Unitree releases humanoid robot H2-X: can lift a car bare-handed, land from 4 meters high, battery life about 8 hours

Top news briefs 1. iPhone Duo launches global purchase limits, each customer may buy only 2 units 2. 72-year-old Dong Mingzhu: unhappy at being called "Grandma" by a student; a person's value should not be measured by age 3. Lei Jun: without safety in the auto industry, everything else is zero 4. Starbucks responds to the pay-to-sit controversy: to be implemented nationwide from October 22 with notice signs posted 5. Unitree releases a new humanoid robot! It can lift a car bare-handed and also fight off thugs 6. After leaving Kimi, 17-year-old prodigy Chen Guangyu reportedly joins a US AI startup 7. Qualcomm plans to launch global layoffs in November!

8. Musk confirms: SpaceX and Tesla will merge

Today's Headlines

iPhone Duo launches global purchase limits, each customer may buy only 2 units

October 21 news: With strong pre-order demand for the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone, Apple has imposed purchase limits on its online stores in the United States, China, Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Spain to curb scalper stockpiling, capping pre-orders at two per customer. According to the latest listing on the Hong Kong Apple App Store, new orders are expected to be delivered only on January 23, 2027.

According to comprehensive media reports, when consumers currently try to buy more than two units through Apple's official website or the Apple Store app, the system prompts: "Each customer may purchase a maximum of two iPhone Duo units. Please adjust the total number of iPhone Duo units in your order before checkout." Some users in Reddit's iPhone Duo discussion forum said that in the early stage of pre-orders opening on October 16, some customers were still able to order more than two units. There is also no clear information on how Apple prevents scalpers from bypassing the limit using multiple accounts and different credit cards. In response, some netizens joked, "I can transfer my slot." (Sing Tao Daily) Domestic News

72-year-old Dong Mingzhu: unhappy at being called "Grandma" by a student; a person's value should not be measured by age

October 21 news: Zhuhai Gree Technical School recently officially began classes. Dong Mingzhu, principal of Gree Technical School and chairwoman of Gree Electric Appliances, was present to teach the first lesson to the inaugural cohort of new students.

According to media reports, in class, 72-year-old Dong Mingzhu shared an amusing anecdote from the podium: one day a student called her "Grandma," and she was very unhappy to hear it. She recounted, "How can you call me Grandma? I'm still very young, aren't I?" In her view, a person's value cannot be measured by age, but should be measured by spirit.

She gave an example, saying that she had traveled to four provinces within three days and often took flights at one in the morning. Some people advised her to take care of her health, but she said frankly that she was in very good condition. Dong Mingzhu believes that "in reality, whether a person is old or tired depends on the dream in your heart. As long as we want to do something, we must accomplish it, and you will exhaust every ounce of strength!" Speaking about the development prospects of technical school students, Dong Mingzhu sent a message to the new students: skilled talent also has diverse choices, and "training someone like Zhang Xue is also possible." In addition, Dong Mingzhu believes that a diploma does not equal ability. "I think whether you have a diploma or not is not important. I think students who come out of technical schools are not inferior to those with university diplomas. What kind of talent will Gree people need in the future? From our headquarters to bases across the country, we need technical talent, people who understand technology and understand marketing." (Kuai Technology)

Lei Jun: without safety in the auto industry, everything else is zero

On the afternoon of October 21, at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, Lei Jun, founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said that artificial intelligence is driving intelligent connected vehicles from separated intelligence toward whole-vehicle intelligence, and competition in the auto industry will further extend to the ecosystem.

Lei Jun said that in the auto industry, without safety, everything else is zero; without safety, all intelligence, performance, design, and innovation lose their meaning. "From day one, we have held the utmost reverence for safety," he said.

Speaking about the impact of artificial intelligence on the auto industry, Lei Jun believes that cars are becoming the physical terminals of embodied intelligence, and the continuous evolution of foundation models and agent capabilities will drive upgrades in the intelligent connected vehicle experience. In the past, intelligent vehicle innovation was more concentrated in single functions, but the deep integration of AI and automobiles requires relying on a unified and powerful foundation model to achieve intelligent coordination at the whole-vehicle level. (Beijing Daily)

Starbucks responds to the pay-to-sit controversy: to be implemented nationwide from October 22 with notice signs posted

On October 21, Starbucks China announced that starting October 22, Starbucks will begin implementing pay-to-sit nationwide, and stores will post related notice signs. Starbucks stated that in actual operations, Starbucks will provide partners with unified service guidelines and necessary support; partners will follow the principles of friendly and amicable communication and properly handle customers' reasonable sudden needs and special circumstances. If they encounter customers who need help, such as pregnant women or people with limited mobility, partners will give priority to assisting them.

