Daily Buzz: 22 July 2026

China's Zhongji Innolight Begins Biggest HK IPO in Seven Years

Zhongji Innolight, the world's largest producer of optical transceivers used in AI data centers, begins taking subscriptions today for an initial public offering in Hong Kong that seeks to raise US$8 billion, which would be the largest IPO in the city since Alibaba's US$12.9 billion listing in 2019. Innolight, in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, said it is offering 54.5 million shares. Final pricing will be announced next week ahead of trading set to begin on July 30. Thirty cornerstone investors include BlackRock, Temasek Holdings and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the South China Morning Post reported. Innolight, based in Shandong Province and already listed on the Shenzhen exchange, is a supplier to companies that include Nvidia, Alphabet and Meta.

Houthis in Yemen Declare Naval Blockade on Saudi Arabia

Houthi militants in Yemen, allies of Iran, declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia after earlier threatening to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that runs along the western Saudi coastline, connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Saudis are diverting millions of barrels of oil a day from the Persian Gulf through a pipeline to a terminal on the Red Sea. Traffic from the Gulf through the Hormuz Strait has effectively ground to a halt after Iranian attacks on vessels there.

The US stepped up attacks on Iran after Iran attacked a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing the crew to abandon ship. Tehran also claimed to have targeted infrastructure in Bahrain owned by US retail giant Amazon. Third-party mediators are pushing a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire to replace the 60-day June ceasefire that has disintegrated. Global oil prices rose again on the escalation of hostilities, with benchmark Brent crude futures closing New York trading at US$91 a barrel.

The war against Iran has cost US$37.5 billion so far, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee on Tuesday, an increase of nearly US$8 billion since the last public estimate. Eighteen military personnel have been killed to date, including three over the weekend, and 100 have been injured in the last month.

Ukraine's Top Army Commander Sacked

In the second major shakeup of Ukraine's defense hierarchy, President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi, a battle-hardened general, to replace him. The dismissal came days after Zelensky removed the popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, which triggered street protests across the country. Syrskyi, considered an old-school general, and Fedorov, considered a military reformer, had clashed over strategy. Zelensky said Fedorov has been offered another "position of power," but didn't say if he had accepted.

Top Business

Moonshot AI Reportedly Seeking Valuation of US$50 Billion

China's Moonshot AI, which grabbed headlines last week after the release of its Kimi K3 model sparked speculation that it is catching up with US AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, is seeking a US$50 billion valuation in the last round of fundraising ahead of an initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported. The Beijing-based company is expected to go public in Hong before the end of the year. The Kimi K3 large-language model was trained on 2.8 trillion parameters, making it the largest open-weight model ever released.

Moonshot was founded in 2023 by Yang Zhilin, who formerly worked at Meta and Google. In February, Anthropic publicly accused Moonshot of ripping off its technology. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that the Trump administration will look into whether Chinese AI models have stolen technology from American models and sanctions could result.

AliExpress Fined US$629 Million by EU Regulators

Alibaba's AliExpress online retail platform was slapped with a 550-million-euro (US$629 million) EU fine for failing to address sales of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its site. It was the third fine issued under the EU new Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to do more to counter illegal and harmful content. AliExpress was given an October deadline to propose remedial measures or face further fines. AliExpress said it will appeal what it called an "excessive" fine. The platform had an estimated 193 million users in Europe last year.

China-Made Car Sales in Mexico Jump 30 Percent

Chinese car sales in Mexico in the first half rose 30 percent from a year earlier to 137,525 vehicles, despite the 50 percent tariff Mexico imposed in January on vehicle imports from China and other Asian countries. China-made cars comprised 17 percent of new vehicle sales, compared with a 1 percent market share in 2020, according to data from the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors. However, Mexican officials noted that China carmakers started the year with big inventories already on the ground in Mexico. Automaker Geely posted the strongest growth in sales in the first half, followed by MG Motor, which is owned by Shanghai-based SAIC, Changan and Chery. BYD, China's largest automaker, remains the biggest player in the Mexican ⁠market although its sales edged down to 33,969 from 34,606, Reuters reported.

SDIC, CATL Form Venture on US$4.9 Billion Hydropower Project

SDIC Power, a leading Chinese clean energy company, said it is partnering with battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) to invest 33.4 billion (US$4.9 billion) in a new hydropower station in the Yalong River Basin of western China. SDIC will hold 90 percent of the venture. The four turbine generators at the hydropower station will have designed capacity to produce about 8.6 billion kilowatts of electricity a year. The first unit of the project is scheduled to go into operation in 2035.

