commercialization

Beating AI news reports that Wen Shilei, the head of ByteDance's commercialization GenAI R&D, has recently left the company, with his next stop likely being the embodied intelligence company Octopus Power, where he will serve as a partner. Wen Shilei joined Baidu in 2011, previously serving as the head of visual technology and chief architect of the smart city division, and has won Baidu's highest award twice. After moving to ByteDance in 2021, he initially focused on digital humans, XR, and other technologies, and later took charge of engineering R&D for generative AI in commercial scenarios such as advertising.This business line has recently lost several core leaders. Former head of the commercialization GenAI department, Peng Bingyue, left in July this year and subsequently joined Google; the former head of the China region, Yuan Zehuan, also left in July to pursue a startup in world modeling. With Wen Shilei's departure, the remaining team members have been reassigned to other departments.Octopus Power was founded in January 2026 by former Horizon and Jianzhihui Robotics executive Du Dalong, primarily developing world models for robots, dexterous hands, and data collection systems, having raised nearly 1 billion yuan in total financing by June this year. On October 15, Octopus Power confirmed that co-founder Liang Zhujin will leave; Liang Zhujin previously oversaw post-training and data operations, and it is currently unclear whether Wen Shilei will take over related responsibilities.

FinChip and AgentOn today announced a merger agreement, and the two parties will integrate into a unified operating company, branded as Finch, while also announcing the completion of a pre-A round of financing.Finch is valued at 50 million USD in this round, with participation from Waterdrop Capital, Peer VC, and other institutions. Previously, the company had received investments from Longling Investment, ME Group, and X INFINITY. The funds from this round will primarily be used to expand the supply of agents and skills in four major markets, develop enterprise clients and task demand sides, and promote the implementation of skill standards in the industry.

According to a report by Z Finance, Tencent's AI-native desktop intelligent agent platform WorkBuddy entered public beta on March 9, achieving a monthly active user count of 20 million across all platforms within 3 months, with daily active users surpassing 13 million, including over 2 million daily active users on the PC side, and a DAU/MAU ratio stabilizing between 65%-75%. The product is led by Liu Yi, Vice President of Tencent Cloud, with a core team of about one hundred people, classified internally as one of the highest priority AI projects. The team claims they are currently only "temporarily ahead by half a position."WorkBuddy is derived from Tencent's previously launched AI programming assistant CodeBuddy, which has already covered about 12,000 engineers within Tencent. The product completed prototype development on January 17, and after the public beta in March, it has undergone a total of 43 iterations, gradually integrating capabilities related to QClaw developed by the Tencent PC Manager team based on an open-source framework. The product adopts a multi-model access strategy, with the underlying self-developed Harness engine for unified scheduling.In terms of commercialization, at the end of April, Tencent Cloud adjusted its pricing: the SaaS enterprise version was raised from 78 yuan/person/month to 198 yuan, and the private cloud enterprise version was raised from 158 yuan to 316 yuan. Market information indicates that it has acquired thousands of enterprise clients and over one hundred thousand paid seats, with an estimated annual revenue of about 300 million yuan. Third-party evaluations show that the product scored an average of 2.31/4 points on 70 questions (Word category 2.85 points, Design category 1.45 points), indicating that it is still some distance from producing stable results without manual modifications.

According to The Block, Benchmark Equity Research raised Hut 8's target price from $165 to $195 on Wednesday. This is the second time this month that the agency has raised Hut 8's target price, mainly due to the full commercialization of its Beacon Point AI data center campus located in Texas.Hut 8 previously announced that it had signed a second 15-year lease agreement with existing tenants, with a total value of $9.8 billion, increasing the contracted capacity of the Beacon Point campus to 704 MW and raising the total contract value of this 1 GW campus to $19.6 billion. Benchmark stated that the latest target price still has about 75% upside potential compared to Hut 8's stock price of approximately $111 at that time.In addition, Benchmark's valuation of Hut 8 also includes its holding of 10,278 bitcoins, valued at nearly $680 million at current prices, as well as its 60% stake in American Bitcoin Company.

Last month, comments from Liang Wenfeng during the DeepSeek investor meeting have recently circulated. Liang Wenfeng clearly stated that DeepSeek's goal is AGI, rather than becoming the next super app. They will not engage in 3D, video generation, or world modeling, nor will they close source code, stating, "Restraint is a strategy used to increase the probability of achieving AGI." He believes that products are merely "by-products" on the path to AGI, with the current focus on Coding Agent and continuous learning capabilities. The next phase aims to achieve autonomous model iteration, with the endpoint pointing towards embodied intelligence.In terms of commercialization, Liang Wenfeng stated that they only seek to earn "reasonable profits" and do not set profit maximization as their pricing goal. DeepSeek is "still far from a complete shift to commercialization." He assesses that the gap between AI in China and the U.S. mainly lies in resources rather than talent, stating, "Using a fraction of the computing power can narrow the gap to 6 months, 3 months." Regarding industry competition, he believes that open source is "the sweet point for companies of this scale," while also predicting that domestic large models will ultimately converge to "two large companies and two small companies." Liang Wenfeng also mentioned that maintaining team stability is the only non-negotiable core principle, and the company is driven by vision, with "a group of ordinary people achieving extraordinary things."

