Weekend Buzz: 3-4 January 2026

BYD Dethrones Tesla as Top World Electric Carmaker

Chinese auto giant BYD toppled Tesla as the world's biggest seller of electric cars in 2025. The milestone is an ironic twist for Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who famously ridiculed BYD vehicles in a 2011 interview. Shenzhen-based BYD said sales of its battery-powered cars rose 28 percent last year to 2.3 million. US-based Tesla reported annual sales fell 9 percent to 1.6 million. BYD shares in Hong Kong rose 3.6 percent; Tesla shares in New York dropped 2.6 percent. In another milestone for the green vehicle industry, Norway reported that 96 percent of all new cars sold in the country last year were electric.

BYD was founded by chemist and entrepreneur Wang Chuanfu in 1995 as a battery maker. The company went public in 2002 and a year later, created the auto unit. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took a nearly 10 percent stake in the company in 2008, but has since sold it for a reported return of nearly 4,000 percent. BYD also has interests in electronic devices, semiconductors, energy storage and monorails.

US 'Locked and Loaded' to Defend Iran Protesters

President Donald Trump warned Iran that the US will "come to the rescue" if government forces kill peaceful protesters in a current wave of street demonstrations triggered by a deteriorating economy. "We are locked and loaded and ready to go," Trump said on his social media site. Despite the warning, Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters on Friday night. At least eight people reportedly have been killed since protests began in cities across the country nearly a week ago. A senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Trump should "be careful" because intervention would spark potential chaos across the Middle East. The public unrest comes amid an inflation rate of 42 percent and a halving of the value of the nation's currency.

Zelensky Shakes Up Inner Circle

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed spy chief General Kyrylo Budanov, 39, as his new chief of staff, just over a month after his predecessor was forced to resign amid a corruption scandal. Budanov's job as spymaster will be taken over by 56-year-old foreign intelligence chief Oleh Ivashchenko. Zelensky also named Mykhaylo Fedorov, 34, minister of digital transformation and youngest member of his government, as new defense minister.

Maduro Says He's Open to Talks With US

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, under mounting pressure from Washington to leave office, said he is open to talks with the US on drug trafficking and oil. In an interview on state-owned television, Maduro sidestepped questions about President Donald Trump's claim that the CIA had attacked port dock used to transport illicit drugs – the first known onshore attack against the country. The US has been attacking suspected drug-trafficking vessels off Venezuela's coast for months and more recently seized two tankers under a declare embargo against tankers carrying Venezuelan oil exports. Trump has designated Maduro's government a terrorist organization.

Top Business

Biren Starts 2026 HK IPOs With a Bang

Shares in Shanghai-based Biren Technology, a developer of artificial intelligence chips, closed up 76 percent from their offer price in their first day of trading on the Hong Kong exchange on Friday. The IPO was 2,300 times oversubscribed by retail investors. It was the city's first initial public offering of the year and the first IPO in the city by a Chinese mainland maker of graphic processing units. Biren, founded in 2019 by a group of scientists and engineers previously employed by Nvidia and Alibaba, raised HK$5.58 billion (US$716.3 million) in the share sale. It tapped into a wave of investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks, supported by Chinese government policies aimed at developing national self-reliance in semiconductors.

The highly successful IPOs of chipmakers Moore Threads and MetaX on the Shanghai exchange late last year are spurring more AI companies to raise funds by going public. Mainland chipmaking startups Zhipu and MiniMax are poised to debut in Hong Kong this month.

Baidu Chip Unit Kunlunxin Plans IPO

Chinese tech giant Baidu said its 59-percent owned smart chip unit Kunlunxin filed for a Hong Kong listing on Thursday. No figure on the size of the proposed initial public offering was disclosed, but media reports have put the value of Kunlunxin at 21 billion yuan (US$3 billion). Founded in 2011, Kunlunxin designs AI chips used in data centers running Baidu's Ernie large language models and has expanded sales to third-party customers. Baidu shares jumped more than 7 percent in Hong Kong on Friday.

China Sparkles on the Silver Screen

China's movie industry stamped its importance as both global filmmaker and box-office money spinner in 2025. Annual ticket sales surged 22 percent from a year earlier to about 51.8 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion), accounting for nearly a quarter of the global box office. Animation films accounted for nearly half of ticket sales in China, with domestically produced "Ne Zha 2," the big hit of the year. Among foreign successes, Disney's "Zootopia 2" hit a record as the highest-grossing imported animated film, with China ticket sales accounting for 40 percent global receipts. Beyond animation, other box office hits last year were China-made "Dead to Rights" and "Evil Unbound," Momentum has carried into the new year. As of January 2, box office takings for the New Year holiday period exceeded 500 million yuan.

