9:30 Krypton: Apple Price Hike Triggers Sam's Club Daigou Boom, DeepSeek Launches Large-Scale Recruitment, Gold Drops Below $4,000 Again

After Apple announced price hikes for its iPad and Mac product lines, Sam's Club has not adjusted its prices, and some stores have already sold out of stock.

Today's Hotspot Guide

OpenAI officially announced the launch of GPT - 5.6

The stock prices of Asia's "Apple supply chain" have almost all tumbled significantly

SpaceX Plans to Launch New Starlink Mobile Service for US Consumers

Meituan's stock price is sluggish, Wang Xing responds

XPeng Robotics Adjustment: Nine New Departments Established, He Xiaopeng to Serve as Head of Product Department

WeChat responds to the interaction rules of Moments: When one-sidedly deletes a contact, nothing changes; when mutually deletes a contact, all traces of the other party are cleared

Top 3 Big News

Apple price hike triggers a wave of Sam's Club purchasing agents, and some stores are out of stock

Recently, many netizens on social media reported that there has been a situation of panic buying and purchasing agency for iPad and Mac series products at Sam's Club membership supermarkets in many places. The reason is that after Apple announced a price increase for iPad and Mac series products, Sam's Club did not adjust the prices. On June 26, many purchasing agents said they could charge an additional 45 to 300 yuan to purchase products from Sam's Club on behalf of customers, and stated that the demand for purchasing agency was extremely high, and the stores were basically out of stock. Multiple Sam's Club stores also confirmed that the prices of Apple series products have not been adjusted, and due to a large number of purchases, some stores are out of stock. (Sina Finance)

DeepSeek Launches Large-Scale Recruitment, Aiming to Double the Size of All Departments

On the evening of June 25th, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as DeepSeek) released a recruitment notice, stating that it is striving to at least double the size of all its departments. This recruitment drive by DeepSeek covers 33 (categories) of positions in 7 major categories, with work locations in Beijing and Hangzhou.

DeepSeek was established on July 17th, 2023, and its headquarters is located in Gongshu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. It is a limited liability company engaged in the research and development of large language models and multi-modal AI technologies. The DeepSeek series of open-source models it has launched are among the leading open-source large model series in China. Recently, DeepSeek received Series A financing, with the financing amount approximately 51 billion yuan and the enterprise valuation approximately 400 billion yuan. (Red Star News)

Gold Falls Below $4,000 Again

On June 26, spot gold fell below $4,000 again, with an intraday decline of 0.8%. Previously, several investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, lowered their target prices for gold. The listed prices of pure gold jewelry in many domestic brand gold stores have been lowered accordingly. The price of pure gold jewelry of some brands has dropped to around $1,220 per gram, a decline of $480 to $500 from the high point this year. (Caixin and CCTV Financial)

The Cutting - Edge of AI

OpenAI Officially Announces the Launch of GPT-5.6

Early on June 27th Beijing time, OpenAI officially announced the launch of the new-generation flagship large model, the GPT-5.6 series. However, due to the obstruction of the US government, currently only a small group of "trusted partners" approved by the US government can use this large model that represents a new peak of human AI capabilities.

According to OpenAI, there are a total of 3 models in the GPT-5.6 series: the flagship model Sol, the balanced model Terra suitable for daily work, and the fast and cost-effective Luna model. To put it in a more understandable way, these three words also mean the sun, the earth, and the moon. Among them, GPT-5.6 Sol can introduce a higher level of reasoning intensity, allowing AI more time for in-depth reasoning. At the same time, OpenAI also launched the GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra mode that uses sub-agents to accelerate complex tasks. (Caixin)

Anthropic: Mythos 5 Approved for Redeployment to U.S. Institutions, Public Version of FABLE 5 to Resume Soon

Anthropic said: Since June 12, we have been working closely with the U.S. government to restore access to Claude Mythos 5 and FABLE 5. Today, the government has notified us that the company's most powerful cybersecurity model, Mythos 5, can be redeployed to a group of U.S. institutions. We are continuing to work with the government to expand access to Mythos 5 and make FABLE 5 available to the public again. (JIN10 Data APP)

Anthropic Further Grabs Market Share from OpenAI: Paid Revenue and Users Continue to Grow

