8:00 36Kr Briefing丨Apple moves to restrict "shake-to-redirect" ads; Wang Huiwen says he wants to form a consortium to acquire Xibei: He is very fond of this brand; Meta is testing having real people make phone calls on behalf of Muse, which has sparked internal privacy disputes

Today's Hotspot Guide

Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe and other companies have collectively cut prices to retain enterprise customers

Reports say Doubao has started downsizing its dialogue team

Xianyu: The "obscenity involving minors" claim is untrue

The undergraduate enrollment quota of "Double First-Class" universities will expand by another 76,000 in the next four years

Wang Xingxing has been listed on Fortune's 40 Under 40 Business Elite List again, while Zhang Xue, Yao Shunyu and others are selected for the first time

TOP3 Major News

Apple Moves to Restrict "Shake to Open" Ads

According to Jiemian News, a large number of iPhone users have reported that Apple has quietly added a new setting option named "Restrict Motion Data" for users in the Chinese region in the newly released iOS 27.2 Beta 2 test system. This feature is located in the path of "Settings - Privacy & Security - Motion & Fitness". After enabling this function, users can manually select the applications that need to be restricted. Apps added to the restricted list will no longer have access to motion sensor data such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, thus completely cutting off the trigger source of "shake-to-launch" splash ads at the underlying system level. Actual tests by reporters show that after the iPhone is upgraded to iOS 27.2 Beta 2, users must log in with a Chinese mainland Apple ID to see the "Restrict Motion Data" option in Settings and turn on this function. That means this is a user experience protection measure "exclusively customized" by Apple for the Chinese market, and the feature is bound to the account rather than the device. (Cailian Press)

Huiwen Wang speaks out: Is anyone looking to form a consortium to acquire Xibei? I'm quite a fan of Xibei

On September 23, reporters noticed that Huiwen Wang posted on the social platform "Jike": I heard that Xibei is going to close down. Is anyone looking to form a consortium to acquire Xibei? I'm quite a fan of Xibei. I don't care if they use pre-prepared dishes or not, their food is strictly hygienic and I also think the taste is pretty good. Public information shows that Huiwen Wang is the co-founder of Meituan. He retired from Meituan in 2020 and founded Light Years Beyond in 2023 to enter the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) large models. In 2024, Xing Wang, founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Meituan, announced in an internal letter that Huiwen Wang will serve as a part-time consultant for Meituan. (Yicai Global)

Meta Tests Human Operators to Make Calls on Behalf of Muse, Sparking Internal Privacy Controversy

IT Home reported on September 23 that according to internal Meta posts seen by Reuters, Meta has been testing a "human concierge" service for its newly launched personal AI assistant Muse, where human contractors quietly handle some calls placed via the digital assistant in the background. With the calling function, users can instruct Muse to call businesses in the United States, talk to the recipients, and complete tasks such as booking hair appointments, checking whether stores have products in stock, or inquiring about quotations from different contractors. These internal posts show that some employees have raised privacy concerns about having humans process these calls, warning that this practice may lead to sensitive information being inadvertently shared with call center contractors. (IT Home)

AI Cutting-Edge Frontiers

OpenAI to Let Third-Party Entities Participate in AI Model Safety Assessment at an Earlier Stage

OpenAI plans to enable third-party entities to assess safety risks at an earlier phase of the artificial intelligence (AI) model development cycle. This move is intended to continue the efforts to address concerns surrounding the potential harms of AI. The ChatGPT developer will announce in a blog post on Tuesday that it plans to arrange for external entities to carry out technical safety assessments throughout the training, evaluation and launch process of new AI models. OpenAI also outlined the priorities it believes are required for the effective implementation of such assessments, including "robust independent mechanisms, scientific rigor, sound safety practices and clear accountability." (Sina Finance)

Google launches Gemini 3.8 series text-to-speech models

According to news on September 23, Google announced that two brand new text-to-speech models have been added to the Gemini family, namely Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS. Users can expand from the original 30 native voices to an infinite voice library. The specific functions of the models include: after selecting the preferred voice, both TTS models allow users to precisely control the performance manner of each line of the script. (IT Home)

