Know Asia's
Business changes,before it hits your market.

A bizarre spectacle is currently unfolding in China's metropolises:
Thousands of people – from students to 60-year-old retirees – are standing in line for hours to get software called OpenClaw installed.

Nearly 1,000 people gathered in front of Tencent's Shenzhen headquarters to get the AI agent installed.

The reason: Installing it is technically complex. Tencent engineers handled it for free.

What is OpenClaw? 🦞

Unlike ChatGPT, which primarily chats, OpenClaw is an autonomous agent. It was developed by Austrian Peter Steinberger and recently acquired by OpenAI.

• Capabilities: OpenClaw can independently read and respond to emails, create presentations, conduct stock analyses, or write code – directly in the user's system.

• GitHub record: With 250,000 stars in just four months, it's the fastest-growing open-source project in history (faster than Linux).

Government jumps on board

Premier Li Qiang mentioned AI agents for the first time in the Government Work Report:

"We promote intelligent terminals and AI agents for commercial application in key sectors."

Security concerns

Despite the hype, concerns about security are growing. Since OpenClaw requires full control over the operating system, the risks are enormous.

1. The email disaster: A researcher from the Meta team recently shared how her "lobster" suddenly started deleting emails en masse without her being able to stop it – only physically turning it off helped.

2. State warning: China's Ministry of Industry (MIIT) issued a security warning on February 5. Many instances are extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks and data leaks due to misconfigurations.

3. Hardware hunger: Xiaomi warns of massive heat generation and shortened battery life when using AI agents on smartphones.

The People's Bank of China bought more gold in February, extending its purchasing streak to 16 consecutive months since November 2024.

Addition: 30,000 troy ounces, bringing total reserves to 74.22 million fine troy ounces.

The details

• China's gold as a share of total reserves: roughly 8.5%.

• For comparison: the US sits at 75%, Germany at 70%, Russia above 20%.

• Global central bank average: 15-20%.

For the world's second-largest economy, 8.5% is remarkably low. Analysts have long suspected China holds far more gold than officially reported - estimates range up to 4,000-6,000 tonnes versus the stated roughly 2,300.

Globally, central bank buying slowed sharply in January: just 5 tonnes, compared to the 12-month average of 27 tonnes.

Counter-trend from Europe: Poland's central bank chief Adam Glapinski proposed liquidating parts of the country's 550-tonne gold reserves to generate $13 billion for defense spending. The proposal briefly knocked $70 off the gold price. Russia and Venezuela have also offloaded gold recently.

Buying while others sell

Gold has traded above the $5,000 mark since late January.
Current price: around $5,100 per ounce, down from an all-time high of $5,595 in January.

The main driver: escalating Middle East tensions. After joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets, investors rotated heavily into safe-haven assets.

China's buying follows a different logic: The PBOC is systematically diversifying away from the dollar. As long as geopolitical tensions persist and the dollar's role as sole reserve currency is questioned, this trend is unlikely to change.

👉 Sources: Bloomberg, BusinessTimes, Yahoo Finance

Thanks to a massive stock market surge and the global AI boom, the People's Republic once again counts more billionaires than any other country in the world.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is flying in a league of his own: He is the first person in history to break through the $700 billion mark.

The great leap forward

The current Hurun Global Rich List 2026 shows unprecedented dynamics in global wealth creation. Worldwide, there are now over 4,020 billionaires – a new record. On average, two new faces were added per day last year.

• China leads: With 1,110 billionaires (+287), China overtakes the USA (1,000). Impressive: Half of all new additions worldwide come from the Chinese economic area (Mainland, HK, Taiwan).

75% of Chinese billionaires were not on the list 10 years ago. "Going global" is paying off:

• Industrial Products: 80+ new additions

• Semiconductors: 18 new billionaires (chip self-sufficiency push)

• Healthcare: 28 new additions, led by Au Yat-Gai (Regencell, $13 billion)

• AI: Yan Junjie (MiniMax, $3.6 billion), Liu Debing (Zhipu, $1.2 billion)

Shenzhen (132) overtook Shanghai as the second-largest billionaire city after New York (146).

"By 2030 we expect ten trillionaires – our forecast of one was far too conservative."

JD.com reported Q4 numbers on Thursday that tell a stark story: instead of the 9.9 billion yuan profit from a year ago, there is now a net loss of 2.7 billion yuan ($391 million).

• Revenue: +1.5% to 352.3 billion yuan ($50.4 billion), slightly beating analyst estimates.

The details

The core business of electronics and home appliances shrank by 12% compared with the same quarter last year.

The other side: General Merchandise grew by 12.1%, services revenue by 20.1%.

But the real cost driver sits elsewhere. JD.com’s new business areas, especially food delivery and the Europe expansion Joybuy, led to an operating loss of 14.8 billion yuan in Q4. In the same quarter last year it was 885 million yuan.

Free cash flow for the full year: only 6.5 billion yuan, after 43.7 billion the year before.