India Approves US$4.64 Billion in Electronics Projects

India approved 22 new manufacturing projects under its electronic components incentive program. Global giants, including Samsung, Foxconn and Tata Electronics, will lead the initiative, representing a total investment of 418.63 billion rupees (US$4.64 billion). The projects are expected to generate US$28.62 billion in production and create 34,000 jobs. The government has committed US$2.54 billion in subsidies to support production across the mobile, telecom, and automotive sectors.

Economy & Markets

Chinese Electric Carmakers Gain Record Europe Share

Chinese automakers have captured a record share of Europe's electric vehicle market, underscoring their growing competitiveness against global rivals including Tesla, according to data cited by Bloomberg. Brands from China accounted for 12.8 percent of battery-powered vehicle sales in November across the EU and UK, research firm Dataforce reported. The surge was led by BYD, Stellantis-backed Leapmotor and Chery Automobile. China car exports in 2025 rose more than 87 percent from a year earlier, with shipments to Europe climbing 63 percent to nearly 43,000 vehicles.

Hong Kong Retail Sales Rise

Hong Kong retail sales in November rose 6.5 percent from a year earlier, posting their seventh straight month of increase, the government announced on Friday. For the first 11 months of 2025, sales rose 0.4, rebounding from a 0.9 percent decline in 2024.

Singapore Year-End Growth Beats Forecasts

Singapore surprised economic pundits with a stronger-than-expected 5.7 percent rise in growth for the final quarter of last year, driven by a 15 percent surge in manufacturing. That lifted full 2025 growth to 4.8 percent. Manufacturing, largely center in biomedicine and electronics, comprises about a fifth of the country's gross domestic product. Most other sectors, including services and manufacturing, contracted in the quarter, CNBC reported.

US Delays Hike in Import Tariffs on Furniture, Cabinetry

The Trump administration has postponed for a year a tariff increase of up to half on imports of upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. The duties were due to come into effect at the start of 2026. The delay leaves the tariffs at 25 percent. China and Vietnam are the major affected markets The White House said the US wants to "engage in productive negotiations with trade partners to address trade reciprocity and national security concerns with respect to imports of wood products."

China Begins Taxing Condoms, Contraceptives

China removed a three-decade-old tax exemption on contraceptive pills and condoms in an attempt to tackle the nation's declining birth rate. Drugs and devices designed to prevent pregnancy will now attract a value-added tax rate of 13 percent. The government has already exempted childcare subsidies from personal income tax as it seeks to encourage young people to marry and start families, and families with one child to have more.

Deep Dive

The flu bug is a scourge for the public and an impetus for drugmakers

Across China's major e-commerce and pharmacy platforms, orders for flu medicine have surged this season.

Corporate

Genshin Impact FES 2026 Kicks Off in Shanghai

Genshin Impact FES 2026 officially opened in Shanghai, with the gaming and animation carnival expected to attract about 80,000 visitors during its five-day run. Developed by Shanghai-based miHoYo, Genshin Impact is one of China's most popular and internationally recognized gaming titles. The game event has adopted the theme of "Masquerade," featuring elaborate ballroom-style sets where cosplayers in formal attire lead fans into a grand, immersive banquet. A key highlight is the expanded "Creator Zone," featuring 112 fan-art booths and more than 160 individual creators.

Bain Seeks Takeover of Echo Marketing

US-based investment firm Bain Capital announced it is seeking to take over South Korea's Echo Marketing, which owns activewear brand Andar. The two-prong takeover involves the 216.6 billion won (US$150 million) purchase of a 43.7 percent holding from the company's founder and another shareholder, and a tender offer for the remaining stake at a price of 16,000 won a share.

DeepSeek to Progress AI Development

DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that caused a sensation a year ago with the introduction of a chatbot much cheaper that global versions, signaled on Friday that it intends to develop new AI large language models that could be industry game changers. In a paper co-authored by found Liang Wenfeng, the company said it will test so-called manifold constrained hyper connection architecture on models with 3 billion, 9 billion and 27 billion parameters, without adding significant computing burdens, the South China Morning Post reported. In an online post, Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder of French AI start-up Pleias, called DeepSeek "a frontier lab."