Dubai has approved an 80-kilometre road corridor linking Abu Dhabi and Sharjah through the emirate, a two-phase project intended to divert through traffic, strengthen freight movement and sharply reduce journey times on key sections of the network. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, approved implementation of the New Fourth Corridor, which will run from […]
BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 17 September 2026 – HiDream.ai, an AI company specializing in foundation models and generative AI, announced the launch of HiDream-O1-Video-1.0, or HiDream V1, its native omnimodal video generation model.
Designed around a deeper understanding of creative intent and real-world physics, HiDream V1 supports multimodal inputs including text, images and video. It can generate high-fidelity 1080p videos ranging from 5 to 20 seconds, with enhanced narrative planning, character consistency, physical plausibility and audiovisual synchronization.
In its debut on two independent international benchmarks, HiDream V1 ranked No. 4 globally on the Artificial Analysis Image to Video Leaderboard (With Audio) and No. 8 on the Arena.ai Image-to-Video leaderboard, placing it among the world’s leading video generation models.
Artificial Analysis independently evaluates leading AI models through standardized and reproducible benchmark testing. Arena.ai uses anonymous head-to-head comparisons and user voting to assess model outputs. Together, the two platforms provide third-party perspectives on model performance based on both standardized testing and real-world user preferences.
HiDream V1’s results demonstrate its competitiveness across key dimensions including visual quality, prompt adherence, motion quality, narrative coherence and audiovisual coordination.
The global AI video generation market has become increasingly competitive, with models developed by Chinese teams—including Seedance and MiniMax H3—maintaining strong positions on international leaderboards. HiDream V1’s top-tier debut further expands China’s presence among the world’s leading video generation models.
“The next generation of video models will not be defined solely by higher resolution or longer duration,” said Yao Ting, Chief Technology Officer of HiDream.ai. “What matters is whether a model can genuinely understand a creator’s intent and how objects, actions and sounds interact in the real world. HiDream V1 was designed from the outset to represent text, video and audio within a unified framework. Our goal is to move video generation beyond simply looking sharp and moving smoothly toward understanding instructions, sustaining coherent performances and keeping sound aligned with visuals. Its performance on two independent international benchmarks provides encouraging validation of our native omnimodal approach.”
Upgrades in Visual Fidelity, Narrative Coherence and Character Consistency
HiDream V1 introduces broad improvements in high-fidelity rendering, narrative continuity and character consistency. Rather than optimizing only for the quality of individual frames, the model is designed to maintain coherence across an entire video sequence.
Once characters, emotions, motivations and physical rules are placed within a continuous sequence, each element can affect the others. HiDream therefore uses a technical framework built around three stages: planning first, followed by joint generation, and then alignment through multimodal reward signals.
Under this approach, the model first plans the narrative and character states at a global level. It then jointly constrains visuals, movement and semantics during generation, before using multimodal reward signals to align visual quality, continuity and physical plausibility.
Native Omnimodal Architecture for Better Intent and Physics Understanding
The central challenge in AI video generation is shifting from the quality of individual frames to a broader understanding of complex instructions, continuous motion and the rules governing the physical world.
User prompts often contain multiple layers of information, including characters, actions, settings, camera directions, dialogue and sound. To handle these requirements more effectively, HiDream V1 incorporates multimodal intent understanding and planning. Before generation begins, the model structures the user’s request across elements such as shot duration, setting, character state, movement, facial expression, composition, camera motion, dialogue and ambient sound.
Through this “understand, plan and generate” workflow, HiDream V1 plans narrative development and character states at a global level, while coordinating visuals, motion, semantics and audio during generation. This is designed to improve content completeness, character consistency and continuity between shots.
Physical reasoning is another core capability of HiDream V1. The model incorporates factors such as gravity, inertia, collisions, deformation, materials, lighting and spatial continuity into the generation process. As a result, object movement, character actions and environmental responses can more closely reflect the behavior of the real world.
This approach moves video generation beyond reproducing visual appearances and toward modeling how a dynamic world operates over time.
Content-Adaptive Video Duration
Most current video generation models require users to specify a fixed duration in advance, forcing the content to fit within a predetermined time window. This can lead to unnecessary pauses after an action has ended or the use of slow motion to fill the remaining time.
HiDream V1 instead incorporates duration into its narrative planning process. Within a range of 5 to 20 seconds, the model can determine an appropriate video length based on how an event unfolds, how long an action takes to complete and the pacing required by the content.
The capability is not simply a matter of adding or removing frames. It is designed to make duration serve the narrative, producing more natural pacing and more complete sequences. Users can focus on describing the event and intended outcome, while the model plans the corresponding temporal structure.
Conventional AI video generation systems often follow a staged workflow in which visuals are generated first and sound is added afterward. This can lead to mismatches between lip movements, physical actions, ambient sound and sound effects.
