Robotics & Embodied AI
BYD confirmed it is developing humanoid robots under a project codenamed Yao-Shun-Yu, started in 2022, signaling the EV maker's move into embodied AI alongside other auto giants.
Automakers are leveraging manufacturing scale into robotics — the EV-to-humanoid pivot is real.
Geopolitics & Trade
Under sustained US export controls, China's AI chipmakers are racing to build a self-reliant silicon ecosystem to break Nvidia's grip, centered on a design debate: versatile GPUs vs. specialized ASICs.
Export controls are reshaping China's chip architecture — watch for ASIC-led divergence.
Industrial Policy & Regulation
MERICS summarizes Chinese expert debate urging Beijing to overcome obstacles to a unified national market — removing internal barriers across provinces — spanning domestic policy, technology, and economics.
A unified domestic market would harden China's scale advantage; a structural-policy signal to track.
Supply Chains & Critical Minerals
Pandaily reports at least five automakers — BYD, NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Tesla — are developing their own autonomous-driving chips, a shift that threatens third-party suppliers and reshapes the auto supply chain.
OEM vertical integration of silicon is squeezing merchant chip vendors — a supply-chain reordering.
Robotics & Embodied AI
Unitree Robotics cleared a key listing-committee hearing for its Shanghai Star Market IPO (filed March 20), advancing toward registration as China's humanoid-robot wave accelerates.
Public-market capital is reaching Chinese humanoid makers — expect faster scale-up and price pressure.
AI / LLMs in Industry
A research team including Huawei says it used Ascend 910C chips to complete post-training for the DeepSeek-V4-Pro model — a step from supporting inference to more complex training, amid tightening US sanctions.
China is closing the training-stack gap on domestic silicon — relevant if you are betting on hardware bottlenecks.
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