, and Chinese regulators require AI content labeling.
At the end of the second quarter, China's National Social Security Fund (NSSF) appeared among the top ten tradable shareholders of Yingshi Network. The NSSF 118 Portfolio and NSSF 503 Portfolio held a combined 9.587 million shares, representing 1.22% of the company's tradable shares. This marked a 20.05% decrease from the first quarter.
A widespread network outage struck T-Mobile across the United States around 4 p. m. Eastern Time, causing many iPhones to display 'SOS' in the status bar and rendering them unable to make calls, send texts, or use cellular data. The company said its teams are addressing the technical issue and working to restore service. During the outage, users could still make emergency calls.
The U. S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday proposed requiring inspections of 453 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft registered in the United States to verify that some passenger seats are properly installed on seat tracks. The agency issued a draft airworthiness directive covering certain 737 MAX 8, MAX 9, and MAX 8200 models after receiving reports of improperly installed seat components. No accidents have been reported, and the FAA has not ordered groundings.
Autowell is steadily advancing an energy storage complete line project for a large energy chemical enterprise, with some production lines already delivered. The remaining lines are planned to be fully delivered by the end of 2026. As of now, Autowell's global cumulative shipments of energy storage production lines have exceeded 300.
Anthropic product designer Nate Parrott's side project Claude Design, a visual communication tool, has been officially adopted as a product. It surpassed 1 million users in its first week. The tool exports PDF, PPTX, HTML and integrates with Canva, Adobe, Gamma, and others. It is not an image generation model and requires users to import their own logos and brand assets.
U. S. -based Nvidia and South Korean conglomerate SK Group have entered into a cooperation agreement, with the combined value of their business dealings exceeding US$500 billion, Nvidia announced on Friday. The disclosure underscores the vast commercial ties between the chip giant and the Korean group, though neither party elaborated on the specific areas of collaboration or how the figure was derived. Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
China's antitrust regulator fined Trip. com Group RMB 5.179 billion, equivalent to 7.5% of its revenue, for monopolistic practices including exclusive hotel deals and mandatory lowest-price guarantees. The company accepted the penalty and announced 19 remedial measures, including canceling exclusive partnerships, ending forced minimum pricing, and refunding RMB 122 million in withheld hotel deposits.
Waymo's self-driving taxis in Austin, Texas, have received 83 parking tickets since entering the market in 2024, totaling $9,325 in fines. As of mid-July, $7,433 has been paid, with $1,892 outstanding. Violations include 64 tickets for parking in tow-away zones, 13 for unpaid meters, and 9 for blocking lanes. The highest single fine was $519 for occupying a disabled parking spot. Waymo operates over 300 vehicles in Austin and plans to launch its own app in January 2028.
LVMH held its first-half results meeting on July 28, 2026. An analyst noted the group's continued weak performance in China and asked whether a lawsuit with Molin Milk Tea was a factor. CFO Cécile Cabanis responded that intellectual property is a core asset and the team actively protects brands globally. She declined further comment on the case, citing ongoing judicial proceedings.
X, formerly Twitter, launched X Money on July 27 for US paying members aged 18 and above. The service offers an annual percentage yield of up to 6%, which X claims is more than ten times the national average savings account rate. Users can make payments and free peer-to-peer transfers within the app, and receive a custom metal Visa card. The service is initially available to X Premium and Premium Plus subscribers.
Qualcomm has raised prices across its entire chip lineup by double-digit percentages, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 increasing by more than 10%. The move, driven by persistently high DRAM and flash memory costs and a global smartphone sales decline that has weakened its mobile chip revenue, will directly impact the cost of Valve's upcoming Steam Frame VR headset, which uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor.
Micro nuclear reactor startup Antares Nuclear has closed a $470 million Series C financing round, comprising $370 million in equity and $100 million in debt, led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital. The funds will be used to develop small modular reactors for US military bases. The company's reactor, with power output between 100 kW and 1 MW, uses TRISO fuel and achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory in June. Antares is one of three finalists for the US Department of Defense's Base Advanced Nuclear Power program, with deployment planned by 2028. The company has raised $604 million to date.
Multiple listed Chinese banks set their second-half 2026 operational priorities at mid-year meetings, emphasizing asset-liability management, income diversification, internationalization, and digital-intelligence transformation. Everbright Bank stressed high-quality growth, while Industrial Bank targeted active asset-liability management and cost reduction. Huaxia Bank listed 18 key tasks, including risk control and retail business improvement. Several banks strengthened risk prevention, with city commercial banks increasing the weight of risk metrics in assessments. On digitalization, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank reported over 440 AI application scenarios as of June 2026, covering marketing, operations, risk control, and management.
Weng Li, a former OpenAI vice president, returned to OpenAI on July 29, 2026, to lead a team on recursive self-improvement after leaving Thinking Machines Lab due to health issues. She co-founded Thinking Machines in February 2025, which raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation. Several co-founders have since left the startup. The company attempted a $50-60 billion valuation round in late 2025 but did not complete it.
