Belgian electronic music festival Tomorrowland came to Shanghai for the first time in July 2025. Hero Esports Hi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a snapshot of what I’m seeing and hearing from local businesses. The rise of artificial intelligence could be creating…
Buried in the partner list of a new consortium building a dollar currency for the machine economy – backed by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and BlackRock – are three familiar names: FNB, Absa and Nedbank. South Africa’s banks have quietly joined the most ambitious attempt yet to solve a problem the internet has ignored for 30…
Karooooo CEO Zak Calisto Singapore-headquartered Karooooo, the parent of South African fleet management and operational intelligence company Cartrack, has reported record quarterly subscriber growth, with South Africa leading the charge. Net subscriber additions jumped 70% to a record 142 472 in the three months to 31 May 2026, the first quarter of the group’s 2027 financial…
Energy regulator Nersa has approved generation licences for four solar projects with a combined contracted capacity of 890MW, clearing another regulatory hurdle for the R16-billion final tranche of Bid Window 7 – the government renewables round that couldn’t award a single wind farm. Nersa said the licences, approved at its meeting on 30 June, cover…
SA QuTI project manager Jodie Robbertse The University of Pretoria last week became the newest node in the South African Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI), launching UP Quantum Science and Technology – UPQuST – as one of six nationally funded quantum research hubs. The university said the node, backed by the department of science, technology…
Mutsa Chironga, managing executive for personal banking at Nedbank Nedbank has partnered with fintech Jumo to launch a digital short-term lending product inside its Money App, the two companies said on Thursday, pitching the service at millions of South Africans underserved by traditional credit providers. The product, branded Nedbank Quick Loans, lets clients apply through…
A quantum computer built by IBM IBM will invest more than US$10-billion in coming years in an effort to deliver the first large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, according to an SEC filing on Thursday. The investment will go towards R&D, capital expenditure, scaling manufacturing capabilities and acquisitions, the company known for building the Watson…
Polymarket removed a forum related to the rescue mission of U.S. military servicemembers amid political pressure, the latest sign of mounting scrutiny around prediction markets. U.S. and Iranian military forces are searching for a missing American airman after its F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran on Friday. One crew member has been rescued,…
Goldman Sachs Asset Management is making a big bet on defined outcome exchange-traded funds — also known as buffer ETFs, which use options to help protect against market losses. This month, Goldman Sachs agreed to buy defined outcome ETF provider Innovator Capital Management for $2 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first…
When Ethiopian officials gather in Addis Ababa on Monday, December 8, 2025, to sign a Host Country Collaborative Agreement with Insight Dynamic Resources, they will be doing far more than finalising a document, as they will be opening the door to what many described as one of the most transformative infrastructure and energy projects in…
