'Cheap' space tickets sale 🚀 Ford CEO drives Xiaomi EV 🇨🇳 China’s pre-unicorns boom 🦄

2024-10-28 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to this week’s edition of the China Insights Weekly Newsletter!

Here are some of the key takeaways from this week:

• ‘Cheap’ Tickets to Space: Chinese startup Deep Blue Aerospace offers suborbital spaceflight tickets for RMB 1.5 million, with launches slated for 2027.

• Ford’s CEO Drives Xiaomi: Ford’s Jim Farley has been cruising around the U.S. in a Xiaomi EV for six months, saying he’s in no hurry to give it up.

• China’s Pre-Unicorn Boom: Nearly 90% of China’s tech pre-unicorns are clustered in just three major hubs, led by the Yangtze River Delta with 97 firms.

• Solar Efficiency Record: Longi Green Energy sets a new record in solar module efficiency, achieving a 25.4% conversion rate.

Dive deeper into these stories and more by clicking the headlines below. We value your feedback—let us know your thoughts or suggestions on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

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🚀 Headlines

US car giant Ford’s CEO has been driving the Chinese competition’s EV for months in the USA and doesn’t want to stop (link)

Ford Motor Company's CEO, Jim Farley, has publicly endorsed a Chinese electric vehicle, the Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7, which he has been driving for six months around the US. Farley praised the vehicle on "The Fully Charged Podcast," noting he doesn't want to give it up. The Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7, priced around USD 30,000, is a luxury EV sedan available exclusively in China and comes in three models, with the top model, the MAX, capable of over 500 miles on a single charge. Farley's acknowledgment of the SUV7 highlights the competitive challenge that Chinese EV manufacturers bring to the global car industry. His comments also reflect Ford's strategic shift towards more affordable EVs and potential collaboration with Chinese automakers, especially in battery technology, a key area of focus for Farley.

Almost 90% of Chinese technology innovation pre-unicorns are based in just 3 innovation clusters in China (link)

Nearly 90% of China's tech pre-unicorns—private startups valued below USD 1 billion but expected to exceed this valuation within 3-5 years—are concentrated in three major hubs. The Yangtze River Delta leads with 97 pre-unicorns, followed by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with 42, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with 39. Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces each house 42 such firms, with Beijing 35 and Shanghai 33 also in the top five. The new-generation information technology sector boasts 119 pre-unicorns, with a total valuation reaching USD 41.6 billion, highlighting the sector's high growth potential and capital intensity. Within this segment, 35 companies are in new manufacturing, including 10 robotics companies, and 23 in the new energy and new materials sectors.

China’s semiconductor patents rise 42%, making up 58% of the world’s total, amid US export restrictions (link)

Semiconductor patent applications worldwide spiked by 22%, jumping from 66,416 in 2022-23 to 80,892 in 2023-24. Leading the charge is China, whose filings surged by 42% from 32,840 to 46,591, outstripping every other region. China accounted for 58% of all global semiconductor patents last year. The US semiconductor industry, propped up by the Inflation Reduction Act, saw its patent filings rise by 9%, reaching 21,269 in 2023-24 giving it 26% of the global total. China’s global semiconductor patents are rising as it works hard to achieve self-sufficiency.

UK-based HSBC joins China payments system as the nation pushes for Yuan usage (link)

HSBC Holdings Plc has become a direct participant in China’s cross-border interbank payment system as the world’s second-largest economy pushes for greater use of the yuan. CIPS, China’s alternative payment system to SWIFT, was embraced by institutions in Russia after the US kicked major Russian lenders off the system. The UK lender counts Hong Kong as its biggest market. It has been deepening its presence in China and earlier this year agreed to buy part of its partner’s stake in a China fund venture. The use of the yuan in contracts for everything from oil to nickel is gathering speed, though the currency is still a tiny portion of global transactions.

