Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Executive Order 14413, signed 22 June 2026, directs a national quantum-computing industrial-policy push: the QC-ADDS effort to deliver large-scale quantum computers to Department of Energy facilities for application development and discovery science, a National Center for Quantum Computing Assessment, an expanded Quantum Information Science and Technology Counterintelligence Protection Team, and a network of National QIST Workforce Development Institutes. It sets staged deadlines (30/60/90/120/180 days) for agency policy alignment, sensor-project identification, QC-ADDS technical specifications, and workforce/supply-chain plans, plus a September 2028 target for next-generation quantum-sensor deployment. Section 9 directs harmonisation of research-security and export-control policy with allies to prevent "countries of concern" from acquiring critical quantum technologies, but the order does not itself impose any new export-control rule. No dollar figures are specified.

The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) launched the Sovereign AI Fund on 16 April 2026, a £500 million state-anchored equity vehicle chaired by James Wise (Balderton Capital) and designed to operate at venture-capital speed. The Fund makes direct equity investments in UK-headquartered AI startups and bundles allocations of UK AI Research Resource (AIRR) supercomputer capacity alongside investment tickets; an initial cohort of six startups received up to one million GPU hours each and Callosum received the first equity ticket. The Fund is the principal operational implementation of the AI Opportunities Action Plan (CP 1241, January 2025) compute-and-capability pillar and has a dedicated government portal at sovereignai.gov.uk.

On 12 March 2026 the UK Cabinet Office (Investment Security Unit) published its Government Response to the consultation on reform of the Notifiable Acquisition Regulations (NARs) under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 — the first major substantive overhaul of the NSI mandatory-notification schedules since the regime took effect on 4 January 2022. The reform splits Critical Minerals out of the existing Advanced Materials schedule into a standalone mandatory schedule covering all 34 minerals on the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre's latest criticality assessment; splits Semiconductors into its own standalone schedule (capturing advanced packaging and specific chip-design processes); creates a brand-new Water sector schedule covering the 17 regional water and sewerage undertakers in England and Wales; refocuses Artificial Intelligence on entities that create or materially modify AI systems (excluding routine end-use); and refines Communications, Critical Suppliers to Government, Data Infrastructure, Energy and Suppliers to Emergency Services to reduce low-risk capture. An implementing Statutory Instrument is expected later in 2026; the existing NARs remain in force until that SI takes effect.

Kenya's Senate introduced the Artificial Intelligence Bill, 2026 (Senate Bills No. 4 of 2025) on 19 February 2026, sponsored by Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu; the bill received its first reading on 2 April 2026 and was committed to the Senate Standing Committee on Information, Communication and Technology for public-input review. The bill establishes a risk-based AI regulatory framework explicitly modelled on the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), creating a four-tier classification (prohibited / high-risk / limited-risk / minimal-risk) with conformity- assessment, technical-documentation, and human-oversight obligations for high-risk AI systems. It creates the Office of the Artificial Intelligence Commissioner as a new statutory regulator with licensing, enforcement, and administrative-penalty powers, and bans social-scoring systems, real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, emotion recognition in workplaces and education, and predictive policing based on profiling. The bill is the first comprehensive national AI regulatory instrument in Africa, closing a structural geographic gap in the global AI-governance architecture and positioning Kenya as the Brussels-effect template-recipient for the African continent.

On 17 February 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched Canada's first standalone Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), introducing the "Build–Partner–Buy" framework as the central guiding principle of Canadian defence procurement. The strategy mobilises over half a trillion CAD across the next decade — including ~CAD 180 bn in defence procurement opportunities, ~CAD 290 bn in defence-related capital investment, and ~CAD 125 bn in anticipated downstream economic benefit by 2035 — and targets 125,000 new high-paying jobs. Operationally, the DIS introduces Canadian Content Value (CCV) requirements with a proposed Canadian Company Boost for firms meeting 70–100% domestic-content thresholds, sets a 10-year goal of awarding 70% of defence procurements to Canadian firms, and signals willingness to invoke the national security exception to set aside trade-agreement obligations and exclude foreign bidders for "sovereign capability" contracts. It is the first standalone industrial-strategy document covering the Canadian defence-industrial base, distinct from prior DPA-narrow filings.

