Huang: Nvidia retreated from China chips | CXMT IPO hearing May 27 | MOFCOM warns of EU countermeasures

May 21, 2026

Your morning brief on Chinese technology.

Beijing · Washington

Bottom Line Up Front

Nvidia ceded high-end China AI chips to Huawei, CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview tied to Q1 revenue of $81.6 billion and an $80 billion buyback authorization, with forward guidance excluding any China data center compute revenue. CXMT scheduled its STAR Market hearing for May 27, when the Shanghai Stock Exchange listing committee will vote on the memory maker's 29.5 billion yuan offering, which would mark a STAR Market high, with CSRC registration following within 20 working days if cleared. Alibaba unveiled the Zhenwu M890 chip and Qwen3.7-Max model at its May 20 Cloud Summit, while SVP Liu Weiguang said the MaaS Bailian platform reached profitability and that average daily Token revenue has grown 15 times year-to-date.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a U.S. financial media interview tied to the company's quarterly earnings that "we have already retreated from that market" and described Nvidia as having given the China high-end segment to Huawei, CnBeta reported. Nvidia posted Q1 revenue of $81.6 billion, up about 85% year over year, and announced an $80 billion share buyback authorization on the same call. Huang said Nvidia's forward guidance excludes any China data center compute revenue, and the company has told analysts not to model a China reopening. China previously accounted for at least one-fifth of Nvidia's data center business before U.S. export controls on advanced chips.

Read at CnBeta ↗

CXMT STAR Market IPO hearing set for May 27

The Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed on May 20 that its listing review committee will convene on May 27 to vote on ChangXin Memory Technologies' offering, Caixin reported. The hearing falls about 148 days after the SSE formally accepted the prospectus on Dec. 30, including a technical suspension when financial materials expired. CXMT plans to raise 29.5 billion yuan in the listing, which would be a STAR Market historical high. If the committee clears the application, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has 20 working days to issue a registration decision.

Read at Caixin ↗

Alibaba launches Zhenwu M890 chip and Qwen3.7-Max model with 15x Token revenue jump

Alibaba unveiled the Zhenwu M890 next generation AI chip from its T-Head subsidiary and the Qwen3.7-Max flagship model at the May 20 Alibaba Cloud Summit, with Caixin's May 21 print follow-up disclosing that Alibaba Cloud's average daily Token revenue has grown 15 times year-to-date. Alibaba Cloud SVP Liu Weiguang told the post-summit media briefing that the company's MaaS Bailian platform has reached profitability, citing the firm's customer base in finance, automotive, government and telecom sectors. The product stack also includes a 128-card super-node server and the Qianwen Cloud agent-oriented product site. Liu said Alibaba Cloud has captured most of the AI cloud, large language model and inference incremental markets in China.

Read at Caixin ↗

MOFCOM warns of countermeasures if EU adopts new China overcapacity trade tool

MOFCOM spokesperson He Yadong told the ministry's regular May 21 press briefing that Beijing will "resolutely counter" the EU if the European Commission proceeds with a reportedly planned new trade instrument targeting Chinese "overcapacity", Yicai reported relaying the Xinhua wire copy. He Yadong said the EU itself faces overcapacity scrutiny on autos, pharmaceuticals, wine and cosmetics, accusing the bloc of a double standard. He urged the EU to return to dialogue and consultation and to take steps to benefit China-EU trade relations. The exchange follows the May 15 MoJ-MOFCOM determination invoking the anti-extraterritoriality regulation against EU investigations of Tongfang Weishi (Nuctech).

Read at Yicai ↗

MIIT names 36 registered vulnerability platforms with 360 in the first batch

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published its first batch of 36 registered cybersecurity product vulnerability collection platforms, with 360 Digital Security Group's "360 Vulnerability Cloud Platform" on the inaugural list, PingWest reported. The release is the first public roster of platforms registered under MIIT's Administrative Measures for Registration of Cybersecurity Product Vulnerability Collection Platforms, which took effect in 2023. The measures route disclosed vulnerabilities through MIIT-approved intake before they reach the national vulnerability management system. 360 Digital Security Group was the only operator named from the 36-platform inaugural list.