HiDream V1 uses a native omnimodal architecture to jointly model text, video and audio signals. The three modalities constrain and inform one another within a single generation process. Visual motion influences sound timing, dialogue and sound effects contribute to the emotional tone of a scene, and text conditions guide the generation process throughout.
This unified approach is designed to improve synchronization across character performance, environmental changes and physical actions.
During post-training, HiDream uses Diffusion Reinforcement Learning and a multimodal reward model aligned with human perception and aesthetic preferences. Generated content is evaluated across multiple dimensions, including visual quality, semantics, motion, physical plausibility and sound, helping improve overall consistency and realism.
Completing HiDream’s Native Omnimodal World Model Portfolio
HiDream V1 is not a standalone model. It is a core component of HiDream’s native omnimodal world model strategy.
Built on a unified UiT, or Unified Transformer, foundation, the company’s portfolio now comprises four major model families:
Rather than operating as four separate technology stacks, the models are designed to evolve from the same unified architecture. Together, they cover spatial understanding, temporal modeling, 3D interaction and embodied action, creating an integrated system for perceiving, understanding, generating, interacting with and acting upon the physical world.
HiDream’s models have previously achieved leading results on several independent benchmarks. HiDream-O1-Image 1.5, the commercial version of the company’s image model, ranked No. 2 globally and No. 1 among Chinese models on the Artificial Analysis text-to-image leaderboard, while its open-source edition also reached No. 2. HiDream-O1-World ranked No. 1 overall on WBench, a benchmark for interactive world models. HiDream-O1-Embodied achieved first-place results in the disturbance adaptation and spatial reasoning categories of RoboColiseum.
“We are not building four isolated model product lines,” said Dr. Mei Tao, founder and CEO of HiDream.ai. “We are building a native omnimodal system that shares a unified technical foundation and continues to evolve toward a deeper understanding of the real world. Competition among the next generation of foundation models will depend not only on improvements in individual capabilities, but also on whether different modalities can understand, generate and interact within a unified architecture.”
From understanding and generating the world to simulating and acting within it, the launch of HiDream V1 completes a key part of HiDream’s native omnimodal world model portfolio.
Alongside the launch of HiDream V1, HiDream announced the completion of a Series C+ financing round backed by New Micro Capital, Jiaozi Capital and ICBC Capital. The proceeds will support native omnimodal model research and development, product iteration, AI computing infrastructure and the expansion of industry applications.
New Micro Capital was jointly established by Shanghai New Micro Technology Group, Shanghai Science and Technology Venture Capital Group and its management team. The firm manages nearly RMB 10 billion in assets.
As the corporate venture capital arm of New Micro Technology Group, New Micro Capital is expanding its investments in artificial intelligence. Drawing on the group’s industrial capabilities in specialty integrated-circuit manufacturing, it seeks to advance collaboration across AI infrastructure, model technologies and end-user applications.
Jiaozi Capital is a wholly owned state-backed equity investment platform under Chengdu Jiaozi Financial Holding Group. The firm focuses on artificial intelligence and other strategic technology sectors, using long-term capital and industrial resources to accelerate technology commercialization and ecosystem development.
With the launch of HiDream V1, HiDream’s native omnimodal world model strategy is moving from a technical roadmap toward an integrated system supported by a unified foundation, a coordinated model portfolio and deployable product capabilities.
HiDream V1 is currently in internal testing and is expected to become available in the near future. Users can learn more at: https://hiharness.ai/
Hashtag: #HiDreamAI
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
HiDream.ai is an artificial intelligence company focused on generative AI and native omnimodal world models. Built on its unified UiT architecture, the company’s model portfolio spans image generation, video generation, interactive world simulation and embodied intelligence. HiDream aims to develop AI systems capable of understanding, generating, simulating and acting upon the real world.
Leaderboard disclaimer: Rankings cited in this release reflect publicly available results at the time of publication and may change as participating models, evaluation data or platform methodologies are updated.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai International visitor spending in the Middle East is forecast to rise by US$116 billion, or 57%, between 2025 and 2030, signalling a sharp expansion in tourism revenues despite near-term geopolitical disruption. The projection comes from the ATM Travel Trends Report 2026, produced by Arabian Travel Market with Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, and presented at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The report […]
PayitFast has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dubai-based luxury travel company Zameera to give members access to curated high-end journeys through Verati, its lifestyle and concierge platform. The agreement, announced in Dubai on September 16, brings Zameera’s travel portfolio into the PayitFast ecosystem, extending the digital payments company’s member offering beyond financial services. The companies said the first selection will include a private safari camp in […]
CoinEx will shut its cryptocurrency exchange on December 22 after nine years of operation, citing a prolonged market downturn, falling trading activity and mounting regulatory and compliance costs. The platform began an orderly wind-down on September 15, halting new user registrations and restricting several services, while allowing customers to withdraw assets until 02:00 UTC on December 22. CoinEx said all user assets were fully backed and that […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai The UAE has ranked first in a new global tax optimisation index assessing 48 jurisdictions for internationally mobile individuals, driven by its lack of personal income, wealth and inheritance taxes and a 5 per cent value-added tax. The study by Global Citizen Solutions’ Global Intelligence Unit gave the UAE a composite score of 82.7 out of 100, narrowly ahead of Antigua and Barbuda […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Yemen’s Houthis claimed on Wednesday that they had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over Marib governorate, an assertion that would mark a significant escalation in the renewed fighting between the group and Saudi Arabia if independently confirmed. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the aircraft was hit while conducting operations over Marib and was brought down by what he described as […]
Rotating chairman David Wang said at Huawei Connect 2026 in Shanghai on Thursday that the company plans to release the 960DT in the first quarter of 2027 and the Ascend 960PR in the third quarter. The roadmap places Huawei’s next generation of accelerators at the centre of its effort to build domestic alternatives for training and running increasingly demanding AI models.