The competition between OpenAI, a top artificial intelligence company in the United States, and Anthropic is intensifying. According to a report, Anthropic is rapidly seizing the market share of OpenAI's paid users. Data from Indagari, a credit card transaction analysis company, shows that the number of paid users and revenue of Anthropic's flagship model Claude are increasing month by month. Since January 2026, the revenue in this segment has increased by about 75%. Indagari's data comes from hundreds of billions of anonymous credit card transaction records of 28 million American consumers, covering weekly transactions between 2025 and May 10, 2026. Another AI online education platform, DataCamp, also reached a similar conclusion. It pointed out that users on the platform have shown an explosive growth in interest in Claude this year. Claude has become the most searched term on the website, even surpassing AI. (Sina Finance)

7 National Standards in the "Artificial Intelligence: Agent Interconnection" Series Released

The national standards in the "Artificial Intelligence: Agent Interconnection" series have been officially released. The 7 national standards in the "Artificial Intelligence: Agent Interconnection" series released this time comprehensively cover core aspects such as the overall architecture, identity codes, identity management, agent description, agent discovery, agent interaction, and agent tool invocation. They systematically establish a full - coverage and closed - loop standard and specification system of "identity identification - capability description - supply - demand discovery - collaborative interaction - tool invocation", effectively filling the standard gap in this field. After unifying the architecture and interaction rules through this series of standards, enterprises can reuse standard components, reduce customized development, and shorten the product launch cycle. At the same time, a unified identity authentication and full - process traceability mechanism will be established to consolidate the institutional foundation for cross - domain trusted and secure interaction. (CCTV News)

Tencent Cloud Helps Indonesia's XLSMART Achieve Full - Link AI Cloud Transformation

36Kr learned that on June 26, Indonesian operator XLSMART announced the completion of a large - scale public cloud transformation. Based on XLSMART's long - term digital strategy, as its core cloud strategic partner, Tencent Cloud integrated AI into the entire migration link, helping the project complete a smooth migration in 4.5 months. During the migration process, the Tencent Cloud team also developed more than 20 cloud migration Skills based on the code assistant CodeBuddy and the efficiency intelligent agent WorkBuddy, covering the entire migration lifecycle from resource discovery to cut - over verification. This migration involved 1,200 microservices, 1,100 APIs, and 900 business interfaces, and smoothly handled over 15TB of core data assets.

Large Companies / Major Events

Stock prices of Asian Apple supply chain companies almost all tumbled significantly

This Friday, after Apple announced a full - scale price hike for MacBooks and iPads, stock prices of Asian companies in the Apple supply chain almost all tumbled significantly. After Apple's price - hike announcement, the market became increasingly worried that the soaring semiconductor costs would start to affect consumer demand and overall technology spending. Apple's stock price fell more than 6% during the U.S. stock trading session, losing approximately $250 billion in market value overnight.

During the Asian trading session on Friday, although the share price of U.S. memory chip giant Micron Technology skyrocketed overnight supported by strong financial reports, South Korean memory chip giants suffered sharp declines: SK Hynix plunged 9.56% in the early trading, and Samsung Electronics dropped 8.65%. Both companies are key suppliers of DRAM and NAND memory chips for Apple's product lines. In addition, camera component manufacturers are also under pressure. South Korea's LG Electronics, the main supplier of high - end iPhone camera modules for Apple, saw its stock price fall 3.8% on Friday morning. In China's A - share market, the stock price of Luxshare Precision Industry Co., Ltd. dropped 9.16% in the morning. In contrast, the stock price of Lens Technology Co., Ltd. was relatively stable, with little overall change in the morning. (Cailian Press)

Meituan's Stock Price Is in the Doldrums, Wang Xing Responds

On June 26th, at Meituan's annual general meeting of shareholders, Meituan CEO Wang Xing responded to shareholders' concerns about the stock price. Wang Xing said that on the one hand, Meituan will actively respond and manage the company well; on the other hand, it calls on the entire industry to develop more rationally. In addition, Meituan will also take other measures to give more confidence to the market. For example, Meituan has some good external investments, and it may get good returns when they go public. Meituan will consider actively exiting under appropriate circumstances. Meituan CFO Chen Shaohui said that the company's current value is seriously undervalued, and Meituan plans to conduct a stock repurchase. As of press time, Meituan's stock was reported at HK$65, down about 2%. The total market capitalization is HK$397.3 billion. Wind data shows that the stock price has fallen by more than 37% since the beginning of the year. (The Paper)

Tesla Shifts FSD to Subscription Model Across the Board

Recently, Tesla has made a large - scale adjustment to the sales model of FSD (Full Self - Driving) globally, and will fully switch to the subscription model. The official websites in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions have synchronously shown that the FSD one - time purchase option will be removed after June 30 and officially converted to the subscription model. Currently, the one - time purchase price in Hong Kong, China is HK$54,000 (approximately RMB 46,800). The prices in Macao, China and Taiwan, China are MOP 55,700 (approximately RMB 46,900) and NT$222,000 (approximately RMB 47,000) respectively. Regarding whether the FSD subscription model will be launched in the Chinese mainland market, after inquiring with Tesla China, an insider only said: "There is no more information to share." (Jiemian News)