Qwen Releases Qwen-Audio-3.1, Cuts Prices Across the Entire Qwen-Audio Voice Model Lineup

36Kr has learned that Qwen has officially launched the Qwen-Audio-3.1 series of large speech models. This upgrade not only comprehensively evolves the three core models of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS) and real-time speech interaction, but also officially releases the brand-new audio creation model Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Next and audio understanding model Qwen-Audio-3.1-ASR-Next. The simultaneous launch of five new speech models forms a complete audio capability stack covering "Understanding - Generation - Interaction - Creation". To further reduce the usage cost for users, the prices of all Qwen-Audio speech models have been lowered, among which the price of TTS is reduced by about 70%, the price of Realtime is cut by around 85%, and the price of ASR drops by 95%.

Major Companies / Key Events

Xianyu: The claim of "pornography involving minors" is untrue information

On September 23, Xianyu announced its investigation results: after a comprehensive inspection, no pornographic information was found in the publicly displayed content on the platform, and there is no pornography content involving minors at all; the non-compliant chat screenshots mentioned in recent media reports have been verified to be from other platforms, which did not happen on Xianyu. Xianyu has filed a report on the relevant incident with the public security organ. The platform has zero tolerance for illegal and rule-breaking traffic diversion activities using Xianyu, and will never allow any information and incidents that harm minors to occur. The investigation results state that Xianyu strictly manages and controls publicly displayed information in accordance with laws and regulations. In response to the content reported by the media, Xianyu has carried out multiple rounds of self-inspection across the entire platform, no pornographic information has been found in the publicly displayed content on the platform, and there is no pornography content involving minors at all. (Jiemian News)

Report Says Doubao Starts Downsizing Its Dialogue Team

On September 22, according to media reports, Doubao's General Session team is undergoing headcount reduction, with the scale expected to be cut by roughly half. The personnel adjustment is promoted by Zhao Qi, the person in charge of Doubao. The report states that the team previously had around 50 members, once being the largest team within Doubao, which is mainly responsible for the dialogue (Chat) product capabilities of Doubao, including work such as strategy and evaluation. After this adjustment, some staff will be transferred to teams including Doubao's commercialization team and Feishu, while the rest will be laid off. The report also mentions that the Product Posttrain-Chat team in charge of the dialogue direction is also downsizing. (Sina Tech)

Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe and other enterprises cut prices collectively to retain corporate clients

Software enterprises and cloud service providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Figma, Workday and others are launching new discount plans for AI products for clients and consulting partners. Clients who have been troubled by previous pricing model adjustments are already exhausted by such changes. Previously, clients increased their budgets to purchase products such as Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, while cutting other expenditures to pay for this new additional cost. Nowadays, enterprises have become more prudent when selecting AI tools. Software vendors' new practice of charging AI service fees based on usage volume or the number of completed tasks may push up costs, which has caused widespread complaints from a large number of enterprises. (Sina Finance)

Wang Xingxing Reappears on Fortune's 40 Under 40 Business Elite List, Zhang Xue, Yao Shunyu and Others Make Their Debut on the List

On September 22, Fortune China released its 2026 "40 Under 40 Chinese Business Elite" list, with a total of 40 young business leaders selected. 36-year-old Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics, was selected again this year after his first appearance on the list in 2023. 28-year-old Yao Shunyu, Chief AI Scientist of Tencent, and 33-year-old Lin Junyang, founder of Pragma Tech, were selected for their outstanding achievements in the AI R&D field. 39-year-old Zhang Xue is also on the list as the founder and CEO of Zhang Xue Motorcycle. (Ifeng Tech)