Huawei also unveiled the Ascend 960 SuperPoD and an upgraded version of its UnifiedBus interconnect technology, designed to link large numbers of processors so they can function as one computing system. The company said a combination of UnifiedBus and its Hi-ONE optical system could connect as many as 4,000 processors within a SuperPoD, extending high-speed optical links deeper into the machine.
The strategy reflects a broader shift towards system-level performance rather than relying solely on the capability of individual chips. Advanced AI workloads require thousands of processors to exchange data rapidly, making networking bandwidth, memory access and cluster efficiency increasingly important alongside raw chip performance.
Wang said Huawei has developed 11 semiconductors based on UnifiedBus technology for use across its large computing systems. Its biggest planned superclusters will be able to support up to one million AI processors, he said, while the company has already shipped more than 1,000 smaller supernodes to more than 370 customers.
Huawei did not identify those customers or give a detailed breakdown of shipments. It also did not provide independently verified benchmarks directly comparing the new 960-series chips with Nvidia’s leading accelerators, leaving questions over single-chip performance, software compatibility and manufacturing scale.
The company had previously said the Ascend 960 would offer twice the computing power, memory capacity, memory bandwidth and interconnect ports of the Ascend 950 generation. Huawei has also been developing the Atlas 960 SuperPoD and SuperCluster, with the larger system intended to combine more than one million neural processing units when it reaches the market.
Huawei’s current product roadmap also includes the Ascend 950DT, due in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company has said that processor will use its HiZQ 2.0 high-bandwidth memory, providing 144 GB of capacity and 4 terabytes per second of bandwidth. Those specifications are intended to support both model training and the decode stage of inference workloads.
US restrictions have limited China’s access to cutting-edge Nvidia processors and advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, giving domestic suppliers greater room to expand. Huawei has emerged as the most prominent of those suppliers, but Nvidia retains a major advantage through its CUDA software ecosystem and a broad global developer base.
Chinese AI developers have increasingly turned to domestic accelerators for inference, where trained models generate responses, even as many frontier laboratories continue to depend on Nvidia hardware for the most demanding training jobs. That split has made Huawei’s ability to improve both hardware and software a critical test of whether China can reduce its dependence on foreign computing infrastructure.
Huawei is also contending with shortages of high-bandwidth memory, a key component in AI accelerators. The company has designed memory for some newer Ascend products, but supply constraints across the industry have increased costs and complicated efforts to scale production quickly enough to meet demand.
The group is seeking to offset those limitations through architectural changes, advanced packaging, optical networking and tighter integration between chips, systems and software. Its SuperPoD approach is intended to compensate for weaker performance from individual processors by allowing much larger numbers of chips to work together with lower latency.
Salesforce has launched AIforce, a new interface layer designed to let workers and artificial intelligence agents use live customer relationship management data, workflows and permissions from tools including Claude, Slack and Amazon Quick without opening the Salesforce application. Unveiled at Dreamforce 2026, AIforce exposes Salesforce data, business logic, semantic context, actions and governance through open interfaces while retaining the access controls already configured by customers. Salesforce said […]
The UAE has highlighted an artificial intelligence system developed by GenBio AI with contributions from Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence researchers that can simulate human cellular responses to drugs and other interventions. The UAE Embassy in Washington drew attention on Wednesday to AIDO Cell, a virtual-cell “world model” designed to represent biological activity across multiple levels, from DNA and RNA through proteins and whole-cell behaviour. […]
With the Omni Trio washing machine and AT8 Ultra wet-and-dry floor cleaner as key highlights, the showcase addressed a wide range of everyday home-care challenges, including separate laundry care, noise and vibration reduction, stubborn stain removal and the cleaning of tangled hair from floors.
