Welcome back,
This week we’re looking at Huawei’s newest feat—a laptop that runs its own OS, meaning no reliance on Microsoft for Windows. The laptop is another area where Huawei has built its own, without reliance on the US—that now ranges from phones, to cloud computing, chips and laptops. A true embodiment of today’s complicated political landscape.
Elsewhere, investors want to restart troubled Indian ride-hailer BluSmart; Chinese garment makers are finding loopholes to reach the US with lower tariffs and Uber-rival Ola is having a meltdown in India.
All of that and more in this week’s newsletter.
Finally, something a little different: I’ve been spending stablecoins a lot this year using KAST, a Visa card that is available via Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can get a digital card within 5 minutes and there are physical cards available, too. If you get paid in crypto or spend a lot of it, KAST is genuinely worth a look. You’ll get a points bonus if you sign up with my referral code.
Disclosure: I work as a consultant for KAST, but this isn’t a sponsored mention—I just rate the product highly and use it daily. As regular readers know, ATR doesn’t feature sponsors, and this isn’t that.
Have a great week,
Jon
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US government actions have forced Huawei to develop a lot of tech itself, or alongside its allies in China. There’s its mobile OS, components for its handsets, cloud computing and now its moving into AI chips. But there’s one additional area where it just made a breakthrough: computer operating systems.
Last week, it launched its first laptop running its in-house HarmonyOS, replacing Windows after its license expired.
The laptop does two things you’d expect: link up to Huawei’s mobile apps and services, and showcase other China-made tech, as SCMP reports:
HarmonyOS on PCs includes a wide range of software catering to both work and entertainment needs, such as WPS, China’s alternative to Microsoft Office, and Alibaba Group Holding’s enterprise collaboration platform, DingTalk, according to Chinese tech news outlet ITHome.
The laptop is also compatible with a growing selection of mobile apps available on HarmonyOS smartphones, including social media platform RedNote, video-sharing site Bilibili and ByteDance’s enterprise collaboration tool Feishu. By the end of the year, the device is expected to support over 2,000 apps, according to state-backed newspaper Nanfang Daily.
The laptop leans heavily on Apple for design inspiration and it goes on sale on 19 May.
The untangling of the web of deception that built BluSmart’s business was our lead topic three weeks ago, and now investors are trying to save the seemingly-doomed ride-hailing business.
BluSmart’s troubles came from parent company Gensol, which shares the same co-founders who are alleged to have misused loans that were meant for electric vehicle purchases. BluSmart abruptly halted its service in the wake of the issues going public. Now, investors that include BP Ventures (which is linked to British Petroleum) are hatching a plan to inject $30 million to revive the flagging company—but they want co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi to step away.
Debts including salaries and other “operational liabilities” would cost around $30 million, according to a TechCrunch report. That would mean this injection would simply make it operational again. TechCrunch reports that the startup has attracted the attention of a number of potential acquirers, but so far none are particularly aligned.
The investment is tipped to happen in the coming few weeks so we may have more updates soon
The US offered huge opportunities for China’s garment factories, which had exploited the de minimis provision allowing imported goods under $800 to enter without duty free. The situation isn’t just bad for platforms like Shein, Temu and TikTok Shop (not to mention Amazon), but the very sells on their platforms, as the New York Times explores:
The tariffs have made it impossible for Mr. Liu to continue selling on Amazon, where he previously made about $1 on every garment but now just 50 cents. And he felt he could not cut his employees’ pay, Mr. Liu said, as workers at a labor market crowded past his motorbike, which he had parked on the sidewalk with a dress sample draped over the handlebars.
“You can’t sell anything to the United States right now,” Mr. Liu said. “The tariffs are too high.”
Chinese merchants NEED to sell abroad so second and third order effects are playing out.
Now Teemu, Shein and others are ramping up in Europe—where their ad spend has risen by double digits as both platforms bid to woo users in markets like France and the UK.
On the other side, Chinese exports are looking to reroute goods through other countries to escape US tariffs. The phenomenon is called “place-of-origin washing” and it is happening most in Asia, according to an FT report:
South Korea’s customs agency reported finding $21 million worth of goods with falsified origins in Q1, mostly from China and bound for the US, warning of a sharp rise in attempts to bypass US tariffs by routing through Korea. Vietnam and Thailand have also tightened checks to curb origin fraud. A Chinese exporter said most firms ship goods “free on board” to reduce liability, while logistics agents revealed routes through Malaysia where goods are relabeled with false origin certificates.
One loophole closes, a new one will be found…
Outside of fashion, companies with components in devices are local sourcing from China. “Since Trump’s tariff hikes, over two dozen firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen have told investors they’re ramping up efforts to localize sourcing—especially in semiconductors, chemicals, and medical devices—signaling a lasting shift in global supply chains,” writes the FT.
