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“Competition in AI video generation models is at an earlier stage, and some Chinese companies have emerged as early leaders in this space,” said Wei Xiong, China internet analyst at UBS Securities.
“Whether it’s user scale or commercial revenue, overseas accounts for the majority,” Zeng Yushen, head of operations at Kling AI, a video generation tool.
But analysts caution that AI still has limits in creating content audiences like.

Kuaishou’s Kling AI platform generates video from text and still images.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s video-heavy entertainment world has yielded a trove of data for companies — and they’re now ramping up money-making artificial intelligence tools for generating ads and film clips.
TikTok parent ByteDance holds the first and third spots in research firm Artificial Analysis’ top-ranked text-to-video generative AI models, which were launched in the last two months. Google holds the second and fourth spots, while Beijing-based short video app Kuaishou’s Kling AI ranks fifth.

Despite some consolidation in other parts of the AI industry, “competition in AI video generation models is at an earlier stage, and some Chinese companies have emerged as early leaders in this space,” said Wei Xiong, China internet analyst at UBS Securities.
“We believe AI video generation has the potential to reshape the content industry,” she said, “by enhancing production efficiency, lowering barriers to creation and unlocking new monetization models.”
With such AI tools, users can upload a single image or multiple ones, and direct the AI to generate a video clip based on them. Other tools allow users to enter text, from which the AI will generate the video clip.
More than 20,000 businesses from advertisers to movie animators already use Kling AI for generating video, the Beijing-based company claimed this week during the World AI Conference in Shanghai. The latest version, Kling 2.1, can automatically add relevant sound effects to match the AI-generated video.
It’s not just for users in China.

“Whether it’s user scale or commercial revenue, overseas accounts for the majority,” Zeng Yushen, head of operations at Kling AI, told CNBC in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. She said the company plans to enhance its support for the tool in places such as Japan, South Korea and Europe.
“This is something we’ve observed, AI big models are increasingly globalized,” she said. “People don’t seem to care which country’s product it is.”

Kuaishou claimed Kling AI made over 150 million yuan ($20.83 million) in revenue in the first three months of the year, and that daily advertising spend on generative AI tools was 30 million yuan during that time. The company has yet to announce when it will release second-quarter results. Zeng declined to share Kling AI’s model training costs.
While the reduced production cost implies a “sizeable” market, UBS’ Xiong said, “current model capabilities remain constrained by clip length, motion consistency and controllability.”
Chinese video AI companies also face competition from the U.S., beyond the Trump administration’s restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors needed for training AI models.
Amazon and Google have launched tools for generating video from images or text. The releases come as Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched its video generation model Sora to ChatGPT subscribers in December — nearly a year after it had revealed its capabilities in February 2024.
However, Kling AI had already launched to the public in June 2024. Users subscribe and buy credits to generate videos.
Vidu, a rival tool from Beijing-based startup Shengshu, launched to global users roughly 12 months ago, and around March this year said it expected annual revenue of $20 million based on user subscription fees.
“Chinese firms tend to attempt to first identify a commercial ‘pain point’ …, areas where companies will pay for services, which has been a challenge for AI applications,” said Paul Triolo, partner and senior vice president for China at advisory firm DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.
He pointed to how Chinese startup 3DStyle uses generative AI to design new clothing styles and integrate them with internet-connected, automated manufacturing.
U.S. companies have also been applying AI to specific industries, Triolo said, but Chinese businesses are often able to integrate AI more quickly because they face a very competitive environment and can recruit from a “very qualified” local base of software engineers.

‘AI as filmmaker’

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has also stayed on top of the trend by releasing the latest version of its video generation AI model this week called Wan2.2. The company claimed that with the open-source model, users can control lighting, time of day, color tone, camera angle, frame size, composition and focal length.
Open source allows users to download a model for free, and customize, if not commercialize, products with it. Alibaba claimed that since open sourcing the “Wan” model series in February, the models have been downloaded more than 5.4 million times from the Hugging Face platform and a similar one in China called ModelScope.