On July 28, 40 A-share companies disclosed share buyback progress, with Foxconn Industrial Internet planning up to 2 billion yuan in repurchases. The updates included shareholder proposals, first-time disclosures, implementation progress, and completed buybacks. Year-to-date, 859 buyback plans have been completed by 691 companies, with 193 firms exceeding 100 million yuan. SF Holding led with 5.999 billion yuan in completed buybacks, followed by BOE A at 5.703 billion yuan and CATL at 4.386 billion yuan.
Ahead of the 2026 semi-annual earnings season, chairmen of several listed securities firms have proactively proposed interim dividend plans. Since July, 18 listed brokerages have completed distribution of their 2025 annual dividends. Such direct proposals from chairmen were uncommon in prior years, marking a shift in industry practice.
Bernard Arnault, Europe's richest man and chairman of LVMH, made his first post on social media platform X on July 28, denying reports of a family feud over succession. He stated that shareholders have approved raising the CEO age limit to 85. Arnault, whose personal wealth exceeds 140 billion dollars, dismissed claims of internal strife among his five children, all of whom work at LVMH. His post gained 60,000 followers within 12 hours, with X owner Elon Musk also following.
LVMH reported second-quarter organic revenue growth of 3% in 2026, with the US market accelerating and jewelry and leather goods proving resilient. First-half revenue reached 38.644 billion euros, down 3% year-on-year, while net profit was flat at 5.697 billion euros. The Middle East conflict dampened tourism spending, but classic products and high-end jewelry maintained strength.
JetBlue Airways will overhaul its fare options in December 2025, introducing a three-tier domestic first-class called BlueFirst. Passengers will choose among Main (economy), Even More (extra legroom), and BlueFirst, each with Base, Standard, and Flex fare classes. Base offers the lowest price with carry-on and travel credit refunds but no seat selection and change fees. Standard includes seat selection and no change fees, earning 3 TrueBlue points per dollar, while Flex adds refunds to the original payment method. JetBlue will eliminate the Core fare and consolidate economy into Main. The airline's Mint business class for long-haul routes will remain with only Standard and Flex options. JetBlue has not yet announced the BlueFirst seat launch date and will report earnings on Tuesday.
Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure ceiling from 1900 billion to 2050 billion and lifted its 2027 forecast, after completing an 80 billion equity financing in June that caused approximately 2% dilution. The increase was driven by surging demand for computing capacity and supply constraints. The company's shares fell following the announcement.
Changxin Technology surged 465.82% on its STAR Market debut, closing at RMB 49 per share and giving a market capitalization of about RMB 3.28 trillion. Five bank wealth management companies — Ningyin, Xingyin, Zhongyou, Nanyin, and Minsheng — participated in the offline placement, collectively receiving 4.544 million shares. Based on the closing price, the allocated shares generated a total book profit of approximately RMB 183 million. Ningyin Wealth Management alone accounted for about RMB 100 million of that profit.
Michelin released its financial report for the first half of 2026. The company posted revenue of 12.69 billion euros, a 2.6% drop from the prior year. Net profit fell to 766 million euros, an 8.8% decrease year-on-year.
Amazon has submitted an application to the US Federal Communications Commission to deploy a constellation of over 5,000 satellites by 2028, aiming to provide global mobile phone services including voice, text, data, and emergency communications. The company will use radio spectrum from its 11.6 billion US dollar acquisition of Globalstar. This marks Amazon's first entry into satellite mobile communications, a market dominated by SpaceX's Starlink, which covers over 150 countries. Amazon already has more than 390 satellites in orbit for broadband and in June 2026 received approval to extend the deployment deadline for about 1,600 satellites to the end of this month.
Marriott International reported first-quarter 2026 global RevPAR growth of 4.2%, fee revenue up 12% to $1.43 billion, and adjusted EBITDA up 15% to $1.4 billion. Adjusted EPS rose 17% to $2.72. The development pipeline reached a record 618,000 rooms, with conversion signings over 35%. Howmet Aerospace posted first-quarter revenue of $2.31 billion, up 19%, adjusted EPS of $1.22 (up 42%), and adjusted EBITDA margin of 32% (up 320 basis points). Engine spare parts revenue grew 48% and gas turbine revenue 39%. Howmet completed a $1.8 billion acquisition and raised its full-year guidance. Both companies will report second-quarter results in early August.
Porsche announced on July 27 it will cut 5,000 additional jobs in Germany by 2035, bringing total German job reductions to about 8,900. The cuts affect production and R&D in Stuttgart. A package with unions extends job guarantees to 2035, invests 2.1 billion euros, and includes salary deferrals, bonus cuts, and a one-time transition bonus of 1,500 euros per employee in August 2026. Porsche also streamlined its board and dealer network in 2026. First-half 2026 deliveries fell 16.5% year-on-year, with new energy vehicle deliveries down 30.8%.