China’s AI sector is not short of cash. If anything, American pressure is pumping more in.
DeepSeek shows the pattern best. The Hangzhou lab closed a $7.4bn round, the biggest first-time raise by a Chinese startup, at a valuation above $50bn. It had run for three years on founder Liang Wenfeng’s own wealth and never touched outside money. The Information reports what changed his mind: Anthropic’s April preview of Mythos, a model so capable it can find and exploit software flaws.
The Mythos effect
Liang concluded that matching Mythos-class models would take a far bigger war chest of data and compute. So he raised one. DeepSeek closed the round through a partnership he controls, with a five-year lockup that keeps him firmly in charge. The irony is sharp. A US campaign of export limits and model bans, aimed at slowing China, instead pushed its strongest lab to amass the largest funding pile in its history.
A unicorn every five days
The surge runs well beyond one lab. China now hosts 381 unicorns, privately held start-ups worth $1bn or more, an increase of 38 in a year, the 2026 Hurun Global Unicorn Index found. The country mints a new one every five days on average, double last year’s pace. ByteDance ranks among the top three start-ups in the world. The race for AI scale increasingly has just two poles, and China holds one of them.
Humanoid robots draw the newest money. Two Chinese makers crossed unicorn status this week, with a combined valuation above $2.9bn, Bloomberg reported. AI² Robotics raised nearly 5bn yuan ($736mn). X Square Robot, backed by Alibaba, ByteDance and Meituan, closed back-to-back rounds. Each firm now tops 20bn yuan. The sector has pulled in at least 46bn yuan this year, beating all of last year, with more than 140 firms chasing what Nvidia’s Jensen Huang calls “physical AI”.
Why it matters
The throughline links every figure. Washington meant its curbs to widen America’s lead. The money says the opposite is happening. Chinese labs keep narrowing the gap while raising the funds to push harder. Beijing now treats firms such as DeepSeek as national projects, and investors keep writing ever larger cheques.
So the pressure has become a forcing function. Each new restriction gives China a fresh reason to spend, and the country keeps proving it can. The cash is flowing, the unicorns keep coming, and the gap keeps closing.
It’s the first of the month, which means Netflix has added a substantial number of new movies and shows. Some of the highlights include the Creed movies, Friday Night Lights, The Karate Kid franchise, and the first five seasons of Hawaii Five-0. Keep an eye on the new movies coming later this month, including Office Romance and Little Brother.
As for the thriller section, there are several movies to check out this week. My top pick is a recent crime thriller from an Academy Award-nominated director. My other two movies are total opposites. One is a disturbing psychological thriller featuring two familiar faces, while the other is a notable book-to-screen adaptation.
3
The Girl on the Train
Based on the bestselling novel
The Girl on the Train walked so that It Ends with Us could run. What do I mean? It’s not like The Girl on the Train was the first movie to be based on a book. I’m more focused on the style of thriller — a beach read that is predominantly aimed toward women. Hoover’s books continue to become box-office hits. In 2016, The Girl on the Train proved that there is an audience for this type of thriller.
Based on the novel by Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train stars Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson, an alcoholic divorcée who recently lost her job. To pass the time, Rachel rides the train and imagines the new life of her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), and his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). One day, Rachel witnesses a troubling event in the backyard belonging to Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett). The authorities don’t believe her due to her alcoholism, so Rachel will need more proof than her word.
The Girl on the Train has all the staples of a page-turning thriller. There are several twists that will make you question what is true and what is a lie. It’s a story of deceit and obsession that mixes sexual tension and disturbing violence into its storyline. Blunt gives a convincing performance as an alcoholic searching for answers in the case and in her personal life. At just under two hours, The Girl on the Train certainly delivers everything you want out of an entertaining thriller.
2
The Good Son
Kevin McCallister breaks bad
If your children enjoy the Home Alone franchise, then do not let them watch The Good Son. Speaking from experience, this movie should be consumed by teenagers and adults who are at least 17 years old. I watched this movie as a kid, and it shook me to my core. I would still recommend it because it’s genuinely one of the most shocking performances from an actor who you would never expect to take on this role.
After the death of his mother, 10-year-old Mark Evans (Elijah Wood) is sent to spend winter break with his Uncle Wallace (Daniel Hugh Kelly) and Aunt Susan (Wendy Crewson). Mark also reunited with his two young cousins, Henry (Macaulay Culkin) and Connie (Quinn Culkin). Mark quickly discovers that Henry might be the devil stuck inside a 10-year-old’s body. Henry is fascinated by death and facilitates several evil acts, including a massive car pileup. When Henry sets his sights on his own family, it’s up to Mark to stop it before it leads to tragedy.
Home Alone 2 is my favorite Christmas movie. Imagine being a kid and watching Kevin McCallister in The Good Son trying to kill his sister. Frankly, it’s disturbing. You can’t unsee what Culkin did as the devil’s child. I’ll let you judge it for yourself; my guess is you’ll agree with me.
1
Dead Man’s Wire
Inspired by a real standoff
Gus Van Sant is too talented to be sitting on the sidelines for a long period of time. Van Sant, who helmed Good Will Hunting and Milk, last made a film in 2018 calledDon’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. He did not make another film until Dead Man’s Wire, which had a festival premiere in 2025 before releasing in theaters in January 2026. That’s an unacceptable amount of time without a Van Sant movie. Be better, Hollywood.
Dead Man’s Wire is inspired by the true story of Tony Kiritsis, played by Bill Skarsgård. In February 1977, Tony takes mortgage broker Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) as his hostage after losing money on a deal brokered by Richard’s father. Tony points a sawed-off shotgun at Richard to serve as a dead man’s switch. The ensuing standoff makes headlines, as Tony tries to convince the public of what led to his breaking point.
The movie is based on a true story, so it could follow a blueprint of real-life events. However, it’s a genius idea for a thriller — a mentally unstable person seeks revenge against the corporation that wronged him. You might even find sympathy toward Tony, a credit to Skarsgård’s captivating performance.
More movies to watch this week
Thrillers are not the only genre to explore on Netflix. If you’re a fan of rom-coms, one of Netflix’s newest movies is Office Romance, a charming romantic adventure starring Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein. Office Romance hits Netflix on June 5. Plus, Netflix users can stream the first six movies in the Rocky franchise.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