According to the Daily Economic News, the Bank of Korea (central bank) is advancing its deposit token project, with a clear goal of full commercialization, rather than being limited to the pilot phase. The Korean banking industry has expressed concerns, pointing out that the subsequent phases—including supporting peer-to-peer transfers and expanding application scenarios—require processes equivalent to launching a new business, and has requested adjustments to the advancement timeline.According to a document submitted by the Bank of Korea Federation to the office of National Power Party member Lee Hyun-seung, the central bank and commercial banks are planning to conduct follow-up tests to lay the foundation for the formal introduction and widespread application of deposit tokens, aiming to achieve uninterrupted continuous operation.

Alex, the technical representative of the Australian Smart Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, delivered a keynote speech at an online community meeting, focusing on the latest trends in the artificial intelligence sector. He elaborated on industry opportunities and the value of the era in 2026, combining phenomenal open-source AI agent products like OpenClaw and Dream Seedance 2.0.In the speech, Alex detailed the technical roadmap and implementation plans for smart AI in areas such as AI creation, content assetization, decentralized trading, and on-chain finance. He also officially announced that the SAIT token will be listed on the BitMart exchange on March 16, with the platform's full product line expected to launch in April. This speech signifies a key signal for smartAI's advancement in global layout and acceleration of ecological implementation, further closing the loop between AI technology and Web3 asset circulation.

The Hong Kong government plans to announce the 2026/2027 Fiscal Budget on February 25, focusing on areas such as virtual assets and investor protection. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association stated that Hong Kong has completed the initial regulatory infrastructure in the virtual asset sector, and the next focus should shift to the commercialization of applications.By enhancing liquidity in the RWA secondary market, accelerating product approvals, introducing international liquidity, and strengthening practitioner training, Hong Kong can upgrade from a clearly regulated market to a globally recognized virtual asset center with abundant liquidity and widespread applications, aligning with the national "14th Five-Year Plan" for financial openness and digital economy strategy.

The well-known NFT project Moonbirds has announced its entry into Camp Network, officially launching its official IP commercialization authorization through collaboration with Camp Network and Remaster.According to the cooperation plan, Moonbirds holders can participate in brand collaborations and commercial applications through Camp Network's source tracing protocol, covering cross-channel development of physical goods, digital derivatives, and more. This protocol will provide a verifiable authorization path and an automated royalty distribution mechanism.Camp Network stated that this move marks a key step in the NFT field's transformation towards real-world asset IP, showcasing a new model for on-chain IP expansion into physical retail and gaming entertainment sectors.

ChainCatcher news, according to TechCrunch, Musk's lawyers have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investors and close partner Microsoft to prevent OpenAI and other designated defendants from engaging in anti-competitive behavior. Musk is one of the co-founders of OpenAI and left the company in 2018 due to disagreements over its direction.The motion for the injunction was submitted late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder and former OpenAI board member Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft Vice President Dee Templeton of engaging in various illegal activities and seeking to stop these activities. The allegations include:Preventing investors from supporting OpenAI's competitors, such as Musk's own AI company xAI;Benefiting from "improperly obtained competitive sensitive information" through the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft;Transforming OpenAI's governance structure into a for-profit entity and "transferring any significant assets, including intellectual property owned, held, or controlled by OpenAI, its subsidiaries, or affiliates";Causing OpenAI to conduct business with organizations that have "significant economic interests" in any of the defendants.Musk's lawyers claim that if the injunction is not granted, it will result in "irreparable harm."

ChainCatcher message, PINGPONG has launched its computing resource exchange, where users can access, trade, and invest in structured financial products supported by real computing resources.According to RootData, PINGPONG is a DePIN liquidity and service aggregator, with its two flagship products being the DePIN liquidity-linked money market and the DePIN service-linked integrated SDK, aimed at enhancing the efficiency of DePIN from both supply and demand sides.

ChainCatcher news, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a series of plans to promote the commercialization of asset tokenization in financial services, covering aspects such as market liquidity, infrastructure, industry framework, and settlement convenience.It is reported that under the "Guardian Program," the Monetary Authority of Singapore has convened over 40 financial institutions, industry associations, and international policymakers from seven jurisdictions to conduct industry trials on the use of asset tokenization in capital markets.MAS Vice President Liang Xingqiang stated that MAS encourages financial institutions and policymakers to collaboratively develop industry standards to facilitate the commercialization of tokenized capital market products and the promotion of industry scope.