Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Alibaba’s newly released speech model Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS ranks first globally on Artificial Analysis’ Controlled Voice Arena leaderboard with an Elo score of 1177, the company’s latest TTS model taking the top spot on the widely cited AI evaluation platform. The score places the Alibaba model ahead of all other entries in the voice ranking.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui provincial government issued guidelines on high-quality development of the robotics industry, pledging support for companies to pursue global mergers and acquisitions that consolidate upstream and downstream supply-chain resources. The provincial government office said it would build multi-tier matchmaking platforms to strengthen firms’ core competitiveness and ecosystem leadership, and encourage companies in other sectors to enter robotics through strategic investment and M&A.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui provincial government issued implementation guidelines on high-quality development of the robotics industry, encouraging automakers to expand into robotics as a “second growth curve.” The plan calls on car companies to open R&D platforms and share technology with robotics firms, send talent into the sector, and provide parts processing, prototyping and product testing services to small and mid-sized robot makers.

TREE NEWS update: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is launching META, an enterprise platform. No further details on pricing, availability or target customers were disclosed. Meta has not said how the platform relates to its existing business products.

TREE NEWS update: Qualcomm closed at $201.97 on Sept. 25, up 3.97%, after two developments landed the same day: its top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chip can run a 30-billion-parameter large model locally on a phone, adopted by nine manufacturers, and it renewed its patent licensing deal with Apple. Neither the renewal value nor the expiry date was disclosed. Qualcomm’s licensing revenue is about 15% of sales.

TREE NEWS update: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company’s new software is a browser built for AI agents. The remark positions the offering around agentic AI use, with no further product, pricing or launch details disclosed. Nvidia has not announced a release date or availability for the software.

TREE NEWS update: The Beijing municipal government issued its culture and tourism development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, calling for broader use of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, virtual reality and ultra-high-definition audio-visual technology in the culture and tourism sector. The plan also backs new tech-tourism scenarios, industrial tourism products, and an expanded “Beijing Gifts” line of cultural merchandise.

TREE NEWS reports: Nvidia said its contract with AI developer Anthropic is reported to be worth more than $180 billion. The figure, disclosed by the chipmaker, covers the value of the deal between the two companies. Neither side gave further terms or a timeframe for the arrangement.

TREE NEWS update: UK Chancellor Healey said the government will act to cut welfare spending, with £100 million to be invested in a new apprenticeship program. Rolls-Royce will additionally invest £300 million in its UK factories. Healey also said serious national security risks from artificial intelligence must be addressed, and that the UK will be ensured to win the AI revolution.

TREE NEWS update: AI company Instinct has raised $1 billion in a funding round that values it at $10 billion. The company did not disclose the names of participating investors or the specific round type. No further details on the deal were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Nvidia said it is increasing its share repurchase authorization by $150 billion, bringing the total buyback program to $235 billion. The company expects to execute the repurchase plan through fiscal 2028.

TREE NEWS update: Fengzhushou announced it signed a compute server procurement agreement worth RMB 3.96 billion (tax included) with Company C, effective upon shareholder approval. It also signed a compute services agreement with Company D worth RMB 5.717 billion (tax included, excluding cabinet fees) covering CPU, memory, GPU, storage and bandwidth, with a 60-month term per batch.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China and seven other government departments jointly issued guidance on financial support for the services sector, calling on financial institutions to use credit, bonds and equity tools to back the development of ‘AI plus software.’ The measures target breakthroughs in intelligent coding tools and industrial software, basic software ecosystems and open-source communities, and new business models such as agent-as-a-service and model-as-a-service.

TREE NEWS reports: Nvidia shares narrowed their premarket decline to 0.49% ahead of the US market open. The move trims an earlier premarket drop for the chipmaker, which has been a bellwether for AI-linked equities and crypto-related stocks. No further details were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Nvidia released a two-layer AI safety system it says would have blocked OpenAI’s earlier high-profile intrusion against Hugging Face had it been deployed. The system includes two open-source tools, OpenShell and Nvidia Sentry, which run on Nvidia hardware, control AI agents’ access in real time and shut them down immediately on violations. Nvidia says the layer lets the industry test frontier AI systems more safely and can isolate suspicious agents within milliseconds.

TREE NEWS update: The Anhui provincial government on Sept. 28 unveiled an implementation plan to make robotics and embodied intelligence a pillar industry, aiming for industrial robot output to rank among the national leaders and humanoid robot output to enter the country’s first tier by 2030. More than 10 segments including spraying, explosion-proof and warehouse logistics robots are targeted for domestic leadership, with a nationally influential robotics cluster by 2035.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Foreign Ministry said on August 28 that Beijing is willing to maintain communication with the United States through channels including the intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing that China takes a constructive and responsible approach to global AI governance and advocates the UN playing a central role in building a fair global AI governance system.

TREE NEWS update: Alibaba’s Qwen app has been deeply integrated with Quark Cloud Drive, letting users, after authorization, query, organize and read their cloud files inside Qwen and turn them into study tools, work summaries and photo collections. Quark Cloud Drive becomes a shared data asset hub for users and AI. Membership perks are merged: buying Qwen’s Elite tier or above includes an equal-length Quark Cloud Drive membership, with the combined monthly plan at 25 yuan after education discounts.

TREE NEWS update: Doubao Phone Assistant said in an official community notice on September 27 that users of the Nubia NaviXUltra handset running its assistant have been flagged for abnormal device environments and forcibly kicked offline when logging into or matchmaking in Honor of Kings. The issue began on the evening of September 24, with multiple user reports received since then.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese embodied-AI company Agibot has partnered with cookware brand ASD to put 100 of its Lingxi X2 robots to work as store sales staff across 100 ASD outlets nationwide. The robots handle a full retail chain of tasks, from greeting customers and understanding needs to product explanations, recommendations, handoffs to human staff and closing assistance.