8:00 am, 1 Krypton News | Lei Jun said he has staked his entire fortune on building cars and chips; Zhang Xuefeng's accounts on multiple platforms are prohibited from being followed; A customer service representative from Hema responded to the statement "The worst-tasting dessert has been selected by the typhoon."
Today's Hotspot Guide
Li Xiang announced that the advanced assisted driving of the Li i6 will be permanently free, stating that advanced assisted driving should not incur usage fees.
Alibaba announced a cooperation with NVIDIA on Physical AI.
The first exposure of the iPhone 17 Pro mini: a 4.7 - inch screen, and it failed to be launched on the market.
Is the sales channel being adjusted to "one store per city"? Toyota China: Currently, it's just an attempt.
Alibaba's Quark released a new AI creation platform called "ZaoDian", which has been connected to Tongyi Wanxiang Wan2.5.
Top 3 Big News
Lei Jun: Betting All the Family Fortune on Car and Chip Manufacturing, "Sending Two Kids to College at the Same Time" with Enormous Pressure
On the morning of the 24th, Lei Jun, the chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, posted on Weibo that the decisions to build cars and restart chip manufacturing were made almost simultaneously, and he bet all the fortune Xiaomi had accumulated in the previous decade. Lei Jun said that "sending two kids to college at the same time" brought enormous pressure. Thinking about it now, he still marvels at where he got the courage back then.
Lei Jun also didn't forget to build momentum for the annual speech and posted three consecutive Weibo posts within three hours. He revealed that this year's speech would be about the story of "change". It is reported that Xiaomi will hold Lei Jun's annual speech at 7 p.m. on September 25th, with the theme of "Change". At that time, the stories behind Xiaomi's Xuanjie chip and Xiaomi cars will be revealed. (Caixin)
Zhang Xuefeng's accounts on multiple platforms are restricted from being followed, and his studio responds: "We are reflecting."
On September 24th, Zhang Xuefeng's accounts on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Bilibili were all restricted from being followed. The Paper inquired with his studio staff about this, and the staff replied, "We are reflecting." Currently, accounts on the Douyin platform such as "Zhang Xuefeng Talks about College Entrance Planning" and "Zhang Xuefeng Discusses Postgraduate Entrance Exams" can still be followed, and multiple accounts are currently live-streaming. (The Paper)
HEMA Customer Service Responds to 'The Worst-Tasting Dessert Has Been Selected by the Typhoon'
On September 24th, news reported that the super typhoon "Kajiki" was approaching Guangdong, and coastal cities have announced "five suspensions" measures. Citizens have been purchasing food supplies in preparation. Some netizens noticed that during this period, vegetables, cooking oil and other food supplies on the shelves at HEMA supermarkets were snapped up, except for a large quantity of a durian mochi dessert remaining.
HEMA supermarket customer service responded that the main reason for the remaining durian mochi is sufficient inventory, and they will adjust the product formula based on consumer feedback in the future to satisfy more people. (Jiemian News, Southern Metropolis Daily)
Big Companies/Big Events
The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down collectively, and Alibaba rose more than 8%
36Kr learned that at the close on September 24, the three major U.S. stock indexes fell collectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.37%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.33%, and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.28%. Large technology stocks had mixed performances. Intel rose more than 6%. It was reported that Intel is seeking investment from Apple. Tesla rose nearly 4%, while Google and Netflix fell more than 1%, and NVIDIA and Apple fell nearly 1%. Most popular Chinese concept stocks rose. Alibaba rose more than 8%, Zhihu rose more than 6%, JD.com and Baidu rose more than 5%, Weibo rose more than 4%, NIO rose more than 2%, and Bilibili, Pinduoduo, and Li Auto rose more than 1%.
Li Xiang Announces Permanent Free Use of High-Level Assisted Driving for Ideal i6, Says High-Level Assisted Driving Should Not Incur Usage Fees
Li Xiang, the CEO of Li Auto, said on Weibo on the 24th that high-level assisted driving must be available and should not incur usage fees. Therefore, the Ideal i6 will come standard with AD Max and enjoy permanent free use.
