Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Millennium Square in central Leeds in September 2026 to oppose Microsoft's plan to build three large data centres at Skelton Grange for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The campaign group No Leeds Data Centre organised the protest, and a petition has collected about 40,000 signatures. Labour MP Richard Burgon joined the protest and has tabled a cross-party parliamentary motion on pausing approvals for new AI data centre projects. The project has conditional planning permission but still requires further approvals.
Tesla unveiled the production version of its Cybercab in Austin, Texas, and Elon Musk confirmed the vehicle's new drive motor uses no rare-earth metals, with range unaffected, volume reduced 18% and weight cut 25%. Tesla has not disclosed the motor's full structure, material grades or efficiency curve. Chinese suppliers including Hengdian DMEGC, Longsheng Technology and JL MAG have reported varying progress on rare-earth-free motor technology.
Global server vendor revenue reached 166.3 billion USD in the second quarter of 2026, rising 52% year on year and 35.7% quarter on quarter, according to an IDC report. The figure surpasses the previous quarterly high of 125.3 billion USD set in the fourth quarter of 2025, making it the highest single-quarter total on record.
The first batch of foreign-trade cargo for the Pinglu Canal cleared customs at Nanning Port in Guangxi on September 12, 2026, after Nanning Customs coordinated with companies, terminals and port authorities. The cargo is scheduled to depart on September 16, 2026 aboard the Beigang Nanning Borun, the canal's first direct river-sea foreign-trade vessel, bound for Can Tho Port in Vietnam.
Several European governments plan to urge the European Union to use a trade-protection tool to shield the chemicals and plastics industries from a surge in imports, which come mainly from China. France and Italy intend to file a broad safeguard request, or import quota application, within weeks. The request targets polyethylene terephthalate (PET), widely used in packaging, as well as the chemicals epoxy resin and glass fibre.
A forum on China's international healthcare industry development and investment, alongside the second Beijing pension finance innovation summit, was held during the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services. Participants discussed AI applications in healthcare and elderly care. A blue book on the silver economy shows China's silver economy exceeded RMB 9 trillion in 2025, with AI-driven health management platforms, smart nursing robots, mobility aids, and voice assistants accelerating into use.
In the first half of 2026, the top 100 public fund distributors held RMB 13.79 trillion in non-money-market fund assets, up 17.88% from the previous period. Third-party and insurance distributors reached RMB 5.40 trillion, overtaking banks at RMB 5.33 trillion for the first time. Ant Fund led with RMB 2.21 trillion, China Merchants Bank followed at RMB 1.58 trillion, and 56 securities firms made the list.
The Fifth International Exhibition Economy Development Forum was held in Beijing during the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services. Beijing issued a three-year action plan for high-quality development of its exhibition industry for 2026 to 2028, aiming to build a Beijing exhibition brand. Beijing accounts for about one quarter of China's exhibition market share, according to Beichen Group.
The 2026 China Computing Conference was held in Langfang, Hebei province, from September 11 to 13. Liu Guiqing, general manager of China Telecom, attended and spoke on deepening computing-power coordination and strengthening the integration of the computing and electricity industries across planning, construction, and operations.
Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that West Virginia has signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy, becoming the sixth contender for a nuclear lifecycle innovation campus. Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah are already competing. West Virginia was absent from the July 2026 preliminary shortlist. A single campus could attract up to 50 billion US dollars in investment and create nearly 25,000 jobs.
A July 2026 survey found that 74% of chief executives and business leaders believe their subordinate managers can handle difficult employee conversations alone with full confidence, while 42% of managers say they know what they want to convey but struggle with how to express it, and only 20% would prepare such conversations alone without a framework, coaching guide, or human resources involvement. Tools from Posh, LHH, and Xactly offer role-play feedback, though legal and privacy risks remain.
At the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services, China Unicom Beijing Medical Health Large Model Company unveiled China's first RMB 100 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing support plan. The initiative commits more than RMB 100 million in computing resources across the full industrial chain, spanning drug discovery, preclinical research and development, and clinical trials. The announcement was made on September 12, 2026, at the AI plus healthcare forum held in Beijing's Shougang Park.
A live-streamed event on 11 September 2026 focused on how futures firms serve small and medium-sized enterprises. China Futures Association data show that in the first seven months of 2026, industry-wide basis-trade volume for such enterprises reached nearly RMB 180 billion, up nearly 18% year on year, while new over-the-counter derivative notional principal rose about 32% to RMB 794.152 billion and option-embedded trade value grew 16% to RMB 3.974 billion.
Apple unveiled its first book-style foldable phone on September 10, 2026, Beijing time, part of a wave of foldable handset launches by phone makers in China and overseas. The clustering of new models points to fresh opportunities for companies in the supply chain that provide components for the devices.
Rising extreme-weather risks in some global growing regions linked to El Nino have strengthened a range of agricultural futures prices, while interest in China's A-share agricultural supply chain has continued to climb across planting, seed, fertiliser and pesticide segments.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice regulating automakers' payment of supplier accounts, clarifying when payment periods start and how acceptance is verified. Automakers are encouraged to pay small and medium-sized suppliers within 30 days, within 60 days at most, and 100% in cash. The notice provides for cross-departmental supervision and joint regulatory talks.
