Chinese fund managers’ pursuit of AI plays backfires as hot tech stocks wobble
A shift to technology stocks by China’s most seasoned fund managers has backfired, with the unwinding of AI plays taking a toll on the performances of their products.
Funds run by some star managers with a value-investing approach all recorded declines in net asset values last month after they switched to chipmakers and the manufacturers of optical transceivers and out of long-held consumer bets in the second quarter. Technology stocks listed in mainland China suffered their biggest monthly declines in July, aligning with a global unravelling of artificial intelligence bets
Escape artist: ancient Chinese cup features ‘swimming’ crab evolved from ‘dancing fairy cup’
Four hundred years before modern interactive design became a trend, a remarkable ceramic crab was already captivating audiences in ancient China. Placed inside a porcelain cup, this ingenious creature would float and dance to life the moment wine was poured, transforming a simple drink into a mesmerising and joyful spectacle.
Between 2018 and 2022, archaeologists unearthed the cup in the ruins of Zhouqiao Bridge along the Bianhe River in Kaifeng city, located in today’s central Chinese Henan province.
Kaifeng was the capital of eight
Why Russia’s ballistic missiles are breaking through in Ukraine
When Russia fires a ballistic missile at Ukraine, air-defence systems have only minutes – sometimes seconds – to detect and intercept the deadly threat.
The lack of time has left Kyiv and other cities increasingly exposed to devastating attacks by the missiles that come down so fast and so steeply that Ukraine says only the US-made Patriot defence system can stop them. But Ukraine says it has too few batteries and interceptors to protect itself.
Unlike cruise missiles, which behave like pilotless planes, ballistic missiles are launched like rockets and
Man found dead in waters off Hong Kong’s Stonecutters Island, probe under way
Hong Kong police have found the body of a man in the waters off Stonecutters Island and believe he drowned while swimming.
The force received a report at 8.24am on Thursday that a person was floating in the water about 20 metres from a pier near Stonecutters Island in Tsing Yi.
Emergency personnel recovered the man from the sea, but he was pronounced dead
DeepSeek signals ‘significant’ price hike amid surge in demand for low-cost AI models
DeepSeek announced on Thursday a “significant” price hike, amid surging global demand for a new ultra-cheap model, which sparked debate over how the Chinese AI start-up has delivered powerful performance at rock-bottom prices.
DeepSeek would raise overall pricing for its application programming interface (API) services “in the near future”, with specific plans to be advised later, the Hangzhou-based company said in a statement on its developer platform on Thursday.
A “significant increase” was expected, and users should
CUHK to integrate national education into key programme as part of new 5-year plan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the city’s second oldest university, has said it will reform its mandatory General Education programme for undergraduates by integrating national education with a global perspective, as well as concepts of innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability, into its curriculum.
The intiative was announced on Thursday as part of the university’s new five-year strategic plan, which charts its direction and development between 2026 and 2030.
It is the first five-year plan under
New UK foreign minister dodges questions on his past Trump remarks
The UK’s new foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, was confronted with his past criticism of “racist” Donald Trump as he held talks in Washington with his US counterpart Marco Rubio.
Miliband ignored questions about whether he still thought the president was an “idiot, a racist and a misogynist” as he met with the US top diplomat.
Miliband was invited to the US capital by Rubio after their recent first meeting on the sidelines of a
25 arrested as Hong Kong police bust loan shark ring charging up to 282% interest rate
Hong Kong police have arrested 25 people, some as young as 13, in a crackdown on a loan shark syndicate that charged victims annual interest rates of up to 282 per cent.
Police said on Thursday that the crime ring had provided a total of HK$200 million (US$25.5 million) in loans to about 2,000 residents over the past year, with at least HK$8 million in criminal proceeds funnelled into the core members’ personal accounts
South Korean biotech bets on donated human fat product to fix ‘Ozempic face’
“Ozempic face” could spawn the next K-beauty craze. South Korean biotech L&C Bio plans to launch an injectable skin booster made from donated human fat to restore lost facial volume, betting demand for cosmetic fixes tied to blockbuster weight-loss drugs will drive its next phase of growth.
L&C – which pioneered the use of donated human tissue in K-beauty skin boosters – developed the technology about five years ago, CEO Lee Whan Chul said in an interview. The company holds patents on the