Krypton Evening News | Moonshot Kimi has completed its Series F financing of over 3.5 billion US dollars, and its post-money valuation has risen to 35 billion US dollars; the short position of SpaceX exceeds 26 billion US dollars, with book profits of over 7 billion US dollars.

Big Companies:

Midea Group: Driven by the ongoing extreme high temperature across Europe, local demand for air conditioners has exploded. Midea's two air conditioner manufacturing bases in Wuhu and Guangzhou have received a total of 200,000 new orders from Europe within one month

36Kr learned that Midea Group stated on an interactive platform that affected by the sustained extreme high temperature in Europe, local demand for air conditioners has surged. The two Midea air conditioner bases in Wuhu and Guangzhou have added a total of 200,000 new European orders in one month. The PortaSplit mobile split air conditioner has received more than 160,000 new orders since June. In July, 20,000 units out of the 30,000 urgent mobile air conditioner orders from France have been shipped.

 New Oriental: Net revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 reached 1.53 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 23.0%

36Kr learned that New Oriental released its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year ended May 31, 2026. The net revenue of the fourth fiscal quarter was 1.53 billion US dollars, up 23.0% year on year; the operating profit of the fourth fiscal quarter was 85.8 million US dollars, compared with a loss of 8.7 million US dollars in the same period of the previous year.

Danaos AgentOne "Four AI Employees" Officially Go Live, Covering Four Major Scenarios of Sales, Customer Service, Operation and Marketing

On July 29, four AI employees of Danaos AgentOne were officially put into service, covering four scenarios of AI sales, AI customer service, AI operation and AI marketing respectively. Enterprises can also build exclusive scenario-specific X-Employees together with the Danaos FDE (Frontline Deployment Engineer) team based on the capabilities of AgentOne according to their own business needs. "Danaos AgentOne is oriented by business results, takes enterprise data as the foundation, and uses post benchmarks as presets, truly helping enterprises achieve growth in the AI era," said Peng Xinyu, CEO of Danaos of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group.

UMC: To build new wafer fab in Tainan to meet AI demand

UMC announced on July 29 that it will expand the cleanroom capacity of its Singapore facility, and simultaneously launch the shell construction of a new plant in Tainan Science Park. This capacity expansion plan is designed to meet the near-term demand of customers. UMC stated that it will build a brand-new wafer fab in Taiwan as the base for the upcoming Phase 7 (P7) and Phase 8 (P8) facilities. The new Tainan plant will expand the company's footprint in the advanced packaging sector. (Jiemian)

MoonShot Kimi has completed Series F financing of more than 3.5 billion US dollars, and its post-money valuation has risen to 35 billion US dollars

MoonShot Kimi has closed its Series F financing with a fundraising amount of over 3.5 billion US dollars, pushing its post-money valuation to 35 billion US dollars. As the raised amount is more than 3 times the original target, this round of financing was closed ahead of schedule. The previously planned Series G (Pre-IPO round) which was scheduled to start in August has been launched in advance, with the pre-money valuation climbing to 50 billion US dollars. (Financial Associated Press)

Meibang Co., Ltd.: Net profit in the first half of the year reached 51.0674 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 41.32%

36Kr learned that Meibang Co., Ltd. disclosed its semi-annual report. The company realized an operating revenue of 555 million yuan in the first half of the year, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.34%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 51.0674 million yuan, up 41.32% year on year; and the basic earnings per share was 0.38 yuan.

Hermès' Q2 sales grew by 7%

French luxury group Hermès recently released its second-quarter performance, showing that the company's sales in this quarter reached 4.1 billion euros, with a 7% year-on-year increase at constant exchange rates, which is in line with market expectations. From the perspective of regional markets, all markets except the Middle East achieved growth in the three months ending at the end of June. (Sina Finance)

BMW plans to lay off thousands of employees in Germany and cut costs through a voluntary separation program

According to reports, the BMW Group plans to offer voluntary severance packages to thousands of employees in Germany as part of the company's cost reduction and competitiveness improvement efforts. BMW plans to cut about 8,000 positions globally, most of which will come from the German market. This voluntary separation program is mainly open to employees in R&D, product planning and other corporate functional departments, and production line workers are not covered. The company also plans to streamline management levels in the coming months. The program is expected to start in October and last until 2027. (Sina Finance)

New Products:

The first domestic OLED TDDI chip achieves mass production

36Kr learned that recently, ICNA3611, the first China's independently developed OLED Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) chip developed by Chipone Technology, has realized large-scale mass production in mainstream models of well-known domestic brands.

Investment and Financing:

"Zhigu Tianchu" Raises Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Financing Led by China Merchants Ventures

Recently, Zhigu Tianchu, an enterprise focusing on intelligent cooking robots, officially announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing of nearly 100 million yuan. This round of financing is led by China Merchants Ventures, with Leap Capital participating as a follow-on investor, and existing shareholders including Yunqi Capital and Qifu Capital making over-allocated additional investments. After the financing is completed, the company will continue to promote the R&D of embodied AI, and accelerate the global deployment of Chinese and pan-Asian catering businesses.

Today's Viewpoint:

General Office of the Ministry of Commerce: Further Step Up Efforts to Promote the Construction of 15-Minute Convenient Living Circles in Urban Areas

36Kr has learned that the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce has issued a work notice on further stepping up efforts to promote the construction of 15-minute convenient living circles in urban areas. The notice requires all localities to accelerate work progress, define the total number of convenient living circles to be built, clarify the annual construction volume, and complete the established target of building 10,000 convenient living circles nationwide by 2026 on the premise of ensuring quality in accordance with relevant planning arrangements. All localities should carry out a wide range of people-benefiting promotion activities relying on the convenient living circles, promote trendy domestic products, high-quality foreign trade products, local premium products and world-famous brands to enter communities, set up exhibition areas and booths in accordance with laws and regulations, and enrich community consumption scenarios. Local authorities should encourage entities participating in the old-for-new home appliance scheme and new purchase subsidy policies for digital and smart products to hold publicity and promotion activities in communities, and guide production, sales, platform, after-sales service and recycling enterprises to set up convenient service points in communities. It is also required to encourage automobile manufacturing, circulation and recycling enterprises to publicize the old-for-new automobile policy in communities, and carry out activities such as automobile exhibition and sales, test drive experience in communities with qualified conditions.

Other Noteworthy News:

Foreign Ministry Responds to US Imposed Import Restrictions on Advanced Robots

In response to the announcement by the US Federal Communications Commission to impose import restrictions on advanced robots manufactured in foreign countries, including humanoid robots in which Chinese parties hold a dominant position, Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular press conference on July 29 that China has always firmly opposed the US side's generalization of the national security concept to suppress Chinese enterprises. Protectionism cannot enhance the competitiveness of the United States, but will only harm the interests of US enterprises and consumers. China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese enterprises. (Xinhua News Agency)

Bank of England Reportedly Assesses Prime Brokers' Exposure to Asian Stocks

On July 29, according to reports, the Bank of England is assessing the exposure of investment banks operating in London to Asian stocks, to reduce the concentration risks linked to a small number of artificial intelligence-related companies. The regulator is reportedly evaluating how banks provide financing for hedge funds and other institutions' Asian investments through their UK businesses. Driven by the AI boom, a small number of Asian companies have attracted massive hedge fund capital inflows, including SK Hynix and TSMC. For some banks, the Asia region may contribute more revenue from such financing businesses than Europe. (Jiemian)