20/08/2026

THURSDAY | AUG 20, 2026

18

BIZ & FINANCE

BIZ & FINANCE

Unitree surges over 600% on Shanghai debut o Blockbuster listing highlights China’s growing ambitions in humanoid robotics

US securities regulator proposes long-awaited crypto regulations WASHINGTON: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday proposed a new regulatory framework for crypto assets, the first major step under US President Donald Trump’s administration to give the industry the tailored rules it has long pushed for. The SEC’s proposal would exempt certain crypto companies and offerings from US securities rules, which should make it easier for crypto companies to issue tokens and raise money. The agency “seeks to provide crypto asset entrepreneurs and market participants with clear pathways to raise capital under the federal securities laws,“ Paul Atkins, the SEC’s Trump-appointed chair, said in a statement. Trump, who courted crypto cash on the campaign trail and whose family has profited from its own crypto endeavors, has prioritised reform for the sector in his second administration. Under his Republican leaders, the SEC ended a crackdown on the crypto industry, moving swiftly last year to rescind stringent crypto accounting guidance and dismiss lawsuits against Coinbase, Binance and others that the agency had alleged were flouting its rules. Crypto companies have long argued that crypto tokens more closely resemble commodities than securities, and should, for the most part, not be subject to the SEC’s rules. Atkins has backed that position. If finalised as drafted, the SEC’s proposal would allow a one-time exemption for crypto companies to issue up to US$5 million (RM20 million) in crypto tokens during a four-year period. It would also allow offerings of up to US$75 million during each 12-month period, though issuers would still have to provide financial statements and meet regular reporting requirements. Under both exemptions, token issuers would still need to disclose certain information to investors. The SEC’s proposal also includes a safe harbour that would exclude a crypto asset from being deemed an investment contract, if certain conditions are met. “Regulation Crypto Assets is an important step towards the clear, fit-for-purpose rules digital asset markets in the US have needed for years,“ said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, in a statement. Cody Carbone, CEO of industry trade group The Digital Chamber, also praised the proposal and said in a statement that his group would “work with the SEC to ensure consumers and the digital assets industry can thrive onshore in the US” Deep-pocketed crypto companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over several years campaigning for legislation they say will put them on solid legal ground. But with that effort now stalled in the Senate, the SEC is stepping in. The SEC’s proposal could help put the crypto industry on a more solid legal footing in the short term. But Reuters reported on Tuesday that many industry executives worry that without legislation, future administrations may seek to overturn or toughen up the SEC’s rules. The proposed rules could make it easier for crypto firms to issue tokens and raise capital in the US. – UNSPLASH PIX

danced to 1990s Chinese pop song Lovebird . Commercial application of robots remains limited, with most used for research or display. Unitree’s products are used not just by domestic academics, but also US tech giants such as Nvidia, Google and Amazon, said Renjie Guo, founder and CEO of robotics engineering company Zeroth. “It has formed the underlying ecosystem that enables many people to build their developments on top of Unitree,” he told AFP. Unitree has listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s tech-focused STAR market, often compared to the US’ Nasdaq. Other Chinese humanoid robot firms such as the Shenzhen-based UBTech have listed in Hong Kong. UBTech launched its “U1” robot – equipped with eye cameras, chest sensors, and listening microphones – earlier this year, touting the model as the world’s first full-sized, ultra-realistic humanoid designed for mass production. The Chinese government has designated robotics a strategic industry, and says that by last year, more than 140 Chinese companies had already launched more than 330

humanoid robot models. Robotic companies have been ploughing resources into the development of physical AI – technology that allows robots to move and interact with the world autonomously. As the sector develops, it has become a new front in the US-China tech race, with domestic firms catching flak from countries like the US. Unitree was added to a list of firms Washington accused in June of aiding the Chinese military. And in July, the Trump administration added humanoid and quadruped robots – including from China – to a list of products and companies that are banned from being imported into the US on national security grounds. Unitree’s IPO is a “primary school graduation ceremony” moment for China’s humanoid robotics industry, said Tianyu Zang, partner at Beijing-based venture capital firm Jinqiu Capital, which took part in Unitree’s funding round last year. “It is now finally ready to face a longer-term and more rigorous test,” he told AFP, answering questions such as whether or not robots will soon be deployed in real-world scenarios.

