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GUANGZHOU, China — Ant Group will share credit data from its consumer lending business with China’s central bank as part of an overhaul of the fintech giant.

Huabei is a consumer loan product under Ant Group. Data from that lending product will be fed into the financial credit information database held by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), Ant said in a statement Wednesday.

Information including date of account set up, amount in the credit line and status of repayment will be provided to the central bank. Users will need to authorize this. Specific information such as details about time of purchases or goods being bought will not be handed over to the PBOC.

Ant Group, which is controlled by billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma, had its blockbuster initial public offering suspended in November over regulatory concerns.

Ant’s lending business worked on a model in which it matched up borrowers to lenders, such as banks, but the company did not underwrite those loans. Instead, banks bore most of the risk.

This worried regulators who believed companies like Ant were acting like financial institutions but not being regulated like them.

Chinese regulators ordered a restructuring of Ant Group. In June, the company was given the green light to operate a consumer finance business with outside shareholders. This business houses its Huabei and Jiebei loan products and is called Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co. Ant will have to partly underwrite more of these loans.

Ant Group is currently in the process of becoming a financial holding company which will be overseen by the PBOC and other regulators.

A logo of Ant Group is pictured at the headquarters of the company, an affiliate of Alibaba, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China October 29, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters

The data-sharing requirements with the PBOC brings Ant Group in line with other financial institutions in the lending space which are required to do the same thing.

Ant Group said some users can already look up the Huabei-related records in their credit reports with the central bank.

The company looks to assuage fears that the sharing of users’ credit data from Huabei could affect their future ability to get loans.

“A comprehensive and proper set of credit records will enable financial institutions to better understand users’ creditworthiness and to better serve them,” Ant Group said in a statement.

In my view, this means the intent is to allow Ant to continue its business but under regulatory purview and rules.
Kevin Kwek
Bernstein

“Therefore, under general circumstances and with the normal usage of Huabei and timely repayments, the use of other financial services such as loan applications will not be impacted.”

Kevin Kwek, managing director and senior analyst at Bernstein, said the credit data-sharing agreement with the central bank clears “significant” regulatory uncertainty around Ant Group.

“Sharing of data of course erodes Ant’s edge, but doing so allows them to obtain regulatory blessings, such as getting the consumer finance license,” Kwek told CNBC.

“In my view, this means the intent is to allow Ant to continue its business but under regulatory purview and rules, and if it helps the broader consumer credit bureau agenda. It is important to note that Ant will continue to be dominant as a very large distributor given its user base, even if it now has to share some data.”

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Huawei launches second trifold smartphone at $2,500 as it looks to cement comeback

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Huawei launches second trifold smartphone at ,500 as it looks to cement comeback

Huawei launched its second generation trifold phone called the Mate XTs on September 4, 2025.

Huawei

Huawei on Thursday launched the second generation of its trifold smartphone, as the Chinese tech giant looks to cement its comeback in its home market and dip its toe back overseas.

The Shenzhen-headquartered tech firm took the wraps off of the Huawei Mate XTs, which starts at 17,999 Chinese yuan ($2,520) and goes up to 21,999 yuan for the model with the largest memory.

Foldable smartphones typically have one hinge that allows a user to fold the device in half. Huawei’s Mate XTs is dubbed a trifold — meaning it has two hinges that allow it to be folded at two points. The phone turns into a tablet-like device when opened up.

Huawei pioneered the concept last year when it launched the Mate XT, which was the first device of its kind. The product initially debuted in China, before hitting select overseas markets earlier this year.

The company will be hoping the Mate XTs will help it sustain the momentum it has rekindled in the Chinese smartphone market since late 2023.

Huawei’s market share in China jumped to 18% in the second quarter versus 15% in the same period last year, and the company is now the biggest smartphone vendor in China, Counterpoint Research data showed. In the Chinese foldable phone category, Huawei dominates with a 75% share of the market, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Huawei sold 470,000 units of the Mate XT device since launch to the end of the second quarter of this year, generating over $1.3 billion of revenue, IDC added.