Yan Wentao Officially Joins DeepSeek as CFO

According to 21 Finance, Yan Wentao, former partner of GL Ventures, has officially joined DeepSeek and taken the position of CFO. Public information shows that this key executive selected by Liang Wenfeng was born in 1991 and graduated from Fudan University. From 2013 to 2020, he successively worked at Tencent Investment and H Capital. He joined GL Ventures in 2020 and was later promoted to partner. The representative projects Yan Wentao participated in investing in in the past include ByteDance, Zhipu, MiniMax, Xiaohongshu, Webull, J&T Express, etc. (21 Finance)

Musk Predicts the Future World: There May Be 100 Billion Humanoid Robots in 20 Years

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, received an exclusive interview from CCTV Finance. When talking about robots, he envisioned a bright future: everyone can have their own dedicated robots, which can take care of elderly parents, look after children, act as one-on-one private tutors for kids, and undertake all kinds of work. In the future world, one person can control hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of physical robots and digital intelligences. "My prediction is that there will be at least 1 billion humanoid robots within 10 years; maybe 10 billion in 15 years; and possibly 100 billion in 20 years." (CCTV Finance)

Apple Responds to the "Green Ghosting" Issue of iPhone 18 Pro Camera

According to the news on September 23, the recently launched iPhone 18 Pro series has been exposed by many first batch of users to have a "green ghosting" problem recently. The main manifestation is that weird green patches or halos appear in the photos or videos taken, while the camera preview screen and the live video itself look normal. Based on feedback from multiple users, the occurrence of "green ghosting" or "green patches" is usually related to specific conditions: it mostly appears in indoor, dim light or warm light environments; it is more likely to occur when shooting with 2x or higher focal length, while it is basically normal when using 1x focal length; it is related to the variable aperture of the new iPhone, and the problem is more obvious when shooting with the large f/1.48 aperture. Regarding the "green ghosting" problem when shooting with iPhone 18 Pro, the reporter consulted Apple's official customer service as a consumer. The staff told Jiemian News: "We have not received relevant feedback from users at present, there is no announcement information about this on the official website, please take the information on the official website as the standard." (Jiemian News)

CATL's market value has evaporated by 700 billion yuan, with its share price pulling back more than 35% from the highest point of the year

On September 23, CATL (300750.SZ) closed at 301.00 yuan, down 1.19%, with a trading turnover of 7.444 billion yuan, a trading volume of 247,400 lots, and a dynamic P/E ratio of 16.09. In the Hong Kong stock market, CATL H shares (03750.HK) closed at HK$511.50, up 0.89%, with a total market capitalization of HK$2.37 trillion. Since hitting the intra-year high of 467.34 yuan in intraday trading on May 7, 2026, the maximum pullback of CATL's A-shares has exceeded 35%, and the total market capitalization of its A+H shares has shrunk by more than 700 billion yuan from the peak, once falling below 300 yuan to hit a new low in nearly a year. During the same period, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.97% and the ChiNext Index fell 10.73%, making CATL underperform the broader market. To boost market confidence, the company spent 200 million yuan, 947 million yuan and 456 million yuan on share repurchases on September 11, 16 and 18 respectively, but the effect was minimal. As of September 18, the total repurchase amount reached about 1.6 billion yuan, which was only about 8% of the minimum required repurchase amount of 20 billion yuan. (Securities Times)

Nvidia-backed Starcloud aims to become the first team to mine cryptocurrency in space

A startup backed by Nvidia's investment plans to build Bitcoin mining facilities in space by the end of 2026. After Starcloud's second spacecraft enters orbit later this year, it will activate the ASIC miner dedicated to cryptocurrency mining. Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud, recently claimed in an interview: "We will be the first team to mine Bitcoin in space." (Sina Finance)

China Becomes Germany's Largest Source of Imported Automobiles

Data released by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany on September 21 shows that in the first seven months of 2026, Germany's automobile exports dropped to about 2 million units, down 4.0% year on year; the export value decreased by 8.9% to 73.5 billion euros (equivalent to about 564.705 billion yuan at the current exchange rate). During the same period, Germany imported about 1.3 million new vehicles, up 16.0% year on year, with the import value rising 12.6% to 34.9 billion euros (equivalent to about 268.139 billion yuan at the current exchange rate).