At the same time, Starbucks China released the "Third Place Commitment" regarding store space sharing and atmosphere maintenance, including "Please use seats and public areas reasonably," "Please be mindful of volume when talking, holding online meetings, playing games or watching videos," and "Please avoid bringing in or eating strongly odored outside food." In addition, Starbucks China also announced that in the new fiscal year 2027 it will invest more than 300 million yuan, focusing on improving the in-store service experience. The related investment will be used to increase service staffing during peak hours and at the Reserve bar, upgrade digital intelligent systems and core equipment, and advance the renovation of facilities at about 1,000 stores. (China Business Journal)

Unitree releases a new humanoid robot! It can lift a car bare-handed and also fight off thugs

On October 21, Unitree Technology released its new humanoid robot, the "H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian." According to the official video, the robot has a maximum battery life of about 8 hours and can lift a car with its bare hands, land steadily from a height of 4 meters, and kick a car door into a dent.

In the video released by Unitree, the H2-X can step onto the roof of a car in one stride and then flip down from it, with smooth movements. After the robot kicks a car, a large, obvious dent can be seen on the door; when it strikes the car's front hood with its elbow, dents are also visible. In the video, the H2-X also leaps down from a 4-meter-high platform and, after landing, rolls forward and stands up steadily. The video also features a scene in which the H2-X battles thugs and protects its owner. When a humanoid mannequin is pinned under a car, the robot can lift the front of the car "bare-handed" until staff pull the mannequin out. Finally, when a car is about to hit a humanoid mannequin standing in the middle of the road, the robot quickly dives forward and pushes the mannequin out of the way. Some media speculate that Unitree's new robot may target fields such as emergency rescue and security protection. (Robot Frontier)

After leaving Kimi, 17-year-old prodigy Chen Guangyu is reported to have joined a U.S. AI startup

On October 21, it was reported that Chen Guangyu, a core researcher of Moonshot AI's Kimi model and a 17-year-old prodigy, had previously announced his departure, and his next destination has attracted much outside attention. Now it seems there may be a new answer to where he is going next.

On October 20, media reported that Chen Guangyu (Nathan Chen) has joined Discovery Loop, an AI startup founded by former Google chief scientist Jeff Dean. Discovery Loop is a company established only in August this year, bringing together four top Google AI scientists; before launching any public product, it was already reported to be seeking financing at a valuation of $50 billion (about 350 billion yuan). However, the news of Chen Guangyu's joining remains at the rumor stage and has not yet been confirmed by him or the company. (AI Frontline)

Opening the "black box" of embodied model training! Shengshu Technology will launch a full-process public livestream of Motubrain 2.0 training

On October 21, Shengshu Technology's world model team officially launched a full-process public livestream of Motubrain 2.0 training, planned to last half a month, in an attempt to open the "black box" of embodied model training.

In the past, the outside world mainly relied on robot demos, evaluation results, and papers to learn about progress in embodied intelligence technology; how model capabilities are formed and what trial and error occurred during training were often difficult to observe directly. This livestream will make public the entire process of Motubrain 2.0 from training and testing to capability iteration, presenting the model's capability changes at different stages, as well as failures, adjustments, and optimizations during training.

For the embodied intelligence industry, this is not only a technology demonstration but also an exploration of making the R&D process more transparent. The team hopes to discuss key issues such as large-scale training, cross-task generalization, and autonomous improvement with researchers and developers, providing more research reference for realizing the Physical AI paradigm. The related research is still in the exploratory stage, and specific results remain to be further verified, but making public how a model is trained and how capabilities are formed is itself of important research value.

Kuaishou's core head of recommendation models reportedly resigns! Once worked at Huawei for ten years

On October 21, according to media reports, Tang Ruiming, head of generation and ranking models in Kuaishou's recommendation model department, suddenly resigned. His internal system account status already shows that he has left, but Kuaishou has not yet issued an official announcement, and Tang Ruiming himself has not publicly disclosed his next destination.