The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, announced on 9 February 2026 an anchor investment of EUR 300 million (~USD 354.8 million) in Seaya Growth Tech Fund I, a Spain-based pan-European growth venture capital vehicle targeting a EUR 1 billion final close. The commitment is made under the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), and the fund will make growth-stage (Series C+) equity investments in European companies across applied AI, deep-tech, fintech, climate solutions, smart manufacturing, supply-chain resilience, capital-market autonomy, cybersecurity and environmental technology. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked financial-investment-support intervention.

In a final rule published in the Federal Register on 4 February 2026 (effective 3 February 2026), the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) deleted the "X" designation for Cambodia from Country Group D:5 of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), removing Cambodia from the EAR's list of arms-embargoed destinations. The action conforms the EAR to a Department of State final rule of 7 November 2025, which removed Cambodia as an arms-embargoed destination under International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) §126.1. Cambodia remains designated in Country Group D:1 and remains subject to the military and military-intelligence end-use/end-user controls in EAR §§744.21 and 744.22.

On 1 February 2026, at Web Summit Qatar, Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced that the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is expanding its Fund of Funds programme with an additional USD 2 billion in capital, taking the programme's total committed capital from USD 1 billion to USD 3 billion. Five new venture capital managers — Greycroft, Ion Pacific, Liberty City Ventures, Shorooq, and Speedinvest — are joining the programme, spanning AI, fintech, blockchain, infrastructure and special-situations strategies, bringing the total number of participating fund managers to 12 with an aggregate AUM of roughly USD 10 billion.

The Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued Min Fagai Shuju [2026] No. 46, "Ten Measures to Strengthen the Cultivation of Digital-Economy Innovative Enterprises in Fujian Province," on 2026-01-30, implementing a national NDRC directive (Fagai Shuju [2025] No. 1154) at provincial level. The package bundles ten fiscal, financial, data-access and talent measures aimed at growing Fujian's roster of "unicorn" and "gazelle" digital enterprises from 89 (2020) to a targeted 500+ by 2027, with per-project subsidy caps ranging from RMB 500,000 up to RMB 10,000,000 across different tracks (trusted-data-space pilots, joint labs/tech-transfer platforms, digital-transformation demonstration projects capped at 30% of total project investment). The measure took effect on issuance and is in force through 2028-12-31 (GTA state-act revocation date).

On 29 January 2026, European Council President António Costa and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính signed a Joint Statement in Hanoi upgrading EU-Vietnam bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) — the highest tier in Vietnam's diplomatic hierarchy, placing the EU on the same level as Vietnam's CSPs with China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, and the United States. The CSP establishes a reinforced bilateral cooperation framework spanning critical raw materials, semiconductor supply chains, artificial intelligence, trusted 5G infrastructure, climate and energy transition, security and defence (including cyber and maritime), and full implementation of the 2019 EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) tariff-elimination schedule plus ratification of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). It is the EU's eleventh CSP globally and its second in Southeast Asia (after Singapore, 2024), and constitutes the foundational bilateral parent framework for all future EU-Vietnam cooperation under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) Article 13 third-country strategic-project designation pipeline, given Vietnam's approximately 22 Mt rare-earth reserves — the world's second-largest deposit after China.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14380, "Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba," on 29 January 2026 (effective 12:01 a.m. EST on 30 January 2026; published in the Federal Register on 3 February 2026 as FR doc 2026-02250, 91 FR 5085-5089). Invoking IEEPA and the National Emergencies Act, the order declared a country-specific national emergency with respect to Cuba, citing Havana's intelligence and defense alignment with Russia, the PRC, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah — including the Russian signals-intelligence facility hosted on the island. The operative measure was a secondary-tariff-authority framework: the EO authorises additional ad valorem duties on goods imported from any country determined to be selling or otherwise providing oil to the Government of Cuba, whether directly or indirectly. No specific rate was set in the EO itself — rate-setting was delegated to the Secretary of Commerce (in consultation with State, Treasury, DHS and USTR). The EO was structurally analogous to EO 14245 (Venezuelan oil importing countries, 24 March 2025) and was on the list of nine IEEPA-based tariff EOs whose tariff component was vacated by the SCOTUS 6-3 ruling in *Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump* (20 February 2026); the underlying Cuba national-emergency declaration was preserved by the 20 February 2026 "Ending Certain Tariff Actions" EO, but the tariff authority was extinguished before any third-country determination or rate was operationalised.