Li Xiang said that currently, many high-level assisted driving systems require consumers to pay additional usage fees, and the prices are quite high. As a result, many consumers have not fully experienced the convenience of car use brought by the latest intelligent technology. "I believe that the use of high-level assisted driving should not be charged. More consumers in China and around the world should feel the charm of Chinese artificial intelligence." (Sina Tech)
Fat Donglai Denies Spending 10 Million Yuan on Mooncake Gift Box Design
On the evening of September 24th, in response to the information about "Fat Donglai spending 10 million yuan on mooncake gift box design", Fat Donglai issued a detailed explanation: In January 2025, Fat Donglai invited the design team of Chen Yujian from Hong Kong to be responsible for the overall packaging system design of Fat Donglai Industrial Co., Ltd. The design content includes: the visual system for baked goods, the visual system for cooked food, the packaging of mooncake gift boxes, and the packaging of loose mooncakes. Among them, the design cost for 9 types of mooncake gift boxes for the Mid - Autumn Festival in 2025 is 3.72 million yuan, and the design cost for 21 types of loose mooncake packaging is 420,000 yuan. Fat Donglai stated that it always adheres to the company's cultural concept, strictly implements healthy and reasonable price standards, fully reflects the value of products, avoids inflated prices caused by excessive packaging, and allows products to return to a reasonable state. (Jiemian News)
Zhou Hongyi Says There's Reason to Lay Off Employees Who Don't Use AI: It's Not Me Laying You Off, It's the AI Era
On September 24th, Luo Yonghao had an in - depth conversation with Zhou Hongyi. When it came to the integration of AI in work, Zhou Hongyi said that he is now trying to build a certain awareness among employees, that is, they should persevere in using AI even if the results are not good at first. He mentioned that 360 is currently holding an AI competition internally. Although there hasn't been large - scale layoffs due to the use of AI so far, if employees still refuse to use AI after being required to do so, the company has reason to consider laying them off. "After I require the use of AI, if someone still refuses to use it, then I have reason to lay that person off," he pointed out. He noted that it's not him personally eliminating employees, but rather the trend of the AI era. (Sina Technology)
Alibaba's Wu Yongming: Actively Promote the Construction of 380 Billion Worth of AI Infrastructure and Plan to Make Larger Additional Investments
At the 2025 Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference, Wu Yongming, a director and the CEO of Alibaba Group, as well as the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, stated that in the future, there may be more agents (intelligent entities) and robots than the global population working with humans, having a huge impact on the real world. Currently, Alibaba is actively promoting the construction of 380 billion worth of AI infrastructure and plans to make larger additional investments. In order to welcome the arrival of the ASI era, compared with 2022, the first year of GenAI, the energy consumption scale of Alibaba Cloud's global data centers will increase by 10 times by 2032. This means that Alibaba Cloud's computing power investment will increase exponentially. (Cailian Press)
UC Platform Responds to the Interview
36Kr learned that UC Browser issued an announcement: Recently, the Internet information department interviewed the UC platform regarding its failure to fulfill the main responsibility for information content management and put forward clear rectification requirements. In response, we attach great importance to this, sincerely accept it, and will comprehensively and earnestly implement the rectification requirements. In accordance with the rectification requirements, we immediately established a special working group. We will strictly promote the special governance of the hot search list ecosystem. Taking this rectification as an opportunity, we will deeply reflect on the deficiencies in various aspects such as the list management rules and the ecological governance mechanism, and further improve the comprehensive ability of list management. Regarding the specific issues pointed out by the Internet information department, we will focus on enhancing the standardization of the hot search list and earnestly fulfill the information content management responsibility of the platform. Here, we also sincerely accept the supervision of the general users and public opinion, and actively safeguard a clean and healthy online environment.
Alibaba Announces Physical AI Collaboration with NVIDIA
36Kr learned that at the 2025 Hangzhou Yunqi Conference, Alibaba Cloud and NVIDIA reached a cooperation in the field of Physical AI. Alibaba Cloud's artificial intelligence platform PAI will integrate NVIDIA's Physical AI software stack, providing enterprise users with full - link platform services such as data pre - processing, simulation data generation, model training and evaluation, robot reinforcement learning, and simulation testing, further shortening the development cycle of applications such as embodied intelligence and assisted driving.
Total pre - sale box office of new films during the 2025 National Day holiday exceeds 10 million yuan
36Kr learned that according to data from Maoyan Professional Edition, the total pre - sale box office of new films during the 2025 National Day holiday has exceeded 10 million yuan. "The Assassination Novels 2" continues to lead the pre - sale box office list for the National Day holiday, while "The Starry Sky of the Three Kingdoms Part 1" and "The Life of Langlang" rank second and third respectively.