Notably, China has for the first time become Germany's largest source of imported automobiles. In the first seven months of this year, Germany imported around 175,000 passenger cars from China, surging 120.9% year on year and accounting for 13.8% of Germany's total new vehicle imports. This is the first time that China has taken the top spot in this statistical category, while China only ranked fourth in the previous year. (IT Home)

The People's Bank of China issues RMB 60 billion worth of 6-month central bank bills in Hong Kong, with a winning interest rate of 1.37%

36Kr has learned that the People's Bank of China has issued RMB 60 billion of 6-month RMB central bank bills in Hong Kong, with a winning bid rate of 1.37%.

South Korea plans to reduce its reliance on Middle East crude oil to 50% by 2035

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that South Korea plans to lower its dependence on Middle East crude oil to 50% by 2035 to achieve diversified energy supply. The ministry stated that South Korea is highly dependent on oil imports, 70% of its oil supply came from the Middle East in 2025, and most of the oil is transported through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the updated strategy, South Korea has adjusted its crude oil reserve plan, targeting to increase the reserve volume by about 20 million barrels by 2030. (Sina Finance)

Intel and BOE are continuously ramping up their layout in the glass substrate sector

On September 22, Chen Yanshun, Chairman of BOE, announced at the 2026 BOE Global Innovation Partner Conference that the company's R&D investment will exceed 80 billion yuan in the next five years, and its procurement expenditure will exceed 800 billion yuan. He clarified that the investment plans for two mass production lines of glass-based perovskite devices and glass-based packaging substrates will be finalized within the next year. Not only BOE, all players in the industry have taken active actions to deploy the glass substrate track. According to the report of Taiwan Economic Daily this week, Intel is evaluating in-depth cooperation with AUO, a leading optoelectronic display panel manufacturer, to promote advanced packaging technology collaboration centered on Micro LED and glass substrates. (Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily)

The number of undergraduate enrollments at "Double First-Class" universities will increase by 76,000 in the next four years

Guo Peng, Director-General of the Department of Development and Planning of the Ministry of Education, introduced at the themed press conference of the "Good Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan" series held by the State Council Information Office on September 23 that the number of undergraduate enrollments at "Double First-Class" universities will see a further expansion of 76,000 from 2027 to 2030. (21st Century Business Herald)

Innolight: Repurchased 856,980 shares on September 23 at a total cost of RMB 795 million

36Kr learned from the announcement of Innolight that on September 23, 2026, the company repurchased 856,980 A-shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, accounting for 0.077% of the issued shares (excluding treasury shares) before this transaction. The repurchase price range was RMB 921.85 to RMB 935 per share, with a total transaction value of RMB 795 million. The repurchased shares are intended to be held as treasury shares. As of September 23, 2026, the company's issued shares (excluding treasury shares) stood at 1,109,581,578, treasury shares at 5,653,063, and the total number of issued shares at 1,115,234,641.

Major Position Adjustments Made in Trump's Account

On September 22 local time, disclosure documents show that the account under Trump's name ushered in large-scale position adjustments in July, with at least 43.6 million US dollars of purchases and at least 35.6 million US dollars of sales. On July 20, the account sold stocks of Microsoft (MSFT.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) ranging from 5 million to 25 million US dollars respectively, which was the largest single transaction of the month. On the same day, it sold stocks of Oracle (ORCL.US) ranging from 1 million to 5 million US dollars, and bought stocks of NVIDIA (NVDA.US) ranging from 500,010 to 1 million US dollars. Three days later, the account slightly replenished the positions of Microsoft and Amazon. In addition, Trump also traded relevant targets of Musk's SpaceX (SPCX.US) and Tesla (TSLA.US) in that month.