GM Reports Lower Q2 Profit, Beats Revenue Forecasts

US auto giant General Motors reported a 32 percent drop in second-quarter net income to US$1.3 billion, largely on one-time charges related to smaller-than-expected electric vehicle sales and costs of resolving supplier claims. Revenue beat forecasts with a 1.9 percent rise to US$48 billion. For the first half, GM posted a 16 percent decline in net income, while revenue edged up 0.6 percent to US$91.6 billion. In China, GM sold more than 357,000 cars in the second quarter, the seventh consecutive quarter of making a profit.

Economy & Markets

China's Stock Markets Rise Amid Global Market Recovery

China's stock markets rebounded for a second day on Tuesday as the global tech slump reversed course and strong government for Chinese mainland trading included state-backed entities pouring billions of yuan into share purchases to shore prices. The recovery came after a selloff last week wiped about 10 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion) off market value. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index on Tuesday gained 1.79 percent, the Shenzhen Component Index jumped 4.81 percent and the tech-heavy ChiNext surged 7 percent. Market volume rose 270 billion yuan from Monday to 2.97 trillion yuan.

South Korea's Kospi index on Tuesday broke a losing streak with a 3.56 percent gain, and the Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 3 percent. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.89 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.29 percent amid expectations of strong second-quarter earnings from AI-related companies.

Ant International Secures US$1.2 Billion in New Investment

Ant International, the overseas arm of Alibaba fintech affiliate Ant Group, raised US$1.2 billion in a new fundraising round. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand a payments business that spans 150 million merchants and 2 billion user accounts. Singapore-based Ant International was spun off by Ant Group as an independently operated company in 2024.

London Stock Exchange Reportedly Poised to Offer Overnight Trading

The London Stock Exchange, Europe's largest bourse, is planning to launch an overnight trading site next year, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The board will operate separately from the exchange's main board and be open for trading between 5pm and 7:30am, initially focusing on exchange-trade products. The move toward round-the-clock trading has been gaining momentum in a world where stock trading crosses global time zones. The Nasdaq in New York earlier announced plans to extend trading to 23 hours on weekdays, beginning in December, while the Chicago Mercantile Exchange rolled out 23-hour trading of cryptocurrency futures and options in May.

Corporate

China Merchants Energy to Sign Long-Term African Ore Deal

China Merchants Energy Shipping, which operates a fleet for global energy and commodity transportation, said its Hong Kong subsidiary will sign a long-term deal to ship iron ore from Guinea's Simandou project, the largest mining venture in Africa. Its Ming Wah Shipping unit has already shipped about 600,000 tons of iron ore from project since the mine began production last November. Under the new agreement, China Merchants Energy will formalize a long-term partnership, with freight rates linked to Baltic Exchange indexes.

Dajin Heavy Wins US$290 Million Shipbuilding Order

Dajin Heavy Industry, which makes offshore wind power equipment and builds ships, said it has secured an order from a Greek shipowner for up to four bulk carriers valued at about 2.1 billion yuan (US$290 million). Dajin Heavy will design and build the ships, each with 25,000 deadweight tonnage, and deliver them beginning in 2029.

Samsung Electronic Pushes Further Into Robotics

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, one of the world's leading chipmakers, said it is expanding its foray into robotics with the creation of a new division called Robotics eXperience. Samsung said it is planning to invest 19 trillion won (US$13 billion) to develop physical AI infrastructure and humanoid robot manufacturing facilities. In 2024, the company became the largest shareholder in local company Rainbow Robotics.

Huawei Investment in Qiankun Development May Reach US$2.6 Billion

Huawei investment on research and development for its Qiankun automated driving system will likely reach 18 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) this year, pushing its computing power up 21-fold over 19 months, China New Service reported. Nearly 2 million vehicles are now using the system.

TCL Zhonghuan to Build Wafer Factory

TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology said it will spend 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) to build a new factory in Shenzhen capable of producing up to 700,000 12.inch wafers a month for the semiconductor industry. The company estimated it will take 18 months from construction to trial production. TCL Zhonghuan said 40 percent of the investment will come from its own funds, with the remainder raised by equity financing and syndicated loans.