Krypton Evening News | Pinduoduo Responds to EU's "Dawn Raid" Inquiry; McDonald's China: Number of Stores Exceeds 7,500, and Restaurants Nationwide Will Gradually Adopt New Biobased Packaging; The First High-Altitude Cave-Type Computing Power Module Intelligent Computing Center in China Is Put into Operation
Large Companies:
36Kr learned that some investors asked Suofeiya on the interactive platform whether it was true that there was a rumor online that the company had won the mass - production order for SpaceX (Starlink) low - orbit satellite communication phased - array antennas. Suofeiya replied that the online rumor was untrue.
36Kr learned that Zhongyuan Internal Fittings announced that Zhongyuan Internal Fittings (Shanghai) Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., its holding subsidiary, has signed a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Ningbo Puzhi Future Robot Co., Ltd. The two parties have reached a strategic cooperation intention on humanoid robot - related businesses. The Shanghai subsidiary will be reviewed to become the core supplier of humanoid robot joint modules for Ningbo Puzhi Company and will give priority to deploying and applying the humanoid robot bodies produced by Ningbo Puzhi Company in its relevant business scenarios. The cooperation agreement is a framework agreement, and the specific cooperation content shall be subject to the specific project contracts signed. It is expected that it will not have a significant impact on the company's financial condition and operating results in 2025.
Pinduoduo upgrades its governance structure, and Zhao Jiazhen becomes the co - chairman
36Kr learned that on December 19th, Pinduoduo Group's annual general meeting of shareholders announced the upgrade of its governance structure and the implementation of the co - chairman system. With the approval of the board of directors, Zhao Jiazhen was appointed co - chairman and will serve as co - chairman and co - CEO together with Chen Lei.
Pinduoduo responds to the EU's "dawn raid" inquiry
At Pinduoduo's annual general meeting of shareholders, in response to the recent rumor that the EU conducted a "dawn raid" investigation on Temu, co - chairman and co - CEO Chen Lei said that Temu has achieved a certain market scale in most countries around the world. It has completed in 3 years what Pinduoduo's domestic e - commerce took 10 years to achieve. The resulting surprise, concern, and stricter scrutiny are understandable.
On December 19th, Gu Lei, the Chief Impact Officer of McDonald's China, said at the press conference for the new upgrade of McDonald's China's green packaging that in recent years, McDonald's China has accelerated its high - quality localized development. As of now, the number of stores across the country has exceeded 7,500, and the total number of employees has exceeded 200,000. Starting today, restaurants across the country will gradually start using new bio - based packaging, which is expected to reduce the use of about 5,800 tons of petroleum - based plastics annually and accelerate the transformation of food packaging materials to renewable resources.
Over a thousand Anta offline stores have joined Taobao Flash Sale
36Kr learned that on December 19th, Anta officially joined Taobao Flash Sale. In 174 cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, over 1,000 offline stores across the country have been launched on Taobao Flash Sale. It is expected that by 2026, it will cover more than 4,000 stores.
It is reported that ByteDance is promoting cooperation with hardware manufacturers such as vivo, Lenovo, and Transsion on AI phones, pre - installing AIGC plugins on their devices to gain user access and reverse the current passive situation of AI at the implementation level. A Lenovo insider told Sina Technology that Lenovo Group has always maintained close cooperation with ByteDance - related businesses such as Doubao and Volcengine. Currently, Lenovo's relevant businesses have also been maintaining close communication with Doubao on cooperation in the intelligent terminal field.
36Kr learned that it is reported that on December 18th local time, TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi sent an internal letter to update the progress of TikTok's US business. The internal letter stated that ByteDance and TikTok have signed an agreement with three investors and will establish a new TikTok US joint - venture company. The new joint - venture company is named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC and will be responsible for data protection, algorithm security, content review, and software security in the United States. Other entities of TikTok in the United States, which are wholly - owned by ByteDance, will continue to be responsible for commercial activities such as e - commerce, advertising, and market operations, as well as the global interconnection of the TikTok product. The relevant matters of the agreement will be completed no later than January 22, 2026.
Investment and Financing:
36Kr learned that the Aiqicha App shows that recently, Jiangcheng Guotai Haitong Shengong (Wuhan) Venture Capital Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established. The executive general partner is Guotai Junan Innovation Investment Co., Ltd., with a capital contribution of 200 million yuan. Its business scope includes private equity investment fund management and venture capital fund management services. The partner information shows that the fund is jointly funded by Jiangcheng Industrial Investment Fund (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., Jinzhou Shengong Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Guotai Junan Innovation Investment Co., Ltd. under Guotai Haitong, etc.
Other noteworthy news:
Japan's Toyama Prefecture plans to build Japan's largest data center hub
A document shows that a city in western Japan plans to launch the country's third and largest data center cluster with a total power generation capacity of 3.1 gigawatts. The document shows that Nanto City in Toyama Prefecture, near the Sea of Japan, will jointly announce this plan with private developer GigaStream Toyama on Friday. Once completed, the project will become one of the largest data center hubs in the world, comparable to OpenAI's $500 - billion, 10 - gigawatt Stargate project.
South Korea plans to start nuclear fusion power generation tests as early as 2030
The South Korean government said on Friday that it will start nuclear fusion power generation tests as early as 2030, nearly 20 years earlier than the original plan. The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT revealed that the South Korean National Fusion Energy Committee has announced a blueprint outlining the research direction in this field and the goal of securing 8 relevant key technologies.
Science magazine releases the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2025
The US magazine Science announced on December 18th its selection of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2025. "The irresistible growth of global renewable energy" was rated as the top breakthrough of the year. The magazine believes that in 2025, global renewable energy surpassed traditional energy in multiple fields, and this major transformation was mainly led by China. The other 9 scientific breakthroughs selected by Science magazine this year are mostly related to life and health. For example, customized gene editing brings hope for ultra - rare diseases; two new drugs for gonorrhea have been proven effective in large - scale clinical trials, which are the first new weapons against serious sexually transmitted diseases in decades; research has found that nerve cells help cancer cells "super - charge" by transferring mitochondria, and blocking this transfer may slow down cancer cell metastasis; xenotransplantation has achieved a historic breakthrough.
Today, China's first high - altitude cave - type computing power cabin intelligent computing center - the Yalong River Lianghekou Computing - Electricity Integration Demonstration Project - was officially put into operation at the Lianghekou Hydropower Station. The total investment of the project is 350 million yuan, including 6 computing power cabins, with 2,000 domestic computing power chips deployed, and it can complete up to 600 quadrillion floating - point operations per second.
Since its release, the Disney animated film Zootopia 2 has continued to generate a box - office boom in the Chinese market, and its box - office performance has repeatedly reached new highs. As of December 18th, according to Maoyan Professional Edition data, the cumulative box office of the film in the Chinese mainland has exceeded 3.6 billion yuan, and the number of viewers has reached 91.064 million, surpassing the previous record of 86.812 million set by Avengers: Endgame and becoming the top - ranked imported film in terms of the number of viewers in Chinese film history. Many overseas media have pointed out that the Chinese market has become one of the most important box - office sources for the film globally, and it has once again highlighted the vitality and strategic value of the Chinese film market.