Baidu-backed Chinese EV startup WM raises $1.5 billion in funding round

On Tuesday, Baidu-backed Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup WM Motor said, it has raised $1.47 billion (10 billion yuan) in its latest funding round. In recent months, shares of Electric Vehicle makers, including that of Tesla Inc, have surged with auto makers looking to the markets for funds. Incidentally, China’s Xpeng Inc and Li Auto…

U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic LLC and SoftBank Group Corp invests $107 million in Brazilian facial recognition startup Acesso Digital

In a statement Brazil’s facial biometrics and digital admission startup Acesso Digital said, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic LLC are leading a $107.25 million (580 million reais) funding round. Following the investment, both, General Atlantic and SoftBank, will hold a minority stake in Acesso Digital. Founded in 2007, Acesso…

China unveils financial incentives to boost adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

On Monday, China finance ministry stated, it plans on rolling new policies to support hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in order to boost the industry’s supply chain and related technologies. China has emerged as the world’s biggest market for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which includes plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles as well as and hydrogen fuel…

Trump does not want ByteDance to have controlling stake in TikTok: senior administration official

According to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, regardless of how China’s ByteDance positions the divestment of its short video sharing app TikTok, U.S. President Donald Trump does not want it to have a controlling stake in TikTok, since it will place Americans’ personal information at risk. Despite China’s bravado…

Prices of Huawei phones rising every hour on fears on shortages

Chinese consumers are rushing to purchase Huawei’s smartphone featuring its high-end Kirin chips, fearing that the company’s production of its premium handsets will face punitive curbs by U.S. trade action. According to Huaqiangbei, smartphone vendors in China’s southern city of Shenzhen, are seeing a steady rise in the prices of used and new Huawei phones…

Heightened demand for human augmentation technology: survey results by Opinium Research

According to a research report commissioned by Kaspersky, two thirds of those who were surveyed in leading Western European countries consider technology induced augmentation of human body parts, most of which are related to improving health, will improve their lives. With technological revolutions shaping humanities near future, tech leaders opine it will change every aspect…