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

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.We discuss:The numbers in the new Cut Through Venture reportWhether the reduction in deal numbers is a warning sign — or just evidence of where the market is going globallyThe ongoing instability in software investment, in Australia and beyondHow AI is changing the venture capital landscapeChina’s ambitions in AIAustralia’s position in the AI boom between the US and China.On The Call is a weekly live conversation with the Capital Brief newsroom on the stories driving the agenda in Australia's centres of power.Stand-in host James Hennessy sits down with Capital Brief's journalists to dissect what we're watching and why it matters, and answer questions from our subscribers live.Subscribe to join our weekly live discussion on Thursdays at 12pm AEST: https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/Sign up to our free weekly newsletter, The Edition: https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/