During the exhibition, the products drew attention from German technology and smart-home media and also received recognition from industry bodies. The showcase innovations were honoured with the YD Best Design Award, while the Omni Trio received VDE A-10% low-noise certification, highlighting Midea’s continued strengths in both industrial design and product engineering.
Two Products, One Home-Care Direction
The Omni Trio brings a different approach to laundry separation. Its three independently operated drums—a 10 kg main drum and two 0.5 kg smaller drums—allow different loads to be washed separately at the same time. Everyday clothing, baby garments, socks and underwear can be handled without waiting for one cycle to finish before starting another.
Independent water inlets and Auto Dose systems, Foam & Flow DualSpray technology and low-noise performance support the same objective: making categorized laundry care easier to integrate into daily routines.
For floor care, the AT8 Ultra addresses another set of frequent cleaning tasks. Its technologies include Easy Foam cleaning, 60°C hot water on demand, a mechanical arm for improved water pickup, anti-tangle technology, and automated roller cleaning and drying. Each targets a practical issue, whether it is a stubborn stain, residual water or hair wrapped around the roller.
Together, Omni Trio and AT8 Ultra demonstrate how “Zoned Care, Omni Clean” extends beyond individual product features. Different cleaning tasks call for different solutions, and Midea FFC is applying its experience across laundry care and floor cleaning to address these needs with greater precision.
From European Needs to Global Development
IFA 2026 also provided Midea with an opportunity to observe how these innovations respond to expectations in the European market, where quieter operation, efficiency, flexibility and ease of use remain key considerations for home appliances.
These local insights also contribute into Midea FFC’s global product development. Learnings from different markets help shape technologies that can be adapted to diverse homes, daily routines and cleaning habits.
For the home-care category, the next stage of innovation is not simply adding more functions. It is about enabling appliances to better understand and handling specific household tasks, with greater automation and less effort from the user. For Midea FFC, the response at IFA 2026 offers a valuable reference point as the company continues to develop home-care technologies for markets around the world.
Hashtag: #Midea #OmniTrio #AT8Ultra
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Midea is a global technology company specializing in smart home appliances, climate solutions and floor-care technologies, with a focus on user-centric design, energy efficiency and sustainable innovation.
Nigeria’s fixed-income market appears to be crossing an important threshold. For much of the past two years, yields were principally shaped by a familiar combination of aggressive government borrowing, restrictive monetary policy and investors demanding substantial compensation for inflation and currency risk. That hierarchy is changing. AAG Capital argues that liquidity is becoming the more powerful force behind pricing, potentially pushing government yields lower even while fiscal […]
Greenlogue/AP Aldar Properties and Mubadala Investment Company have jointly acquired Masdar City Square for Dh918 million, expanding their income-generating real estate portfolio in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City to Dh4.7 billion. The acquisition was completed through the real estate joint venture established by the two Abu Dhabi groups in 2024. Masdar City Square comprises more than 47,000 square metres of net leasable space across seven office buildings and […]
Meta Platforms is preparing a camera-free pair of smart glasses, internally code-named Luna, for an expected autumn debut, with shipments targeted for October, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The glasses are designed around voice-based artificial intelligence rather than photography or video, marking a notable departure from Meta’s existing camera-equipped eyewear. People familiar with the product say Luna will contain six microphones, open-ear speakers and […]
Publicly listed Bitcoin miners fell below cash breakeven as a group in the second quarter, with their weighted average pre-tax production cost reaching about $75,500 per coin against Bitcoin’s quarter-end price of $58,400. The gap of roughly $17,100, or 29%, marked a sharp deterioration in industry economics during the three months to June, according to a new sector review by digital-asset investment group CoinShares. The report said […]
Protests over surging fuel costs widened across several countries on Wednesday as crude oil remained above $100 a barrel, pushing diesel and petrol prices higher and forcing governments to confront growing public anger over the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict. French fishermen blocked the Frontignan fuel depot near Sète, a day after a similar action at Fos-sur-Mer near Marseille, demanding relief from fuel costs and […]
Ramesh Khandelwal, who represents Madhya Pradesh on the government-constituted board, said on Wednesday that the 0.4 per cent merchant discount rate, or MDR, on UPI transactions above Rs 2,000 was at odds with the government’s stated emphasis on ease of doing business. The charge is due to take effect on October 15.
Khandelwal said he would raise the issue at the next meeting of the National Traders’ Welfare Board and sought an immediate rollback in the wider interests of merchants and customers. He argued that businesses operating on thin margins could struggle to absorb the additional transaction cost and that some of the burden might ultimately feed into retail prices.
The National Payments Corporation of India has said the revised framework will apply to specified person-to-merchant UPI payments above Rs 2,000. The fee will be borne by merchants rather than consumers and will be capped at Rs 300 for transactions of Rs 75,000 or more.
Person-to-person transfers, including payments between friends and family, will remain free. Merchant transactions up to Rs 2,000 will also continue without MDR, while small merchants receiving up to Rs 1 lakh a month through UPI QR payments are exempt under the framework.