SoftBank is accepting subscriptions for a total of $10 billion in bonds to raise funds for its investment in OpenAI

According to a term sheet, SoftBank Group is accepting investor subscriptions for a $10 billion bond issuance program to help fund its investment in OpenAI. The term sheet shows that SoftBank plans to raise $1 billion through the issuance of 3.5-year bonds, $4.5 billion through 5.5-year bonds, and $4.5 billion through 7.5-year bonds. The term sheet shows that potential investors have been informed that the indicative yield range for the 3.5-year bonds is 8.75% to 8.875%, 9.375% to 9.5% for the 5.5-year bonds, and 9.75% to 9.875% for the 10.5-year bonds. (Sina Finance)

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed lower across the board, and most popular Chinese concept stocks posted broad declines

36Kr learned that as of the close of trading on September 23, the three major U.S. stock indexes dropped collectively: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68%, the Nasdaq fell 1.13%, and the S&P 500 Index fell 0.75%. Most large-cap technology stocks saw declines while a few rose: Google, SanDisk and SK Hynix fell by more than 3%, Amazon fell by more than 2%, NVIDIA, Netflix and Intel fell by more than 1%, and Apple posted a slight drop; Meta rose by more than 1%, while Microsoft and Tesla edged up slightly. Popular Chinese concept stocks generally fell: Alibaba fell by more than 4%, Futu Holdings and Tiger Brokers fell by more than 3%, Baidu fell by more than 2%, and iQiyi, Weibo, Bilibili, NetEase and Pinduoduo all fell by more than 1%.

Ongoing IPO Process

Kejian Co., Ltd. has successfully passed the IPO review at the Beijing Stock Exchange

36Kr has learned that the Listing Committee of the Beijing Stock Exchange held its 86th review meeting in 2026. The deliberation result shows that Kejian Polymer Materials (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. meets the requirements for issuance, listing and information disclosure.

China Rare Nonferrous Metals: Its Associated Company Dabaoshan Has Submitted Listing Application to Hong Kong Stock Exchange

36Kr has learned from the announcement of China Rare Nonferrous Metals that Guangdong Guangsheng Dabaoshan Copper Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dabaoshan Company"), the associated subsidiary of the company, submitted the application for initial public offering of overseas listed shares (H shares) and listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 22. Dabaoshan Company is mainly engaged in the exploration, mining, ore processing, comprehensive utilization and sales of copper, sulfur and other polymetallic mineral resources. It owns the largest open-pit mine in South China and supporting professional beneficiation facilities for copper and sulfur, with core products including copper concentrate, sulfur concentrate and pyrrhotite concentrate. As of the disclosure date of this announcement, the company holds 40% equity of Dabaoshan Company.

Investment and Financing

"Puxi Optoelectronics" completes hundreds of millions of RMB Series C financing

36Kr learned that Puxi Optoelectronics, an enterprise specializing in special power chips and systems for extreme environments, has recently closed its Series C financing of hundreds of millions of RMB. The new institutional investors include 10 state-owned and industrial capital entities such as Zhejiang Jiahe Changyue, Chengdu Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (Chengdu Kechuangtou), Shanghai Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Industry Investment Fund, Shandong Caijin Series Funds, Guizhou Guochuang and others.

"Oceanalpha" completes hundreds of millions of yuan in Series C financing, with the total financing amount reaching 300 million yuan within half a year

36Kr learned that Oceanalpha, a marine surface embodied intelligence company, recently closed a Series C financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, and the total financing scale in the past half year has reached 300 million yuan. This round is led by Xi'an High-tech Investment, with Yuanhe Puhua and Sanyuan Capital participating as co-investors. The raised funds will be mainly used for the technical iteration of surface marine physical AI, scenario expansion of APAS, the universal brain system for vessels, as well as the product advancement of C-end water recreation business.

