Trump says U.S. will start talks with China on TikTok deal this week
He said the United States "pretty much" has a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app.
"I think we're gonna start Monday or Tuesday...talking to China, perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives, but we would we pretty much have a deal," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Last month, Trump extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok.
A deal had been in the works this spring to spin off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump's announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump said the United States will probably have to get a deal approved by China.
When asked how confident he was that China would agree to a deal, he said, "I'm not confident, but I think so. President Xi and I have a great relationship, and I think it's good for them. I think the deal is good for China and it's good for us."
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Indian Express
22 minutes ago
- Indian Express
The coder ‘village' at the heart of China's AI frenzy
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and dozens of people sat in the grass around a backyard stage where aspiring founders of tech startups talked about their ideas. People in the crowd slouched over laptops, vaping and drinking strawberry Frappuccinos. A drone buzzed overhead. Inside the house, investors took pitches in the kitchen. It looked like Silicon Valley, but it was Liangzhu, a quiet suburb of the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is a hot spot for entrepreneurs and tech talent lured by low rents and proximity to tech companies like Alibaba and DeepSeek. 'People come here to explore their own possibilities,' said Felix Tao, 36, a former Facebook and Alibaba employee who hosted the event. Virtually all of those possibilities involve artificial intelligence. As China faces off with the United States over tech primacy, Hangzhou has become the center of China's AI frenzy. A decade ago, the provincial and local governments started offering subsidies and tax breaks to new companies in Hangzhou, a policy that has helped incubate hundreds of startups. On weekends, people fly in from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to hire programmers. Lately, many of them have ended up in Tao's backyard. He helped found an AI research lab at Alibaba before leaving to start his own company, Mindverse, in 2022. Now Tao's home is a hub for coders who have settled in Liangzhu, many in their 20s and 30s. They call themselves 'villagers,' writing code in coffee shops during the day and gaming together at night, hoping to harness AI to create their own companies. Hangzhou has already birthed tech powerhouses, not only Alibaba and DeepSeek but also NetEase and Hikvision. In January, DeepSeek shook the tech world when it released an AI system that it said it had made for a small fraction of the cost that Silicon Valley companies had spent on their own. Since then, systems made by DeepSeek and Alibaba have ranked among the top-performing open source AI models in the world, meaning they are available for anyone to build on. Graduates from Hangzhou's Zhejiang University, where DeepSeek's founder studied, have become sought-after employees at Chinese tech companies. Chinese media closely followed the poaching of a core member of DeepSeek's team by the electronics company Xiaomi. In Liangzhu, many engineers said they were killing time until they could create their own startups, waiting out noncompete agreements they had signed at bigger companies like ByteDance. DeepSeek is one of six AI and robotics startups from the city that Chinese media calls the 'six tigers of Hangzhou.' Last year, one of the six, Game Science, released China's first big-budget video game to become a global hit, Black Myth: Wukong. Another firm, Unitree, grabbed public attention in January when its robots danced onstage during the Chinese state broadcaster's televised annual spring gala. This spring, Mingming Zhu, the founder of Rokid, a Hangzhou startup that makes AI-enabled eyeglasses, invited the six founders to his home for dinner. It was the first time they had all met in person, Zhu said. Like him, most of the six had studied at Zhejiang University or worked at Alibaba. 'When we started, we were small fish,' Zhu said. 