Sharpa, an AI robotics company focused on dexterous manipulation, has raised more than CNY 4.5 billion. Strategic investors include Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, JD and Transsion; financial backers include Sequoia China, Qiming Venture Partners, Meituan Longzhu and Guanghe Venture. Sharpa said proceeds will accelerate core technology R&D, hiring and talent retention, and push general-purpose robots from technical validation toward real-world deployment.

The Bank of Thailand governor said recent gold-trading curbs have weakened gold's influence on the baht and could be tightened further. In March the BOT capped online gold trades at 50 mln THB per person per day (~$1.5 mln) and encouraged larger investors to settle in USD rather than THB; the governor said the cap could be cut to 30 mln THB or lower if needed. The 60-day correlation between the baht and gold prices has fallen from a 0.85 peak last year to 0.3 in April, a four-year low. The BOT is increasing scrutiny: requiring declarations for physical gold withdrawals above 2 kg has reduced such withdrawals by about 70%. Authorities are also tightening controls on cash payments for gold purchases over 10 mln THB and on cash deposits/exchange transactions above 5 mln THB. The governor said he supports a Thai Finance Ministry proposal to tax some gold transactions to boost transparency, provided rates are low and do not burden legitimate businesses or consumers.

Iran Supreme National Security Council secretary Rezaei said some countries have withdrawn US combat aircraft from their territory to avoid potential Iranian strikes. He said Iran has endured 15 years of sanctions, accused the US of imposing a more-than-month-long maritime blockade, and said the shift to "economic pressure" after military measures shows the enemy's desperation.