On 27 January 2026, the Government of Quebec via Investissement Québec announced a CAD 40 million equity (preferred shares) investment in Vention, a Montreal-based industrial-automation and physical-AI software/hardware platform, as part of a CAD 150 million total financing round. Co-investors in the round included NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), Desjardins Capital, and Fidelity Investments Canada. The province frames the investment as building a Canadian-headquartered global leader in robotics/automation software rather than as a trade-restrictive measure.

Dubai's Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched AED 12.8 billion (~USD 3.5bn) in strategic expansion projects for the Dubai Silicon Oasis free zone, comprising a AED 11 billion (~USD 3.0bn) "District IO" technology district and a AED 1.8 billion (~USD 0.49bn) Block 14 mixed-use development. District IO targets smart mobility, 3D printing, robotics, X-Tech, AI, quantum computing and Web3 firms via 25 LEED-compliant buildings, R&D labs and data centres, with capacity for 6,500+ companies and a stated goal of AED 103bn GDP contribution and 70,000+ jobs by 2036. Global Trade Alert classifies the intervention as a financial grant plus an in-kind grant to the free zone.

China's Ministry of Finance, NDRC, People's Bank of China and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued Cai Jin [2026] No. 2 on 2026-01-19, optimizing the central-fiscal interest-subsidy policy for equipment-renewal loans. The central government subsidizes 1.5 percentage points of loan principal interest on qualifying fixed-asset loans for equipment-renewal projects, capped at two years, and widens eligible sectors beyond traditional industrial/energy/transport/logistics categories to include construction, AI equipment, aerospace materials, agricultural facilities, cold-chain infrastructure and elderly-care equipment. It also folds bank-originated science-and-technology-innovation loans issued from 2026 (previously supported only via PBOC relending) into the fiscal interest-subsidy scope, and simplifies disbursement via a "pre-disbursement + settlement" mechanism across 26 participating banks. The policy runs through 2026-12-31, extendable.

China's Ministry of Finance, NDRC, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, People's Bank of China and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued Cai Jin [2026] No. 4 on 2026-01-19, establishing a central-fiscal loan interest-subsidy scheme for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) operating in 14 designated industrial-chain and emerging-industry sectors. Eligible loans originated from 2026-01-01 receive a 1.5-percentage-point annual interest subsidy for up to two years, capped at RMB 50 million in principal per enterprise (maximum subsidy RMB 1.5 million per enterprise). The policy is tentatively set to run one year with a possible extension.

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC), Australia's AUD 15 billion sovereign industrial-financing vehicle, took a AUD 20 million preferred-equity stake in Omniscient Neurotechnology, a Sydney-founded clinical connectomics company, announced 16 January 2026. The investment forms part of Omniscient's broader Series D raise (reported at up to AUD 36 million / USD 27.2 million) alongside Australian venture fund OIF Ventures, and is earmarked to commercialise Omniscient's Quicktome AI brain-mapping platform globally and expand its data-science team. NRFC frames the deal as building sovereign AI/medical-technology capability and creating over 40 new skilled jobs in Australia.

Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150 of 16 January 2026 amends the founding regulation of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (Regulation (EU) 2021/1173), adding two new mandate pillars: deployment of "AI gigafactories" — large-scale, energy-efficient compute facilities supporting full-lifecycle training and inference of very large AI models for European researchers, startups and industry — and a broadened quantum technologies pillar covering quantum computing, simulation, communication, and sensing/metrology, alongside creation of a new Quantum Technologies Advisory Group (QTAG). EuroHPC JU's existing joint EU/member-state budget baseline is at least EUR 8.2bn for 2021-2027, now expanded to fund these additional pillars; the regulation entered into force 20 January 2026.

Beijing's Development and Reform Commission, jointly with the municipal Economic and Information Technology Bureau, Science and Technology Commission, and the Zhongguancun Science Park Administration Committee, issued Notice 京发改规〔2026〕1号 on 4 January 2026 setting out measures to expand the city's pilot-testing (中试, "chung-shi"/pilot production and scale-up) service capacity. The policy funds construction and upgrading of pilot-testing platforms that bridge lab-stage R&D and commercial production across AI, biomedicine, green energy, robotics and semiconductors, with a goal of 10 national-level and 50 municipal-level platforms by 2030. Global Trade Alert logged the same underlying state act as five separate interventions (152197-152201) split by affected-country and sector groupings; this filing consolidates them into a single action since they share one primary source document.

