Theme news

Shanghai – September 21, 2026 -- Huawei has launched its Fintelligent AI Solution worldwide, targeting the security, scalability, and sustainability barriers that have limited large-scale AI deployment across the global financial industry.

The announcement came at the Global Finance Summit held during HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, where Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei's Digital Finance BU, delivered a keynote titled "Owning Your AI, Advancing Agentic Banking." Cao told financial customers that competition in financial AI is shifting from model capability to enterprise-wide AI system capability, and that institutions must be able to choose, operate, replicate, and evolve their AI independently rather than relying on isolated applications or single vendor models.

Taipei – September 21, 2026 -- Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has unveiled a 3.2 Tbps silicon photonics optical engine capable of moving roughly 400 GB of data per second, doubling the throughput of its previous 1.6T generation.

ITRI mobilizes 20+ partners to commercialize 3.2T optical technology

The technology was showcased at the Innovation Economy Pavilion of the Taiwan Innotech Expo (TIE) 2026, held at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, where the Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs presented 64 technologies from more than 13 research institutes and industry partners. To push the 3.2T engine toward commercial deployment, ITRI has built a supply chain network of more than 20 partners covering chip design, fabrication, testing and packaging, and has worked with international firms to align technical specifications for the standard.

Beijing – September 21, 2026 -- VNET Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET) has completed the transfer of 650,424,192 Class A ordinary shares to two investment vehicles linked to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), giving the buyers a combined 38.1% stake in the Chinese data center operator.

PJ Millennium entities acquire majority-scale stake from prior shareholders

PJ Millennium I Limited and PJ Millennium II Limited purchased the shares from Success Flow International Investment Limited and Choice Faith Group Holdings Limited. Both buyers are wholly owned subsidiaries of PJ Millennium Limited Partnership, whose general partner, Lochpine BG I GP Limited, sits under Lochpine Capital Limited -- a non-controlled, non-consolidated affiliate of CATL (300750.SZ, 03750.HK).

Kunshan – September 21, 2026 -- Arctech has been awarded a Silver Medal in the 2026 EcoVadis Sustainability Rating, placing the solar tracker maker among the top 15% of companies assessed by EcoVadis worldwide.

EcoVadis scores companies across four sustainability pillars

The rating agency evaluates firms on Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement, ranking medal recipients by percentile against all companies assessed globally over the prior 12 months. Arctech's Silver Medal corresponds to the top 15% tier.

Arctech spent RMB 4.3629 million on environmental protection in 2025

That figure, approximately US$651,000, funded initiatives tied to the company's environmental performance improvements. Its self-owned photovoltaic power stations generated more than 34 million kWh of electricity, covering 24% of Arctech's total electricity consumption.

Singapore – September 21, 2026 -- WuXi XDC Cayman Inc. (2268.HK) has secured GMP release for its Singapore manufacturing site at Tuas Biomedical Park, marking the bioconjugate CRDMO's first overseas facility just two and a half years after the site was announced in March 2024.

BCM3 dual-function line and DP4 drug product facility clear GMP release

The 25,000-square-meter site achieved GMP release for both its BCM3 antibody intermediate and conjugated drug substance production line and its DP4 drug product facility in August 2026. BCM3 supports batch sizes from 200 L to 2,000 L for antibody intermediates and up to 2,000 L for conjugated drug substances, operating under FDA, EMA and NMPA standards. A second line, BCM4, is slated for GMP release by the end of 2026 with a maximum single-batch capacity of 500 L for conjugated drug substance.

Las Vegas – September 21, 2026 -- Concept Medical's MagicTouch sirolimus-coated balloon will face fresh scrutiny at VIVA 2026 as researchers unveil new subgroup data from the SirPAD randomized trial covering 597 patients treated for femoropopliteal peripheral artery disease without tissue loss.

SirPAD enrolled 1,252 patients to compare drug-coated and uncoated balloon angioplasty

The academic, investigator-initiated trial randomized 1,252 patients with symptomatic infrainguinal peripheral artery disease to angioplasty using either the MagicTouch PTA sirolimus-coated balloon or an uncoated balloon. Primary results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed the sirolimus-coated balloon arm was both non-inferior and superior to the uncoated balloon on major adverse limb events (MALE) at one year.