“The age of AI in film is over. We’ve entered the age of AI as filmmaker,” said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He pointed out that China’s 1.4 billion population has given local companies “enormous” amounts of video-watching data to work with.
“Just like TikTok took the global markets by storm with short videos in the mobile internet age, Chinese AI companies could well lead the Generative AI revolution in visual digital entertainment,” said Ma, author of “The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”

Avatars and gaming

Chinese companies are also building AI tools for more than just generating videos.
In the past week, Baidu announced that its newest AI-powered digital human technology — which powered sales of $7.65 million during an interactive livestreaming session of over six hours in June — would be released for broader industry use in October.
In 3D visualization, Tencent released its Hunyuan World model for creating digital panoramic images of scenes, generated from text and visual prompts. The visuals use a “mesh” file format which gamer developers can then use to edit specific parts of the image.
“Beyond supporting [Tencent’s] internal development teams, the platform demonstrates Tencent’s ambition to standardize high-fidelity game asset generation and expand its influence across China’s game development landscape,” said Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners.

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Niko found that more than half of game development studios in China already use AI for content generation and reducing development time and costs.
But game development reflects broader challenges in using AI at scale for generating videos and graphics.
“While interest in AI is high,” Ahmad said, “we’ve already seen some backlash to games that have poorly implemented the technology.” More

JPMorgan Chase has built 1,000 new branches in seven years.
The bank is marking the milestone opening in Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday where Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon is attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The firm has roughly 5,000 branches, the most of any American bank, according to Federal Reserve data.

JPMorgan Chase has built 1,000 new branches in seven years. That’s more locations than most of its competitors operate in total. 
The bank is marking the milestone opening in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday where Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon is attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The firm has roughly 5,000 branches, the most of any American bank, according to Federal Reserve data from March.

“It’s a great marker for us to be able to say, you can see our commitment over time and we’re on a marathon with regard to this expansion,” said Jennifer Roberts, the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, in an interview. “A thousand [branches] is significant – a thousand is bigger than many regional competitors have at all.”
In 2018, JPMorgan operated bank branches in 23 U.S. states and said it would expand into as many as 20 new markets over the following five years with about 400 new locations. By 2021, the firm said it had branches in all 48 lower states. And last February, JPMorgan announced a new, multibillion-dollar investment to open another 500 new locations by 2027. 

JPMorgan said over the past seven years, Chase has opened more bank branches than all of its large bank peers combined. However, many of JPMorgan’s competitors have recently announced plans to expand their own footprints as the quest for deposits heats up.
Bank of America recently announced a branch expansion, with plans to open 150 new centers by 2027. And Wells Fargo plans to add branches, especially now that it’s fulfilled a regulatory consent order that had been constraining its growth. 

The industry-wide growth plans could help reverse a trend dating back to the 2008 financial crisis in which the U.S. has seen the net number of bank branches plummet. The combination of fewer overall banks and the advent of online banking has broadly made brick-and-mortar locations lower priority. However, in recent years, especially amid the population migration during and after the pandemic, banks have been reorienting their footprints to capture more deposits. 

Expanding in Charlotte puts JPMorgan head-to-head with rival Bank of America, which is headquartered there and has 71% market share in the city, according to KBW and S&P Global Market Intelligence data. 
Roberts said after the expansion is complete, Chase will have about 75 branches in North Carolina. She said that the bank is expanding there due to its “young, fast-growing population” and that there’s a “lot of wealth coming into that area” as well. 

JPMorgan said at its investor day in May that its newer branches are expected to ultimately contribute more than $160 billion in incremental deposits. The firm said each new branch breaks even within four years.
JPMorgan said when its expansion is complete, Chase will have added more than 1,100 branches, renovated 4,300 locations and entered 80 new markets. It also expects that 75% of the U.S. population will be able to reach one of its branches within an “accessible drive.”

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Correction: This article has been updated to correct that Chase will have 75 branches in North Carolina once the company’s expansion plans are complete. An earlier version misstated the timeline. More

Bets from Kalshi users priced in a roughly 90% probability that Apple’s earnings call after the bell Thursday would feature words like “China” and “Tariff,” as well as a more than 50% chance that “Severance” would be mentioned.
Kalshi’s question on what will be said during Apple’s earnings call has generated more than $48,000 in trading volumes.
Analysts anticipate that Apple will post single-digit-percentage earnings and revenue growth for the third quarter compared to last year, per LSEG.

