8点1氪丨The United States will impose a 50% tariff on some Canadian products; Ren Zeping responds to the member's loss of tens of millions in stock trading; South Korea's per capita GDP is expected to reach 39,000 US dollars this year
Today's Hotspot Guide
Optoelectronic integrated chips are expected to cut Token costs by 50%
Wang Ning, founder of Pop Mart, met with investor Duan Yongping in New York
The Argentina team turned their backs on the podium, ignored the medal ceremony, refused interviews, and may face penalties
Tickets for Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and Beijing-Shanghai Railway can be booked 60 days in advance
Qiangyi Co., Ltd. plummeted: Breakup fee approaches 6 billion
TOP 3 Major News
The United States Announces 50% Tariffs on Selected Canadian Goods
On local time July 20, the White House released a statement announcing that the United States will impose an additional 50% ad valorem tariff on certain Canadian products, in response to "Canada's discriminatory measures targeting the United States in the trade of automobiles and automotive parts". The new tariffs will take effect at 00:01 AM Eastern Time on August 19, and will be levied on top of existing relevant tariffs, taxes and other charges. (CCTV News)
Ren Zeping Responds to Member's Tens of Millions Stock Trading Losses: No Stock Recommendations Were Made
In response to the controversy sparked by a member's margin call that resulted in losses of over 10 million yuan, "internet-famous economist" Ren Zeping has issued another public response.
On July 20, the official WeChat account of "Zeping Macro" published an article titled Updated Statement: The Actual Situation, Leverage Warning, and a Few Words From the Heart, stating that the team had conducted a careful and detailed verification regarding a screenshot about an individual's leveraged investment loss. "This member joined the membership on July 1, 2026, and attended their first course on July 8, meaning their membership period was only a short one to two weeks." The statement expressed regret and deep sorrow over the member's unfortunate experience. "However, we must also be truthful: we never recommend individual stocks. Our courses have long focused on macroeconomics popularization, industrial trend analysis, and investment methodology sharing, with consistent emphasis on long-termism." (Jiemian News)
South Korea's per capita GDP is expected to reach $39,000 this year, with a growth rate of 7.6%
Driven by rising exports amid the semiconductor peak season, South Korea's per capita GDP is set to see a substantial increase this year. Based on data released on the 19th by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea, the Bank of Korea, and the national statistics agency, the country's per capita GDP is projected to hit $39,164 this year, marking a year-on-year increase of $2,750 and a growth rate of 7.6% — the highest level in nearly five years since 2021 (11.5%). If the annual average exchange rate of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar falls below 1456.1 won, South Korea is expected to enter the "era of $40,000 per capita GDP". (The Paper)
Tracking WAIC
2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference Concludes, with Expected Intentional Procurement Volume Exceeding 20 Billion Yuan
On July 20, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance concluded in Shanghai. This year's event featured a 100,000-square-meter exhibition area with 4,486 exhibits in total, including 351 products making their global debut. The conference received 177 key procurement delegations from across the world, with an expected intentional procurement value of approximately 20.36 billion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of around 25%.
Liangkun Technology Showcases Three Core Products at WAIC 2026
36Kr learned that the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2026) officially opened in Shanghai recently. Liangkun Technology presented its latest "Quantum x AI x HPC" heterogeneous intelligent computing platform at this conference and hosted the "Quantum-HPC-AI Integration Forum". Dr. LYU Dingshun, Founder of Liangkun Technology, delivered a keynote speech titled "When Quantum Computing Meets AI and HPC" during the forum, and officially released three latest core products: China's first quantum agent platform "Liangqi AIAgent", the unified quantum hardware and software control suite "fieldgkit", and the materials science data intelligent prediction platform "Meta-Materials Brain".