Specified categories including railway tickets, fuel, agriculture, utilities, telecom, insurance, credit-card dues and tax payments will attract a lower flat charge of Rs 5 on eligible transactions above Rs 2,000. The government has also advised banks to ensure that merchants do not directly pass the MDR on to customers.
The opposition from Khandelwal adds to broader concern among traders over the return of merchant charges to UPI after more than six years of a zero-MDR regime. A nationwide LocalCircles survey of more than 32,000 merchants and businesses across 242 districts found that only 17 per cent of respondents were willing to bear a 0.4 per cent MDR on payments above Rs 2,000, while 41 per cent said they were unwilling to pay any such fee.
Merchants have raised particular concerns about sectors where high-value digital payments are common but margins are comparatively narrow. Textile traders in Surat, for example, said the levy could affect smaller businesses and workers who use UPI extensively for salaries, purchases and other routine transactions.
The policy change also marks a significant shift in the economics of the UPI ecosystem. Banks, payment applications and payment aggregators have long argued that the rapid expansion of transaction volumes requires greater spending on infrastructure, fraud prevention, cyber security and system capacity. The new MDR is intended to create a revenue stream to support those costs while keeping small-value and personal transfers outside the charging structure.
UPI has become the dominant retail digital payment system, with billions of transactions processed every month. That scale has increased the cost of maintaining the network even as users have become accustomed to making payments without a visible transaction fee.
The government’s approach seeks to confine the charge to larger commercial payments and to limit the exposure of small merchants and customers. Under the announced structure, a Rs 5,000 eligible merchant payment would carry an MDR of Rs 20, while a Rs 50,000 payment would cost the merchant Rs 200. Payments of Rs 75,000 and above would face the Rs 300 ceiling.
Khandelwal’s intervention puts the focus on whether traders will accept those costs or seek alternatives such as cash, bank transfers or other payment methods. His position is that even a small percentage charge, when repeated across large transaction volumes, can become a meaningful operating expense.
The dispute is likely to centre on merchant margins, enforcement and whether businesses can absorb the levy without changing prices or payment preferences. Traders also want clarity on how exemptions will be identified at the point of payment, particularly where a business accepts UPI through multiple bank accounts, QR codes or payment service providers across different locations.
The All India Petroleum Dealers Association, led by president Ajay Bansal, made the request in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, seeking relief before the revised UPI merchant payment framework takes effect on October 15.
Under the new framework, person-to-merchant UPI payments above ₹2,000 will generally attract an MDR of 0.4 per cent, with the charge capped at ₹300 for transactions of ₹75,000 and above. Fuel, railways, telecommunications, insurance and agricultural inputs have been placed in a separate essential-sector category carrying a flat MDR of ₹5 on payments above ₹2,000.
The Finance Ministry has said person-to-person UPI transfers will remain free regardless of value, while merchant payments of up to ₹2,000 and qualifying small-merchant transactions will also continue without MDR. It estimates that about 96 per cent of merchant UPI transactions will remain unaffected by the change.
AIPDA, however, said petrol pump economics differ from businesses where earnings rise with the value of a sale. Dealer margins are determined by oil marketing companies under the petroleum ministry’s framework and are primarily fixed on a per-litre basis, leaving outlets unable to offset payment-processing costs through higher margins on larger transactions.
“Dealers therefore have no mechanism to increase their earnings in proportion to the value of a transaction,” the association said in its letter.
The dealers’ body said even a flat ₹5 charge could become material because fuel stations handle large transaction volumes every day. It argued that multiplying the fee across thousands of payments would create a recurring cost burden, while applying the general 0.4 per cent rate would be still more difficult for the sector to absorb.
AIPDA asked for an absolute exemption from MDR and associated transaction fees for all UPI payments at retail fuel outlets, irrespective of value. As an alternative, it urged the government to provide a specific exemption for petrol pumps from both percentage-based MDR and fixed per-transaction charges if the ₹2,000 threshold is retained.
The association also warned that imposing the fee could encourage some dealers to discourage or restrict UPI payments above the threshold to protect margins, a development it said would run against the government’s goal of expanding digital payments and improving transaction transparency.
The Finance Ministry, setting out the rationale for the framework, said MDR is not a tax and is not collected by the government or the National Payments Corporation of India. The fee will instead be distributed among banks, payment service providers and UPI application providers to support the operation and expansion of the payment network.
The ministry said the differentiated fee structure was designed to preserve free payments for individuals and small merchants while creating a sustainable revenue stream for the wider UPI ecosystem. The flat ₹5 rate for fuel and other essential services was intended to give businesses in thin-margin sectors greater cost certainty than a percentage-based charge.