SHANGHAI: Chinese humanoid pioneer Unitree, whose backflipping robots wowed the world earlier this year, made a much anticipated market debut in Shanghai yesterday with a similarly impressive leap in share price of more than 600%. The Hangzhou-based firm’s machines have become synonymous with China’s push to develop its booming robotics industry, backed by government support and strong domestic supply chains. It unveiled a new humanoid robot called “Superman” on Monday, touting it as able to jump as high as two metres and to run as fast as 12.66m per second – faster than world record-holder Usain bolt if sustained over a 100m race. It had previously drawn significant attention during China’s annual Spring Festival gala performance last year, with its dexterous robots, wearing traditional Chinese vests, seen performing Kung Fu and jumping over tables. On its debut yesterday, the company’s stock spiked as much as 629% to 1,100 yuan (RM662) at the open, compared with its offering price of 150.80 yuan. They later pared the gains to around 830 yuan. That was “the market firing a flare gun over China’s next speculative frontier”, Stephen Innes, global strategist at Quintex Intel, said. “The message is pretty clear: embodied AI has become the new object of desire.” The IPO coincided with the opening day of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, where Unitree’s booth was swarmed by dozens of visitors and reporters. Many were taking selfies with a three metre-tall Unitree GD01, a towering rideable robot the firm says can switch between bi and quadruped settings. To its left, a small humanoid returned pingpong serves against a Unitree staffer, though the employee said the robot could not pick up the ball. At the other side of the stall, eight robots

Children look at a remote-controlled robot by Unitree Robotics while visiting the Unitree Robotics Embodied Intelligence Experience Centre in Shanghai. – AFPPIX

OpenAI slows AI development after cyberattack SAN FRANCISCO: ChatGPT creator OpenAI said Tuesday that it was tapping the brakes on development of its most advanced AI model and tightening internal controls, a month after revealing a cyberattack carried out by one of its AI tools. the pace of safety and alignment,“ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said. In mid-July, an AI agent based on two OpenAI models left its confined testing environment on its own initiative to venture onto the internet and attack Hugging Face, a platform where developers around the world share their AI models. suspended, as the company determined in early August that the model could cross the warning threshold it has set for itself regarding the hacking capabilities of its AI systems. Given that risk, OpenAI’s internal rules require it create stronger safeguards before development can resume.

OpenAI is a key player in the rapid global buildout of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and tools that some have likened to an arms race. The company said in a blog post on Tuesday that it was holding off on conducting the biggest AI training run it had ever planned while it checks that the resulting model would behave as expected. Training runs are computationally intense exercises where models are fed enormous amounts of text and images. This combined with fine-tuning billions of internal settings results in their abilities to reason and respond to prompts and other inputs. “We always said we would take action if we felt that model capabilities were outstripping

OpenAI also said Tuesday that it was developing a new system to peer into the internal reasoning of models and sound the alarm to humans within 30 minutes of suspicious behaviour. That monitoring however will require an additional 20% more in computing power. OpenAI’s own research in 2025 showed the limits of this approach: a model that knows it is being monitored can learn to conceal its intentions in its reasoning. The company has been promising a detailed technical account of the Hugging Face incident, but has yet to publish it. Tuesday’s blog post said it would be released “in the coming weeks.” – AFP

Similarly, OpenAI rival Anthropic revealed in late July that three of its models undergoing testing had also carried out unauthorised intrusions into the computer systems of three organisations. The incidents prompted a petition signed by more than 1,000 tech industry employees calling on the US government to support a coordinated slowdown in the development of the most advanced AI systems. OpenAI had halted training of its latest models for two weeks before resuming it under tighter controls. Much of the work related to Astra – the company’s next major model – remains