• JD.com is nevertheless paying $1.4 billion in dividends and has spent $3 billion on share buybacks (6.3% of outstanding shares).

百亿补贴: The expensive copycat program

百亿补贴 (Bǎi Yì Bǔ Tiē), literally “10-Billion Subsidy”, was invented by Pinduoduo in mid-2019.

The idea: subsidize branded products like iPhones and AirPods directly on the platform to pull customers from Tier-1 cities away from JD and Taobao. Pinduoduo grew revenue by 65% as a result.

Founder Richard Liu copied the program under the same name, provided $1.4 billion, and built in a price comparison tool that shows live prices from Pinduoduo, Taobao, Douyin and Kuaishou, with double reimbursement if JD is more expensive.

The problem: Beijing’s trade-in subsidies, which still amounted to 300 billion yuan in 2025, were cut to 250 billion yuan for 2026, and subsidies for home appliances were also significantly restricted.

👉 Sources: Caixin, JD.com IR, Reuters

Xiaomi has started deploying its self-developed humanoid robots in e-car production. 

In an initial test run at the Beijing plant, the machines proved they can already autonomously handle complex assembly tasks and keep pace with the rapid tempo of their human colleagues.

Precision work in a 76-second cycle

The robots are currently being used in the die-casting area – one of the most physically demanding zones in manufacturing.

• The task: Picking up and precisely placing nuts as well as transporting material boxes.

• The performance: In a test run, the robots achieved 3 hours of autonomous operating time with a success rate of 90.2%.

• The tempo: With a cycle time of 76 seconds per component, the robots meet exactly the assembly line specifications for the fastest production cycles.

Brainpower instead of remote control: the VLA model

Xiaomi achieves the breakthrough through an in-house Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model with 4.7 billion parameters.

• Learning capability: Instead of rigidly programming every movement, the robot learns through reinforcement learning in virtual environments (simulations), which are then transferred directly to the hardware.

• Multisensory: By combining visual data, tactile sense, and joint position perception, the AI can correct obstacles or misplacements in real time.

⚠️ Reality check: more than just marketing?

Xiaomi President Lu Weibing currently still refers to the robots as "interns."

Despite the respectable 90% success rate, the remaining 10% errors are still too high for a fully autonomous fleet in the harsh factory environment. Nevertheless, the trend is irreversible: China is estimated to control over 60% of the global $9 trillion market for humanoids by 2050.

P.S.: See robots live with us in May? Click here.

South Korea’s benchmark index KOSPI plunged 12.06% on Wednesday, while the small-cap KOSDAQ index dropped 14% — both record single-day losses.

Combined with the previous day (-7.24%), this marks the largest two-day crash since 2008.

The details

Trigger: The coordinated U.S.–Israeli airstrikes on Iran over the weekend. Oil prices surged, putting particular pressure on South Korea, the world’s eighth-largest crude oil consumer.

Circuit breakers were triggered on both markets simultaneously, halting trading for 20 minutes.

• Samsung Electronics: -11.74%

• SK Hynix: -9.58%

• Hyundai Motor: -15.8%

• LG Energy Solution: -11.58%

Out of more than 800 KOSPI stocks, only 10 closed higher — almost all of them energy companies.

The won briefly broke past 1,500 per dollar, a level last seen in March 2009 during the global financial crisis.

Institutional investors sold a net 588.8 billion won. Retail and foreign investors stepped in to buy but were unable to absorb the sell-off.

Context

The KOSPI had already surged nearly 50% this year, driven by AI optimism, a global chip shortage, and corporate governance reforms.

Retail investors piled in using leverage, pushing margin debt to record highs. In some cases investors used only 30–40% of their own capital, borrowing the rest.

Now those same positions are being forcibly liquidated. What accelerated the rally is now amplifying the downside just as quickly.

The 12.06% daily drop even exceeds the September 12, 2001 decline (-12.02%), when markets crashed following the terrorist attacks.

Despite the crash, the KOSPI remains up 21% year-to-date. Meanwhile, the government has activated a 100-trillion-won market stabilization program.

👉 Sources: Korea Herald, Business Times, Yonhap

The escalation in the Middle East is reaching the vital artery of the world economy: Iran has officially declared the Strait of Hormuz closed.

Every ship passing through the strait is declared a target. Since over 30% of global seaborne crude oil trade and 20% of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) flow through this bottleneck, Asia in particular faces an unprecedented supply and price shock.

The shock in numbers

• Traffic: 80% decline, ~150 ships stranded

• Oil price: From $73 to ~$80/barrel (+10%)

• Casualties: 5 tankers damaged, 2 dead

• Normal state: 13 million barrels/day

Methanol shock: China's factories under pressure

Besides oil and gas, an often underestimated raw material is hitting Chinese industry: methanol.

• Industrial base: Methanol is the basic material for paints, plastics, and textiles. Since Iran is the world's second-largest producer, China's manufacturing sector faces a massive raw material shortage.

• Price jump: Spot prices in China have already risen by over 7%. Initial chemical plants are throttling production as inventories in ports shrink rapidly.

