Tencent’s new translation AI, China’s labeling law, India’s Offgrid & OpenAI data center, Japan’s LayerX funding

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Chinese tech giant Tencent has open sourced two specialized translation models
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• Chinese tech giant Tencent released two open-source translation models—Hunyuan MT 7B and Hunyuan MT Chimera 7B—that led in 30 out of 31 language-pair benchmarks at WMT 2025.

• With just 7 billion parameters, these compact models outperform larger competitors—including Google Translate, GPT-4.1, Claude 4 Sonnet, and Gemini 2.5 Pro—by 15–65%, and exceed the larger Tower Plus series by 10–58%.

• They support two-way translation across 33 languages, including underserved minority ones (e.g., Kazakh, Uyghur, Mongolian, Tibetan), use a sophisticated five-stage training pipeline, and the code and models are available on Hugging Face and GitHub.

China’s social media platforms rush to abide by AI-generated content labelling law
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• Beginning September 1, China’s major social media platforms—including Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin—began implementing features to comply with a new national law mandating that AI-generated text, images, audio, video, and other content be clearly labeled.

• The law, issued in March, requires both explicit labels (clearly visible to users) and implicit identifiers like digital watermarks embedded in metadata.

• The regulation stems from broader concerns—such as misinformation, copyright infringement, deepfakes, and online fraud—and aligns with the Cyberspace Administration of China’s “Qinglang” campaign aimed at cleaning up digital content.

India’s Offgrid raises $15M to make lithium optional for battery storage
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• Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep-tech startup from IIT Kanpur, secured $15 million in a Series A round led by Archean Chemicals, to scale its zinc-bromine battery technology—dubbed ZincGel—as a cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion systems.

• ZincGel offers 80–90% energy efficiency compared to lithium batteries, but at a lower levelized cost, with longer discharge durations (6–12 hours), double the lifespan, fire safety, and operation in freezing conditions—about –10 °C.

• Offgrid plans to build a 10 MWh demonstration facility in the UK by Q1 2026, followed by commercial rollout and ultimately a gigafactory in India; early collaborators include Shell and Tata Power, with pilot discussions underway with Enel and others.

LayerX uses AI to cut enterprise back-office workload, scores $100M in Series B
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• Japan’s AI SaaS startup LayerX—founded in 2018—closed a $100 million Series B round (bringing its total raised to $192.2 million) led by TCV, marking one of the largest Series B rounds for a seven-year-old Japanese startup.

• Its AI-powered back-office platform, Bakuraku, automates workflows like expense management, invoice processing, and corporate card operations; it also offers Alterna, a digital securities platform, and Ai Workforce, a generative AI data workflow tool.

• LayerX has grown rapidly—from 10,000 customers in Feb 2024 to 15,000 by Apr 2025, and a headcount jump from ~220 to ~430 by July 2025—and targets ¥100 billion ($680 million) in ARR by FY 2030.

OpenAI plans giant 1 GW AI data centre in India, Sam Altman may reveal details soon
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• OpenAI is reportedly planning to build one of India’s largest AI data centers—with at least 1 gigawatt of capacity—in collaboration with potential Indian partners, though location and timeline remain unconfirmed; details may be revealed during CEO Sam Altman’s visit later this month.

• The data center aligns with OpenAI’s global strategy under its 'Stargate' infrastructure initiative, which already exceeds 4.5 GW in the U.S., and complements other international projects like a 5 GW UAE facility.

• India is a key growth market for OpenAI: it’s expanding its local team and office in New Delhi, has launched a $5 monthly ChatGPT plan, and this initiative dovetails with the government’s $1.2 billion IndiaAI Mission.