Waymo, the autonomous taxi operator under Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.US), plans to launch services in Singapore in 2028, marking the company's first market expansion in Southeast Asia. Singapore is accelerating the introduction of autonomous taxi services to address labor shortages.

Waymo announced last week its plan to begin manually driven operations in Singapore next year and hire local autonomous driving specialists to study road conditions. Subject to regulatory approval, the company expects to provide fully autonomous driving services to the public through its app in 2028.

Waymo did not disclose how many vehicles will be deployed initially, nor the eventual fleet size.
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Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) CEO Elon Musk said in an interview with CCTV Finance that he expects there will be at least 1 billion humanoid robots within 10 years, possibly reaching 10 billion in the next 15 years and potentially 100 billion in the next 20 years.

Musk said that everyone may own dedicated robots to help undertake various tasks in future. One person could control hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of physical robots and digital intelligent agents.

Earlier this month, he expressed that AI will utterly reshape the global economic landscape and production models, and is expected to expand the size of the global economy by 20-30%, equivalent to an additional USD20-30 trillion in economic output annually.
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Based on checks conducted on 21 Sep, waiting times for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max were generally about one week longer than those for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in the same period last year, and were also one to two weeks longer than last week, CLSA said in a research report.

The broker noted that waiting times for the iPhone 18 Pro ranged from two to four weeks, with China and Japan at about three to four weeks, longer than other major markets and about one week longer YoY. Waiting times for the iPhone 18 Pro Max ranged from three to five weeks, with China, Japan and the UK at about four to five weeks, also longer than other major markets and about one week longer YoY.

The broker rated Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) Outperform with a TP of USD405; AAC TECH (02018.HK) was rated High Conviction Outperform with a TP of HKD54.4; BYD ELECTRONIC (00285.HK) and LENS (06613.HK) were both rated Outperform with TPs of HKD29 and HKD30.7 respectively.
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Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group Chief Technology Officer Li Feifei said the company will establish its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland and the Netherlands within the next 12 months.

It will also expand its data center footprint in Malaysia, Germany, the UAE, France and Hong Kong to enhance its capability to provide localized cloud and AI services.

Li said Alibaba is committed to close collaboration with the global ecosystem to make AI more scalable, practical and accessible for enterprises.
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Meta Platforms, Inc. (META.US)'s personal AI agent service Muse has risen swiftly, capable of executing multi-step tasks in different scenarios in a safer and more proactive manner, arousing market attention on personal AI agents, BOCI said in a research report. However, the broker believed the Meta Muse phenomenon cannot be simply mimicked to China's internet market, in light of differences in user demand and behavior, computing power, competitive landscape and regulatory environment.

The broker pointed out that TENCENT (00700.HK) and BABA-W (09988.HK) both possess differentiated advantages in the personal AI agent sector from different perspectives. Among them, Tencent harnesses on high WeChat user stickiness, massive traffic, multiple content formats, a mini-program ecosystem, and strong product design and UI capabilities, while Alibaba has full-stack AI integrated capabilities together with token-related and transaction ecosystem advantages.

Given the rapid evolution of AI themes, BOCI preferred BABA-W over TENCENT in the short to medium term, as the accelerated commercialization of its cloud business entails clear, visible and quantifiable returns on AI investment. In addition, its core domestic e-commerce business provides strong cash flow, while the narrowing losses trend in Quick Commerce is becoming increasingly clear.

The broker also favored NTES (09999.HK) and BILIBILI-W (09626.HK), as both saw upgrades in their 2027 EPS forecasts, possess solid core growth engines, and high-margin new games are expected to become earnings catalysts, while AI investments remain focused and disciplined.

BOCI maintained an Overweight rating on China's internet sector. Ratings on BABA-W, TENCENT, NTES and BILIBILI-W were all Buy, with Hong Kong stock TPs at HKD195, HKD655, HKD250 and HKD224 respectively.
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Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) CEO Elon Musk said the miracle of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory would not be possible without the China team, China Central Television Finance reported. The team is highly talented, with top-notch product quality and incredibly high production efficiency.

If time permits, he must visit China because there are too many worthwhile places to see in the country, he added. He suggested that if time is limited, people should at least visit Shanghai and Beijing.
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US President Donald Trump disclosed that more than 1,100 securities transactions were conducted under his name in July, including sales of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) shares worth up to USD25 million each, as his massive investment portfolio again recorded frequent trading during the month.

According to CNBC's analysis of Trump's latest financial disclosure filing, the 1,156 buy and sell transactions were valued at approximately between USD79 million and USD270 million. CNBC estimated that total purchases amounted to at least USD43.6 million, while total sales reached at least USD35.6 million, reflecting a major adjustment to his investment portfolio.

The filing showed that the largest transactions were the sales of Microsoft and Amazon shares on July 20, with each transaction valued between USD5 million and USD25 million. Three days later, Trump reported purchases of Microsoft shares valued between USD100,001 and USD250,000, as well as Amazon shares valued between USD1,001 and USD15,000.

The same batch of July 20 records also showed that Trump sold shares in companies including Oracle Corporation (ORCL.US), while simultaneously carrying out a series of new purchases. Tech stocks recorded market gains on July 20, with market capitalization increasing by USD291 billion in a single day.
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DeepSeek will brief the United Nations Security Council this week on risks posed by AI, Reuters, citing sources, reported. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and senior representatives from Anthropic are also expected to attend.

The United Nations General Assembly is being held in New York, while the 15-member Security Council is scheduled to convene on Wednesday (23rd) to discuss AI and international security.

DeepSeek and other Chinese AI companies, including Moonshot AI, have reportedly been invited to attend, although DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng does not plan to participate in person.
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XPENG-W (09868.HK) Robot completed supply chain factory audits and core component supplier designation, further advancing its mass production process, The Paper reported, citing sources.

XPENG-W held its inaugural robot supply chain partner conference today (22nd), with leading supply chain enterprises in core component fields including actuators, dexterous hands, sensors and AI chips attending the event.

Separately, the robot team of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) recently visited Chinese supply chain companies for factory audits. Sources indicated that the two parties have a relatively high overlap at the core supplier level.
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Omdia's latest research report showed that global semiconductor revenue exceeded USD425 billion in 2Q, setting another record high, while the market's QoQ growth rate reached a record 31.4%. AI demand and strong memory prices continued to be the main drivers of the market, pushing total semiconductor revenue in 1H26 to USD752 billion.

2Q revenue grew 31.4% QoQ, exceeding 1Q's record QoQ growth of 29.2%. Since Omdia began tracking the semiconductor market in 1Q02, only 10 out of 97 quarters recorded QoQ revenue growth of more than 10%. The most recent four quarters since 3Q25 all achieved double-digit QoQ growth, and this trend is expected to continue in 3Q26.

Omdia forecast 3Q semiconductor revenue to surpass USD500 billion, bringing total revenue for the first three quarters to more than USD1.25 trillion. This figure would be 50% higher than total semiconductor revenue for the whole of 2025. Strong market conditions and record quarterly revenue levels are expected to persist.
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