Volkswagen Plans to Lay Off Up to 100,000 Employees in the Next Few Years

It is reported that Volkswagen is seeking to intensify its restructuring efforts. The company plans to lay off up to 100,000 employees globally in the next few years and close four German factories. It is currently unclear how many employees will be laid off in each department. The company aims to reduce the group's indirect costs by 11 billion euros by 2030. (Jiemian News)

SpaceX Plans to Launch New Starlink Mobile Service for US Consumers

It is reported that SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, plans to launch a brand - new Starlink mobile service for US consumers. Gwen Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, said that the company is considering "launching Starlink retail products" and may build its own terrestrial mobile network in the United States. Implementing these plans requires the management of the global satellite communication system to sell mobile contracts to individual customers to develop new retail products, which will make it compete with major US carriers such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T - Mobile. (Caixin)

Negotiations on the Sale of Evergrande Property's Equity Terminated

The equity transaction of Evergrande Property Services Group Limited has fallen through again. At noon on June 25th, Evergrande Property released an announcement stating that the negotiations between the liquidators of China Evergrande and the potential acquirers have been terminated, and no formal transaction agreement has been signed between the two parties. In the afternoon of the same day, the stock price of Evergrande Property plunged sharply, hitting a low of HK$0.74 per share during the session, the lowest since mid-June 2025. On June 25th, Evergrande Property closed at HK$0.78 per share, down 23.53%. (Caixin)

The First Global Technical Regulation for Autonomous Driving Systems, Led by China, Approved and Released

From June 22nd to 26th, the 199th plenary meeting of the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (UN/WP.29) was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations Global Technical Regulation for Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS GTR), jointly led by China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Japan, was officially approved and released after a vote by all contracting parties. The ADS GTR released this time clarifies the core technical indicators of autonomous driving system products, and simultaneously puts forward requirements at the manufacturer level and supporting review and evaluation methods. As the world's first global technical regulation for autonomous driving, this regulation provides a unified standard for the orderly and safe implementation of autonomous driving technology, and is of milestone significance for accelerating the industrial development of autonomous vehicles and promoting the intelligent transformation of the global automotive industry. (Yicai Global)

XPeng Robotics Adjustment: Nine New Departments Established, He Xiaopeng Also Serves as Head of the Product Department

The XPeng Robotics Center has newly established nine secondary departments. After announcing that he will personally serve as the head of the Robotics Center, He Xiaopeng currently also serves as the head of the Product Department of the Robotics Center, directly listening to reports from the heads of various organizations within the Product Department. In addition, He Xiaopeng also directly listens to reports from department heads such as Gu Jie, Liu Xianming, and Yu Tao, who respectively serve as the heads of the Embodied System Engineering Department, the General Base Department (Virtual), and the Brand Marketing Department (Acting). Previously, He Xiaopeng said in an internal letter that he basically has a full day each week "to conduct in - depth thinking and discussions around the robotics business and the robotics team." Currently, the XPeng Robotics Center has formed nine secondary departments: the Product Department, the Embodied System Engineering Department, the Manipulation and Safety Development Department, the Embodied Intelligence Department, the Data Closed - Loop Department, the General Base Department (Virtual), the Product Matrix Department (Virtual), the Brand Marketing Department, and the Project Management Department. (21st Century Business Herald)

Semiconductor Silicon Wafers: Price Hike Signals Reemerge

According to news on June 26, GlobalWafers, Hejing, and Taisilicon have recently successively sent out signals of price hikes. These suppliers have already completed price increases for their 6 - inch silicon wafers first. The demand for 8 - inch wafers is rapidly heating up, and they have successively launched a new round of price negotiations with customers for 12 - inch products. Among them, GlobalWafers stated that in 2026, the global silicon wafer market shows an unbalanced but upward recovery trend, and the recent market recovery momentum is clearer than before. The demand for high - end AI and advanced manufacturing processes remains strong, and non - AI markets such as automotive and industrial control are also gradually recovering. The company is actively negotiating prices with customers to reflect the increases in energy, freight, and raw material costs. (Taiwan Commercial Times)

SpaceX to be included in the Nasdaq 100 Index starting July 7

The Nasdaq announced that SpaceX (SPCX.O) will be included in the Nasdaq 100 Index, subject to final eligibility requirements. Funds tracking the index are expected to start buying its shares after the market close on July 6 and before its official inclusion. SpaceX is expected to enter this technology - heavy index with a weighting of less than 1%. (Jin10 Data APP)

