Peking University’s School of Integrated Circuits and the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (Chinese Academy of Sciences) have developed the world’s first neurodynamics system chip using phase‑change memristors. The chip reduces single‑step latency to 2.12 ms and delivers 50–478x speedups versus advanced GPUs on cortical reconstruction tasks, addressing a decades‑long real‑time computing bottleneck; results were published in Science in the early hours of the 3rd.

July 3 — Goldman Sachs maintains Buy on MiniMax Group, PT HK$860. GS says MiniMax’s M3 model is priced at parity with M2.7; training and inference architecture upgrades lift inference efficiency by more than 2x, sufficient to offset cost increases from a doubling of model parameters. DeepSeek plans a V4 launch in mid‑July and has rolled out time‑of‑day pricing, with peak‑period calls charged at 2x off‑peak; GS views DeepSeek’s price increase as indirect validation of M3’s value proposition. Larger M3 variants and an upcoming H3 video model are flagged as near‑term catalysts.

Shanghai Shipping Exchange said heavy rain in southern China has kept power-plant daily burn low and the peak electricity season has not arrived, slowing downstream inventory drawdown. Falling coal prices have damped purchases and traders are largely sidelined; northern anchorages have ample waiting tonnage. On July 3 the exchange's China Coastal (bulk) Composite Freight Index closed at 1,037.36, down 6.7% from the prior reading.