What happened to China’s overseas EV factory boom?

25 June 2026 at 05:00

Despite all the global worry about China building car factories around the world and stifling local competitors, it turns out that Chinese EV companies have actually been homebodies. Between 2020...

Silicon Valley’s lure is fading for India’s tech talent

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 June 2026 at 08:00

Every month, at least two to three Indian-origin AI researchers in Silicon Valley between the ages of 25 and 35 reach out to Aakrit Vaish, founder of AI venture fund...

EVs are getting more affordable worldwide — except in the U.S.

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

2 June 2026 at 05:00

Electric cars became more affordable across much of the world in 2025 — except the U.S. One in four cars sold globally is now electric. Penetration in the U.S., however,...

Pushing back from Big Tech: Africa’s hard road to AI sovereignty

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

21 May 2026 at 05:00

Africa’s four biggest tech economies have each drafted artificial intelligence strategies admitting they depend too heavily on Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta for infrastructure and want more control over the...

Five times AI hallucinations embarrassed governments

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

7 May 2026 at 05:00

Last month, South Africa withdrew its Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy 17 days after it was published because the document cited fake research, created by AI. The incident tarnished a...

Motorola’s India lawsuit could make platforms police speech faster

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

4 May 2026 at 05:00

Motorola wants social media platforms to take down “defamatory” reviews of its devices in India. But the way it’s doing this has digital rights activists alarmed. In March, Motorola’s India...

South Korean probe tests U.S. willingness to protect its tech giants abroad

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

30 April 2026 at 03:00

South Korea wants to punish its biggest online retailer for a massive data leak. The U.S. is stepping in to shield Coupang, because even though it operates almost entirely in...

A general view shows the logo of South Korean online delivery service Coupang, at a building housing the headquarters of Coupang in Seoul on December 9, 2025. South Korean police raided the Seoul headquarters of e-commerce giant Coupang on December 9, over a recent data leak believed to have affected almost two-thirds of the country's population. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. companies back Sam Altman’s World ID even as much of the world pushes back

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

27 April 2026 at 05:00

A Sam Altman-backed technology that many governments rejected is finding traction in the American corporate world. On April 17, World, a project designed to distinguish humans from bots using biometrics,...

The global edtech boom is fading as investors look elsewhere

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

23 April 2026 at 03:00

The pandemic’s biggest bet on online learning has gone bust. Global edtech investment peaked at $16.7 billion in 2021, fueled by lockdowns that kept millions of children out of classrooms....

AI is about to make the global e-waste crisis much worse

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

17 April 2026 at 08:00

I’m sure my family in Mumbai is a lot like yours: three old smartphones sit unused in a hidden ziplock bag. My mom is scouring the study. “There was another...

In its push to become Big Tech’s data center hub, India is overlooking local resistance

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

13 April 2026 at 05:00

India is aggressively courting U.S. big tech to set up data centers in the country. But this push is colliding with a very different reality on the ground. In February,...

Why Claude Cowork is a math problem Indian IT can’t solve

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

6 February 2026 at 04:00

On February 4, the $300 billion Indian IT sector faced a moment of reckoning. The country’s benchmark IT stocks index slumped nearly 6%, reacting to Anthropic’s release of its Claude...

Daraz customer service centre in Karachi, Pakistan on 4th October, 2023.

China prioritizes investments outside the U.S.

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

China’s growing distrust of the West is showing in its investment playbook. Only 2.6% of China’s total foreign direct investment announced in 2025 went to North America, according to data...

Chinese and Saudi guests pose at the NING Service center in Riyadh, which is Catl's largest new energy aftermarket facility outside China.

The volunteer Wikipedia army protecting against AI slop

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

As Wikipedia takes on a critical role in shaping artificial intelligence tools, its content moderators are feeling the pressure and responsibility of their task. On January 15, Wikimedia Foundation —...

Why won’t people buy these tiny electric cars?

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

4 February 2026 at 03:00

Micro EVs are going nowhere, fast. These compact electric cars, typically under 2.5 meters and designed for urban driving with top speeds of up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) an...

A tiny car with a passenger sitting inside drives past in Beijing, China on January 19, 2021.

Is India softening its stance toward Chinese tech?

Rest of World

By: Itika Sharma Punit and Ananya Bhattacharya

3 February 2026 at 03:37

In June 2020, the Indian government abruptly banned 59 Chinese apps to protect the country’s “sovereignty and integrity” amid border tensions. By the end of the year, this number had...

What it takes to get an H-1B visa in Trump’s America

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

2 February 2026 at 03:00

The U.S. will open registrations for the highly sought-after H-1B visa in about a month. Each year, the visa category receives over five times as many applications as the number...

India’s electric bus push has a deadly blind spot

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

29 January 2026 at 03:00

India’s big cities are learning that electric buses need trained drivers to handle them. Public electric buses in Bengaluru caused 18 accidents, six of them fatal, over 15 months ending...

Why the EU is ready to drop high tariffs on China-made EVs

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

15 January 2026 at 04:46

The European Union has found a way to keep electric-vehicle makers happy without flooding the market with cheap Chinese cars. The European Commission, on January 12, issued a guidance document...

BYD burns profit chasing global dominance over Tesla

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Ananya Bhattacharya

13 January 2026 at 00:11

Winning the global electric-vehicle race is costing BYD dearly. The Chinese EV giant reported a 33% drop in profit for the period from July to September, marking its second consecutive...

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