Top 3 Signals This Week
1) Beijing backed Zhipu 智谱 AI secures another 1 Billion Yuan ($140 million) in new funding
Zhipu is founded by Tang Jie (唐杰) and Li Juanzi (李娟子), both professors from Tsinghua University in 2019. At its core, Zhipu’s technology centers on the self-developed GLM (General Language Model) series, which excels in natural language processing through a unique “autoregressive blank infilling” architecture. This technical foundation has enabled the company to build a comprehensive AI ecosystem spanning conversational AI (ChatGLM), video generation (Ying), and autonomous agents (AutoGLM).
➤ Zhipu is backed by over $1.4 billion in Chinese state funding and works closely with CCP officials to advance China’s goal of leading AI by 2030. Investors include Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Xiaomi, Saudi Aramco’s Prosperity7 Ventures, Legend Capital, and state-backed funds
➤ It also targets IPO as soon as 2025 and has enlisted China International Capital Corporation (CICC) to spearhead its IPO.
➤ The company operates offices across Singapore, the UK, Malaysia, and the Middle East, and it has established “innovation centers” in Indonesia and Vietnam. By providing sovereign AI infrastructure to governments in Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, Zhipu aims to embed Chinese AI standards in emerging markets before Western competitors establish footholds.
Read it all here:
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/26/openai-flags-beijing-backed-zhipu-ai-as-a-top-rival.html
2) China’s Economic Outlook by Joe Ngai, Chairman of McKinsey China
China’s economy defies simple categorisation. While corporations remain cautious about capital spending and no quick rebound is expected, Chinese households continue steady consumption despite external pressures. The real opportunity lies in China’s emerging leadership in robotics, AI, biotech, and advanced manufacturing—sectors where decade-long supply chain investments are paying off. Chinese companies are also expanding globally, particularly in ASEAN, Middle East, and Latin America, transitioning from “world’s factory” to genuine global partners. For investors willing to look beyond the negativity, significant rewards await in these innovation-driven sectors.
Read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joe-ngai-28b278_amnc25-activity-7344152494362501120-ECmA
3) Major Data Breaches Hit Qantas and Cartier
Qantas (July 2025): Up to 6 million customer records were compromised when cybercriminals targeted a third-party platform used by its contact centre, exposing names, emails, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers Travel Trade JournalTechCrunch. The attack is suspected to be carried out by Scattered Spider, a group of English-speaking adolescent hackers focusing on airlines Scattered Spider Suspected in Qantas Data Breach.
Cartier (June 2025): The luxury jeweller’s website was hacked, compromising customer names, email addresses, and countries of residence, though no financial data was affected Bleeping ComputerSC Media. This was part of a broader wave of cyberattacks targeting major retailers Cartier Data Breach: Luxury Retailer Warns Customers That Personal Data Was Exposed – SecurityWeek.
Why it matters ➤ These high-profile breaches signal a massive career opportunity: cybersecurity is experiencing an unprecedented talent shortage with millions unfilled jobs globally, and AI is accelerating both attacks and defense needs. Every company—from airlines to luxury brands—now desperately needs cybersecurity professionals, creating premium-salary opportunities in incident response, threat intelligence, AI security, and compliance roles. The skills shortage gives job seekers significant leverage, certifications often matter more than degrees, and it’s one of the few recession-proof sectors where companies increase rather than cut budgets after incidents.
💡 Headhunter’s Lens on AI Security
In my recent conversations with CIOs and CISOs, one role keeps dominating every discussion: AI Security. These leaders are racing to harness AI’s potential while defending against AI-powered threats they’ve never encountered before. Traditional cybersecurity wasn’t built for criminals who can now orchestrate thousands of sophisticated attacks simultaneously using AI tools.
As AI enables criminals to scale attacks exponentially while companies scramble to deploy AI-powered defenses, professionals with both cybersecurity and AI expertise are becoming the most sought-after talent in the job market.
🚀 Executive Move to Watch
Trapit Bansal → Meta
Meta has successfully recruited Trapit Bansal, a prominent researcher from OpenAI, to strengthen its artificial intelligence superintelligence division. Bansal, who had been with OpenAI since 2022 and made significant contributions to AI reasoning model development, departed the company in June 2025. His new role at Meta focuses on advancing the company’s AI reasoning capabilities as part of their cutting-edge superintelligence initiative.
📬 One to Forward
🎧 The Rise of Grab: How Anthony Tan built a $2B a year supperapp