☕️ Good morning friends,

Big disappointment in South Korea. Instead of the expected 260,000, "only" 100,000 fans came to BTS's comeback concert.

Who cares? The shareholders! Shares of Hybe, the parent company of the boyband brand, promptly fell by 15%…

In today's issue:

• China: Panic at the pump

• SoftBank builds $33 billion gas power plant in Ohio

• Japan and France deepen nuclear alliance

Enjoy reading! 📰

P.S. We got an exclusive invitation to Tencent HQ… If you want to look behind the scenes of the OpenClaw hype, click here.

Asia sell-off: The escalation in the Persian Gulf sent Asian markets into free fall on Monday. The Hang Seng and Nikkei both dropped -3.5%, Singapore's STI fell -2.2%. The IEA warns of the worst energy crisis in decades, saying no country is immune.

TOP BIT

Panic at the pump: Iran war hits China's drivers

Miles-long lines in front of gas stations in Beijing, Nanjing, Dongguan. On Sunday, China's oil giant Sinopec sent a message to millions of customers:

What followed was a nationwide rush to the pumps.

The price shock in numbers

Although the state planning commission (NDRC) intervened in an unprecedented step to avoid endangering social stability, the increase is the sharpest since the introduction of the current pricing system in 2013.

• The intervention: An increase of 2,205 yuan per ton was originally planned. The NDRC halved this value by emergency decree to 1,160 yuan ($168).

• At the pump: The price per gallon climbed on Tuesday from an average of $4.20 to $4.70 (planned was $5.10). That corresponds to a jump of about 20% since the war began.

Vanishing point: electric mobility

The crisis acts like an accelerant for China's already rapid shift to e-cars.

• While 300 million gasoline car drivers tremble, tips for cost avoidance are spreading on platforms like Rednote: "Charging after 10 PM costs less than 50 cents per kWh."

Nevertheless: For the remaining combustion engine fleet, which still handles the majority of commercial traffic, there is no escape.

📊 All details & data: Reuters, New York Times, CNBC

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MARKET BIT

SoftBank Building $33bn Gas Plant in Ohio: Enough Power for Nine Nuclear Reactors

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son broke ground last week on the largest single-site energy project ever planned in the United States. 

At its core: a $33.3 billion gas-fired power plant designed to fuel a massive AI data center campus.

The details

The site: Piketon, Pike County, a 3,700-acre complex that produced weapons-grade uranium during the Cold War and has sat idle since 2001. It's now being transformed into the "PORTS Technology Campus."

Capacity: 9.2 GW of natural gas power generation plus 10 GW of data center capacity. That's the equivalent of nine nuclear reactors.

On top of the power plant, SB Energy (SoftBank's energy arm) is investing another $4.2 billion alongside U.S. utility AEP Ohio to upgrade the regional grid. Excess power feeds back into the public grid, and local ratepayers don't foot the bill - SoftBank does.

Lutnick: "the largest construction project in the country."

The consortium: 21 Japanese and American firms, including Japan's three megabanks and Goldman Sachs.

Son puts the long-term total investment at $500 billion, including AI semiconductors and infrastructure. The project is part of Japan's $550 billion investment pledge to the U.S., negotiated in exchange for lower trade tariffs.

Power vs. climate

Natural gas powering the next AI leap doesn't exactly fit the tech industry's clean energy narrative.

But the reality is straightforward: data centers at this scale can't run on renewables alone right now. Son chose speed over symbolism. Ohio may end up being the most expensive admission yet that AI's appetite for power and climate goals are heading in opposite directions.

Sources: JapanToday, Asia Financial, DOE

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

That's how much China's internet giants plan to pour into AI infrastructure in 2027 alone.

Capex offensive: Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and others are ramping up combined AI spending by 60% compared to 2025.

• Alibaba alone is committing 380 billion yuan ($53bn) over three years to cloud and AI, more than the entire past decade.

• Tencent has laid out a multi-year plan worth 500 billion yuan ($70bn).

• ByteDance is pumping $23bn into 2026.

For context: That's roughly the GDP of Luxembourg, in a single year. US hyperscalers plan $370bn in 2025. China's tech giants account for less than a tenth of that, but operate far more efficiently.

• A reminder: DeepSeek V3 matched GPT-4-level performance in early 2025, training cost under $6m. OpenAI had spent over $100m on GPT-4.

HIGHLIGHTS 

🇰🇷 Samsung Now Shares With iPhones via AirDrop: Samsung's new Galaxy S26 series can send photos, videos and files directly to iPhones, iPads and Macs starting Monday. The feature uses Apple's AirDrop protocol and can be enabled via a toggle in Quick Share settings. It's initially available on the S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra. A few years ago, this kind of compatibility between the arch-rivals would have been unthinkable.

🇯🇵 Japan and France Deepen Nuclear Alliance: At a summit in Tokyo, Prime Minister Takaichi and President Macron plan to expand cooperation on Small Modular Reactors. The agenda also includes the safe operation of existing plants and Fukushima decontamination. For resource-poor Japan, France's nuclear expertise is a strategic building block in its energy transition.

🇮🇳 India Fast-Tracks M&A and Eases Buyback Rules: Finance Minister Sitharaman has introduced the Corporate Laws Amendment Bill 2026 in parliament. Companies will be allowed two share buybacks per year instead of one. Fast-track mergers with at least 75% shareholder approval on both sides can bypass the regular approval process. Several offences under corporate law are also set to be decriminalised.

🇨🇳 Robots Take Over Volunteer Duty in Shenzhen: China's first robot-run volunteer station has opened in Qianhaishi Park. The machines greet visitors, hand out drinks and insect repellent, patrol the park and bust out the occasional dance move. A robot called Oli also handles guided tours and general inquiries. The pilot project is testing how robotics can be woven into everyday urban life.

MORE ASIABITS

• Free guide: AI Automation for Beginners

• Humanoid Robotics Report: The $6 Billion Bet

• Interactive tool: China Dependency Index™

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