Italian Antitrust Authority Launches Investigation into Microsoft

The Italian antitrust authority said on Friday that it has launched an investigation into Microsoft for suspected unfair business practices during the price increase of its "Microsoft 365" subscription service. The regulator said that Microsoft did not adequately inform consumers that its "Microsoft 365" service has integrated artificial intelligence tools Copilot and Designer. Unless consumers actively choose not to upgrade, the system will automatically switch them to a more expensive subscription plan. At the same time, the platform provides limited relevant information, making it difficult for consumers to decide whether to renew their subscriptions. (Sina Finance)

WeChat Responds to Friend Circle Interaction Rules: Unilateral Deletion Keeps Interaction Intact, Mutual Deletion Clears All Traces of the Other Party

On June 26th, the official WeChat public account "WeChat Pie" published an article titled "A Few Lesser - Known Facts About the Friend Circle", which comprehensively answered questions that users have long discussed, such as the retention of interactions after deleting friends and the visibility of new friends in groups. WeChat Pie stated that if a user unilaterally deletes the other party, all past likes and comments in the friend circle will remain unchanged from both perspectives. The deleted party may not notice at all until they actively send a message and receive a red exclamation mark prompt. However, if both parties mutually delete each other as friends, the other party's likes and comments will completely disappear from the user's friend circle. Only the replies posted by the user themselves will still remain, and all interaction traces of the other party will be removed.

WeChat also added two special scenarios: If two users add each other back as friends after mutual deletion, all previous interactions will be restored exactly as they were, without any missing; in the case of unilateral deletion, the user can still reply to the other party's comments from that year, but this is just a one - way "venting hole". The other party cannot receive the message, and they can only see the historical replies after adding each other back as friends. (Jiemian News)

LABUBU's New Product "Vintage Barber Shop" Meets with a Cold Response

On the evening of June 25th, the "Vintage Barber Shop" series launched by LABUBU, the leading IP under Pop Mart, was officially released online. Although it still showed "sold out in seconds", many regular styles met with a cold response, and the transaction prices on the trendy online shopping platforms were far lower than the release prices. The price curve on the Dewu APP shows that the transaction prices of styles such as "Clear After the Rain" and "Light Blue Overture" in this new series dropped to 100 yuan within half an hour of the release that night, 59 yuan cheaper than the release price of 159 yuan, with a decline of over 30%. As of the time of press release by Jiemian News on June 26th, the transaction price of "Clear After the Rain" was around 110 yuan, and that of "Light Blue Overture" was around 113 yuan, still lower than the official release price. (Jiemian News)

Tesla China Sets Up Scholarships for Employees' Children, with a Maximum of 5,000 Yuan per Award

Recently, Tesla announced the establishment of scholarships for employees' children, including scholarships for admission to higher education and scholarships for science literacy competitions/paper publications. Those admitted to the undergraduate program of an excellent international (QS100) or domestic (985/211) university can receive a maximum bonus of 5,000 yuan. (Red Star News)

Microsoft Xbox Announces Price Hike

On June 25th local time, Microsoft announced that it will adjust the global prices of Xbox consoles starting from August 1st. Among them, the price of the Xbox console with 512GB of storage will increase by $100, while the price of the model with 1TB of storage will increase by $150. Meanwhile, Microsoft will discontinue the 2TB version. Taking the Xbox Series X (1TB) as an example, the current official website price is $599.9, and after the price increase, it will reach $750. By the close of U.S. stocks on June 25th, Microsoft's stock price fell 3.46% to $352.83 that day. (Yicai Global)

Asian stocks suffered a "Black Friday", and technology stocks turned cold across the board

On June 26, Asian stocks suffered a "Black Friday", with the stock markets of Japan and South Korea leading the decline, and the sentiment of technology stocks in the Asian market turned cold across the board. During the session, the South Korean KOSPI index triggered the circuit breaker mechanism downward again, with a decline of nearly 9% at one point. The Nikkei 225 index fell more than 5% at one point, breaking below 69,000 points. As of the close, the South Korean KOSPI index closed down 5.81% at 8,411.20 points; the Nikkei 225 index closed down 4.15% at 69,360.88 points. (Caixin)

He Xiaopeng Says XPeng's Intelligent Driving Technology Is Set to Go Global

36Kr learned that on June 25th, He Xiaopeng posted on his WeChat Moments, revealing that the second - generation VLA is entering a confirmed mode to go global. He mentioned that DCAS UNR 171 series 02 approved by WP.29 will come into effect as a mandatory EU regulation in six months, "which means that autonomous driving will be legally available globally from the end of 2026." He also previewed, "Please look forward to the launch and experience of XPeng's VLA and VLM overseas in 2027 (for example, overseas users can talk to and control their cars using a mix of Chinese and local languages)."