Optoelectronic Fusion Chips Expected to Cut Token Costs by 50%
Currently, as AI agents are applied more deeply across various industries, Token usage volume has maintained a rapid growth trend. Reporters at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference noticed that further reducing computing power costs has become a key focus for all stakeholders. Industry insiders revealed that they are leveraging computing power platforms to coordinate the use of multiple mainstream large language models, comprehensively cutting token costs. Meanwhile, the construction of large-scale computing power clusters is being accelerated nationwide. Ultra-large-scale computing power clusters supported by domestic computing chips are widely regarded as the key to next-stage cost reduction in the industry.
Furthermore, in the next three to five years, the implementation of more cutting-edge technologies such as optical chips is expected to become another direction for exploring computing power cost reduction. "Compared to electronic chips, the core advantages of optoelectronic fusion chips lie in their lower computing latency and lower power consumption. The cost per unit Token will drop by 50% accordingly, or even more." (JIEMIAN News)
MeDeep Unveils Spatial Optical Computing Solutions at WAIC and Establishes Strategic Partnership with Kehua Data
36Kr learned that during the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2026), ZOU Tianqi, Founder and Chairman of MeDeep, led the core team to attend the event, co-exhibited with Step Function, and showcased the core technological achievements of spatial optical computing. The full-stack integration solution combining spatial optical computing chips and large language models unveiled at the site relies on the Step Function STEP 3.7 large model to complete real-scene inference acceleration demonstrations, which can effectively reduce costs, improve efficiency, and optimize the operational performance of computing power. During the exhibition, MeDeep reached a "computing-power-electricity-cooling synergy" strategic cooperation with Kehua Data, focusing on deepening cooperation in fields such as UPS, liquid cooling, and heterogeneous computing power collaboration, to promote the large-scale implementation of green computing power solutions.
AI Cutting-Edge
Tencent WorkBuddy Surpasses 20 Million Monthly Visits in China's PC-Native AI Office Agent Market in June
On July 20, the newly released *2026 Q2 China Office Agent Platform Market Insight Report* shows that Tencent WorkBuddy exceeded 20 million monthly visits in China's PC-side AI-native office agent market in June, maintaining its leading position as the market leader.
Kimi K3 Model Reaches Global Tier1, Domestic Model Delivers Another DeepSeek Moment
36Kr learned from a CITIC Securities research report that it remains firmly optimistic about the AI industry trend. We believe K3 marks a watershed event in the global large model industry this week, and represents another DeepSeek moment: the release of K3 signifies that for the first time, a Chinese large model has entered the global large model narrative as a "competitive threat" — with 2.8 trillion parameters, 1 million context window, and top ranking in Code Arena, it proves that domestic models are already competing head-on with cutting-edge U.S. models on the main battlefield of Agentic Coding. Other recommended key opportunities lie in the application layer: 1) K3 has enhanced the intelligence level of open-source models, the barrier and cost for the application layer to use Tier 1 models are expected to decrease, which will facilitate further expansion of downstream application scenarios; 2) Competition between leading and second-tier model vendors remains fierce, with competition dimensions extending from model capabilities to pricing, product strength, scenario expansion, and cost optimization, which we believe will benefit the application layer.