Decree 353/2025/NĐ-CP is the principal implementing instrument of Vietnam's Law on Digital Technology Industry (Law No. 71/2025/QH15), effective 1 January 2026 — the same date as the parent statute. The decree's five chapters and 36 articles operationalise three pillars: (i) a comprehensive State-support and preferential-incentive framework for products, services, and infrastructure across the semiconductor, AI, cloud, fintech, and e-commerce sectors; (ii) a high-quality-human-resources development framework covering training funds, scholarship schemes, and foreign-expert visa fast-tracks; and (iii) Vietnam's first statutory innovation sandbox, allowing organisations to deploy new digital products and business models under time- and scope-limited regulatory carve-outs where current law has not kept pace with practice.

On 30 December 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 20, a three-year action plan (1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028) to support the transformation and upgrading of advanced manufacturing. The plan sets quantitative targets — 100 new manufacturing enterprises with annual output above CNY 1 billion by 2028 (cumulative 600+), 500 new above-designated-size supply-chain enterprises, 100+ new national-level green factories, a robot density of 600 units per 10,000 workers, and 70%+ digital-equipment penetration — across next-generation electronics, intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, green low-carbon and fashion consumer-goods industries, plus emerging bets on the low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, embodied intelligence (robotics) and biomanufacturing. It is funded through tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief: one-off R&D subsidies up to CNY 10 million, equipment/new-materials cost-share up to 30% of contract value (capped at CNY 20 million), technical- transformation loan/leasing interest support up to CNY 20 million cumulative, and 0.8-1.3% interest subsidies on component/material backup-inventory financing.

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act (人工智慧基本法) on third reading on 23 December 2025, and President Lai Ching-te promulgated the 20-article statute on 14 January 2026, bringing it into force immediately. The Act designates the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) as the central AI-policy competent authority and codifies seven governance principles — sustainability and well-being, human autonomy, privacy protection and data governance, cybersecurity and safety, transparency and explainability, fairness and non-discrimination, and accountability — that apply to all public-sector AI procurement and high-risk sectoral applications. The statute establishes a statutory foundation for the Taiwan AI Action Plan 2.0, mandates an Executive Yuan National AI Strategy Committee, and provides authority for sector-specific implementing regulations by FSC, NCC, MOHW, and MOTC across finance, telecoms, medical, and autonomous-vehicle AI within a two-year window. As the first national AI governance statute in the Greater China region and the third globally after the EU AI Act and South Korea's AI Basic Act, it frames regulatory expectations for the companies at the heart of the global AI hardware supply chain — TSMC, NVIDIA ODM partners, and advanced-packaging incumbents — that are headquartered or operate substantially in Taiwan.

On 15 December 2025, Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, announced Phase 1 of the Canadian Quantum Champions Program (CQCP), awarding CAD 92 million (up to CAD 23 million each) to four domestic quantum-computing developers — Anyon Systems, Nord Quantique, Photonic, and Xanadu Quantum Technologies — to accelerate progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computers with industrial and defence applications. The program is designed to anchor quantum companies, talent and intellectual property inside Canada, moving systems beyond academic prototypes toward real-world testing and practical workloads, and sits within a broader ~CAD 334.3 million, five-year federal quantum-ecosystem commitment tied to Budget 2025 and Canada's National Quantum Strategy.

On 10 December 2025 the National Assembly of Vietnam adopted Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence (8 chapters, 35 articles), Vietnam's first dedicated AI statutory framework and one of the first comprehensive horizontal AI laws in Southeast Asia. The law establishes a three-tier risk-based regulatory architecture (high / medium / low) for the research, development, provision, deployment, and use of AI systems; defines the rights and obligations of providers, deployers, importers, distributors, and users; and mandates state oversight via the Ministry of Information & Communications and Ministry of Science & Technology. Prohibited acts include systematic deception, manipulation of human perception, generation of fake content endangering national security, exploitation of vulnerable populations, and obstruction of human-supervision mechanisms. The law applies to Vietnamese agencies, organizations, and individuals as well as foreign organizations and individuals involved in AI-related activities in Vietnam, taking effect 1 March 2026 with 12-18 month transition windows for existing systems depending on sector.

