Australia's startup deal drought; The rise of Chinese AI.

<p>A new report suggests that Australia has seen the strongest first half in venture funding since 2022 — but the number of deals is actually a quite a bit lower. Meanwhile, the conversation around Chinese AI is heating up with the release of new frontier model Kimi K3 and Xi Jinping’s speech at a major Chinese AI conference.<br>We discuss:</p><ul><li>The numbers in the new Cut Through Venture report</li><li>Whether the reduction in deal numbers is a warning sign — or just evidence of where the market is going globally</li><li>The ongoing instability in software investment, in Australia and beyond</li><li>How AI is changing the venture capital landscape</li><li>China’s ambitions in AI</li><li>Australia’s position in the AI boom between the US and China.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>On The Call is a weekly live conversation with the Capital Brief newsroom on the stories driving the agenda in Australia&#39;s centres of power.<br>Stand-in host James Hennessy sits down with Capital Brief&#39;s journalists to dissect what we&#39;re watching and why it matters, and answer questions from our subscribers live.<br>Subscribe to join our weekly live discussion on Thursdays at 12pm AEST: <a href="https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/</a><br>Sign up to our free weekly newsletter, The Edition: <a href="https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/</a></p>