Public information shows that Tang Ruiming's technical path has always focused on recommendation systems and deep learning. At the end of 2014, he joined Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab. During ten years at Huawei, he grew from a recommendation algorithm expert into director of the recommendation and search lab and a senior researcher, responsible for cutting-edge research and technology implementation in recommendation and retrieval. His research directions cover recommendation systems, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and AutoML. He has published more than 50 international papers in fields such as data mining and machine learning and is a senior researcher in China's recommendation algorithm field.

In July 2025, Tang Ruiming joined Kuaishou as head of recommendation algorithms, with the external title of senior director at Kuaishou Technology, and subsequently took charge of the generation and ranking model direction in the recommendation model department. During his time at Kuaishou, Tang Ruiming led the OneReason project, Kuaishou's core exploration in the generative recommendation direction. (Programming at 10:30)

Pirated DJI app claims it can turn off GPS and remove the 120-meter height limit! DJI: Do not download

On October 21, it was reported that a third-party modified app called DJI RedFly has recently circulated online. Merchants promote it externally, saying the software can turn off GPS positioning, shield remote identification broadcast signals, erase no-fly prompt pop-ups, and even raise the 120-meter flight ceiling in some areas to 500 meters, and it even offers options to modify radio parameters, thereby attracting aerial photography enthusiasts to download and use it.

This software was not developed by DJI officially and cannot be found in major legitimate mobile app stores. It spreads mainly through second-hand trading platforms, social communities, and overseas websites. Some media conducted on-site tests and found that in no-fly zones, after installing this pirated program, drones could bypass controls and take off smoothly, and basic shooting and control functions appeared to operate normally. On the surface, it achieves "free flight," but this operation comes at the cost of abandoning multiple safety protections.

In addition, many users have reported hardware failures such as damage to device motherboards after installing the cracked software. The device also directly loses official warranty service, and users must bear the cost of damage themselves. In response to the spread of pirated software, DJI has issued an important reminder, calling on users not to download or use any third-party control programs that have not been officially certified. (Kuai Technology)

iQIYI launches large-scale infringement lawsuits involving Bilibili, Kuaishou, Migu, Xunlei and others

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Public data shows that iQIYI has 7,204 litigation entries related to "disputes over infringement of the right of information network dissemination of works." Merging different entries for the same case involving appeals, jurisdictional objections and the like, a rough count yields hundreds of distinct cases. Disputes over infringement of the right of information network dissemination of works mainly refer to civil disputes arising from providing a work to the public through an information network without the copyright owner's permission, enabling the public to obtain the work at a time and place of their choosing.

While iQIYI has initiated a large number of lawsuits, it has also itself been taken to court by other platforms over related disputes concerning infringement of the right of information network dissemination of works. Public information shows that iQIYI has a total of 1,883 judicial cases as a defendant in "disputes over infringement of the right of information network dissemination of works." Among the companies suing iQIYI are well-known video platforms including Tencent and Bilibili. (21st Century Business Herald)

He Xiaopeng: Autonomous driving should skip L3 and go directly to L4; L3 does not improve safety or optimize experience

October 21 news: At the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, XPeng Chairman He Xiaopeng publicly stated that autonomous driving should skip L3 from L2 and go directly to L4. He believes that L3 merely shifts responsibility to the system, without improving safety or optimizing experience.

In his speech, He Xiaopeng admitted that he holds many "counter-consensus" views. He revealed that he had test-driven the L3 feature that Audi activated on a few European highways, and after driving for a day it was activated for only a few minutes, which was a very poor experience. His judgment is that L3 shifts responsibility in a certain sense, but the experience is not optimized and safety is not improved, and safety is what matters most. In his view, the fact that XPeng and Tesla can drive in France actually means they have brought L4 capabilities to mass-produced vehicles. Vehicles can recognize pedestrians waving, pull over to the curb, and drive on complex roads they have never seen before in compliance with local regulations and culture—these are things L4 itself does. Regarding the timeline for L4 deployment, He Xiaopeng gave a clear judgment. He believes L4 technology will be deployed around the second half of 2028, requiring the development of the entire system's hardware and software together. He judges that the directions with the greatest opportunity for autonomous driving in the future are L2, L4 and L5, while the best L3 is merely an enhanced version of L2. (Kuai Technology)

Embodied company incubated by China Telecom makes official announcement

October 21 news: Recently, embodied intelligence company "Gamma Robotics" was registered and established in Xuhui District, Shanghai. The company is the first market-oriented innovative enterprise incubated by the China Telecom Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (TeleAI), focuses on full-model innovation and application of self-evolving humanoid robots, and will build a humanoid robot laboratory together with TeleAI.