On 9 December 2025, the Qatar Investment Authority's newly formed AI subsidiary Qai and Brookfield Asset Management announced a USD 20 billion strategic investment partnership to develop AI infrastructure, including fully integrated compute facilities, in Qatar and select international markets. The venture is a cornerstone of Brookfield's global AI infrastructure program (via the Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, BAIIF), which targets mobilising up to USD 100 billion globally, and is positioned as advancing Qatar National Vision 2030's push to become a Middle East AI-services hub. It is state-backed capital deployment (sovereign wealth fund subsidiary) rather than a regulatory or trade-control measure, and Global Trade Alert classifies it as an unspecified state-aid intervention.

Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF), under the Prime Minister's Office, launched the five-year Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2030 Plan on 5 December 2025, allocating S$37 billion (approximately 1% of GDP) for 2026-2030. The plan succeeds RIE2025 (S$25 billion) and introduces two named RIE Flagships and two RIE Grand Challenges; the first Flagship is in semiconductors and is explicitly aimed at making Singapore a strategically important R&D and manufacturing node in the global semiconductor supply chain. The budget envelope is split 24% foundational research, 20% innovation and enterprise, 17% infrastructure / new programmes ("white space"), 10% talent development.

UK Export Finance launched the Critical Goods Export Development Guarantee (Critical Goods EDG), a lending-support scheme that offers an 80% government guarantee on commercial finance for UK-based suppliers of critical minerals to UK exporters. Eligible suppliers must produce at least 50% of their critical-mineral goods for UK exporters (lowered to 20% if the firm also earns at least 5% of turnover from overseas sales), and the mineral must appear on the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre's 2024 criticality assessment or the associated growth-minerals list. The scheme targets commercial lending facilities above £25 million and lets suppliers access the guarantee even if they do not export directly, as long as their output feeds into UK exporters' end products.

On 22 November 2025, the Abu Dhabi Exports Office (ADEX, the export-financing arm of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development) and the UAE Foreign Aid Agency launched a USD 1 billion "AI for Development" initiative to finance artificial-intelligence and digital-infrastructure projects across African countries. The announcement was made by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, at the G20 summit. Global Trade Alert classifies the measure as a certainly-harmful "Other export incentive" intervention (state-act 95488), since it channels UAE state export-credit/aid capital toward AI-related exports and services rather than being a neutral development grant.

On 20 November 2025 the White House and US Department of Commerce / Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) authorised Abu Dhabi AI holding company G42 to import advanced computing chips — equivalent to approximately 35,000 Nvidia GB300 Blackwell processors — under the UAE-pioneered Regulated Technology Environment (RTE) compliance framework. The RTE is an Emirati-designed technology governance and audit architecture, developed by G42 and approved under BIS guidelines, with binding UAE-side controls to prevent onward diversion to foreign adversary nations. The authorisation accelerates the Stargate UAE project — a 1 GW AI compute cluster being built by G42 for OpenAI in partnership with Oracle, Cisco, NVIDIA, and SoftBank Group — and represents the first concluded major country-level advanced-compute authorisation following the May 2025 rescission of the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, via Horizon Europe grant agreement 101253078, is co-funding "AI:AT — the AI Factory Austria" with EUR 14,999,999.45 in EU/EuroHPC funding against a total project cost of EUR 29,999,998.79 (matched roughly 50/50 by Austrian national and consortium co-funding). The grant runs 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028 and is coordinated by Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) GmbH together with the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and a consortium of Austrian academic and industry partners. AI:AT builds supercomputing infrastructure and AI services as Austria's national node in the EU's AI Factories network, one implementing grant under the EU AI Continent Action Plan (COM(2025)165, filed 2025-04-09-eu-ai-continent-action-plan).