Dealers contend that fuel retailing warrants stronger protection because the mode of payment does not change the underlying economics of a petrol or diesel sale. They also cited earlier concessions on card-payment costs as evidence that fuel transactions have previously received distinct treatment within the digital-payment system.
The association said its commissions had not received an upward revision since October 2017 even as expenses including electricity, wages and regulatory compliance had increased. It said discussions with oil marketing companies over dealer earnings had yet to resolve the pressure on operating margins.
The dispute comes as fuel retailers prepare for the October implementation of the revised UPI rules. Dealers’ groups from several states have also approached the finance and petroleum ministries, seeking relief from the new fee and warning that outlets could reconsider accepting higher-value UPI payments if they are required to absorb the charge.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Emirates NBD has provided Cars24 Arabia with a digital revolving short-term financing facility to support the used-car platform’s expansion across the UAE and speed access to working capital for eligible dealers and business partners. The Dubai-based bank said the facility is built around an application programming interface, or API, that links its automated lending capabilities directly with Cars24 Arabia’s digital platform. Eligible businesses […]
Saudi warplanes struck Houthi positions across Yemen on Wednesday as the Iran-aligned movement pressed territorial gains along the Red Sea coast and widened attacks on Saudi targets, intensifying a new front in the Middle East war. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Saudi aircraft had carried out as many as 450 strikes during the week. Officials from Yemen’s internationally recognised government acknowledged that their forces and Saudi […]
More than 11.6 million cryptocurrency tokens stopped trading in 2025, an unprecedented annual total that accounted for 86.3% of all failures recorded by CoinGecko’s GeckoTerminal dataset between mid-2021 and the end of last year. The figure marks a steep acceleration from 2024, when 1,382,010 projects were classified as failed, and highlights the fragile economics of a market flooded with easily created tokens, particularly meme coins. CoinGecko counted […]
Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Wednesday that it had shot down a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 fighter jet over Marib province, a claim that Saudi authorities had not confirmed and that could not immediately be independently verified. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the aircraft was brought down with a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile while conducting what he described as hostile operations over Marib. He gave […]
Response by KK Chiu, International Director, Chief Executive, Greater China, Cushman & Wakefield:
We welcome the Government’s commitment to increase housing supply, shorten the Composite Waiting Time for public rental housing and further strengthen the housing ladder. The adoption of a long-term housing supply framework comprising 40% public rental housing, 30% subsidised sale housing and 30% private housing, together with the delivery of approximately 196,000 public housing units over the next five years, will provide a clearer housing and homeownership pathway for different income groups.
We believe that increasing the supply of subsidised sale housing and enhancing the housing ladder will help more public housing tenants progress towards homeownership, accelerate housing mobility and enable families with genuine housing needs to gain access to public housing more quickly.
We support the Government’s efforts to increase public housing supply, continue the Light Public Housing programme and implement the Basic Housing Units regime in an orderly manner to phase out substandard subdivided units. This approach is consistent with our long-held view that increasing housing supply is the fundamental solution to improving inadequate housing conditions. With the Government targeting the resolution of substandard subdivided units in domestic buildings by 2030, we expect living conditions for grassroots households to improve progressively.
Urban Renewal Incentives
We support the Government’s more flexible approach to urban renewal, including transferable plot ratio arrangements and measures to unlock redevelopment potential. These initiatives will help enhance market participation, accelerate renewal in areas with pressing redevelopment needs and contribute to overall housing supply growth. We recommend the Government provide clearer guidance on application requirements and further streamline cross-departmental approval procedures to facilitate implementation.
Advancing the Yacht Economy
We welcome the Government’s continued efforts to promote the yacht economy. Beyond increasing marina berth supply and enhancing supporting infrastructure, we believe it is equally important to further facilitate cross-boundary initiatives, allowing greater mobility of yachts within the Greater Bay Area and fostering regional collaboration.
As more superyachts and high-net-worth visitors arrive in Hong Kong, demand is expected to rise across luxury tourism, hospitality, food and beverage, retail, marine services and waterfront commercial facilities, helping unlock the economic potential of Hong Kong’s coastline and island resources. At the same time, Hong Kong has the potential to develop a more comprehensive marine industry ecosystem encompassing yacht repair and maintenance, refitting services and specialised professional services. The development of a holistic marine services value chain will further strengthen Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a regional and international yachting hub.
Response by John Siu, Managing Director, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield:
Planning Ahead for AI and Data Centre Infrastructure
We welcome the Government’s commitment to accelerate the development of the Sandy Ridge Data Facility Cluster, which is expected to provide computing power equivalent to 36 times Hong Kong’s current capacity by 2032, alongside a HK$1 billion injection into the Artificial Intelligence Subsidy Scheme. These initiatives will provide important support for the development of Hong Kong’s artificial intelligence and data centre sectors, further strengthening the city’s position as a regional digital and innovation hub.