Li Bin of NIO: The penetration rate of new energy vehicles will exceed 90% in 2030

On June 26th, Li Bin, the founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, stated at the 2026 NIO Partners Day that in 2030, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the new car market in China will exceed 90%, and the proportion of pure - electric vehicles in the new energy vehicle market will exceed 90%. Data from the Passenger Car Association shows that in May 2026, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the new car market in China reached 62.9%, among which the proportion of pure - electric vehicles reached 67.1%.

SpaceX is reported to start building a natural gas pipeline to the Starship launch base next month

According to documents from the local government, SpaceX plans to start building an 8-mile (13-kilometer) - long natural gas pipeline called "Starpipe" next month to its launch facility in Texas to help increase the launch frequency of its next - generation Starship rockets. According to documents submitted by SpaceX's affiliate, Lone Star Mineral Development, to the Texas Railroad Commission last month, the Starpipe pipeline will end at SpaceX's "Starbase" town in Texas, and the pipeline is expected to be put into use on January 26 next year. (Sina Finance)

It is reported that Samsung Group will invest 100 trillion won in South Korea over the next 10 years

It is reported that Samsung Group will announce a 10 - year domestic investment plan in South Korea worth a total of 100 trillion won (equivalent to $647.53 billion) on June 29. The plan may include 30 trillion won for building a chip factory in the south - west of South Korea. (Caixin)

Going public in progress

CSRC Approves the Registration of Green Bio's IPO on the ChiNext

36Kr learned that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recently issued an approval for the registration of the initial public offering (IPO) of Green Bio Technology Co., Ltd., approving the company's registration application for its IPO and listing on the ChiNext.

Benmo Technology's Hong Kong IPO Receives Record-Filing from China Securities Regulatory Commission

36Kr learned that the International Cooperation Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a record-filing notice regarding the overseas issuance and listing of Benmo Power (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. and the "full circulation" of its unlisted domestic shares. The company plans to issue no more than 122,475,000 overseas-listed ordinary shares and list them on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 34 shareholders of the company intend to convert a total of 319,588,080 unlisted domestic shares they hold into overseas-listed shares, which will be listed and traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Investment and Financing

"Unbounded Dynamics" Completes Over $200 Million in Angel Round Financing

36Kr learned that on June 26, the general embodied intelligent robot company "Unbounded Dynamics" announced the completion of over $200 million in angel round financing. The latest angel round financing was jointly invested by multiple institutions including JD-related funds, C Capital, Hony Capital, Shengyu Investment, and Fengyuan Investment. Old shareholders such as Linear Capital, Sequoia China, Huaye Tiancheng, and Yare Capital also participated in the follow-on investment. The funds obtained will be continuously used for the R & D of the embodied general brain, the construction of technological infrastructure, and global large-scale delivery.

Zhi Yuan's dexterous hand is valued at $1 billion and achieved profitability in the first quarter just five months after its establishment

According to information obtained from Lingjiedian, a dexterous hand enterprise under the Zhi Yuan system, the company recently completed nearly 1 billion yuan in financing and joined the ranks of unicorns valued at $1 billion. Lingjiedian, a dexterous hand developer spun off from Zhi Yuan Robotics, is one of the fastest - growing companies in the embodied intelligence track. It only took five months for it to independently develop to a valuation of $1 billion. Within these short five months, the company has completed four rounds of financing in quick succession, and many leading capitals such as Baidu, BlueRun Ventures, and Hillhouse Capital have also invested. (Southern Metropolis Daily)

"Deep Intelligence" Secures Another Hundreds of Millions in Financing

36Kr learned that recently, "Deep Intelligence" announced the completion of a new round of financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan. This round was led by China Life Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Innovation Fund, with existing shareholders Puhua Capital and Chengtong Science and Technology Innovation Fund continuing to increase their investment. Multiple market-oriented and industrial capitals, including Blue Lake Capital, Beyondsoft, Pangu Venture Capital, Zhaohui Capital, Caixin Capital, Daohe Long-term Investment, Yigao Capital, and Mingde Capital, also participated. Currently, the next round of financing is in the final stage. Previously, all product lines of Deep Intelligence had achieved commercial orders, with a cumulative contract value of tens of millions of yuan.

Compiled | Wang Yixuan