The Apple logo, taken at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
Sven Hoppe | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Wall Street is gearing up for Apple’s third-quarter results after the bell, and users on prediction platform Kalshi are betting on what will be discussed on the iPhone maker’s upcoming earnings call.
By the afternoon on Thursday, Kalshi was pricing in a probability of about 90% that Apple was going to mention words like “China” and “Tariff” during the call, while the mention of “Severance” was being priced in at more than 50%.

Betting on this question has brought in more than $48,000 in trading volumes.

Arrows pointing outwards

Apple has come under pressure to boost domestic manufacturing in recent months. In May, President Donald Trump said that Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for its iPhones not made in the U.S.
The company has since made efforts to relieve some of that pressure, announcing earlier this week that it’s going to open a manufacturing academy in downtown Detroit next month, where it plans to offer manufacturing and artificial intelligence workshops to small and medium-sized businesses.
But analysts have said that U.S.-made iPhones would make the device much more costly, as some estimates have put its price in a range of $1,500 to $3,500. The company mainly manufactures most of its iPhones in China but has expanded its production to India amid the uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration’s tariffs.
The move has evidently been taking hold, as a report released this week showed that India surpassed China in smartphone exports during the second quarter.

Heading into its print, Barclays analyst Tim Long forecasts that iPhones will “struggle” due to a “rough” macroeconomic backdrop, a lack of new product and feature traction, as well as market share losses in China.
“According to Apple, the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. are expected to have India as their country of origin for the June-Q, and almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods sold in the U.S. are expected to ship from Vietnam for the Q,” he wrote. “We expect AAPL could adopt other mitigation efforts … before it would turn to pricing actions, which we would expect to erode demand.”

Arrows pointing outwards

Alongside commentary related to China tariffs, Kalshi users are expecting some discussion of the most-watched series on Apple TV+, “Severance,” which saw a boost in popularity with the premiere of its second season earlier this year.
It was officially renewed for a third season shortly after its season two finale aired in March.
Other words in the entertainment industry like “Formula 1/F1” stood at 88% odds among users. “F1: The Movie” generated more than $293 million globally just days after its release, becoming Apple’s highest-grossing theatrical film.

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Apple vs. S&P 500, year-to-date

Apple shares were near the flatline in afternoon trading Thursday. That put its year-to-date fall at more than 16%, lagging the S&P 500’s rise in the period of more than 8%.
The company’s third-quarter earnings call is slated for 5 p.m. ET Thursday following the release of its quarterly results. Analysts surveyed by LSEG are expecting that Apple will see a single-digit-percentage increase in earnings and revenue for the quarter compared to the prior-year period. More

Your browser does not support this video. Jul 31st 2025 | Al Aweer and Dubai <!–> –>In the small town of Al Aweer, about 20km east of Dubai’s city centre, lorries full of fruit and vegetables approach, circle and pass each other, in a skilful dance. Think of it as a kind of bulk-trade ballet, […] More

“To be free, you need to be feared,” said Emmanuel Macron, the French president, on July 30th. “We were not feared enough.” He was speaking three days after Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s boss, had agreed a one-sided trade deal with President Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland. The agreement entails higher tariffs on European goods without any retaliation in kind. This humbling asymmetry was quickly condemned by the continent’s politicians and press. But the European Union (EU) had good reasons for its faint-heartedness. It had to make enough concessions to keep Mr Trump engaged in Europe, while limiting the damage to its own economy. For now, it seems to have accomplished that. More

The corporate raiders of the private-equity (PE) industry have been memorably compared to invading barbarians. But the industry is more usefully described as a machine, which converts investors’ money into deals, deals into profitable divestments (or “exits”), and exits into investor returns. When running well, this contraption gathers a momentum of its own. Profitable exits generate handsome returns, which tempt investors to pump in more capital, enabling further dealmaking. More

In an earnings call on July 15th, Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan Chase, made a familiar complaint. He rattled off a litany of burdensome, overlapping regulations: “SLR, G-SIFI, CCAR, Basel III, FSRT”. He then called on regulators to draw “a deep breath”, step back and take stock. Reform was necessary, he said, to “create more liquidity, more loans and a safer system.” More

China’s official manufacturing PMI has been below the 50 mark, reflecting contraction rather than expansion, since April.
The index for July was 49.3, missing expectations for 49.7 according to a Reuters poll.
During a high-level Politburo meeting on Wednesday, China’s top leaders did not signal plans for substantial new stimulus.