'But even then, the government helped out.' He said government officials had helped him connect with Rokid's earliest investors, including Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. But some said the government support for Hangzhou's tech scene had scared off some investors. Several company founders, who asked not to be named so they could discuss sensitive topics, said it was difficult for them to attract funds from foreign venture capital firms, frustrating their ambitions to grow outside China. The nightmare situation, they said, would be to end up like ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, whose executives have been questioned before Congress about the company's ties to the Chinese government. Founders described choosing between two paths for their companies' growth: Take government funding and tailor their product to the Chinese market, or raise enough money on their own to set up offices in a country like Singapore to pitch foreign investors. For most, the first was the only feasible option. Another uncertainty is access to the advanced computer chips that power artificial intelligence systems. Washington has spent years trying to prevent Chinese companies from buying these chips, and Chinese companies like Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. are racing to produce their own. So far, the Chinese-made chips work well enough to help companies like ByteDance provide some of their AI services in China. Many Chinese companies have created stockpiles of Nvidia chips despite Washington's controls. But it is not clear how long that supply will last, or how quickly China's chipmakers can catch up to their American counterparts. A seemingly inescapable concept in Hangzhou is 'agentic AI,' the idea that an artificial intelligence system could be directed to act on its own. Qian Roy, another Hangzhou entrepreneur, has developed an AI-enabled digital companion for young people that responds to their moods based on information from the Myers-Briggs personality test, which is popular among young people in China. His team programmed his app, All Time, using publicly available AI systems, including those made by DeepSeek, Alibaba and Anthropic, an American startup. Mindverse, the company cofounded by Tao, who hosted the backyard event, is working on a product that would use AI to help people manage their lives. It can send supportive daily emails to colleagues, for example, or regular text messages to parents reminiscing about family vacations. 'I don't want the AI to just handle tasks, but to actually give you more mental space so you can unplug,' Tao said. Many in the crowd in Tao's backyard said the atmosphere in Hangzhou, set on the banks of a lake that was muse to generations of Chinese poets and painters, fueled their creativity. Lin Yuanlin started his company, Zeabur, while studying at Zhejiang University. His company provides back-end systems to people who are making apps and websites by 'vibecoding,' or using AI tools to program without deep software knowledge. Liangzhu is the perfect testing ground for his product, Lin said. He can lean over to someone in a coffee shop or wander into a neighbor's living room and learn what kind of support they need for their startups. Lin found himself going to Liangzhu so often that he moved there. Liangzhu villagers have been hosting film nights. They had recently gathered to watch 'The Matrix.' Afterward, they decided the movie should be required viewing, Lin said. Its theme — people finding their way out of a vast system controlling society — provided spot-on inspiration. Aspiring founders in Liangzhu, even those who did not go to top universities, believe they could start the next world-changing tech company, Tao said. 'Many of them are super brave to make a choice to explore their own way, because in China that is not the common way to live your life.'
Mint
27 minutes ago
- Mint
India's mega shipbuilding plan unfolds; 5 greenfield and 3 brownfield facilities taking shape on both sides of coastline
India is working to dramatically expand its domestic shipbuilding capabilities, with plans to establish eight such clusters along its expansive coastline. While five of these facilities will be built from the ground up, the rest three will involve expansion of existing facilities. The government has finalized the locations with pre-secured land parcels and necessary clearances, Union shipping secretary T.K. Ramachandran said. The mega-initiative, a cornerstone of the nation's Atmanirbhar Bharat drive, aims to transform India into a global shipbuilding powerhouse. States have made rapid progress in developing maritime clusters, Ramachandran said in an interview. "All state governments have formed special purpose vehicles to implement the project with approved and identified land parcels and access network connecting the clusters with roads and railway infrastructure. Seaside infrastructure is being developed along with breakwater facilities," he said. Nations are increasingly looking at shipping as a strategic sector, given Chinese dominance of the sector. US president Donald Trump has called for revitalizing shipbuilding, viewing it as crucial for both national security and economic prosperity. He has signed an executive order to create a Maritime Action Plan, established a new Office of Maritime and Industrial Capacity within the National Security Council, and proposed measures like imposing fees on Chinese-built vessels entering US. The five greenfield clusters that will come up in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Maharashtra will host the entire spectrum of ship manufacturing to equipment production, vendors, bunkering stations, insurance and ship leasing, said Ramachandran. These sites will house everything from ship manufacturing and equipment production to vendors, bunkering stations, insurance, and ship leasing entities. India's push is driven by a desire to significantly increase India's miniscule share of global shipbuilding, currently below 1%. The Maritime India Vision 2030 and Vision 2047 plans aim to elevate India into the top 10 and then top five shipbuilding and ship-owning countries worldwide, respectively. The target is to raise the share of Indian-built ships in India's fleet from the current 5% to 7% by 2030 and a substantial 69% by 2047. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have commissioned techno economic feasibility reports, and the government is exploring tie-ups with global shipbuilders for these clusters. While the secretary did not comment on the required investment for these projects, it is estimated that about ₹2 trillion would be required to develop the infrastructure over five to six years. The investment is part of the broader Maritime India Vision 2030, which anticipates a total investment of ₹3-3.5 trillion across ports, shipping, and inland waterways. In addition, three brownfield facilities will be developed: two in Gujarat (a ship repair facility in Vadinar and a shipbuilding facility in Kandla) and one shipbuilding facility near Cochin Port in Kerala. Shipping ministry officials have visited shipbuilding hubs in South Korea, Japan, and Scandinavian countries to explore partnerships and joint venture agreements. Ramachandran indicated that some tie-ups between global shipbuilders and Indian private and state-owned companies could materialize soon. "While we're seeing progress, the global market is still dominated by China, South Korea, and Japan," commented Pushpank Kaushik, CEO & head of business development (subcontinent, middle east and South East Asia) at Jassper Shipping. "To bridge that gap, what's really needed now is a clear push for foreign investment and technology transfer. If policy can make space for that, it'll not only attract global players but also strengthen our position in the international market." Mint had earlier reported about the government's plan to identify locations on both east and west coast of India as part of its ambitious global ship hub plans. The Union budget for FY26 outlined several measures to bolster domestic shipbuilding, including a ₹25,000 crore government-industry partnership Maritime Development Fund; revamping the existing Shipbuilding Financial Assistance to address cost disadvantages; and providing credit notes for shipbreaking to help purchase made-in-India ships. The budget also included large ships in the infrastructure harmonized master list, allowing their purchase on easier terms, while providing basic customs duty exemption on raw materials, components, consumables or parts for 10 more years. India's shipbuilding initiative would also address a concern of the trade about the uncertainty and variability of shipping costs impacting their competitiveness. With better availability of domestic shipping lines at affordable prices, the freight rate volatility due to shock events like covid-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, Red Sea crisis and the Iran-Israel conflict could also be checked.
Time of India
28 minutes ago
- Time of India
Petrobras weighs options for Polo Bahia onshore fields, including sale, says CEO
Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras is weighing options for its Polo Bahia onshore oil fields, including a potential sale, Chief Executive Magda Chambriard said on Saturday, adding that any decision will prioritize returns and shareholder interests. The Polo Bahia hub, consisting of some 28 onshore fields, was previously listed for sale under former President Jair Bolsonaro's divestment strategy. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pulled it off the market after he took office in 2023 and ended Bolsonaro's divestment strategy. Chambriard said the current operation at the Polo Bahia produces very little oil but requires significant effort. Extracting from those onshore fields was more viable when oil prices were higher, at $90-$100 per barrel, than it is at the current $65 per barrel, she added. "This is on our table and we haven't decided yet what we're going to do, whether to keep it with us, outsource the operation or transfer the asset. It's on the table, we're studying it and we're going to do what's best and most profitable for us and our shareholders," Chambriard said during the Strategic Forum for the Brazil-China Naval Industry in Rio de Janeiro. Asked if the company could replicate this analysis for its Urucu operation in Amazonas state, Chambriard declined to comment on potential divestment plans, and said Urucu produces "the best oil, the most valued." Also on Saturday, Brazilian and Chinese shipyards signed memorandums of understanding to foster technological and commercial collaborations, aligning with increased demand for Petrobras vessels.>