We’re reported on major issues for Ola Electric, but parent company Ola has also been engulfed in the chaos. Last week, Ola investor Vanguard marked down its stake in the ride-hailing business to give the startup a valuation of just $1.25 billion. That’s down from a peak valuation of $7.3 billion in 2021 and it comes as the Uber rival battles to go public despite losing significant market share across India.
Given how Grab and GoTo have performed on public markets, Ola may do well to refocus first.
China’s top chipmakers—SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor—saw their share prices plunge despite positing revenue growth—that’s because their guidance warned of challenges in the second half of the year, particularly around production link
Nvidia now plans to launch a downgraded version of its H20 AI chip for China by July, after US export restrictions nuked its previous version of the product link
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says China’s AI chip market could reach $50B in a few years, making access critical for US firms link
Humanoid robots are caught in the US–China trade war because AI models rely on US chips and Chinese parts which is a challenge in the current political climate link
The US Treasury Department is reviewing a Benchmark Capital-led $75M investment in Chinese startup Manus AI—but the fund believes the deal does not contravene regulations link
Alibaba’s Qwen3 family of AI models has surpassed DeepSeek as the best-performing open-source model, according to tests from LiveBench—DeepSeek’s R1 has reigned at the top since January. However, Qwen3 does trail OpenAI’s o3, Google’s Gemini Pro 2.5 and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7—all of which are closed-source link
Alibaba researchers have developed “ZeroSearch,” a method that trains AI to search without using costly commercial APIs. By simulating search during training, it cuts costs and gives companies more control over how AI learns to retrieve information link
Huawei and Alibaba are reportedly outpacing America cloud computing rivals in the Middle Eastern market, where they are aligning with governments and easy fear that data could be accessed by the US government—a scenario that is possible through the US Cloud Act link
Microsoft employees are banned from using DeepSeek app, according to President Trump link
Alibaba announced an app-to-app shopping connection between RedNote, the Instagram-like service from China known in China as Xiaohongshu link
Ant Group plans to list overseas unit—which is registered in Singapore—through an IPO in Hong Kong, according to a media report link
Uber announced partnerships with China’s Pony.ai, Momenta, and WeRide to explain its robotaxi push into the Middle East and Europe—Uber already has deals with the likes of Waymo but now it is firmly embracing Chinese tech for some markets link
Tata Electronics is in talks to bring NXP Semiconductors on board as a client for its upcoming chip fab in Gujarat and OSAT facility in Assam link
India has formed a panel to assess whether current copyright law can address AI-related disputes, as OpenAI faces lawsuits over alleged misuse of copyrighted content link
Starlink has secured long-awaited approval to operate in India, over three years after its initial launch attempt stalled link
JioStar is doubling down on content investment, with plans to spend around $3.6 billion on programming this year and even more next year—the revelations came from a senior executive, who disclosed that the company has spent more than $10B on content to date as it continues to aggressively battle domestic and foreign rivals link
On-demand logistics platform Porter announced it raised $200M at a valuation of $1.1B–$1.2B—that’s a slight markup on an internal round at $1B that was never formerly announced but was reported by press last year link
World, formerly known as Worldcoin, has been suspended in Indonesia, where it is said to be running without correct permits and registrations link
OpenAI has introduced data residency options for some categories of paying ChatGPT users in Japan, India, Singapore, and South Korea—this means they can store their data within these countries to comply with local data regulations link
The US Treasury has labeled Cambodia’s Huione Group as a money-laundering operation, the first move that could see cut it off from the US financial system—the company and its affiliates are said to have laundered more than $4 billion for criminals since 2021, helping North Korean hackers and Southeast Asian scammers among others link
Singapore has unveiled a plan to promote global cooperation on AI safety, bringing together researchers from the US, China, and Europe to push for collaboration over competition in developing powerful AI systems link
LG Electronics plans to build a $600M plan in India, a development that follows the pause of the planned IPO for its India unit—which could now go public later this year or early 2026 link
Foxconn has landed an EV manufacturing deal with Mitsubishi Motors, its biggest auto win yet which will see it build a Mitsubishi-branded EV for Australia and New Zealand link
The FT looks at whether Japanese anime is the next goldmine for IP link
Mobile operator NTT plans to take its subsidiary NTT Data private by purchasing remaining shares for $16.4B link
Panasonic plans to cut about 10,000 jobs—4% of its global workforce—as it sheds struggling business lines and pivots away from traditional electronics. Half the cuts will be in Japan, the rest overseas. link
G7 leaders may address North Korea’s cyberattacks and crypto thefts at next month’s Canada summit link