Foxconn Secures Its First SpaceX AI Server Manufacturing Order
On July 20, according to reports, Hon Hai Precision has secured its first AI server manufacturing order from SpaceX. The two parties will next target space-based AI data centers. SpaceX plans to order approximately 13,000 racks of NVIDIA GB300 AI servers from Foxconn, with each rack estimated to cost 4 million US dollars. Foxconn is expected to begin shipments in the fourth quarter of this year, with deliveries continuing into the first quarter of next year. (JIEMIAN News, The Paper's Financial Associated Press)
China's Intelligent Computing Power Scale Reaches 2185 EFLOPS
On July 20, Xie Cun, Director of the Information and Communication Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that as of the end of June this year, China's intelligent computing power scale has reached 2185 EFLOPS, and the overall rack utilization rate of national computing facilities has hit 71.4%. Over the past two years, more than 70 major computing power corridors have been constructed around national computing hub nodes, driving a 10% improvement in network performance between relevant computing hub nodes. (Yicai Global)
Major Corporations / Key Developments
Kimi Responds to Elon Musk's Public Challenge
Recently, Chinese AI company Moonshot AI officially launched its new-generation open-source large model Kimi K3. Shortly after the release, Tesla CEO Elon Musk left a comment "Impressive" under a related review report, marking the second time he has publicly recognized the team after praising Kimi's underlying architecture technical report back in March this year. However, before the echoes of this praise had faded, on July 18, Musk announced on social platforms that his AI company's new 2-trillion-parameter model is set to complete its initial training next week, claiming it comprehensively outperforms the 1.5-trillion-parameter version and "will likely surpass Kimi". In response to Elon Musk's public "declaration of war", the official Kimi team told reporters: We welcome Elon Musk to join the "2 Trillion+ Club". (Beijing Daily)
World Cup Prize Money Revealed: Champions Spain Take Home $50 Million
Beijing time on July 20, the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico concluded its final match, where Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 after extra time to claim its second World Cup title after a 16-year gap. The prize money amounts for participating teams announced by FIFA show that the champion Spain team will receive $50 million; the runner-up Argentina team will get $33 million in tournament prize money; the third-place England team will be awarded $29 million; the fourth-place France team will receive $27 million. Teams ranked 5th to 8th, namely Norway, Switzerland, Morocco and Belgium, will each get $19 million; teams ranked 9th to 16th will receive $15 million each; teams ranked 17th to 32nd will get $11 million each; teams ranked 33rd to 48th will receive $9 million each. It is reported that a total of $655 million in prize money has been distributed for this World Cup, marking a 50% increase compared to the total prize money of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. (JIEMIAN NEWS)
Wang Ning, Founder of Pop Mart, Meets with Investor Duan Yongping in New York
Recently, renowned investor Duan Yongping posted an update on social media, sharing that he met offline with Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Mart (09992.HK), in New York. The two visited the New York stop of the Labubu 10th Anniversary Global Tour Exhibition together, taking photos in front of the IP exhibits. Later, they attended the World Cup final together, wearing the jerseys of the Spain and Argentina national teams respectively, and took a group photo with Labubu soccer-themed pendants as souvenirs. Duan Yongping has been building his position in Pop Mart since this year and is currently the second-largest shareholder of Pop Mart. (The Paper)
Argentina faces potential sanctions for turning its back on the podium, snubbing rivals during the award ceremony and refusing interviews
On July 19 local time, the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico concluded with Spain defeating Argentina 1-0 in the final. However, multiple post-match actions by the Argentina team have sparked widespread controversy. When the final whistle blew, chaos broke out on the pitch: Argentina player Paredes grabbed Garcia by the throat and tackled Gavi to the ground, resulting in an immediate red card after the match. During the award ceremony, as Spain lifted the trophy and their player Rodri received the tournament's Golden Ball award, the entire Argentina squad turned their backs. Some fans claimed the team faced the stands to comfort their supporters instead of the podium. According to Xinhua News Agency, after the ceremony, the full Argentina squad left the stadium immediately without taking any interviews in the mixed zone. Dozens of players walked straight to the team bus past over a hundred reporters who had waited for hours, briefly triggering a disturbance. (China Newsweek)
King of the United Kingdom Appoints Burnham as the New Prime Minister
