Ping An Insurance (02318.HK) H1 2026 revenue 615.35 bln yuan, up 12.6% YoY from 546.47 bln. Profit attributable to shareholders of the parent 92.59 bln yuan, up 36.1% YoY.

A CSC Financial research note says physical AI is set to become the core driver of the next phase of AI growth. Physical-world data — the perception-to-feedback engine — faces a large, inelastic demand shortfall. Constrained by a fidelity–scale–cost trilemma, data acquisition is likely to prompt three market shifts: business models toward crowdsourced data collection, technical paradigms toward world-model–based synthetic data generation, and the reclassification of physical data as high-value intangible corporate assets. The supply–demand imbalance should reprice physical-data assets and accelerate capital into data infrastructure and evaluation datasets. Market leadership is unresolved; firms that control scarce physical data and closed-loop synthetic-data capabilities are likely to capture premium valuations.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has opened a public comment on futures for compute power as industry players including CME, ICE and fintech Architect Financial Technologies plan contracts pending regulatory approval. Exchanges say compute futures would let end users and speculators hedge risks that could disrupt AI development, notably energy shortages. CFTC Chair Michael Selig said without a robust derivatives market for compute the U.S. cannot win the AI race and called the request for comment a first step to set clear rules for a U.S. compute market. The CFTC is soliciting input on how compute futures differ from other regulated derivatives and whether listing on CFTC-regulated venues would require standardizing variables affecting compute prices, including settlement reference price indices.