However, with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, large language models and cloud computing, demand for computing power is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. We believe that, in addition to planning data centre sites, the Government should proactively review long-term requirements for power supply, electricity grid capacity and related infrastructure. As AI adoption becomes more widespread, access to reliable power and supporting infrastructure will be a key factor in maintaining Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a technology and data centre hub.
We support the Government’s stated direction of pursuing “high-efficiency computing power, stable electricity supply and low-carbon transition”. Looking ahead, we recommend that the Government regularly review future demand for land, power supply and supporting infrastructure arising from the growth of artificial intelligence and data centre activities, particularly within the Northern Metropolis and other strategic development areas. A coordinated approach to computing, energy and digital infrastructure planning will help attract more data centre operators and technology companies to Hong Kong, while supporting the city’s long-term development as a regional hub for data and artificial intelligence.
Clear Industry Positioning for the University Towns
We welcome the Government’s efforts under Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan to further define the positioning of the three university towns in the Northern Metropolis University Town, and are encouraged by its strategy to promote synergy among the university towns, the San Tin Technopole and surrounding industry parks. As the only city in the world with five universities ranked among the global top 100, Hong Kong possesses a strong foundation in higher education and research. At the same time, the San Tin Technopole is set to become a key innovation and technology hub. The complementary strengths of these two pillars, both geographically and strategically, provide a solid foundation for building a globally competitive innovation ecosystem in Hong Kong.
We are particularly encouraged by the Government’s emphasis on integrated industry-academia-research collaboration. The university towns should not be viewed merely as educational developments, but as strategic platforms for research commercialisation, international talent attraction and the cultivation of emerging industries. Closer collaboration among universities, research institutes, innovation and technology enterprises and industry parks will help establish a complete innovation value chain covering talent development, scientific research, technology transfer and industrial implementation.
In addition, the Plan proposes approximately 300 hectares of educational facilities as the core of the university towns, connected with adjacent strategic industry areas, distinctive conservation areas, sports and cultural facilities, and surrounding communities, bringing the overall development footprint to more than 1,000 hectares. Such a large-scale integrated education and industry development model is rare in Hong Kong’s urban planning history and clearly demonstrates the Government’s long-term vision of creating a knowledge-based city cluster and an international education hub in the Northern Metropolis.
Attracting Signature Industry Projects and Anchor Institutions to Enhance the Northern Metropolis’ Global Appeal
We welcome the Government’s efforts to establish differentiated industry positioning through the three university towns, while integrating key development nodes such as the San Tin Technopole, the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone, the Hung Shui Kiu Industry Park and Ta Kwu Ling. This provides a clearer direction for industrial development in the Northern Metropolis and helps address long-standing market concerns regarding overlapping functions and unclear district positioning.
As highlighted in our previous research, we believe the next critical stage for the Northern Metropolis will be its ability to attract influential anchor institutions and leading enterprises. By bringing together universities, research institutes and industry leaders, Hong Kong can foster the clustering of businesses, talent and capital, gradually forming industry clusters with scale and international competitiveness. Hong Kong should also capitalise on its common law system, international financial centre status, intellectual property protection framework and global talent network by focusing on high value-added segments such as research and testing, intellectual property management, fundraising and listing activities, and international accreditation services. This will help Hong Kong establish an irreplaceable role within the Greater Bay Area industrial value chain.
Beyond strategic industries, we believe the Northern Metropolis could also explore internationally recognised and iconic industry projects to further enhance its global profile and attractiveness. For example, the Government may consider developing initiatives around new energy vehicles, smart mobility and advanced technologies, while exploring the feasibility of internationally recognised racing events, testing facilities or technology R&D platforms, such as those associated with Formula One. By leveraging motorsport-related economic activities and innovation-led development, Hong Kong could attract international automotive manufacturers, mobility technology companies and research institutions to establish regional headquarters, R&D centres or testing facilities in the city. This would in turn support the growth of engineering, intelligent transport, advanced manufacturing, tourism, hospitality, retail and convention and exhibition industries, further enriching the Northern Metropolis industrial ecosystem.
Accelerating Land Supply While Advancing Industries and Infrastructure in Parallel
We note that Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan proposes a significant acceleration in land and housing supply within the Northern Metropolis. Residential completions are expected to increase substantially from approximately 11,000 units during 2021/22 to 2025/26 to around 70,000 units during 2026/27 to 2030/31. Over the same period, the supply of “spade-ready sites” will rise from approximately 120 hectares to around 900 hectares, representing an increase of around 7.5 times. These figures demonstrate that the Northern Metropolis is transitioning from a planning and land formation phase to a new stage characterised by large-scale development, industrial implementation and population intake.
However, we believe the success of the Northern Metropolis should not be measured solely by the volume of land or housing delivered. As substantial residential, innovation and technology, and industrial sites come on stream, the focus should gradually shift from land supply to city-building. The Government should ensure the coordinated delivery of railway and cross-boundary infrastructure networks, industry parks, commercial facilities, public services and community amenities, while accelerating the introduction of leading enterprises and strategic industries to create sufficient, high-quality employment opportunities and achieve a genuine jobs-housing balance.