On local time July 20, Andy Burnham, the newly elected leader of the UK's ruling Labour Party, met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. He was formally appointed by the King as the new Prime Minister and authorized to form a new cabinet. Shortly after, Burnham will deliver his first address as British Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. (CCTV News)
SpaceX Delays 13th Starship Test Flight to July 23
According to local reports on July 19, the American aerospace company SpaceX announced that it plans to make another attempt to launch the Starship rocket on July 23. On July 16, SpaceX's originally scheduled 13th Starship test flight that day was automatically aborted during the ignition phase because some engines failed to start. This was supposed to be SpaceX's first launch mission after its public listing in June this year. After the test flight was canceled, SpaceX's market value once plummeted by approximately $100 billion. (CCTV News)
Tickets for Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and Beijing-Shanghai Railway Can Be Reserved 60 Days in Advance
On July 20, the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and Beijing-Shanghai Railway launched a new pilot train ticket reservation service, allowing passengers to reserve tickets for travel dates between the 60th day and the 17th day before departure. Passengers can access the "Reservation Ticketing" section on the 12306 mobile app to book tickets for the period 60 to 17 days prior to departure. The 12306 railway system will process and confirm these reservation orders between the 20th day and the 16th day before the train departs. The transition period runs from July 20 to August 29, during which passengers can sequentially reserve tickets for travel on or after September 15. Starting from August 30, the 60-day to 17-day pre-departure reservation service will be available on a regular basis. (JIEMIAN News)
Qiangyi Co., Ltd. Plunges: Breakup Fee Nears 6 Billion Yuan
On July 20, affected by the divorce of its actual controller, the share price of Qiangyi Co., Ltd., a semiconductor company on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, plummeted. As of press time, the company's share price had dropped by more than 16%, closing at 355.01 yuan per share, with a total market value of about 45.8 billion yuan. In terms of news, on the evening of July 17, Qiangyi Co., Ltd. (688809.SH) issued an announcement on equity changes, disclosing that ZHOU Ming, the controlling shareholder, actual controller and chairman of the company, and JIANG Chunlan had officially completed the divorce procedures and divided their equity in accordance with the divorce agreement, which was only 200 days after the company's listing. Calculated based on the closing price of the trading day before the announcement, the market value of the equity divided this time is about 5.95 billion yuan, nearly 6 billion yuan, making it the most expensive divorce case involving an actual controller in the A-share market since 2026. (JIEMIAN News)
HKEx Responds to Consideration of Extending Stock Trading Hours
Market rumors claim that "The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong is considering extending stock trading hours and canceling the lunch break." In response, HKEx stated that The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong has always been committed to enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international financial center. It is currently studying a number of measures to improve market convenience, including extending trading hours. However, the top priority at present is to study the proposal to extend the trading hours of the derivatives market, rather than the stock trading hours. (China News Finance)
Boeing Projects Global Civil Aviation Services Market to Reach $4.9 Trillion Over Next 20 Years
Boeing released a report on July 18, stating that the global civil aviation services market is projected to reach $4.9 trillion over the next 20 years. Meanwhile, the industry will need to add more than 2.4 million new civil aviation professionals to support fleet expansion and the development of the aviation sector. The report estimates that by 2045, the global civil aviation industry will require approximately 674,000 new pilots, 728,000 maintenance technicians, and 1,023,000 cabin crew members. Around two-thirds of this talent demand will be for replacing retiring personnel, while the remaining one-third will support the growth of the global fleet. (Jiemian News)
Musk Says Tesla FSD Will Mimic Driving Styles
On July 20, Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) software is evolving from the previous "one-size-fits-all" driving system that applied a single universal solution to all users, to a truly personalized driving system. Recently, a Tesla FSD user posted a complaint on the X platform that the vehicle frequently exits the high-occupancy lane or express lane at inappropriate positions, actively leaving the efficient left lane to merge into congested traffic even while the far-left adjacent lane remains completely unobstructed, which is extremely frustrating. In response, Musk stated: "The vehicle will begin to remember your specific manual intervention behaviors and make adjustments based on each individual's personal preferences." (Sina Finance)
Xiaolongkan Hot Pot Fined for Violations