TSMC Responds to Rumors of Price Hike: Will Not Comment on Market Rumors and Pricing Issues, Will Continue to Collaborate Closely with Customers to Provide Value
According to media reports, market rumors suggest that the foundry price of TSMC's third - generation 3 - nanometer process (N3P) has increased by approximately 20% compared to the previous N3E process, and the foundry price of the 2 - nanometer process that TSMC will supply next year will further rise by 50%. On September 24th, in response to the price hike rumors, TSMC stated that it will not comment on market rumors and pricing issues. TSMC's pricing strategy has always been strategy - driven rather than opportunity - driven, and it will continue to collaborate closely with customers to provide value. (The Paper)
Baidu Named One of Fortune's "Change the World" Companies in 2025
36Kr learned that on the evening of September 24th, Beijing time, the U.S. magazine Fortune released its 2025 list of "Change the World" companies. Baidu made the list thanks to the influence and safety record of its Apollo Go in the field of autonomous driving. This is the second time Baidu has been included on this list since 2019.
People familiar with the matter: Zong Fulli has set an annual sales target of 30 billion RMB for "Wa Xiaozong"
In September, a notice from Wahaha titled "Notice on Carrying out Dealer Communication Work for the 2026 Sales Year" was leaked. The notice shows that to maintain the compliance of the use of the "Wahaha" brand, Wahaha Group has decided to switch to a new brand, "Wa Xiaozong", starting from the new sales year in 2026. When inquiring Wahaha Group about the brand change, the company said "no comment". "Wa Xiaozong" is a trademark applied for and registered by Hangzhou Hongsheng Beverage Group Co., Ltd. The registration of this series of trademarks began in May 2025. The actual controller behind Hongsheng Beverage is Zong Fulli. Since the passing of Wahaha founder Zong Qinghou in 2024, most of Wahaha Group's employees have been transferred to Hongsheng Beverage. A person close to Wahaha revealed that Zong Fulli has set an annual sales target of 30 billion RMB for "Wa Xiaozong", which is almost 80% of Wahaha brand's actual annual sales scale. (Caixin)
iPhone 17 Pro mini Exposed: 4.7-Inch Screen, Failed to Hit the Market
Some bloggers have broken the news on social platforms that Apple initially considered releasing a 4.7-inch iPhone 17 Pro mini. However, during the DVT stage, the development work on this device was forced to be cancelled. An engineer said, "This device looks ridiculous."
The iPhone 17 Pro mini features a design similar to that of the iPhone 17 Pro. It has a large horizontal matrix camera DECO on the back, and the middle frame and back panel are made of an integrated aluminum alloy body. A super-ceramic crystal glass back panel is embedded below the camera bump. The overall shape is like a "shrunk version of the iPhone 17 Pro." (Kuaikeji)
US officially announces: Implement the US-EU trade agreement and impose a 15% tariff on EU cars
On September 24 local time, the Trump administration of the United States issued an official announcement to implement the trade agreement reached between the United States and the European Union, confirming that a 15% tariff will be imposed on imported cars and auto products from the EU since August 1. In addition, the document also lists tariff exemptions for certain pharmaceutical compounds, aircraft parts and other imported goods. On July 27 local time, US President Trump said that the United States had reached a new trade agreement with the EU, imposing a 15% tariff on EU goods exported to the United States. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the 15% tariff rate is the best result the European Commission could achieve. (CCTV News)
iPhone Notifications May Be Displayed on Android Smartwatches
On September 24th, the tech media MacWorld published a blog post on September 23rd. After exploring the iOS 26.1 Beta 1 update, it discovered a "Notification Forwarding" feature in its underlying code. This feature can display iPhone notifications on non-Apple smartwatches or accessories while turning off notifications on the Apple Watch.