Aachen, Germany – September 21, 2026 -- Grünenthal has agreed to acquire Bayer AG's oncology drug Stivarga® (regorafenib) for up to €375 million, adding an oral cancer treatment sold in more than 90 markets to its portfolio.

Grünenthal expects Stivarga to add up to €100 million to EBITDA in 2027

The German pharmaceutical company said the acquisition is immediately accretive to its business, with an estimated positive impact on consolidated EBITDA of approximately €100 million for the year ending December 31, 2027. That projection assumes the deal closes by the end of 2026 or early 2027 and includes a full year of consolidation.

Shanghai – September 21, 2026 -- Huawei unveiled its Intelligent WAN Target Architecture on September 17 at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, targeting internet service providers seeking to monetize AI-driven connectivity demand.

Huawei ties network architecture to AI monetization strategy

Speaking at a roundtable titled "Intelligent WAN, Fortifying the AI Services Connectivity Foundation for ISPs," Wayne Zhou, Vice President of Huawei's ISP Computing and Network Infrastructure BU, said asset-heavy ISPs can convert connectivity capabilities into lightweight AI services as AI commercialization accelerates. He said ISPs are shifting from selling bandwidth to delivering AI services by combining edge nodes, computing, and APIs.

Hefei, China – September 21, 2026 -- The 2026 World Manufacturing Convention opened in Hefei, Anhui province, on September 20 under the theme "Intelligent Manufacturing for a Better Future," marking the eighth consecutive year the province has hosted the event.

Convention Draws Over 1,000 Guests as UK Serves as Guest Country of Honor

British Ambassador to China Peter Wilson delivered remarks as the UK's designated guest country of honor, while Solange Amicha, representing Côte d'Ivoire's Cabinet Minister of the Presidency, read a congratulatory letter from the Ivorian president. The convention attracted more than 1,000 guests, including over 500 overseas representatives and more than 40 overseas companies, spread across a 70,000-square-meter venue that features an unmanned-systems showcase at Luogang Park alongside China-Europe, China-France and China-UK industrial matchmaking sessions.

Shanghai – September 21, 2026 -- Huawei unveiled its SCALE partner support system at HUAWEI CONNECT 2026, aiming to move enterprise AI deployments beyond pilot projects into full-scale industry adoption.

Huawei's Leo Chen outlines five partner challenges blocking large-scale AI rollout

Leo Chen, Huawei's Senior Vice President and President of Enterprise Sales, said during his keynote that partners face five recurring obstacles when scaling intelligent industry projects: solution development, integration verification, solution delivery, operations and maintenance, and system collaboration. The new SCALE system is structured around five corresponding support pillars: Scenario-based Solutions, Co-innovation, Aligned Marketing, Local Services with Consistent Quality, and Efficient Collaboration.

Bratislava – September 21, 2026 -- EXPO 2027 Belgrade brought its "Visit Serbia" roadshow to Bratislava, convening Serbian and Slovak travel and business representatives to forge partnerships ahead of the Western Balkans' first Specialised Expo, scheduled for 15 May to 15 August 2027 under the theme "Play for Humanity: Sport and Music for All."

More than 135 countries confirm participation in Belgrade Expo

Organizers expect several million visits over the 93-day event, with over 135 countries having already confirmed participation.

Slovakia becomes first country to sign Expo participation contract

"Slovakia was the first country to sign the Participation Contract for EXPO 2027 Belgrade, reflecting the strong ties between our business communities," said Igor Kovačević, Executive Director of EXPO 2027 Belgrade, who invited Slovak travel professionals to develop itineraries and visit Serbia directly.

London – September 21, 2026 -- askelie has launched its Operational AI Platform, giving managed service providers (MSPs), software vendors and business users direct access to the AI capabilities previously reserved for its enterprise deployments.

Platform lets customers configure AI tools instead of building them from scratch

The Operational AI Platform allows organisations to combine existing, reusable askelie capabilities to create AI-powered Assistants and Automations tailored to specific business needs. Askelie says the approach cuts the time, cost and risk typically associated with building an AI foundation internally.

Boston – September 21, 2026 -- Cellular Intelligence, a Boston-based AI company building a universal foundation model of cell signaling, has appointed Turing Award laureate Yann LeCun, Moderna co-founder Robert "Bob" Langer, BioInnovation Institute CEO Jens Nielsen and Helmholtz Munich computational health director Fabian Theis to its Scientific Advisory Board. Langer also joins the company's Board of Directors as an observer.