“The performance is quite strong considering it’s one of the most expensive smartphones available and this shows there is a demand for something innovative,” Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president covering devices at IDC, told CNBC.

Huawei is looking to show it can still innovate, after its smartphone business was crippled in 2020 by U.S. sanctions that cut the company off from key software and chips. Since then, Huawei has developed its own operating system and managed to get some less-advanced chips manufactured in China for its more recent devices, allowing it to make a comeback.

Still, Huawei’s market share remains tiny outside of China, as it faces a number of challenges.

Huawei Mate XTs details

Huawei’s Mate XTs will run HarmonyOS 5.1, the latest version of the company’s own operating system.

The company is positioning the handset as a productivity-focused device and will bring PC-grade apps that are optimized for the smartphone’s trifold screen.

Just as with a PC, users can stack, resize and move different windows around on the phone’s large screen.

The phone will come in four colors and pack a so-called 5600 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery, which is comparatively large relative to current devices on the market.

To entice buyers, Huawei is offering at least 50% off screen replacements, as well as two free appointments to service the phone at home or at a preferred location.

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Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in renovated Rose Garden

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Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in renovated Rose Garden

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to the Rose Garden of the White House to hold a signing ceremony for the Take it Down Act, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

U.S. President Trump will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for an inaugural event in the White House’s renovated Rose Garden on Thursday. 

Invitees include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to a list confirmed by a White House official. 

The meeting is expected to be held over dinner after a separate White House event on artificial intelligence hosted by first lady Melania Trump.

The gathering underscores what has been a close but complicated relationship between Trump and the Big Tech sector in his second administration. 

Many of the aforementioned executives have sought friendlier ties with Trump, often appearing at events alongside the president to announce moves that align with the administration’s goals on emerging technologies and American reshoring. 

Invitees to the event also include other tech leaders, such as OpenAI president Greg Brockman; Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar; and co-founder of Scale AI and head of a superintelligence team at Meta, Alexandr Wang.

CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Oracle‘s Safra Catz, and Micron Technology‘s David Limp have also been invited. 

Unsurprisingly, David Sacks, a venture capitalist serving as the White House’s crypto and AI czar, is expected to be at the event. Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4, is also expected to attend despite Trump withdrawing his nomination to run NASA in June.

Notably, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who previously served as a special government employee in the first few months of the latest Trump administration and later had a public falling out with the president, was not on the invitation list.

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C3 AI reports declining revenue, announces new CEO to replace Siebel

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C3 AI reports declining revenue, announces new CEO to replace Siebel

The C3.ai logo is seen near a computer motherboard in this illustration taken on Jan. 8, 2024.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Shares of the enterprise artificial intelligence company C3 AI fell 14% in extended trading on Wednesday after it announced fiscal first-quarter results and the appointment of Stephen Ehikian as its new CEO.

C3 AI reported $70.3 million in revenue for the quarter, down from $87.2 million during the same period last year. The company’s GAAP net loss widened to an 86-cent loss from a 50-cent loss a year ago.

Ehikian is a long-time tech executive who built two companies that were both acquired by Salesforce, C3 AI said. C3 AI said Ehikian assumed the new role on Sept. 1.

C3 AI kicked off a search for a new chief executive in July after its former CEO, Thomas Siebel revealed that he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease earlier this year that resulted in “significant visual impairment.”

Read more CNBC tech news

“C3 AI is one of the most important companies in the AI landscape and enterprise software, with a platform and applications that are unmatched,” Ehikian said. “I am confident that we will be able to capture an increasing share of the immense market opportunity in Enterprise AI.”

The company has had a rocky few months since Siebel’s diagnosis.

Shares plunged in August after C3 AI announced disappointing preliminary financial results and a restructuring of its global sales and services organization.

Siebel said in an August statement that sales results during the quarter were “completely unacceptable.” He attributed the performance to the “disruptive effect” of the reorganization, as well as his ongoing health issues.

C3.ai shares plummet 14% after withdrawing previous guidance and new CEO announcement

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