Amazon-owned autonomous mobility company Zoox is testing driverless robotaxi service in central San Francisco, offering free point-to-point rides to early public users on a waitlist. Its custom capsule vehicles have no steering wheel, pedals, or brakes and seat four face-to-face. About 100 fully driverless vehicles are operating, while its Hayward, California assembly plant is planned for annual capacity of up to 10,000 units.
Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media announced on September 11, 2026 the launch of commercial fifth-generation mobile services. In the first phase, 5G networks were switched on in 16 cities including Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, reaching about 10 million people. Four Russian operators, among them Mobile TeleSystems and MegaFon, are providing the service.
On September 11, 2026, the China Securities Regulatory Commission received filing materials for 63-month closed-end bond funds from 13 fund managers, including Huiquan Fund, Boyuan Fund and Orient Alpha Fund. This is the second batch of small and medium-sized public fund managers to file amortized-cost bond funds, following 15 managers on August 14, 2026. The earlier batch remains under review. The 13 managers averaged no more than RMB 20 billion in public fund assets under management at the end of the second quarter of 2026.
Global desktop discrete GPU shipments reached a record high in the second quarter of 2026, defying the usual seasonal slowdown. Average selling prices continued to rise, yet volumes grew both sequentially and year over year. Demand was driven by new AAA games requiring path tracing and neural rendering, plus local AI and content-creation workloads. Nvidia held most of the market by volume and revenue, with AMD and Intel competing in mainstream and entry-level segments.
Surging AI infrastructure demand for memory is constraining smartphone memory supply and raising costs, pushing Chinese manufacturers toward premium devices. Sub-$100 smartphone shipments fell nearly 60% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. Xiaomi's share of shipments below $100 dropped to 11.2% in the first half of 2026 from 27.7% a year earlier, while its average selling price rose about 30% since 2023 to $197.
At the 2026 Inclusion Bund Summit on September 11, Alibaba Cloud, China Pacific Insurance and Ant Insurance discussed trusted deployment of large models and AI agents in insurance. Alibaba Cloud outlined its Harness framework for auditable AI. China Pacific Insurance described a three-year AI plan and six intelligent risk-control systems. Ant Insurance said its AI insurance search covers more than 20,000 products and has served over 14 million users.
Nine departments in Zibo jointly issued an action plan for artificial intelligence plus manufacturing covering 2026 to 2028. By 2028, the city aims to build a pioneering application hub in Shandong, with more than 10 industrial large models, at least three industry corpora, over 10 industrial AI agents, more than 50 application scenarios, and over 200 intelligent factories. It also plans six AI capability centers and one embodied-intelligence robot training ground.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Digital Rural High-Quality Development Action Plan (2026-2030). The plan calls for breakthroughs in agricultural sensors, dedicated chips, core algorithms, robots, and intelligent breeding tools, and for advancing smart agriculture, intelligent breeding, and digital solutions to raise crop yields.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have jointly issued a document proposing the use of high-throughput satellites and low-orbit satellite internet to provide diversified network access services for rural and remote areas. The document outlines exploration of these satellite-based approaches as part of efforts to expand connectivity beyond terrestrial infrastructure.
Cong Rong, vice minister of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, called for broader and higher-quality health insurance at a State Council Information Office briefing. Commercial health insurance premiums reached RMB 997.3 billion in 2025, up 2.05% year on year, accounting for 16% of total industry premiums. Payments to innovative drugs and devices totaled RMB 15.2 billion, up 23%, comprising RMB 8.2 billion from medical insurance and RMB 7 billion from critical illness insurance.
At the 27th China International Optoelectronic Expo on September 11, 2026, a reporter examined domestic silicon photonics optical circuit switching technology. As AI large models and very large computing clusters spread rapidly, demand for high-speed data movement keeps rising. Traditional discrete chip architectures and ordinary optical modules suffer high transmission loss and limited speed, falling short of that demand. The domestic silicon photonics OCS achieves nanosecond-level switching, with new products in multiple specifications continuing to iterate and reach deployment.
Eligible bank wealth management subsidiaries are filing applications for pension wealth management licences, with a new round of product expansion expected by the end of September 2026, the first list update in nearly three years. As of end-June 2026, 10 institutions had issued 51 pension wealth management products worth over RMB 106.6 billion, while six institutions had issued 39 personal pension products with balances above RMB 26.3 billion.
Electronic cloth prices are rising at a faster pace, with artificial intelligence cited as a factor linked to the industry's improving business conditions. The acceleration in pricing marks a shift for the electronic cloth segment, which is tied to demand trends in AI-related applications. No specific figures, dates, or percentage changes were disclosed in the available information.
On September 9, 2026, Heilongjiang Governor Liang Huiling, who also heads the provincial industrial revitalization leading group, chaired a scheduling meeting of the provincial aerospace industry task force. The meeting called for drafting a special 15th Five-Year Plan for aerospace, aligned with national and provincial plans, and anchored on large aircraft, low-altitude, and space sectors to support a 100-billion-yuan industry. It also urged support for enterprises, market expansion, technology commercialization, and industrial chain coordination.