Gothenburg – September 21, 2026 -- SKF has launched its new Progressive Lubrication Pump (PLP), an automatic lubrication system engineered to reduce unplanned downtime and lower total maintenance costs for industrial and mobile equipment operators.

SKF builds PLP on combined Lincoln and SKF lubrication expertise

The modular pump system targets faster installation and commissioning, improved serviceability, and better visibility into lubricant levels and system status. SKF positions PLP as the first product family built on a new lubrication platform designed to support future functional expansion.

Christophe Laurans says PLP addresses reliability and maintenance simplification

"Every hour of unplanned downtime matters. PLP helps customers improve equipment reliability, simplify maintenance, and keep their operations running efficiently," said Christophe Laurans, Head of Automatic Lubrication Systems at SKF.

Washington – September 21, 2026 -- Arc XP, the media technology platform built inside The Washington Post, launched Arc XP Compass, a personalization engine that rebuilds news home pages and section fronts around each returning reader while leaving editorial priorities in newsroom hands.

Publishers' own sites just lost their lead as the top news source

Social media and video networks now edge out publishers' own websites and apps as the most common way people get news, used by 54% of respondents across 48 markets versus 51% for news organizations' own sites and apps, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism's Digital News Report 2026.

Paris – September 21, 2026 -- Legend Robot previewed its CE-compliant autonomous latex paint and putty spraying robot at BATIMAT 2026, citing a field-validated peak output of 237 square meters per hour during a hotel renovation in Athens, Greece. The system, developed with European partner ROBOSWISS AG, is positioned to address skilled labor shortages across European construction markets while meeting EU CE safety standards.

Athens hotel project validates 237 m2/h spraying speed across 19 room layouts

During a brownfield renovation for Gnosis Investments Group in Athens, Legend Robot's continuous spraying fleet executed 2-coat and 3-coat latex wall finishing across 19 distinct room layouts, compensating for manual substrate imperfections. The robots operated on direct electrical stabilization throughout the project, combining CE safety compliance with a material waste reduction of up to 15%, according to the company.

Stockholm – September 21, 2026 --

Fredrik Rystedt, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Essity, has notified the company of his intention to retire during 2027, triggering an immediate search for his successor.

Rystedt exits after more than nine years steering Essity's finances

Rystedt has served as CFO and Executive Vice President at Essity for over nine years. He will remain in his current role until a successor is appointed and an orderly handover is completed, the company said.

Stockholm – September 21, 2026 -- Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson repurchased Class B shares between September 14 and September 18, 2026, under its ongoing SEK 15,000,000,000 buyback program, lifting the company's treasury stock holding to 108,018,663 Class B shares.

Ericsson's buyback program targets up to SEK 15 billion through March 2027

The repurchase activity forms part of a program Ericsson announced on April 16, 2026, running from April 23, 2026, through March 31, 2027 at the latest. The initiative is structured under the EU's Market Abuse Regulation (No 596/2014) and the accompanying Safe Harbour Regulation (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 of March 8, 2016), ensuring the transactions comply with European market conduct rules.

New York – September 21, 2026 -- Infrastructure Capital Advisors has expanded its SPYC exchange-traded fund into Europe, securing listings on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiana while registering the product across 11 European markets.

SPYC pairs S&P 500 equities with a covered-call overlay to generate monthly income

The fund combines actively selected S&P 500 stocks with a flexible covered-call options strategy, aiming to produce monthly income distributions while preserving upside potential for capital growth. Infrastructure Capital designed the structure to monetize elevated volatility across S&P 500-listed companies through active options management.

Xuzhou – September 21, 2026 -- XCMG's 11th Staff Arts Festival drew more than 3,000 employees on September 19 and reached a global audience exceeding 5.3 million through more than 50 media outlets and social platforms, with overseas views topping 400,000.

Construction machinery becomes the stage itself

The event was staged against the world's first 14,000-ton ring crane. XCMG crawler and wheeled cranes jointly hoisted a large screen, while dozens of aerial work platforms and cranes installed lighting and sound systems, integrating the company's equipment directly into the production rather than using it as static display.