Markets

Precision Global Corporation (PGC) has partnered with CubeSmart to manage four self-storage facilities in Texas, effective July 25, 2025. The agreement leverages CubeSmart’s operational expertise to enhance customer experience and asset value. PGC aims to expand its nationwide portfolio of storage and RV park assets through strategic alliances. CubeSmart, a leading self-storage REIT, manages over 1,300 facilities nationwide, known for its technology-driven solutions and customer-centric approach. PGC focuses on high-growth, income-producing assets and seeks acquisition opportunities to expand its portfolio.

Hawaii American Water customers in Hawaii Kai, Mauna Lani, and Waimea will see wastewater bill adjustments starting in August 2025, following HPUC approval. The rate hike is driven by a $40 million infrastructure investment. Hawaii Kai residents will see a $4 monthly increase, while Mauna Lani and Waimea residents will see an $18-$25 increase. The upgrades aim to maintain service quality, meet environmental regulations, and improve treatment facilities. American Water, the parent company, is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility in the US.

A Coldplay concert in Boston turned into a corporate scandal when Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR head Christine Cabot were filmed in a compromising situation. The video went viral, leading to Byron’s departure from the $1.3 billion tech company. Meanwhile, Grace, the concertgoer who filmed the incident, capitalized on the video’s popularity by soliciting donations and successfully paying off her $80,000 debt. The Astronomer released a statement emphasizing accountability.

Singer Wangzai Xiaoqiao issued an apology amidst controversy surrounding a planned masked concert and claims about the original performer of the song “Nian Lun.” Xiaoqiao asserted Zhang Bi-chen, not Wan Su-long, was the original singer. Acknowledging public influence, Xiaoqiao accepted criticism and pledged to be more cautious and convey positive energy. The apology included commitments to improve public awareness, raise standards for future appearances, and remain open to criticism following this “wake-up call.”

Alibaba Cloud’s BaiLian platform will be inducted into the “Hall of Fame” at WAIC 2025, the conference’s highest honor. BaiLian, a comprehensive platform for LLM services and agent application development, was selected based on its technological sophistication, market potential, innovative design, and socio-economic impact. Featuring over 200 LLMs and 100 pre-built agent templates, BaiLian has empowered over 200,000 developers to create over 700,000 agents, demonstrating its significant impact on the AI ecosystem.

NetEase Lingdong launched “Lingjue,” the world’s first embodied AI model for excavator loading in open-pit mines, at WAIC. This model supports China’s intelligent mining goals and utilizes multimodal data-driven autonomous learning. “Lingjue” achieves 80% of human operator efficiency in harsh conditions and 70% unmanned operation. NetEase Lingdong also announced open-sourcing “Lingjue” dataset and a collaboration plan aiming for unmanned operations in 30 mines by 2027, extending its technology to other industries as well.

The 2025 WAIC features Huawei’s debut of the Atlas 900 A3 SuperPoD, built on the Ascend 384 Super Node. This super-node utilizes advanced bus technology for high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnection between 384 NPUs, addressing communication bottlenecks in large AI clusters. Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 (CM384) AI cluster, built around Ascend chips, delivers 300 PFLOPs of dense BF16 compute power, reportedly surpassing NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72. Analysts suggest Huawei’s scaled solution surpasses current market offerings from NVIDIA and AMD.

Unitree Robotics is showcasing its G1 robot at WAIC 2025 in Shanghai, captivating attendees with a sparring match against a human. The agile robot, equipped with boxing gear, demonstrates impressive combat skills and resilience. This display highlights advancements in robotic dexterity and control. Robot combat, while currently human-controlled, serves as a learning tool for AI development, potentially leading to breakthroughs in practical applications like elder care and delivery services.

Assembly Biosciences (ASMB) announced promising Phase 1a data for HSV treatments, ABI-5366 and ABI-1179, at recent conferences. These helicase-primase inhibitors demonstrated favorable safety and pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers, potentially allowing for less frequent dosing: once-weekly for both and potentially once-monthly for ABI-5366. No significant food effect was observed. Phase 1b trials are underway, with interim data expected in fall 2025, a possible inflection point for Assembly Biosciences.

At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton warned about the potential dangers of advanced AI agents. He suggested these agents, capable of self-improvement and knowledge replication, might prioritize goals conflicting with human interests. Hinton likened humanity’s relationship with AI to keeping a tiger as a pet, emphasizing the need to either thoroughly control AI or relinquish it entirely to avoid potential harm.