14 h. ago China’s AI and EV boom drives record power demand, widening energy gap with US

China’s total electricity consumption hit a record high of 10.4 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2025, more than double that of the US, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday. The 5 per cent jump from the previous year marked the first time in China’s history that annual electricity consumption had surpassed 10 trillion kWh – the highest in the world and more than the combined total of the European Union, Russia, India and Japan, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing NEA...

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1 week ago Soaring prices, but shrinking demand as China’s memory chip market falters

China’s secondary semiconductor market is seeing a sharp run-up in memory chip prices as global supplies tighten, though vendors say the rally faces an awkward conundrum: the price tags might be higher, but the buyers are disappearing. “We’re looking at high asking prices, but no buyers,” said Cai Zhaojie, a merchant who sells electronic components at Huaqiangbei, the vast Shenzhen wholesale hub often described as the world’s biggest electronics market. The mark-ups on memory products had become...

Economics

1 week ago China’s CATL, Nio deepen partnership to develop EV batteries with longer lifespans

Contemporary Amperex Technol­ogy Ltd (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has intensified efforts to develop batteries with longer lifespans after deepening its partnership with carmaker Nio. The two companies said they were committed to finding solutions to an issue that could cost millions of EV users trillions of yuan to replace expired batteries. Under a five-year agreement, CATL and Nio would pursue new technologies aimed at extending the life cycle of EV...

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1 week ago Nvidia CEO Huang says next generation of chips is in full production

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Monday that the company’s next generation of chips is in “full production”, saying they can deliver five times the artificial intelligence computing of the company’s previous chips when serving up chatbots and other AI apps. In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the leader of the world’s most valuable company revealed new details about its chips, which will arrive later this year and which Nvidia executives told Reuters are already in the...

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1 week ago Tesla’s China sales hit monthly record as EV buyers race to beat tax increase

Tesla’s deliveries in China jumped to an all-time high in December, buoyed by a buying spree before the government withdrew part of a tax incentive. But the US carmaker is still facing an uphill battle to reclaim its once-secure lead in the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market amid a stern challenge from local rivals. In December, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai delivered about 94,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to mainland Chinese customers, 13.4 per cent higher than the previous...

Economics

2 w. ago CHKTesla loses place as world’s top electric vehicle seller to China’s BYD

CHKTesla loses place as world’s top electric vehicle seller to China’s BYD  Al Jazeera

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2 w. ago Tesla loses place as world’s top electric vehicle seller to China’s BYD

Tesla loses place as world’s top electric vehicle seller to China’s BYD  Al Jazeera

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2 w. ago Tesla dethroned by China’s BYD as world’s top EV maker amid Musk’s politics, tax credit woes

Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker (EV) on Friday as a customer revolt over Elon Musk’s right-wing politics and stiff overseas competition pushed sales down for a second year in a row. Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9 per cent from a year earlier. Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the world’s largest EV maker. For the fourth quarter, sales totalled 418,227, falling short of the 440,000 that...

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2 w. ago China’s BYD dethrones Tesla as world’s top EV maker amid Musk’s politics, tax credit woes

Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker (EV) on Friday to China’s BYD, as a customer revolt over Elon Musk’s right-wing politics and stiff overseas competition pushed sales down for a second year in a row. Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9 per cent from a year earlier. By contrast, BYD is now the world’s largest EV maker, having sold 2.26 million vehicles last year – a 27.9 per cent increase. For the fourth quarter, Tesla sales...

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2 w. ago China’s BYD dethrones Tesla as world’s top electric vehicle maker

China’s BYD dethrones Tesla as world’s top electric vehicle maker  South China Morning Post

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2 w. ago How China cracked US ‘super code’, health benefits of lard: 7 science highlights

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. How China cracked US ‘super code’ that controls most power grids in the world China is no longer using American software to run its power grid. The Southern Regional Electricity Market (SREM) – the world’s largest unified power market – has switched fully to Tianquan, a solver developed by Chinese engineers...

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2 w. ago In the Gobi Desert, China is powering up the world’s largest ‘super

In the Gobi Desert outside Golmud in the northwestern province of Qinghai, a row of white tanks stands tall in the open wilderness. Inside, air is compressed and cooled to -194 degrees Celsius (-317 Fahrenheit), and then it becomes liquid. When released, it expands by more than 750 times, drives turbines and generates electricity. This is the world’s largest liquid-air energy storage plant. Also known as the Super Air Power Bank, it is built by China Green Development Investment Group and...

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3 w. ago Chilean firms partner to form giant company to exploit lithium

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s leading copper producer, and private miner SQM, which features Chinese capital, announced on Saturday the creation of a giant company to exploit lithium, a lightweight metal used in batteries for electric vehicles. The South American country is the world’s second-largest producer of lithium, a key component of EVs (electric vehicles) and other clean technologies, and has about 40 per cent of the world’s lithium reserves. The partnership between the firms...

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3 w. ago Chinese EV battery giant CATL and Guoxin Micro set up a new automotive chip firm

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, has partnered with semiconductor developer Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics to form a new automotive chip firm in Beijing. CATL-owned Wending Investment, Guoxin Micro subsidiary Tongxin Micro and five affiliates have agreed to establish Tongxin Micro Technology with a registered capital of 300 million yuan (US$43 million), according to a Thursday filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. With its 153...

Politics

3 w. ago Chinese EV battery giant CATL and Guoxin Micro set up new automotive chip firm

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, has partnered with semiconductor developer Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics to form a new automotive chip firm in Beijing. CATL-owned Wending Investment, Guoxin Micro subsidiary Tongxin Micro and five affiliates have agreed to establish Tongxin Micro Technology with a registered capital of 300 million yuan (US$43 million), according to a Thursday filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. With its 153...

Politics

3 w. ago CATL poised to bring Yichun lithium output back online after licence lapse

Contemporary Amperex Technol­ogy Ltd (CATL), the world’s biggest maker of electric-vehicle batteries, is set to restart a major lithium mine in eastern China, in a move that could ease raw material costs for the EV supply chain. Jiemian News, a Shanghai-based financial outlet, reported that the Yichun mine in Jiangxi province was expected to receive regulatory approval to resume operations shortly before or after the nine-day Lunar New Year break, which begins on February 15. CATL declined to...

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3 w. ago China racks up the highest electricity bill in world's history — $560bn to power the "most

China racks up the highest electricity bill in world's history — $560bn to power the "most-advanced" AI ever built  ecoportal.net

Economics

4 w. ago How China cracked the US ‘super code’ that controls most power grids in the world

China is no longer using American software to run its power grid. The Southern Regional Electricity Market (SREM) – the world’s largest unified power market – has switched fully to Tianquan, a solver developed by Chinese engineers with speeds 14 per cent faster than American products, according to a report by the official Science and Technology Daily. It follows recent reports that the State Grid, Huawei and many other leading Chinese companies have abandoned US solvers. If China no longer needs...

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