It is reported that Gamma Robotics received strategic investment from the China Telecom (Shanghai) Artificial Intelligence Industry Private Equity Fund. The China Telecom (Shanghai) Artificial Intelligence Industry Private Equity Fund was jointly established with contributions from China Telecom and institutions including the Shanghai Guotou Guiding Fund, the Central Enterprise Strategic Emerging Industry Development Fund, and Shanghai Huizi under Xuhui District.

Professor Li Xuelong, CTO and Chief Scientist of China Telecom Group and Dean of the China Telecom Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (TeleAI), serves as scientific advisor to Gamma Robotics. Bai Chenjia serves as the company's founder and CEO; Bai Chenjia previously served as director of the TeleAI Institute of General Embodied Intelligence. (Robot Frontier)

ByteDance cancels copyright registrations for Gugu Gaga, Blade Shield Dog and others

October 21 news: Recently, according to the latest public notice from the Copyright Protection Center of China, Beijing Zitiao Network Technology Co., Ltd., a ByteDance subsidiary, concentrated in September this year on canceling the copyright registrations of artworks for multiple internet memes, including the wildly popular meme images Gugu Gaga, Blade Shield Dog and Banana Cat.

The controversy was ignited as soon as the registrations came to light. At the time, Zitiao completed copyright registrations in one go for a large batch of popular meme images, ranging from Gugu Gaga in the anime community and the viral Blade Shield Dog to the highly popular Banana Cat, covering categories such as cat memes, viral animal images and AI-derived characters—bringing almost all the most popular meme images on the internet over the past two years into the scope of registration. The news immediately drew questions from across the internet. In the view of most netizens, the vitality of internet memes is rooted in the secondary creation and spontaneous dissemination by countless ordinary people; they are the crystallization of collective internet wisdom and belong to public cultural assets. For a platform to rush to register the fruits of everyone's collective creation as its own copyright is tantamount to appropriating public property, which is unreasonable. Now that this batch of disputed registrations has all been canceled, the episode has come to an end. (Sanyan Technology)

Duan Yongping says he will continue to buy Pop Mart

October 21 news: A netizen asked Duan Yongping about issues related to investing in Pop Mart, and Duan Yongping responded: "I should buy some more, but not more than 10% of the company, otherwise the company would have a problem with that, haha. With NetEase, I also only ever reached about 10%. Now I'm being made to look like a Pop Mart agent. I don't want to answer this kind of question anymore. Anyway, I've said everything I have to say about my views; in a few years, we'll know whether I missed out." (Cailian Press) International News

Qualcomm plans to launch global layoffs in November!

October 21 news: According to reports, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has told employees in an internal memo that the company plans to implement a round of global layoffs after the annual performance review is completed, with notices expected to be sent starting in November. As of press time, Qualcomm has not responded to the above report, nor has it disclosed the affected positions and regions.

This is an organizational and personnel restructuring by Qualcomm as its core smartphone chip business comes under pressure and its AI data center transformation has not yet fully delivered. As of September 2025, Qualcomm had about 52,000 employees worldwide, the vast majority of them full-time. Qualcomm has more than 200 office locations in 38 countries around the world. According to a September report, Frank Meng, chairman of Qualcomm China, once spoke about the size of its China workforce: in 2018, it had more than 3,000 employees in China; now it has more than 6,000. R&D centers have been added successively in Beijing and Shenzhen. In eight years, the headcount has doubled.

The company's fiscal year usually ends at the end of September, and the timing of the annual review and layoff notices dovetails exactly. According to reports, Qualcomm is expected to release its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results in early November. It may then disclose specific layoff information as well as the financial impact of this round of layoffs (severance costs, savings). (Xinzhi Xun, Yicai)

Anthropic posts net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half

October 21 news: According to reports, Anthropic may spend another $750 billion over the next several years to purchase computing power. According to a draft prospectus report, the AI company had a net loss of $80.7 billion in the first half of fiscal 2026, far larger than the net loss of $13 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The report said the vast majority of the first-half net loss—$72 billion—came from accounting charges related to changes in the value of convertible notes and other instruments issued by Anthropic. As one of the leading AI developers, Anthropic is expected to publicly file listing documents in the coming weeks. A listing would help the company raise more funds to invest in chips, data centers, and talent and to develop newer and more powerful AI models.