Trump's response

The US government has announced it will militarily escort civilian tankers and offer state insurance for ships in the Gulf.

• While US consumers suffer from gasoline prices, US oil producers could financially profit from global scarcity.

$79 million in revenue, 236 million users, but $1.87 billion in losses on the books

MiniMax, one of China's six "AI Tigers" and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since January, has released its first annual results.

• Revenue: +159% to $79 million.

• The stock has quintupled since its IPO price of HK$165 and most recently closed up more than 9%.

The details

The startup, founded in 2022 and backed by Alibaba, miHoYo and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, was the fastest AI company globally to go public.

Extremely fast execution: Three new model generations (M2 to M2.5) in 108 days. The next one (M3) is expected in the first half of 2026.

MiniMax operates on two tracks:

• B2C revenue from AI apps Hailuo AI and Talkie: $53.1 million (+143%).

• B2B revenue from enterprise clients and developers: $26 million (+198%).

Over 73% of revenue comes from international markets.

• Gross margin: +13 percentage points to 25.4%. Marketing costs -40%, R&D +34% to $250 million.

• ARR: Exceeded $150 million in February. 236 million users across 200+ countries, 214,000 enterprise clients.

The net loss of $1.87 billion sounds dramatic, but $1.6 billion of that is purely mark-to-market adjustments on financial instruments, not actual cash out the door. The operating loss came in at $251 million, roughly flat year-over-year.

Context

OpenAI reported an ARR of $20 billion in 2025. MiniMax sits at $150 million. But while US competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic rely on ever-larger funding rounds, MiniMax has already tapped the capital markets.

The question now is whether the Hong Kong listing provides enough runway to keep up in the global model race, or whether the coffers run dry at $250 million in annual cash burn faster than the valuation can rise.

👉 Sources: KrASIA, Yicai Global, DealStreet Asia

Tomorrow, the most important political event of the year begins in Beijing: The "Two Sessions" (Lianghui).

Analysts expect a historic premiere: For the first time in three years, Beijing is likely to lower its GDP target – from "around 5%" to a range of 4.5-5%.

The new realism

21 of 31 Chinese provinces have already lowered their growth targets. The signal from the regions is clear: The era of double-digit growth rates is definitively over.

• Flexibility: Range target provides room for reforms instead of pure growth chasing

• Demographics: Aging population makes high targets unrealistic

• Geopolitics: Iran conflict and US trade war increase uncertainty

15th Five-Year Plan: tech instead of consumption

The Two Sessions mark the start of China's new blueprint (2026-2030). Central is the promotion of "New Quality Productive Forces":

• Technological sovereignty: Massive investments in AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, and 6G are intended to make China independent of Western export controls.

• Industrial upgrading: Instead of cheap mass goods, the focus is on producing high-end equipment and new materials.

• Problem zone consumption: It remains to be seen whether Beijing will provide real fiscal resources for households or continue to primarily subsidize the supply side (industry).

Trump factor

US President Donald Trump is expected in Beijing at the end of March. Experts therefore expect moderate diplomatic rhetoric to avoid jeopardizing the negotiating basis for tariffs.

PayPay, Japan’s dominant payment app with more than 72 million users, filed for its U.S. IPO on Monday.

Target: up to $1.1 billion on the Nasdaq. That would make it the largest U.S. listing of a Japanese company in history. At the top end of the price range, the valuation would reach $13.4 billion. SoftBank founder Son had originally aimed for $20 billion.

The details

PayPay is offering 31.1 million shares (ADRs) on Nasdaq, while SoftBank’s Vision Fund II is selling an additional 23.9 million. Price range: $17 to $20 per share.

According to PayPay’s SEC filing (April to December 2025): the company posted $656 million in profit on $1.77 billion in revenue. In the same period a year earlier, profit stood at $184 million — meaning it has more than tripled.

Anchor investors include Visa, the Qatar Investment Authority, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Together, the three will take 10% to 20% of the offering.

• Visa and PayPay signed a strategic partnership in February and plan to launch a joint U.S. venture for digital wallets supporting NFC and QR-code payments.

Why Japan’s payment market is so attractive

Since its founding in 2018 as a joint venture with India’s Paytm, PayPay has reshaped Japan’s payment landscape — paying via QR code at checkout instead of cash or credit card.

• QR-code payments now account for 9.6% of all cashless transactions in Japan, up from just 0.2% in 2018.

• With 72 million users in a country of 123 million people, penetration is close to 60%. Credit cards still account for 83%.

For SoftBank, the deal is part of a broader portfolio reshuffle: between June and December alone, the group sold $13 billion worth of T-Mobile shares to finance its AI push. Now PayPay is next.

The anchor-investor strategy has worked before: during the 2023 Nasdaq listing of chip designer Arm, SoftBank brought in Apple, Samsung, and Nvidia as investors — who were also customers. With PayPay, Visa plays that role.

👉 Sources: Bloomberg, Nikkei