How China will push ahead with AI under the new 5-year plan – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

AI was a keyword in China’s 15th five-year plan, running from 2026 to 2030. “These are kind of concrete examples that big tech companies are taking actions to try to engage everyday people with advanced AI,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War” and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy at Bastille Post.

The Bastille Post:

Signs of the AI push are already visible in the private sector. During the country’s recent Spring Festival holiday which marked celebrations for the Chinese New Year, major companies distributed traditional red packets — or lucky money coupons — through AI-driven apps, a consumer-level case study of how policy is meeting practice.

“These are kind of concrete examples that big tech companies are taking actions to try to engage everyday people with advanced AI,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War” and adjunct professor in the global AI-digital economy.

Ma believes that wider adoption of AI among consumers will also generate vast amounts of data, fueling improvements in AI products and services.

“You have more than a billion internet users that are integrated by the same language, same culture, and the same mobile payment. So, every day there is tremendous amount of data accumulated at the digital platforms. So, the next step is to better utilize the data, organize the data, and put the data into work by AI to generate value,” he said.

That value is increasingly visible in intelligent products, most notably robots. At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in January, Chinese firms dominated the exhibition floor with machines and high-tech robots of every shape and size, performing not only acrobatic displays but also practical tasks that underscored their commercial potential…

“There will be a huge range of embodied AI. But overall, China has the advantage of the manufacturing process developed here in the “Made in China” expansion the last three decades. Essentially, Chinese manufacturing power can be combined with Chinese open source models to develop a huge industry, relating to industry robots as well as humanoids,” Ma said.

Ma noted that this year’s “two sessions” could extend the technology agenda “Beyond AI,” encompassing quantum computing and biomedicine to lay the groundwork for next-generation industries.

More in the Bastille Post.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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How China’s AI industry gains at the Hong Kong stock market – Winston Ma

 

Winston ma

Chinese chipmaker Montage Technology soared 64% on its Hong Kong IPO debut. Financial analyst Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law and former head of North America for CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund, explains how US efforts to curtail Chinese semiconductor and AI firms helped them in the current boost, he tells Bloomberg. “The strong lineup of global cornerstone buyers suggests that Chinese AI-related IPOs are attracting institutional investors back to the HKEX market again,” he says.

Bloomberg:

Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law and former head of North America for CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund, said US sanctions limiting China’s access to advanced chips such as Nvidia’s were accelerating capital and policy support for China’s domestic semiconductor value chain, including “middleware” chip designers such as Montage.

“The strong lineup of global cornerstone buyers suggests that Chinese AI-related IPOs are attracting institutional investors back to the HKEX market again,” he said, referring to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

“Montage’s Hong Kong debut underscores how China’s AI chip ecosystem is moving ‘up the stack’ from basic components towards specialised chips that connect processors and memory inside data centres,” he added.

Montage’s listing also comes as Hong Kong logged its strongest start to a year since 2021, with IPOs and second listings raising about US$5.5 billion in January, the most since US$7.6 billion was raised in January 2021, LSEG data showed.

More at Bloomberg.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Why China is not in a hurry to close a TikTok deal – Winston Ma

Winston Ma

While the US has been busy floating the media with an upcoming deal on TikTok, China has been rather quiet, notes adjunct professor at NYU School of Law Winston Ma, author of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace on CNBC.

CNBC:

The lack of details in the Chinese side’s statement “suggests that China is taking time to negotiate when U.S. is keen to have deals,” said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, pointing out that Beijing “said nothing about [an] APEC meeting.”

And then there’s China’s vague commitments to a tech licensing deal to keep TikTok alive in the U.S. — what Beijing calls a “solution that complies with China’s laws and regulations.”

That contrasts with the constant flow of details from the U.S., now covering everything from investors to board seats. A Politico report, citing an unnamed senior White House official, even claimed that the Trump administration is “100% confident” of a deal forcing Beijing-based ByteDance to spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Trump, however, may have preempted China’s coolness, saying in a Truth Social post Friday that he “appreciate[s] the TikTok approval” after his call with Xi, even as Beijing kept its language vague.

