For centuries, intellectuals have envisioned a future where technology would lead to abbreviated workweeks and enhanced leisure. Yet, these predictions have largely fallen short.
Benjamin Franklin’s vision of four hours of meaningful daily labor? Not so much. John Maynard Keynes’ ambitious proposal of a 15-hour workweek?
Hardly feasible. Bill Gates’ projection of an AI-enabled two-day workweek remains uncertain, and if I were to wager…
Unless you happen to be French, in which case, revel in your annual vacances—regardless of technological advances.
Here are the current headlines. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. Be sure to read Fortune technology expert Alexei Oreskovic’s examination of electric air taxis in our most recent edition.
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Alibaba Claims Its Latest Qwen AI Model Outperforms Moonshot’s Kimi K3
Eddie Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba, in Hangzhou, eastern China, on September 24, 2025.
Meet America’s Next Top AI Model and its Chinese contender.
Echoing the fierce AI competition seen in the United States, China’s tech landscape also showcases weekly unveilings of models claiming dominance over their predecessors.
The most recent contender to emerge from China’s tech behemoths is Alibaba, which asserts that its new AI model, Qwen3.8-Max, surpasses the benchmarks set by startup Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3.
Launched on July 16, Kimi K3 has garnered international acclaim reminiscent of the rapid rise of DeepSeek’s R1. Currently, it is positioned as the model to dethrone.
Alibaba emphasizes that its flagship Qwen model is adept at autonomous coding, intricate research, and other “long horizon” tasks. Mirroring Kimi K3, it employs a “mixture of experts” approach, capable of interpreting text, images, and video.
“Qwen3.8-Max does not merely adhere to a set schema,” the company elucidated in a blog post. “It evolves organically through feedback loops, whether that entails developing a self-upgrading harness, refining research methodologies, or ascending leaderboard rankings.”
A modest disparity exists between the models in terms of capabilities. The new Qwen boasts 2.4 trillion parameters, the criteria it leverages for learning and pattern recognition, in contrast to Kimi K3’s 2.8 trillion.
Nevertheless, Qwen3.8-Max activates only 95 billion parameters at any given moment—whereas Kimi K3 utilizes 104 billion—aiming to manage costs and response times.
However, the most noteworthy achievement of the latest Qwen may well lie in the expedited process of its development.
Remarkably, Alibaba’s previous flagship model, Qwen 3.7, was launched just two months prior to its successor, while Kimi K2 entered the market a full year before K3.
“The velocity with which the Qwen team rolls out models appears almost absurd,” noted Mehul Gupta, a data scientist at DBS Bank. “Every few weeks, there’s a new release, another enhancement, another effort to dominate reasoning metrics.” —AN
Are China’s Memory Manufacturers Poised for Recognition?
Chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, has ascended to become China’s most valuable company almost instantaneously.
Following its Shanghai debut on July 27, CXMT’s shares skyrocketed over 500% and continued to thrive throughout the week. By the week’s end, its market capitalization soared to 3.54 trillion yuan ($523 billion), knocking the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China off the top spot.
Despite the impressive rise, analysts are divided on whether CXMT’s stock upturn signifies a fleeting spike or a substantive shift in the prominence of Chinese chip manufacturers.
“China is indisputably becoming a more significant player in the memory chip sector; however, this evolution occurs within a market skewed by AI demands, supply deficiencies, and state-supported industrial policies,” asserts Barbora Valockova, a research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
“This does not automatically imply that China is bridging the gap with global leaders in the complete chip ecosystem.”
While supply shortages compel companies to consider Chinese alternatives, the acceptance of these chips remains selective and fraught with political challenges, particularly in the U.S.
On July 30, a contingent of U.S. legislators sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, urging him to sidestep any initiatives to procure chips from ‘blacklisted’ Chinese suppliers like CXMT and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., or YMTC, amid an ongoing global memory crisis.
Kong Tuan Yuen, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, contends that although the memory shortage will elevate demand for Chinese chips, most multinational firms will likely view CXMT as a secondary source.
“While diversifying supply chains may be essential,” he remarked, “firms will continue to rely on multiple sources located in various geographic regions to mitigate long-term geopolitical risks.”
Additionally, most corporations are inclined to favor chips from SK Hynix, Micron, or Samsung as their primary choice, given CXMT’s higher manufacturing costs,” noted Rolf Bulk, Futurum’s head of semiconductor and infrastructure equity research, in a conversation with CNBC.
“CXMT is still two to three generations behind,” he stated, “in terms of chip performance.” —Angelica Ang
SpaceX’s Record-Breaking IPO Fuels a New Wave of Startups
Investors and entrepreneurs assert that SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO is catalyzing a transformation within the space sector, shifting it from government oversight to a highly dynamic startup milieu ripe for innovation.
Funding for the space industry had already surged in anticipation of the IPO, with global investment in space ventures reaching a remarkable $7.95 billion in the first quarter—nearly double the $3.93 billion invested in the preceding three months, according to data from Seraphim Space.
Investors executed 159 transactions in this period, elevating the 12-month cumulative total to a record 654 deals.
These ventures extend beyond mere rocket and satellite production. Noteworthy examples include Beyond Reach Labs, innovating solar panels for space that can expand from the dimensions of a dining table to those of a football field, and Galactic Resource Utilization Space, which aims to establish the first lunar hotel.
Keval Desai, founder and partner at the early-stage investment firm Shakti VC, remarked to Fortune that SpaceX’s IPO could exert a transformative impact on the space industry—along with communications, drug development, and orbital computing—similar to that of Amazon’s 1997 IPO on e-commerce.
“The next decade in space is poised to be dominated by startups,” he projected. “Not merely large corporations and government entities, but true representatives of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit making their mark on the space commerce landscape.”
Challenges persist. The development of innovative products necessitates advanced expertise that is confined to a limited talent pool.
Navigating regulatory landscapes, especially across international borders, poses additional obstacles. Furthermore, funding for space-oriented startups remains comparatively scarce.
However, anticipate that capital markets will become increasingly accessible for entrepreneurs focused on building the next billion-dollar enterprises.
“We’ve just expanded a vast total addressable market,” he concluded. “It’s not solely Earth anymore; space is the new frontier.” —Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Source link: Fortune.com.