In particular, we believe the Northern Metropolis should be driven by industry-led development, with the San Tin Technopole, the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone, the university towns and major industry parks serving as key growth engines. This would create a virtuous cycle in which industry attracts population, population supports consumption, and consumption drives urban development. Only through the coordinated growth of industry, talent, infrastructure and communities can the Northern Metropolis evolve from a large-scale land development project into a modern metropolitan district integrating industry, education, living and international exchange.
New Opportunities for Student Accommodation Market
We welcome the Government’s initiatives to deepen Hong Kong’s development as an international hub for post-secondary education through the “Hong Kong: Your World-class Campus” campaign, expanded global student recruitment efforts and the extension of the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates pilot arrangement to graduates from Greater Bay Area campuses of Hong Kong universities. These initiatives will further enhance Hong Kong’s attractiveness to overseas students and talent while reinforcing the “Study in Hong Kong” brand.
We are encouraged by the continued progress of the Hostels in the City Scheme. The scheme has already received 41 confirmed applications, providing approximately 10,800 bed spaces and demonstrating strong market confidence in the long-term growth of Hong Kong’s education sector.
The scheme has opened up a new supply channel for converting commercial buildings into student accommodation. At a time when hotel conversion opportunities are becoming more limited as tourism continues to recover, it provides an alternative pathway for investors while helping unlock the value of underutilised commercial assets and meet rising demand for student housing. As the Government prepares to tender the first dedicated student hostel site, we believe purpose-built student accommodation will gradually emerge as a distinct and scalable asset class within Hong Kong’s real estate market.
To further increase supply, we recommend that the Government continue reviewing and refining approval procedures for student hostel conversions. Greater flexibility and streamlined processes, while maintaining appropriate safety and operating standards, would encourage wider market participation and support Hong Kong’s ambition to become a leading international education destination.
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Bae said South Korea was still trying to close the gap with leading AI powers while creating new markets, making its position different from countries or companies at the technological frontier. “We cannot afford to slow down AI right now,” he wrote on social media, describing the government’s approach as one of “speed responsibility” rather than speed control.
His remarks place Seoul firmly on the acceleration side of a widening debate over whether developers should moderate the pace of capable AI systems. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has called for a slowdown in frontier model development to allow more time for safety work, while OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and other technology leaders have voiced support for stronger precautions as capabilities advance.
Bae said South Korea should continue expanding research, industrial adoption and home-grown model development while strengthening protections against deepfakes, cyber threats and privacy violations. Faster progress, he said, required safety and trust measures to move at the same pace rather than follow after deployment.
The minister pointed to a broader technology agenda that includes sovereign foundation models, systems capable of processing vision and language, and models able to interact with physical environments. He said the country also needed to prepare for AI becoming deeply embedded across industries and everyday life.
The government has made domestic foundation-model development a central part of its ambition to place South Korea among the world’s top three AI powers. The Ministry of Science and ICT has been running a sovereign AI foundation model programme intended to improve domestic capabilities and reduce dependence on foreign technology.
Three teams led by Upstage, SK Telecom and LG AI Research advanced after the programme’s second-stage evaluation this year. The ministry has said models developed under the initiative were built with comparatively limited resources but were released as open source as part of an effort to expand the domestic AI ecosystem.
Bae indicated that further details on the next phase of the foundation-model programme would be announced after ongoing reviews. His comments also referenced government work on security-focused AI models and frontier systems, alongside an “AI for All” initiative intended to spread adoption across the economy.
The policy push is being developed alongside South Korea’s AI Basic Act, which establishes rules covering both the development of artificial intelligence and the creation of a framework for trust. The law’s stated purpose includes protecting rights and human dignity while supporting quality of life and national competitiveness.
That legal structure gives Seoul a basis for pursuing faster adoption without presenting safety as a separate objective. Bae said competitiveness and sustainability were linked, arguing that development speed and safeguards should advance together.
The global dispute has intensified as leading executives and policymakers weigh the economic benefits of faster AI deployment against concerns over misuse and loss of control. Amodei has proposed independent safety evaluators, coordination among major laboratories and greater international cooperation, while Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has argued against slowing technological progress and favours advancing safety alongside innovation.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday backed calls for greater caution and said frontier AI laboratories would be invited for talks on managing risks. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, by contrast, said AI companies already had strong incentives to build systems safely and did not require an industry-wide slowdown.
Bae’s intervention highlights the competitive pressures facing countries outside the United States and China, where most frontier AI investment and model development remains concentrated. South Korea has strong semiconductor and technology industries, but its government has acknowledged the need to strengthen domestic models, computing capacity and commercial adoption to narrow the gap.