More at CNBC.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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New barrier will limit Nasdaq IPO’s for smaller Chinese companies – Winston Ma

 

Winston ma

The US exchange Nasdaq has proposed a US$25 million fee for IPOs of Chinese companies, a popular venue for raising money because domestic exchanges are more troublesome due to government regulations. The move will pose a major barrier, especially for the smaller firm from China, says financial analyst Winston Ma at CNBC.

CNBC:

The Nasdaq stock exchange in the U.S. is planning listing requirements that will make it harder for small Chinese companies to list in New York, after a flood of tiny initial public offerings.

As part of proposed changes, companies operating primarily in China will need to raise at least $25 million in initial public offerings to list on the exchange, Nasdaq said late Wednesday local time.

The move comes as tensions between the U.S. and China simmer, and as the Nasdaq faces broader financial market issues.

“It will be more difficult for small Chinese companies to go IPO [on the] Nasdaq under the new rule,” said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. “The new rule reacts to some IPO cases of ‘pump and dump’ due to small float size.”

There have been been few large Chinese IPOs in the U.S. since the fallout around ride-hailing company Didi’s New York listing in 2021. But in 2024, 35 small China-based companies listed in New York, roughly twice the 17 U.S.-based microcap listings, Renaissance Capital said in December.

More at CNBC.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Please get in touch or fill out our speaker’s request form.

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How AI has entered the stage as filmmaker – Winston Ma

 

Winston ma

AI tools to generate videos, like TikTok, have been challenged by a new wave of innovations using AI as filmmakers, says Winston Ma, author of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace at CNBC. “Just like TikTok took the global markets by storm with short videos in the mobile internet age, Chinese AI companies could well lead the Generative AI revolution in visual digital entertainment,” said Ma.

CNBC:

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has also stayed on top of the trend by releasing the latest version of its video generation AI model this week called Wan2.2. The company claimed that with the open-source model, users can control lighting, time of day, color tone, camera angle, frame size, composition and focal length.

Open source allows users to download a model for free, and customize, if not commercialize, products with it. Alibaba claimed that since open sourcing the “Wan” model series in February, the models have been downloaded more than 5.4 million times from the Hugging Face platform and a similar one in China called ModelScope.

“The age of AI in film is over. We’ve entered the age of AI as filmmaker,” said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He pointed out that China’s 1.4 billion population has given local companies “enormous” amounts of video-watching data to work with.

“Just like TikTok took the global markets by storm with short videos in the mobile internet age, Chinese AI companies could well lead the Generative AI revolution in visual digital entertainment,” said Ma, author of “The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”

More at CNBC.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Email us or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Why China can apply AI better into the real economy, compared to the US – Winston Ma

 

Winston ma

China and the US are racing to develop and apply AI applications to the real economy. NYU innovation adjunct professor Winston Ma, author of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace, believes China has a clear advantage in applying AI tools into the real economy, compared to the US, he says on CNBC.

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China can and will use financial stimulus to offset the Trump threat – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

China can and will use its financial tools to offset the negative effects of the massive tariffs US President Trump has imposed on Chinese goods, says financial expert Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the New York University in a discussion with Bloomberg. China has not been using financial stimuli during and after the Covid crisis unlike the US, and still has the resources to do so now, he says.

You can see the full clip here.

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How AI is shaping China’s industrial revolution – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

Financial and innovation expert Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU, discusses how AI is reshaping the Chinese industrial revolution at state-owned CGTN. Not only has DeepSeek emerged as a leading AI tool, but other companies are following this lead and expanding into industrial sectors rapidly.

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How far is China’s tech ahead of the US – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

China’s tech industry seems ahead of the US, especially now that DeepSeek has come onto the playing field. Tech and finance adjunct professor at NYU Winston Ma discusses how the US restrictions on tech might have hampered US-China trade relations at CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request list.

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How US semiconductor sanctions helped China’s AI startups – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

One unintended effect of the US sanctions against China’s semiconductor industry is that its AI startups have benefited greatly from them, says Winston Ma, author of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain, and Cyberspace in the Bastille Post. 

The Bastille Post:

A prime example is the Chinese-developed DeepSeek AI chatbot, whose developer claims to have spent only a fraction of the development costs compared to companies like OpenAI. In some tests, it closely matched OpenAI’s ChatGPT model and outperformed Meta’s Llama AI model.