Recently, the Market Regulation Bureau of Shandong Province released a list of typical food safety violation cases. A Xiaolongkan Hot Pot restaurant in Xuecheng District, Zaozhuang, was found to have made false and misleading commercial promotions for multiple dishes, violating Article 9 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, and was therefore issued an administrative penalty. According to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, the outlet was fined a total of 3,000 yuan. The official notice states that in April this year, the Xuecheng District Market Regulation Bureau of Zaozhuang conducted a law enforcement inspection of the Xiaolongkan Hot Pot restaurant in Xuecheng District, and found that the dishes labeled on in-store promotional boards and ordering pages as "Freshly Cut Tender Beef", "Freshly Cut Fatty Beef Platter" and "Freshly Cut Beef Shoulder Tendon" were all made of frozen prepared meat products rather than fresh beef; the dish claimed as "Prairie Beef" used ingredients sourced from Binzhou City, Shandong Province; and the dish promoted as "Nourishing Black Chicken Rolls" was a mixed meat roll of chicken and black chicken (with "chicken" listed as the first ingredient on the food label). (JIEMIAN NEWS)
Europe Faces Critical Diesel Shortage, Crack Spikes to All-Time High
Morgan Stanley noted that amid the confluence of multiple major supply challenges, Europe is mired in a severe diesel supply crunch, with regional refining profit margins hitting an all-time record and inventory levels continuing to decline. According to its observations, the diesel refining profit in Northwest Europe — namely the crack spread — has surged to a record level. Local inventories are expected to keep decreasing starting from August, falling to a low of around 299 million barrels by November, which will mark the lowest level for the same period since 2015. (CLS)
Wus Printed Circuit: Plans to Grant No More Than 4.8624 Million Restricted Shares at a Price of 155.94 Yuan Per Share
36Kr learned that Wus Printed Circuit has released the draft of its 2026 A-share Restricted Stock Incentive Plan, planning to grant no more than 4.8624 million restricted shares to incentive targets, accounting for approximately 0.49% of the company's total share capital. Among them, 4.6624 million shares will be granted for the first time at a grant price of 155.94 yuan per share, covering a total of 1545 incentive recipients including middle-level management personnel and core technical (business) backbones. The performance assessment targets are: taking 2025 as the base year, the net profit or revenue growth rate in 2026 shall be no less than 40% (benchmark) or 50% (target), no less than 96% or 125% in 2027, and no less than 174.40% or 237.50% in 2028.
Citi: Downgrades South Korean Equities, Upgrades Chinese Equities
According to the July 20 report, Citi has downgraded its rating on South Korean equities from "overweight" to "tactical neutral" in its emerging markets asset allocation, while upgrading Chinese equities to "overweight". The adjustment is driven by the volatile trading conditions in the South Korean market, and the expectation that the Chinese market will benefit as this year's rally, currently led by a handful of artificial intelligence leaders, is set to spread to a broader range of sectors. Citi strategists noted in the report, "If the macro environment remains favorable, including easing geopolitical risks, there is room for the market rally to extend across a wider scope." (Yicai Global)
Morgan Stanley Emerges as Wall Street's Top Bank for AI Debt Trading
Morgan Stanley has risen to become the dominant force on Wall Street structuring the financing behind the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, pioneering new debt and equity financing models that have channeled hundreds of billions of dollars into large-scale data center construction. According to industry executives, the bank has established itself as the leading advisor since last year, heading up the largest and most innovative AI infrastructure financing transactions. (Sina Finance)
Honda and GAC Sign Joint Venture Renewal Agreement
36Kr learned that Honda China announced that in July, Honda and GAC officially signed a strategic renewal agreement for their GAC Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. joint venture project. While maintaining the existing equity ratio unchanged, the cooperation period has been extended to 2038.
The three major U.S. stock indexes closed lower collectively, while popular Chinese concept stocks rallied across the board
36Kr learned that at the close on July 20, the three major U.S. stock indexes fell collectively: the Nasdaq declined by 0.05%, the S&P 500 Index dropped by 0.19%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.59%. Large-cap tech stocks traded mixed: Tesla and Apple fell by more than 2%, Meta posted a slight decline; Intel and Microsoft rose by over 2%, Google and Amazon gained more than 1%, while Nvidia edged up slightly. Popular Chinese concept stocks rallied across the board: Alibaba climbed by more than 4%, JD and iQIYI rose by over 3%, Pinduoduo, NetEase and Bilibili increased by more than 2%, while XPeng Inc. fell by over 2% and NIO dropped by more than 1%.