US pharma giant Eli Lilly to set up innovation center, Gateway Lab in Beijing (link)

US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company is establishing the Lilly China Medical Innovation Center and Lilly Gateway Lab in Beijing to boost clinical research and drug development. The Beijing center, an independent legal entity, will join Eli Lilly's existing presence in Suzhou and Shanghai. The Lilly Gateway Lab, the company's first outside the US, will support early-stage biotech firms. Since 2018, Eli Lilly has received approval in China for 40 drugs or new medical indications, with over half now covered by China's bulk-buy medical insurance scheme. The company also announced a CNY1.5 billion (USD210.7 million) investment to expand its Suzhou plant's capacity for producing innovative drugs for Type 2 diabetes and obesity to meet local demand.

US pharma group Boston Scientific's first China plant comes online in Shanghai Free Trade Zone (link)

US medical device giant Boston Scientific has launched its first Chinese manufacturing plant in the Lingang Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Equipped with cutting-edge laboratories and clean rooms that meet both Chinese and international medical standards, the facility will produce medical consumables and equipment. This move is expected to expedite product registration and market entry, bypassing the lengthy import and localization processes. The plant reflects Boston Scientific's commitment to the Chinese market, aiming to provide domestic alternatives and alleviate the economic burden of treatments. The company plans to continue investing in China, producing high-quality innovative products to meet local patient and healthcare provider needs.

Longi Green Energy sets world record for solar module efficiency at 25.4% (link)

Chinese solar company Longi Green Energy has set a new world record for crystalline silicon solar module efficiency, achieving a conversion efficiency of 25.4% with its independently developed hybrid passivated back contact (HPBC) 2.0 module. This surpasses the previous record of 24.9% set by Maxeon in January and marks the first time a Chinese company has claimed the record since records began in 1988. The 25.4% efficiency represents a significant leap in a field where gains are typically incremental. Longi's commercial HPBC 2.0 modules for shipment have reached an efficiency of 24.8%, demonstrating ongoing progress in solar panel efficiency.

In related news, Chinese scientists from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have set a new record with perovskite-organic tandem solar cells, achieving a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 26.4%. This breakthrough follows a recent achievement by Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which reached a 28.49% efficiency with an all-perovskite tandem solar cell.

China accelerates towards satellite supremacy, plans 3 mega constellations with over 10,000 satellites (link)

China is developing its satellite internet sector to rival Elon Musk's Starlink. On August 6, China launched 18 communication satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, a significant step in establishing a presence in the satellite internet industry. As of August, China had applied for spectrum for 51,300 LEO satellites with the International Telecommunication Union, exceeding SpaceX's reported plans for 42,000 satellites. Despite this ambition, China faces challenges, including mastering reusable rocket technology like SpaceX's Falcon system. China aims to launch up to 3,900 satellites by 2027, with the goal of creating at least three mega constellations with over 10,000 satellites each, to enhance connectivity and potentially extend its model of internet governance.

🎁 Bonus Stories

China's record-breaking resistive magnet produces field over 800,000 times stronger than Earth's (link)

China has set a new world record by creating the most powerful resistive magnet, generating a magnetic field of 42.02 tesla—over 800,000 times stronger than Earth's. This surpasses the previous 41.4 tesla record held by the US since 2017. Located at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Hefei, Anhui Province, the magnet reached this milestone on September 22. It consumed 32.3 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to charging 538 Tesla Model 3 batteries from empty to full in an hour. This achievement is expected to facilitate advancements in various fields, including the development of new electronic materials, exploration of high-temperature superconductivity, and medical research.

Tickets to outer space go on sale in China for 1.5 million RMB (link)

Chinese space startup Deep Blue Aerospace has begun selling tickets for a suborbital space flight scheduled for 2027. On offer are just two tickets priced at 1.5 million yuan each (approximately USD 210,000). While this initial round is limited, more tickets will become available next month. The flight will take passengers to outer space without entering orbit. Deep Blue Aerospace aims to make space tourism more accessible by using reusable rockets, planning to recover a carrier rocket from orbit in Q1 2025. This move places the company alongside industry giants like SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are also developing space tourism ventures.

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