Currently, the combination of iPhone and Apple Watch offers a smooth user experience, but third - party devices have always lacked equivalent support. In the update code of iOS 26.1 Beta 1, an unpublished feature called "Notification Forwarding" has been added. According to a blog post cited by IT Home, users can set up to display iPhone notifications on another non-Apple device or accessory. This feature can only forward notifications to one accessory at a time. Once enabled, the notification function of the Apple Watch will automatically turn off. (IT Home)
Google Launches Major Update for App Store, Adding AI Features and More Experience Enhancements
Google announced on the 23rd that it will make multiple adjustments to the appearance and functionality of the Play Store, aiming to further improve the store's personalized services for users and enhance user interaction. The new features in this update include a redesigned "Apps" tab, a brand - new "Games" experience, a dedicated tab focusing on personal interests, and other features developed based on Gemini artificial intelligence technology. (Sina Finance)
Elon Musk Responds to OpenAI and NVIDIA's Plan to Build a 10-Gigawatt Data Center: xAI Will Be the First to Achieve It
An X user reposted a statement from OpenAI announcing a strategic partnership with NVIDIA and a plan to deploy a 10-gigawatt AI data center, asking, "What does this mean for xAI? Have we lost?" OpenAI said in the statement, "OpenAI and NVIDIA are announcing a strategic partnership to deploy 10GW of NVIDIA systems. This enables OpenAI to build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers for OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure, using NVIDIA systems representing millions of GPUs." Musk responded, "Just as we will be the first company to bring 1 gigawatt of coherent training computing online, we will also be the first to achieve 10 gigawatts, 100 gigawatts, 1 terawatt..." (Sina Finance)
“Wood Sister” Buys Alibaba for the First Time in Four Years
Cathie Wood, known as “Wood Sister,” has restarted her allocation to Alibaba. According to the daily trading report released by ARK Investment Management, two of its exchange - traded funds (ETFs), ARKW and ARKF, bought Alibaba American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the 22nd local time in the United States, with a total value of approximately $16.3 million. This is the company's first re - establishment of a position in Alibaba since 2021, and it is also Wood's first time holding the company's shares in nearly four years. (Yicai Global)
Is the sales channel being adjusted to "one store per city"? Toyota China: It's just a trial for now
In response to the news about "adjusting the sales channel to 'one store per city' in some regions", Toyota China said on the 24th that having only one 4S store of Toyota's joint - venture brand in a city is not only to provide better services to consumers, but also a consideration from the perspectives of efficiency and environmental protection by the company. "It's just a trial for now." The day before, there were market rumors that Toyota China is piloting a sales - channel adjustment measure - in some "one - store - per - city" regions (that is, only one 4S store of Toyota's joint - venture brand is retained in a city), and this store is authorized to sell the entire range of models of both GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota. (Caixin)
Mercedes-Benz Appoints New Head of Technology and Production
Mercedes-Benz announced a top management personnel adjustment on the 24th. Jörg Burzer, the head of the production department, will succeed Marcus Schäfer as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This adjustment aims to improve cost - effectiveness by creating a younger board of directors. The German automaker said in a statement that Burzer, 55, will be in charge of both R & D and procurement from early December and will serve as the Chief Technology Officer. (Sina Finance)
OpenAI to Build Five New AI Data Center Sites in the US and Expand the "Stargate" Project
On September 23 local time, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced the construction of five new AI data center sites in the United States under the "Stargate" program, which will bring the investment scale of the project to over $400 billion in the next three years. (Jiemian News)
Disney Raises Prices of Streaming Packages
Disney announced on the 23rd that starting from October 21st, the prices of its streaming subscription packages will increase. The standalone Disney+ ad-supported plan will go up by $2 to $11.99 per month, while the premium ad-free plan will increase by $3 to $18.99 per month, or by $30 annually to $189.99 per year. (Sina Finance)
Going Public in Progress
Zhejiang Kesheng
36Kr learned that documents from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange show that Zhejiang Kesheng Technology Co., Ltd. has submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CSC International as the sole sponsor.
The Cutting - Edge of AI
Alibaba's Quark Launches New AI Creation Platform "ZaoDian", Integrated with Tongyi Wanxiang Wan 2.5
36Kr learned that on September 24th, Quark, Alibaba's flagship AI app, officially launched a new AI creation platform called "ZaoDian". The platform integrates two core capabilities: AI image generation and AI video generation. It is the first in China to integrate Tongyi Wanxiang Wan 2.5 and support synchronized audio - visual video generation.
OpenAI Plans to Launch a Trillion - Dollar Computing Power Expansion Plan Aiming to Build the World's Largest AI Data Center Network
On the 23rd, OpenAI unveiled its global computing power expansion blueprint, planning to invest up to $1 trillion to build a vast computing infrastructure in the United States and overseas. The company's first - showcased project is a super - computing park located about 180 miles west of Dallas, with an area equivalent to that of New York's Central Park. It is expected to become the world's largest AI super - computing center upon completion. OpenAI, in cooperation with Oracle and SoftBank, announced that it will build five more data centers in the United States in the future, adding a total capacity of nearly 7 gigawatts, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of about 8 million households. (Sina Finance)
Compiled by | Anya