Samples of rare earth luminescent materials displayed at an exhibition on China's manufacturing achievements at the National Museum in Beijing in March | REUTERS China's tightening export controls on dual-use materials and strategically important rare earths are beginning to disrupt Japanese industry -- including the defense sector. Chinese customs data tell the sharpest part of the story. Exports of dysprosium oxide to Japan ceased after October 2025, and shipments of terbium oxide ended a month later. No shipments of either material have been recorded since. The halt matters because dysprosium and terbium -- both heavy rare earth elements -- are among the most critical inputs for high-performance permanent magnets used in advanced military systems, electric vehicle motors, aerospace applications and industrial robotics.

British startup Wayve, in partnership with Uber, is racing to beat U.S. rival Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet.

AI boom sees investors shift from Japan's value to growth stocks Some see Japanese equities as an attractive way to diversify away from U.S. stocks while still benefiting from the global artificial intelligence rally. Japanese equities, long regarded by global investors as a value market, are beginning to attract growth funds, as artificial intelligence-linked firms power to the top of market-cap rankings, beating out the manufacturers and telecoms giants that dominated for decades. "We have been raising our exposure to Japan based on the growth prospects of Japanese companies" under a strategy of investing in innovative firms globally, said Kei Takizawa, senior investment strategist at AllianceBernstein Japan. The nation's firms are playing an increasingly critical role in building AI infrastructure, he added. Investors had historically classified Japan's equities as low-growth value stocks due to the country's sluggish economic growth and declining population.

Russia’s “Project 2026” wasn’t just to spread misinformation on social media — its main goal to create an alternative information ecosystem.

China beats U.S. with world's fastest supercomputer, but race not geared for AI work Workers at Elon Musk's xAI facility, which houses a large supercomputer known as Colossus, used for Artificial Intelligence (AI) data processing, in Memphis, Tennessee, on Sept. 11, 2025 | REUTERS SAN FRANCISCO - China has overtaken the U.S. to win the top spot on a list of the world's fastest supercomputers, but the results may say more about Beijing's desire to show self-sufficiency in computing systems than its standing in the global AI race, experts said. The LineShine system at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, China, uses domestically designed chips and won the top spot on the TOP500, a biannual global ranking of supercomputers, with the country's first listing in three years. The ranking comes as the U.S. and China are increasingly competing in advanced computing, with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signing an executive order that aims to put the U.S. ahead of China in the emerging field of quantum computing. In the June 2026 edition of TOP500, LineShine beat out the previous titleholder, El Capitan, a supercomputer housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that the U.S. government uses to develop and maintain its nuclear weapons stockpile. But technology and policy experts said the results do not mean that China has the world's fastest computer for AI work because of changes in the computing industry in recent years and the methods used to compile the list.

Masayoshi Son dismisses Musk's idea for orbital data centers SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son dismissed the idea of space-based data centers, arguing that the AI race will be won by computing power on Earth. SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son said there's little merit to building data centers in space, as championed by Elon Musk, predicting that the artificial intelligence race will be clinched by computing power on Earth. The main advantage of building data centers in space would be to slash electricity costs. But such expenses comprise a small fraction of the cost of operating data centers, compared with hardware like chips, Son said during an annual shareholder meeting for SoftBank's mobile unit on Tuesday. The tradeoff for any power cost reductions would also include higher fees to transport everything into space, maintenance and communication delays, he added.

Japan is building a 21st-century military, but it is running out of 21st-century citizens to man it.

The draft revision of the Artificial Intelligence Basic Plan highlights the growing risk of cyberattacks that exploit AI.

The ads will appear on the free version and the Go plan, priced at ¥1,400 per month, but will not be shown to users under 18 or who subscribe to higher-priced tiers.

Many are either run by a human with a remote control or stuck doing one narrow task.