AI Communications Infrastructure Firm Bird.com Completes $450 Million Financing

On September 23, the AI communications infrastructure company Bird.com announced that it has completed $450 million in debt financing led by JPMorgan Chase, and launched the revamped Agentic Harness platform. The platform now enables AI agents to send messages, make calls, manage emails, and even get their own eSIM phone plans on the Bird network without custom integrations. (Jiemian News)

"Xirang Kaiwu" Completes Seed Round and Angel Round Financing

36Kr has learned that Physical AI startup "Xirang Kaiwu" has successively completed seed round and angel round financing. The financing is led by Dunhong Asset, with well-known institutions including Huakong Fund, Sanhua Holding, Ginkgo Valley Capital, Zeran Capital, Benjian Fund, Shanghai Angel Association, Biaopu Investment and other institutions participating in the follow-up investment. Its current valuation has reached 500 million US dollars. The raised funds will be mainly used for large-scale pre-training of native physical AI models, construction of real physical interaction datasets, recruitment of core R&D talents and scenario verification.

Cool Products

Alibaba Cloud's first agent PC Qwen Book unveiled: Equipped with Skill keyboard array and global AI key

At the Yunqi Conference, Qwen Book, the AI agent PC under Alibaba Cloud, was officially released. This is an AI agent PC that can independently understand user intentions and continuously evolve. It is equipped with multiple interaction entrances including the Skill keyboard array, global AI key, voice stylus, as well as an operating space that supports 7x24-hour execution of heavy tasks, solving the pain points of cross-application and cross-Agent usage in AI-powered work and daily scenarios. (Sina Finance)

Unitree Robotics Achieves the World's First Full-AI-Driven Autonomous Group Performance of Full-Size General-Purpose Humanoid Robots

On September 22, at the opening ceremony of the 48th WorldSkills Competition, 19 H2 humanoid robots from Unitree Robotics danced on the same stage with 120 dancers, staging the world's first full-AI-driven autonomous group performance of full-size general-purpose humanoid robots. (Sina Tech)

Apple is developing a screenless health tracker, targeting competitors including Whoop

Apple is developing a screenless health and fitness tracker similar to the wrist-worn devices of Whoop. People familiar with the matter disclosed that Apple has been exploring this product category for several months and is currently working on prototypes. The project is supported by the company's senior management, but Apple has not yet made a final decision on its official launch. The project is still in the early stage and is referred to as a "technical investigation" internally within the company. Even if Apple finally decides to release the product, this device may not be available on the market until 2028. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment. (Sina Finance)

Meta Launches Camera-Free Smart Glasses With Muse Assistant Feature

According to the news on September 24, Meta Platforms (META.O) is expanding its smart glasses product line by rolling out a camera-free version, and introducing the Muse assistant function to its smart glasses products. At the annual Connect conference held on Wednesday, the company unveiled the first Ray-Ban Meta Audio smart glasses that are not equipped with cameras. At the same time, Meta also launched the third-generation camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta glasses, as well as new Meta-branded smart glasses with lower prices. This audio-focused glasses product provides Meta with an opportunity to re-explore this product category that once caused disputes due to privacy concerns. The starting price of Meta's camera-free glasses is 349 US dollars, and shipments are scheduled to start on October 3. The third-generation model is also fitted with a new "action button", which can be customized by users to perform specific tasks, for example, activating the Muse voice assistant. (Jiemian News)

Xiaomi 18 Pro Series Launched, Starting at 5999 Yuan

36Kr has learned that at Xiaomi's autumn new product launch event, Lu Weibing, Partner and Group President of Xiaomi, announced the pricing of the Xiaomi 18 Pro series smartphones, which starts at 5999 yuan and is available for sale immediately after the launch. The Xiaomi 18 Pro series is the world's first to be equipped with Qualcomm's new-generation Snapdragon 2nm flagship mobile platform. The 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are respectively powered by the 6th Generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition and the 6th Generation Snapdragon 8 Super Elite Edition, both adopting 2nm process technology. The Xiaomi 18 Pro series is equipped with Super Xiaoai 2.0 integrated with Xiaomi's MiMo large model, which can independently use more than 260 system tools. In addition, the Xiaomi 18 Pro series also launches a Transparent Special Version, starting at 9999 yuan.

Compiled by | Li Qi