36Kr Daily Hot List - 2026-02-28

36Kr Daily Hot List for 2026-02-28. Tech and business news explained simply.

Car crash from voice command turning off headlights, Lynk & Co apologizes; OpenAI gets $110 billion funding; MiHoYo employee passes away unexpectedly

A driver accidentally turned off their car's headlights using a voice command at night, causing a crash, so the car company fixed the problem and said sorry; the company behind ChatGPT got a huge pile of money to keep making smart AI; and a game company worker died suddenly, with the company saying it wasn't from overwork and they're talking with the family.

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea building a 'Snow King' theme park in its hometown; DHL and JD.com sign a deal; Japanese chip company Rapidus gets money from Canon, SoftBank, Sony, and others

Mixue is building a fun indoor theme park in its hometown to attract more customers, DHL and JD.com are teaming up to help German brands sell stuff in China more easily, and a Japanese chip company got a big cash boost from big companies to make better, smaller chips for electronics.

iQiyi's 2025 Earnings Report: Revenue Hits 273 Billion Yuan, Overseas Subscriptions Jump Over 30%

The Chinese streaming service iQiyi made more money last year, especially from people outside China signing up to watch their shows, which shows their popular content is catching on globally.

From Short Videos to Long Articles: When TikTok Hands News to AI

TikTok, which used to be all about quick videos, is now letting people write long articles and using AI to gather news, because they want users to stick around longer and trust their content more.

AWE 2026 in Shanghai unveils a new 'Special Zone' for cutting-edge tech

A big tech show in Shanghai is setting aside a special area just for futuristic robots and AI gadgets, because these smart machines are moving out of labs and starting to help in real homes and workplaces.

A company that makes 'brains' for robots just got hundreds of millions in funding, with Sequoia China investing.

A company that makes the smart 'brains' for robots got a huge pile of money from investors because they've proven their robots can actually do real jobs in factories, not just look fancy.

This high-precision metal 3D printing company shipped 100,000 parts last year, cut printing costs by 80%, and raised two rounds of funding

A company that makes super-detailed metal 3D printers got millions in funding because their printers can make tiny, strong metal parts much cheaper and faster than before, which matters because it could let factories make things like medical implants and robot fingers more easily and affordably.

Three big business stories: Maserati's parent company lost a ton of money, a new medicine for boys' growth got approved and made a stock price jump, and Germany's leader visited a robot company in China.

A car company that owns Maserati lost a huge amount of money last year because it's changing how it does business; a Chinese company's stock price shot up because it got approval to test a new medicine that could help boys with a growth problem, which is a big deal because there's no other medicine like it; and Germany's leader visited a Chinese robot maker to talk about working together, showing that countries still want to do business with China.

Meizu phones might be done for good, and Nvidia's boss says they'll look for money moves this year.

Meizu's phone business has basically stopped and will officially shut down in March, meaning another phone brand is disappearing, while Nvidia's CEO says they'll try to make some smart money moves this year to keep growing strong.

What's Changing and What's Staying the Same at Ctrip

Ctrip, a big travel booking website, is shifting from just trying to get more sales for itself to helping the whole travel industry—like small-town hotels and local tour guides—get better and make more money, which matters because it means more jobs and better trips for everyone, not just profits for the big company.

Zhejiang adds 2 new approved AI services

Two new AI tools that can create content just got the official green light in Zhejiang province, bringing the total to 70 approved services, which means more safe and regulated AI options are becoming available for people to use.

Pentagon picks OpenAI over Anthropic for AI safety rules

The US military chose to work with OpenAI instead of its competitor Anthropic because OpenAI's safety rules for military AI use - like no mass surveillance or killer robots - were more acceptable to them, even though both companies had similar rules.

China's 2025 economic and social development report released

China's government just released its annual report card showing the economy grew 5% last year, which matters because it tells us how the country is doing and affects things like jobs and prices for regular people.

After the Spring Festival Gala, humanoid robot companies are getting lots of money, but the real test is still ahead.

Humanoid robots that performed on the big New Year's TV show are now getting huge investments from backers, but they still need to prove they can actually do useful jobs that people will pay for.

Netflix confirms it got $2.8 billion breakup fee from Paramount

Netflix was supposed to buy part of Warner Bros., but Warner Bros. changed its mind and went with Paramount instead, so Paramount had to pay Netflix $2.8 billion as a penalty for backing out of the deal, which is a huge amount of money that Netflix gets to keep.