Read at PingWest ↗

CHIPS & SEMICONDUCTORS

Western Securities projects $8 billion TGV glass substrate market by 2028

Western Securities issued an overweight rating on the glass substrate sector and projected global advanced packaging TGV (through-glass-via) market size near $8 billion by 2028 with 50% penetration by 2030, Wallstreetcn reported. Intel listed glass substrate as a core pillar of its 2026 to 2030 packaging roadmap targeting more than 10 times interconnect density. Samsung Electro-Mechanics began supplying semiconductor glass substrate samples to Apple in April 2026 with mass production planned post-2027. TSMC positioned glass substrate as the next iteration of its CoWoS packaging line. Organic substrate thermal expansion mismatch and silicon interposer cost above $100 per large interposer are pushing AI packaging toward TGV. Glass dielectric constant is 3.8 versus silicon's 11.7, supporting 3.5 times faster signal transmission and 50% lower energy use per the Western Securities report.

Read at Wallstreetcn ↗

AMD CEO Lisa Su's Shanghai visit targets Chinese developers, not chip sales, TMTPost says

AMD CEO Lisa Su's Shanghai trip, immediately after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's China visit, aims to capture Chinese developers rather than sell AI chips into the export controlled high-end market, TMTPost said. AMD's stated objective is building "a second path beyond CUDA" through Chinese developer adoption of AMD's stack. Su's arrival follows Huang's interview, in which the Nvidia CEO said his company has "retreated" from the China high-end AI chip market. Specific Shanghai announcements or partnerships were not detailed in the top-line framing.

Read at TMTPost ↗

III

ROBOTICS & AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS

Tesla announces Supervised FSD available in China; store staff caution rollout still pending policy

Tesla announced on May 21 that its Supervised FSD is now available in 10 countries and regions including China, triggering A-share autonomous driving concept stocks to hit collective limit-up, Wallstreetcn reported. Frontline sales staff at multiple Shanghai Tesla stores gave more cautious responses than the market reading, advising consumers to be skeptical of the optimistic interpretation because deployment still depends on policy. Tesla's CFO told the company's Q1 2026 earnings call that Tesla is in close communication with Chinese regulators and is targeting Q3 2026 for full FSD approval in China, per CnBeta. Tesla currently sells a one-time 64,000 yuan intelligent assisted driving buy-in in China without a subscription option.

Read at Wallstreetcn ↗·Read at CnBeta ↗

Mining autonomy firm Tage Idriver files for Hong Kong IPO with Huatai as sole sponsor

Tage Idriver Technology submitted its HKEX main board listing application on May 20, with Huatai International as sole sponsor, Wallstreetcn reported. The company was founded in 2016 by Beihang University professor Yu Guizhen, who specializes in intelligent vehicle-road perception and is a National "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" innovation leader. Pre-IPO investors include Guoneng Fund Management, Hefei SASAC and Baotong Technology, putting Tage Idriver's latest private valuation near 5 billion yuan. 2025 revenue rose 246% to 527 million yuan, with year losses narrowing to 164 million yuan and gross margin turning positive at 4.8%.

Read at Wallstreetcn ↗

Beihang-MIT wearable isokinetic robot reverses muscle atrophy in Nature paper

Beihang University associate professor Feng Yanggang, working with collaborators at MIT and Peking University Third Hospital, published a Nature accelerated preview demonstrating a 0.96 kg portable isokinetic resistance training robot for Type II spinal muscular atrophy patients, ITHome reported. The 5.5-month clinical trial combined six weeks of observation, six weeks of high-intensity training, six weeks of low-intensity training and 30-plus days of follow-up. After six weeks of high-intensity training, pediatric patients gained sit-to-stand capability across multiple joint angles, with lower-limb motor and neuromuscular metrics improving. The paper appears on Nature's homepage under the title "Spinal neuromotor rehabilitation using a portable isokinetic training robot."

Read at ITHome ↗

STRATEGIC CONTEXT

Huxiu commentariat piece frames China as the headquarters of post-globalization supply chains

A Huxiu opinion piece by the TOP Innovation Zone Research Institute applies Geneva Institute economist Richard Baldwin's 2016 "Great Convergence" framework to argue China is positioning itself at the center of global supply chains. The piece identifies three historic cost barriers to economic integration: moving goods (trade costs), moving ideas (communication costs) and moving people (face-to-face costs). It argues the third cost is the next to fall and frames great-power competition through which jurisdiction controls all three.

Read at Huxiu ↗