The General Office of the Fujian Provincial People's Government issued Min Zheng Ban [2025] No. 30, "Several Measures to Promote the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry and Empowerment Applications in Fujian Province," on 2025-11-04. The notice implements the national "AI+" initiative at provincial level via three quantified subsidy tracks: a talent-recruitment supplement of RMB 200,000/year per person for AI engineers registered on a provincial core-engineer roster; a compute subsidy covering up to 50% of annual cloud/compute-service spend (capped at RMB 500,000 per firm) for companies purchasing at least RMB 100,000 of computing services per year; and a one-time capital subsidy of up to 50% of build cost (capped at RMB 5,000,000) for qualifying AI innovation platforms. The measure is in force through 2028-12-31 (per GTA state-act revocation date) and is one of a wave of province- and city-level AI industrial-policy notices issued across China in late 2025.

The Beijing Fengtai District Science and Technology and Information Bureau issued Fengkexinfa [2025] No. 7, "Several Measures to Support AI Science and Technology Innovation and Industrial Innovation Integration and Development in Fengtai District," on 2025-10-30. The notice bundles ten categories of subsidy for AI enterprises operating in the district, covering compute-purchase cost-sharing (20% up to RMB 2,000,000 for general AI firms, 30% up to RMB 3,000,000 for "industrial intelligence" firms), large-model development grants (up to RMB 500,000-600,000), dataset/data-asset subsidies (RMB 100,000-2,000,000), platform and incubator capex (up to RMB 5,000,000 and RMB 10,000,000 respectively), and fund-manager and talent-recruitment support. The measure is in force through 2028-12-31.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization (Bhardwaj HSO), a Cancun, Mexico-based transnational criminal organization run by dual Indian-Mexican national Vikrant Bhardwaj, under Executive Order 13581 (as amended by EO 13863). The action names 21 designees in total — the organization, 4 individuals (including Bhardwaj's wife and a former Cancun airport police officer who provided access), and 16 front companies spanning Mexico, India and the UAE across real estate, construction, retail/hospitality, and tourism/transport sectors used to launder smuggling proceeds. The designation was coordinated with Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, and Mexico's financial intelligence unit (UIF), and blocks all U.S. property and interests of the designees plus any entity 50%-or-more owned by them.

The Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Science Park Management Committee, jointly with two other municipal departments, issued "Several Measures on Supporting the Construction of the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone" on 2025-10-23 (publicly posted 2025-10-27). The "2+3+5" package of ten measures subsidizes frontier-technology demonstration scenarios (up to 30% of certified investment, capped at RMB 10,000,000), original game and digital-content production (RMB 300,000-2,000,000 per award-winning title), key laboratories (up to RMB 5,000,000/year operating funds plus rent discounts on up to 4,000 sqm, for up to 3 years), industry-chain innovation consortia (up to RMB 20,000,000/year, RMB 50,000,000 over 3 years), and incubators (up to RMB 20,000,000 over 3 years), alongside seed/angel/Series-A co-investment minimums via an industry fund. The pilot zone is anchored on the former Shougang steelworks north campus (core area) and the Jin'anqiao AI large-model industry cluster (innovation-coordination area), both in Beijing's Shijingshan district.

On 19 October 2025 the UK government announced an additional GBP 20 million each for Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and Glasgow City Region under the GBP 500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), topping up their original GBP 30 million earmarked allocation (June 2025 Spending Review) to GBP 50 million per region. The three areas were the first cohort to run UKRI's predecessor Innovation Accelerators programme. Funds are channelled through UKRI to local "triple helix" partnerships (civic institutions, business, universities) for innovation-cluster projects in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, AI adoption, and clean-energy/fuel technologies. The announcement preceded the 21 October 2025 Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.

China's Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism, led by MOFCOM, issued Announcement [2025] No. 10 on 9 October 2025 designating 14 foreign entities — Dedrone by Axon Inc., DZYNE Technologies Incorporated, Elbit Systems of America LLC, Epirus Inc., AeroVironment Inc., Exelis Inc., Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC, BAE Systems Inc., Teledyne FLIR LLC, VSE Corporation, Cubic Global Defense, Recorded Future Inc., the Halifax International Security Forum, and TechInsights Inc. (with nine named subsidiaries) — for engaging in military-technical cooperation with Taiwan, harmful statements concerning China, and assisting foreign governments in suppressing Chinese enterprises. The measures (i) prohibit the listed entities from China-related import-export activity, (ii) ban new investment in Chinese territory, and (iii) for the first time under the UEL framework explicitly prohibit Chinese organisations and individuals from transmitting data or providing sensitive information to the listed entities. Issued the same day as MOFCOM/GAC Announcements No. 61/62 extending rare-earth export controls extraterritorially under a 0.1% de minimis content rule, the package marks the first UEL deployment targeting counter-drone original equipment manufacturers and the first to introduce a data-transmission restriction.

