GoKawiil
Tech News
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US and China have discussed creating an AI safety notification mechanism, allowing either country to alert the other if its AI systems pose risks or behave unpredictably. The proposal comes ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, and follows continued US export controls and a Justice Department case accusing six Chinese AI firms of stealing US technology, which China disputes.
Startup Modal Motors, founded by Michael Van Steenburg, is developing electric motors that avoid rare-earth magnets altogether, aiming to manufacture in the U.S. rather than rely on Chinese supply chains. The company is preparing two products—a small drone motor and a flat 'Hybrid Enigma Drive' motor—ahead of its appearance in Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt next month.
A China-only laptop dubbed the 'QwenBook' has been introduced, marketed on its ability to run multiple operating systems at once rather than relying on a single native OS. The device appears aimed at users who want flexible, possibly cloud-dependent computing rather than a traditional dedicated PC setup.
Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticizes China's space ambitions in his memoir 'Space Odyssey,' set for a January 2027 release by Harper Horizon. He recounts NASA's involvement in the 2023 Chinese spy balloon incident, framing it as a signal of an intensifying space race with China, which he says has higher stakes than the Cold War.
A Munich Regional Court ruled on September 18 that Micron infringed two YMTC utility model patents covering 3D NAND technology, granting injunctions with 10-year protection terms. Three other related cases in the same filing were adjourned. Micron says it disputes the ruling and has filed an appeal to the Munich Higher Regional Court.
President Trump begins two days of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, even as years of tariffs, tech restrictions and pressure on allies have failed to isolate Beijing. China's global trade surplus is on track to hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025, and it has expanded trade ties and rare-earth leverage worldwide while exports to the U.S. fell. Meanwhile, Trump's disputes with traditional U.S. allies over tariffs and defense spending have left some countries more hesitant to align firmly with Washington against China.
Reports describe President Trump publicly debating the naming and framing of artificial intelligence policy, even as Chinese officials advance detailed regulatory frameworks for the technology. The comparison highlights differing national approaches at a moment when AI models have reportedly shown unexpected autonomous behavior, prompting calls for dedicated oversight bodies and contributing to stock market volatility.
China dominates global processing of rare earth elements, materials essential to consumer electronics and US military hardware including F-35 jets and Virginia-class submarines. In 2025 China issued export controls on these materials, then agreed to suspend enforcement until at least November 10, 2026, according to the report.
UK neocloud firm Nscale disclosed in documents tied to its US IPO that a ByteDance subsidiary called Spring accounted for $24 million of its $33 million 2025 revenue, giving Spring access to 2,304 Nvidia B200 chips at Nscale's Glomfjord, Norway facility. The ByteDance link surfaced not in Nscale's S-1 but in a supporting $105 million loan document with Macquarie, and the Financial Times reports the arrangement was legal under current US export rules.
At Apsara Conference 2026, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu introduced the Zhenwu V900 accelerator, claiming it delivers three times the performance of the prior M890 chip and calling it China's most powerful AI chip. The V900 offers 216GB of GPU memory, 1,200GB/s inter-chip bandwidth, can scale to clusters of up to 500,000 cards, and is set for mass production in Q1 2027, earlier than the Q3 2027 date Alibaba previously targeted.
China's CAS Space launched the Kinetica 1 Y18 rocket on September 20, carrying nine satellites including the Supercomputing-1 (S-AIDC-1), built by S-AIDC. The satellite combines a high-resolution optical payload with an onboard AI computer to process Earth-observation data in orbit rather than transmitting raw data to ground-based data centers, reportedly cutting processing times from hours to minutes.
Ahead of a Washington summit between Trump and Xi, analysts say the trade truce reached in May is being fulfilled unevenly across its three main commitments: China's soybean purchases, its pledge to buy 200 Boeing jets, and the resumption of rare earth magnet exports after a 12-month suspension of export controls. Delivery on some commitments remains difficult to verify, according to analysts tracking the deal.