In the six months ended June 30, Anthropic spent nearly $9 billion on computing power and infrastructure, compared with $2.3 billion in the same period of 2025. In the first half of this year, Anthropic has already spent more on acquiring computing power than the $7.3 billion it spent in all of 2025. (STAR Market Daily)

Musk confirms: SpaceX and Tesla will merge

On October 21, Musk confirmed on SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call that SpaceX and Tesla have each established special committees to study the possibility of a merger between the two companies. If a deal is ultimately reached, it could become the largest corporate merger in global history. Musk said he believes merging the two companies has great value, especially in superintelligent AI software development, where the two sides have broad room for cooperation.

However, the special committees of the two companies have not yet agreed on specific transaction terms. Because Musk simultaneously serves as CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, there is a conflict of interest, so he himself is not participating in the relevant discussions. Currently, SpaceX has a market value of $1.95 trillion, and Tesla's market value is close to $1.48 trillion, for a combined total of about $3.4 trillion.

Once the merger is completed, Tesla's electric vehicle, energy, and robotics businesses will be integrated into the same corporate system as SpaceX's rocket launch, satellite internet, and related AI businesses. However, Musk stressed that the merger is not a done deal and that the final transaction still requires shareholder support. Musk said Tesla needs support from at least 50% of the voting rights held by all shareholders, not merely a simple majority of shareholders participating in the vote. (Yuntoutiao)

Screwed by its battery supplier! Volkswagen recalls nearly 72,700 electric vehicles worldwide

October 21 news: According to media reports, due to defects in high-voltage batteries, Volkswagen Group is recalling nearly 72,700 electric vehicles worldwide. Data show that the recall is being carried out in three batches, involving about 10,000 vehicles in Germany alone. The models involved in the recall cover almost the entire main pure electric lineup of Volkswagen's MEB platform, including the ID.3, ID.4, ID.7, and ID.Buzz, as well as the Born model from Volkswagen's Spanish sub-brand Cupra. The ID series covers vehicles produced between 2022 and 2025, while the Cupra Born involves model years 2022 to 2024.

Volkswagen Group said an internal quality check found that individual high-voltage battery cells did not meet quality requirements, but the root cause has not yet been identified. In very rare cases, these defective cells could lead to increased thermal load and, in extreme cases, may cause a fire. Volkswagen has taken interim measures, limiting the charging capacity of affected vehicles to 80% via an OTA update to reduce the risk of thermal runaway. Owners will be notified by letter, and dealers will subsequently inspect the high-voltage battery or cell modules to determine whether replacement is needed. Volkswagen expects to further refine the scope of affected vehicles based on production cycles, battery suppliers, and cell batches. At present, the identity of the battery supplier involved in the European recall has not been officially disclosed, and Volkswagen has not yet responded clearly. (Kuai Technology)

Muse continues to top the charts, surpassing 10 million US downloads in its first 40 days

October 21: The latest data from Sensor Tower shows that since its launch in September, Meta Muse has reached 10.9 million downloads, of which 10.2 million came from the United States. Analysts pointed out that Meta's ability to repeatedly create hit products is largely due to its strong app ecosystem and cross-platform traffic-driving capabilities.

Judging from the current situation, Muse's user retention rate is better than that of AI competitors such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok. In the US market, the app's 7-day retention rate is 30%, and its 14-day retention rate is 23%. By comparison, its competitors have an average 7-day retention rate of 19% and an average 14-day retention rate of 16%. (Cailianshe)

NVIDIA: Vera Rubin infrastructure officially enters commercial use

October 21 news: Google Cloud and NVIDIA announced that A5X cloud instances based on NVIDIA's Vera Rubin NVL72 system will soon enter official commercial use, with plans to open next month and further expand to the European market. A5X integrates Vera Rubin NVL72, ConnectX-9 SuperNIC, Google Cloud's Virgo network, and fourth-generation advanced liquid cooling technology, targeting AI agent inference and large-scale reinforcement learning workloads. (Cailianshe)