China's National Development and Reform Commission announced a new-type policy-based financial instrument worth CNY 500 billion (~USD 70.3 billion), to be used entirely to replenish capital for infrastructure and industrial projects. Funds are channeled through China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China, targeting digital economy, AI, consumption-related infrastructure and urban renewal (transport, energy, underground utility upgrades). By mid-October 2025, China Development Bank and the Agricultural Development Bank had disbursed a combined ~CNY 300 billion, coordinated with the Ministry of Finance and People's Bank of China, with NDRC citing over 2,300 supported projects and roughly CNY 7 trillion in projected total investment leveraged.

Italy enacted Legge 23 settembre 2025, n. 132 — "Disposizioni e deleghe al Governo in materia di intelligenza artificiale" — published in Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale n. 223 of 25 September 2025 (atto 25G00143) and entered into force on 10 October 2025. The statute makes Italy the first EU member state to enact a comprehensive national AI law complementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act), designating AgID (Agency for Digital Italy) and ACN (National Cybersecurity Agency) as national oversight authorities under Presidency-of-the-Council-of-Ministers coordination. It sets sectoral rules for healthcare, labour, intellectual professions, public administration and the judiciary; authorises up to €1 billion in state-backed venture capital (via CDP Venture Capital) for AI, cybersecurity and telecoms; creates criminal penalties of up to five years' imprisonment for harmful deepfakes; mandates parental consent for under-14 users; and delegates secondary legislation to the Government across multiple domains.

On 19 September 2025, the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the European Investment Bank Group, signed a EUR 260 million (USD ~305 million) anchor-investor commitment into Jolt Capital V, a growth-stage deep-technology venture capital fund targeting a EUR 1 billion final close. The commitment is funded largely through the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), an EU-backed programme that has committed over EUR 2.5 billion across 11 scale-up technology funds and aims to mobilise EUR 10 billion in total resources for late-stage European tech companies. Jolt Capital V will invest in growth-stage B2B companies across semiconductors, cybersecurity, AI, industry 4.0, new materials and mobility, sectors the EIB Group frames explicitly around European strategic autonomy and competitiveness.

On 18 September 2025, as part of the third phase of France's national AI strategy under the France 2030 programme, the government opened the "Pionniers de l'intelligence artificielle" (Pioneers of AI) call for projects, operated by Bpifrance and the NALU ("Numérique, Algorithmes, Logiciels et Usages") agency program led by Inria. The scheme funds disruptive AI technologies and applications across industrial robotics, healthcare, energy production/distribution and manufacturing through a three-phase funnel: Phase 1 (technical feasibility, EUR 100k-200k over 6-12 months), Phase 2 (demonstrator, EUR 400k-800k over 6-18 months) and Phase 3 (market launch, EUR 3-8M over 1-3 years), with projects re-vetted for technological and economic relevance between phases. Submissions run 11 September 2025 to 9 June 2026 across multiple deadline windows; as of the government's 18 June 2026 update, 51 projects (23 in a first round, 28 in a second) had been selected, including firms such as IMIND (microelectronics), Skipper NDT, Sagacity Health, Lutece Dynamics, HyprView, DeepLife, Phagos and Wintics, alongside multiple Inria-led projects.

On 17 September 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 8, a five-year (26 September 2025 - 25 September 2030) state-aid framework to accelerate frontier-technology innovation and cultivate "future industries" across six domains — future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health. Targeted technology areas include cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, biomanufacturing, embodied intelligence (humanoid robotics/AI hardware), fourth-generation semiconductors, silicon photonics, 6G, neuromorphic computing, quantum technology, controlled nuclear fusion and regenerative medicine. Support is disbursed as tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief, with named ceilings up to CNY 30 million per proof-of-concept/R&D platform and CNY 20 million per high-quality incubator or first-product/batch innovation award.

