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French AI firm Mistral has launched Magistral, a reasoning model it says rivals OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1. Unveiled at the London Tech Week, the n…

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French <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a> firm Mistral has launched Magistral, a reasoning model it says rivals <a href="/company/openai">OpenAI’s</a> o1 and <a href="/company/deepseek">DeepSeek’s</a> R1. Unveiled at the London Tech Week, the new model is reportedly designed for math, coding, and step-by-step logic in European languages.

Horizon Robotics plans to raise HKD 4.67 billion through a top-up share placement to support business expansion and R&amp;D. The self-driving chipmaker will sell 681 million shares at HKD 6.93 each, with support from existing investors and placement agents Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, amid bullish sentiment in Hong Kong.

Sleek has raised USD 23 million in a Series B funding round led by Ellerston JAADE, with participation from Money Forward. The Singapore-based platform helps SMEs streamline back office operations and will use the funds to scale its technology and expand globally.

Nanjing has launched an action plan to grow its embodied <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a> sector to over RMB 10 billion by 2027. At a June 11 conference, the city unveiled a dedicated industry park and alliance, aiming to support more than 150 companies and scale mass production. The plan includes new R&amp;D hubs, data labs, and pilot deployments in the public sector.

A coalition of US states has sued 23andMe to block the sale of user DNA data without explicit consent. Filed in bankruptcy court, the suit challenges the transfer of genetic profiles linked to over 15 million people as the company moves to sell its assets to Regeneron for USD 256 million. Plaintiffs argue that DNA data is permanent and uniquely sensitive.

Investbanq, a wealth tech platform, has raised USD 3 million in pre-Series A funding from Constructor Capital, Orvel, Big Sky Capital, and other investors. Based in Singapore, the company helps banks and asset managers serve digitally native investors across Asia and the MENA region.

Trae, <a href="/company/bytedance">ByteDance’s</a> AI-powered IDE, surpassed one million monthly users as of May, delivering over six billion lines of code since its January launch. It features multimodal tools such as sketch-to-code generation and natural language project building. A global subscription plan now offers premium access and supports Alipay payments.

Kandi Technologies and Deep Robotics have agreed to jointly develop smart golf gear and quadruped security robots for the North American market. Kandi will oversee product adaptation, manufacturing, and marketing, while Deep Robotics provides core technology and components.

Shanghai has completed the first phase of a campaign against <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a> misuse, removing over 820,000 pieces of illegal content and delisting 2,700 AI agents. Platforms like <a href="/company/xiaohongshu">Xiaohongshu</a> and <a href="/company/bilibili">Bilibili</a> were ordered to clean up tools for unauthorized cloning. Regulators also began inspections of foundation models and launched China’s first AI-generated content labeling alliance.

<a href="/company/alibaba">Alibaba’s</a> mapping app Amap has launched ride-hailing services in Japan through a partnership with local taxi platform Go, covering Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kyoto. The integration enables Amap users to book rides with cabs in Go’s network via the app.

<a href="/company/nvidia">Nvidia</a> will build its first industrial <a href="/industry/ai">AI</a> cloud in Germany, blending <a href="/industry/robotics">robotics</a> with high-performance computing to help BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and others streamline design and logistics. CEO Jensen Huang said the site is the first of 20 planned “AI factories” that aim to raise Europe’s compute capacity tenfold, alongside partnerships with Mistral on 18,000 GPU clusters and initiatives in drug discovery and quantum research.

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Laifen is sinking serious money into shavers, wagering that innovation will help it trump incumbents like Philips and Braun.

After hair dryers, Laifen targets the other side of bathroom counters with a shaver built from scratch

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Discount coffee, hotels thrive in China&#8217;s penny-pinching economy

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Mistral launches AI model for reasoning

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Deals in brief: Atome secures USD 75 million facility, Sam Altman backs Coco Robotics again, 12 new China deals, and more

After hair dryers, Laifen targets the other side of bathroom counters with a shaver built from scratch

Discount coffee, hotels thrive in China’s penny-pinching economy