“You could have said that thanks to the sanction of the chips, lots of Chinese AI startups focused on developing AI applications in a more efficient way, using much fewer GPU chips than the U.S. counterparts,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War.”

One area where Chinese tech companies have focused their efforts is humanoid robotics.

“[If you went to] the recent CES Las Vegas Exhibition, you will find Chinese manufacturers dominate the exhibition of smart robotics. It’s interesting that ‘Made in China’ was started when China was at the low end of the global supply chain. But after two, three decades, the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem, especially relating to electronics, has become the strongest in the world,” said Ma.

More in the Bastille Post.

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Expect the digital yuan back on China’s 2025 agenda – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

The introduction of the digital yuan didn’t make much headlines in 2024, but financial expert Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University and former managing director at China’s sovereign wealth fund, expects the debate will be back in 2025, he tells the Cointelegraph.

The Cointelegraph:

China’s central bank digital currency was once one of the industry’s hottest topics, but 2024 saw a relatively quieter year for the digital yuan.

Still, Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University and former managing director at China’s sovereign wealth fund, predicts a strong push for the digital yuan’s overseas expansion in 2025…

Despite … setbacks, China remains committed to its digital finance ambitions. At the third plenum, which is China’s most authoritative meeting with President Xi Jin Ping in attendance, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced plans for a renewed focus on the internationalization of its currency, including advancing the digital yuan…

Then in November, Shanghai, China’s financial hub and most populous city, unveiled plans to boost digital finance, including improving digital yuan acceptance.

Ma said that the digital yuan expansion could be met with resistance from the US.

“[This] may be a year where China’s CBDC overseas expansion efforts, especially with the BRICS countries, would meet with challenges from [Donald Trump], as he indicated in his recent tweet about defending the US dollar supremacy,” Ma says…

China has tested retail cross-border digital yuan payments with Singapore. It’s also part of the mBridge project, a wholesale cross-border experiment with the central banks of Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.

More in the Cointelegraph.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Would you like him at your meeting or conference? Contact us or fill out our speakers’ request form.

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How to find the new unicorns – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

Winston Ma, Professor (Adjunct) and Executive Director, Global Public Investment Funds Forum, New York University School of Law and author of “The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds Are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy” gives advice on how to find the new unicorns and where to invest in digital infrastructure, cloud computing, and data preparation at the Cube, hosted by SiliconANGLE Media Inc. Co-Founder and Co-CEO John Furrier.

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How can AI use emotions and become more profitable – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

China’s state-owned CGTN’s anchor Karina Mitchell wonders if she might be quickly out of a job when Winston Ma, Adjunct Professor at New York University Law School, explains how dealing with emotion might be AI’s next step to integrate into our lives. Winston Ma is the author of  The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace and other books on innovation.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Get in touch or fill out our speakers’ request form.

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Why OpenAI’s China ban will only help Chinese developers – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

China’s developers have been avid users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the company’s ban of usage in China might come as a short-time shock, says innovation expert Winston Ma in the Guardian. But in the long run, it will help those China-based competitors as they are forced – and likely successful, in developing alternatives, he adds.

The Guardian:

One consequence of OpenAI’s decision may be that it accelerates the development of Chinese AI companies, which are in tight competition with their US rivals, as well as each other. China is estimated to have at least 130 large language models, accounting for 40% of the world’s total and second only to the US. But while US companies such as OpenAI have been at the cutting edge of generative AI, Chinese companies have been engaged in a price war that some analysts have speculated may harm their profit margins and their ability to innovate. Still, Winston Ma, a professor at New York University who writes about Chinese technology, said OpenAI’s departure from China comes “at a time when Chinese big tech players are closing on performance gap with OpenAI and are offering these Chinese LLM models essentially free”.

“OpenAI’s departure is a short-term shock to the China market, but it may provide a long-term opportunity for Chinese domestic LLM models to be put to the real test,” said Ma. Until now, Chinese companies have focused on the commercialisation of large language models rather than advancing the models themselves, he added.

More in the Guardian.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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How China companies develop AI under US sanctions – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

US sanctions on China make it harder for Chinese companies to develop large-scale AI systems because they lack access to finance and computing power, says Winston Ma, adjunct professor of law at the New York University School of Law. But they will focus on AI applications and their commercialization rather than developing the big systems, he tells CNBC.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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