IPO in Progress
YMTC Speeds Up IPO Process, Oversized 31-Member Team Completes First Phase of Tutoring
Following the launch of new share subscription for Changxin Technology (688825.SH) in mid-July, the IPO process of YMTC, another leading domestic memory manufacturer, has also entered an accelerated track. The latest tutoring progress disclosed on the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission recently shows that YMTC, with CITIC Securities (600030.SH) and CITIC Construction Investment (601066.SH) jointly acting as tutoring institutions, has completed its first phase of tutoring work. The two brokerages jointly dispatched an oversized team of 31 members to carry out on-site work, a scale roughly equivalent to the 34-member tutoring lineup for Changxin Technology's IPO, which indirectly confirms the project's complexity and strategic-level importance. The two "twin stars" of domestic memory have successively advanced into the capital market, marking that the securitization process of core domestic semiconductor assets is being fully accelerated.
Investment and Financing
AI Software Development Platform Emergent Completes Series C Financing at $1.5 Billion Valuation
On July 20, AI software development platform Emergent announced the completion of a $130 million Series C financing round. This round was led by Creaegis, co-led by MNIVentures-Claypond Capital and Sentinel Global, with participation from Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator. Following this latest financing, Emergent has reached a $1.5 billion valuation, earning unicorn status within one year of its public launch. (Sina Finance)
Meshy Completes Nearly $400 Million Series B Financing
36Kr learned that Meshy announced today that it has completed a nearly $400 million Series B financing, with a post-investment valuation exceeding 10 billion RMB. This round of financing is co-invested by institutional investors and strategic investors including IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China, and Monolith Capital. Existing shareholders such as GraniteAsia, HSG, BAI Capital, and Source Code Capital have made over-subscribed follow-on investments to continuously increase their stakes. This marks the largest single-round financing in the AI 3D sector to date, setting new records for both single-round financing scale and valuation. The proceeds from this round of financing will be mainly used for the R&D of AI multimodal models and global market expansion.
Boton Photonics Completes Over RMB 100 Million Series B+ Financing
36Kr learned that Boton Photonics has closed its Series B+ financing round with proceeds exceeding RMB 100 million. The investors in this round include EDA Capital, CSC Capital, Dawn Venture, Friend Times, and Nankong Fund, with IO Capital acting as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds from this round will be used to recruit high-end talents, develop new products, and accelerate investment in integrated solutions, market promotion, and production capacity construction targeting key industry sectors that are showing explosive growth trends.
"Soloco" Completes a Multi-Million RMB Seed Round Financing
"Soloco", an AI-native organizational operating system, has recently closed a multi-million RMB seed round financing. This round is led by Atom Ventures, and the raised funds will be mainly used for talent recruitment and core product R&D. It is reported that the company's core team members come from institutions and enterprises including NASA, Huawei, ByteDance, as well as top universities such as Columbia University, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Oxford and Tsinghua University, covering fields including graph theory, multi-agent orchestration, and AI infrastructure. The product will first target the operational scenarios of local zero-staff companies.
Cool Products
Unitree UnifoLM-OminiA-0.3 Launched, Supporting Full-Modal Interactive Understanding
36Kr learned that on July 20, Unitree Robotics released Unitree UnifoLM-OminiA-0.3, a single model that coordinates multiple home health and elderly care tasks, supports full-modal interactive understanding, operates fully autonomously throughout the process, and features stable execution with strong anti-interference capabilities.
Unitree Robotics Releases Unitree UnifoLM-OminiA-0.3
Edited by | Wang Yixuan