1. DeepSeek Withholds V4 Model from US Chipmakers, Grants Huawei Exclusive Early Access
Source: Reuters | February 26, 2026
DeepSeek has broken from long-standing industry convention by denying Nvidia and AMD pre-release access to its upcoming V4 flagship model for performance optimization, instead granting Chinese chipmakers including Huawei Technologies a multi-week head start. This strategic pivot signals a maturing domestic AI ecosystem that no longer views Western hardware partnerships as essential to competitive positioning. The move carries additional weight given reports that DeepSeek’s latest model was trained on Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell chips—a potential sanctions violation that underscores the practical limitations of export controls in an era of global supply chain complexity. By prioritizing Huawei’s Ascend chips for optimization, DeepSeek is accelerating the development of a parallel software ecosystem that reduces long-term dependency on US technology, transforming what Washington intended as containment into a catalyst for indigenous capability building.
2. China Imposes Export Controls on Japanese Defense-Linked Entities
Source: Reuters / Asia Nikkei | February 24, 2026
China’s Ministry of Commerce has added 20 Japanese entities to its export control list, prohibiting the shipment of dual-use items to companies it alleges supply Japan’s military industrial complex. The sanctions target firms across ground, maritime, air, and space capabilities, representing Beijing’s most assertive use of export controls against a US ally to date. The timing suggests a calculated response to Tokyo’s deepening security alignment with Washington and its own tightening of semiconductor equipment exports to China. This development illustrates how technology restrictions have become a two-way street: just as the US has deployed entity lists to constrain Chinese access to advanced chips, Beijing is now leveraging its dominance in rare earth processing and manufacturing inputs to impose costs on those participating in the containment architecture.
3. Nvidia Secures Limited US License for H200 Chip Exports to China
Source: Bloomberg / Tech in Asia | February 26, 2026
Nvidia has obtained US government approval to ship a small quantity of its H200 chips to Chinese customers, marking a partial thaw in the otherwise tightening export control regime. The H200, a less advanced variant excluded from the broad restrictions targeting cutting-edge AI accelerators, represents a narrow commercial lifeline for Nvidia’s China business—which has seen revenue from the mainland decline sharply as domestic alternatives gain traction. The limited nature of the license underscores the fine line Washington is attempting to walk: maintaining pressure on China’s AI development while avoiding the complete decoupling that would permanently cede the Chinese market to Huawei and other domestic suppliers. For Beijing, the modest concession likely confirms the judgment that sustained investment in indigenous chip capabilities is the only reliable path to AI sovereignty.
4. AI² Robotics Closes $144 Million Series B at $1.4 Billion Valuation
Source: Caixin Global / The Robot Report | February 23, 2026
Shenzhen-based humanoid robot developer AI² Robotics has raised over 1 billion yuan ($144 million) in Series B financing, pushing its valuation past 10 billion yuan (~$1.4 billion) and making it the sixth Chinese robotics unicorn. The investor roster reflects strategic convergence across China’s tech landscape: Baidu provides AI infrastructure, state-owned CRRC offers industrial deployment channels, and Guotai Haitong Securities signals likely IPO preparation. Founded just 22 months ago by former XPeng chief scientist Guo Yandong, AI² Robotics has already completed 12 funding rounds and deployed its AlphaBot 2 wheeled dual-arm robots in automotive and semiconductor manufacturing environments. The company’s plan to scale from 1,000 to 10,000 units annually by 2026 illustrates the velocity of China’s robotics commercialization—what took Western industrial automation firms decades to achieve is being compressed into a handful of years by a manufacturing ecosystem with unmatched depth and responsiveness.
5. Three New Robotics Unicorns Emerge in Single Week as Funding Frenzy Continues
Source: 36Kr | February 24, 2026
The humanoid robotics sector has produced three new unicorns within days: Qianxun Intelligence closed nearly 2 billion yuan in fresh funding on February 24, LimX Dynamics (Zhipingfang) announced a 1 billion yuan+ Series B on February 23, and Galaxea AI completed its 1 billion yuan raise on February 11. Qianxun’s financing—led by Yunfeng Capital and Chaos Investment—sets a new record for single-round funding in the embodied AI sector in 2026. Notably, all three companies focus on VLA (Vision-Language-Action) foundation models rather than hardware alone, signaling a shift in investor thesis from “robot bodies” to “robot brains.” With over 20 robotics companies each raising 1 billion yuan+ in 2025 alone, the sector is approaching an inflection point where capital abundance will give way to commercial traction as the primary differentiator—a pattern that mirrors the EV industry’s maturation trajectory.
Editor: Zhiyu Wang