Containers reflected in a puddle following a rainfall, at the Yantian port in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China May 9, 2025.
Tingshu Wang | Reuters

BEIJING — China’s official gauge for manufacturing activity on Thursday pointed to a worse-than-expected contraction in July amid slower economic growth and ongoing U.S. trade tensions.
The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for July was 49.3, missing expectations for 49.7 according to a Reuters poll.

China’s official manufacturing PMI has been below the 50 mark, reflecting contraction rather than expansion, since April.
“The PMI is lower due to weather challenges, as well as shifting some orders to lower-tariffed countries such as Vietnam,” said Cameron Johnson, Shanghai-based senior partner at consulting firm Tidalwave Solutions.
Overall export figures are expected to remain stable for the next quarter, Johnson said, noting that some production will be shifted to other countries to take advantage of lower tariffs until China sets its duty rates with the U.S.
Tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated in April with each side imposing tariffs of more than 100% on imports of goods from the other. The two sides agreed in May to roll back most of the additional duties for 90 days, bringing the effective rate for China exports to the U.S. to around 43%.
The truce is set to expire in mid-August. Representatives from the world’s two largest economies ended a meeting in Stockholm this week without announcing an extension of the agreement, which had been widely expected.

Earlier in July, the U.S. reached a deal with Vietnam that imposed a 40% tariff if the goods were made elsewhere and were only transferred to the Southeast Asian country for sale to the U.S. Goods made in Vietnam will otherwise face a 20% tariff when shipped to the U.S.

Within China’s latest manufacturing PMI, sub-indexes showed that employment, new orders and raw materials inventory also contracted in July. The index for jobs ticked up to 48, from 47.9 in June, while that for new orders fell to 49.4, down from 50.2 in June.
The National Bureau of Statistics attributed the manufacturing PMI decline in July to the traditional off-season and factors such as extreme heat and torrential rain in parts of the country.
In one of the latest instances of extreme weather, at least 30 people died this week on the outskirts of Beijing after the city issued the highest-level red alert for heavy rain, according to state media.
In July last year, the official manufacturing PMI read was 49.4, with the new orders sub-index at 49.3.
Besides the poor weather, Beijing’s “anti-involution” efforts to address overcapacity problems are impacting the economy, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note following the release of the PMI data.
“The manufacturing PMI featured lower output, lower inventory but higher price sub-indices, whereas the construction PMI fell notably on high temperatures and heavy rainfalls,” the analysts added.

Signs of a second-half slowdown

The official non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in services sectors such as tourism, fell to 50.1 in July, down from 50.5 in June, Thursday’s data release showed.
The decline in both manufacturing and services PMI for July aligns with expectations of a growth slowdown in the second half of the year, since GDP in the first six months was mainly supported by businesses ramping up orders ahead of tariff uncertainty, said Qin Yong, chief economist at the treasury department of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (China). He was speaking Thursday on CNBC’s “The China Connection.”
There’s little incentive for businesses to ramp up orders again, regardless of the outcome of trade talks, he said. “So then the tariff impact on China’s economy will become very apparent from August onwards … considering the PMI for July, I would say there are some very worrying situations right now.”

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During a high-level Politburo meeting on Wednesday, China’s top leaders did not signal plans for substantial new stimulus, although the country has been ramping up subsidies to encourage people to have more children.
If the U.S. and China are able to extend the trade truce, that will likely ‘reduce the urge to step up policy support” for the economy, Bank of America analysts said in a report Wednesday about the Politburo meeting.
They pointed out that the meeting readout removed references to interest rate cuts and offered little hint of additional property market support, while emphasizing local government debt risks.
— CNBC’s Anniek Bao and Victoria Yeo contributed to this report. More