On 8 September 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence published the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 — "Making Defence an Engine for Growth" (CP 1388) — the first comprehensive cabinet-level UK defence industrial strategy in over a decade and the sector plan for Defence under the UK Modern Industrial Strategy umbrella (IS-8). The strategy was published alongside the Strategic Defence Review 2025 and operationalises the largest sustained defence- spending increase since the Cold War (rising to 2.6% of GDP by 2027 with ambition to 3% in the next Parliament). It defines six priority outcomes (growth, backing UK businesses, defence innovation, resilient industrial base, procurement transformation, enduring partnerships); establishes UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) within the MOD with a ringfenced £400m budget to accelerate dual-use technology; identifies priority defence capabilities (combat air, complex weapons, directed-energy weapons, next- generation land and maritime systems) plus dual-use sub-sectors (quantum, drones/autonomy, space, AI, cyber, engineering biology, advanced connectivity); and flags resilience priorities in steel, construction, energetic materials, batteries, semiconductors and rare earths.

On 25 August 2025, Brazil's federal government launched a combined BRL 12 billion (~USD 2.2bn) subsidised credit line to fund the diffusion of Industry 4.0 machinery and equipment across the Brazilian industrial base. BNDES (national development bank) contributes BRL 10 billion nationwide through its "Crédito Indústria 4.0" line; Finep (research-financing agency) adds BRL 2 billion via its "Difusão Tecnológica" line, reserved for companies in the North, Northeast and Center-West regions to narrow regional investment gaps. Financing covers capital goods incorporating robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, sensing, machine-to-machine communication and IoT, at concessional rates of roughly 7.5-8% plus spread; credit approvals began 15 September 2025. The line operates under the Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) national industrial-policy framework.

On 22 August 2025 South Korea's National R&D Program Evaluation Steering Committee, convened by MOTIE, finalized an exemption from the mandatory preliminary feasibility study (예비타당성조사 면제) for the "K-On-Device AI Semiconductor Technology Development" project, clearing the roughly KRW 689.15 billion (approx. USD 496 million) program to proceed toward FY2026 budget allocation without the standard multi-year vetting delay. The project funds full-stack development — custom AI chip design, software, and modules — across four demand-anchored industries: automotive (Hyundai Motor), IoT/home appliances (LG Electronics), machinery/robotics (Doosan Robotics, Daedong), and defense (Korea Aerospace Industries). MOTIE structured the program so end-user demand companies participated directly in project planning, pairing them with domestic fabless design and foundry manufacturing firms to build a domestic on-device AI semiconductor ecosystem, ahead of full budget confirmation and formal program launch.

On 16 August 2025, Ukraine's President signed Decree No. 599/2025, enacting an NSDC decision "On the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)" against 39 individuals and 55 legal entities identified as involved in developing, manufacturing, or supplying components for Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with artificial-intelligence elements. The list covers 43 Russian entities (including drone makers Prognatik, Rozumni Ptakhy, Zala Aero, and KB Vostok, plus AI research centres Neurolab and TsBST), 10 Chinese suppliers of navigation receivers, engines, cameras, and microchips (including Dongguan Standard Trading, Zhejiang Lianxing Machinery, Shenzhen Sky Bow Navigation Technology, and Topscom Precision Industry), and 2 Belarusian component suppliers. Sanctions impose asset freezes and restrictions on commercial transactions and investment instruments, entered into force immediately upon signature and revocable no later than 15 August 2035.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone (BDA) Management Committee issued Jingjiguanfa [2025] No. 17, "Several Measures on Promoting the Innovative Development of Embodied Intelligent Robots in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone," on 2025-08-12, effective immediately and in force through 2028-08-31. The package subsidizes joint-lab R&D (up to 20% of project investment, capped at RMB 5,000,000 per lab), dataset development (up to RMB 2,000,000 per enterprise), an annual RMB 100,000,000 "data voucher" pool (10% purchase subsidy, capped at RMB 1,000,000 per entity), a robot development community grant (up to RMB 30,000,000 annually), application-scenario subsidies (20-30% of cost, capped at RMB 5,000,000 per project), and a humanoid-robot sales rebate (10% of revenue, capped at 1,000 units / RMB 10,000,000 annually per company). The zone targets ten-thousand-unit annual production capacity and 100+ embodied-AI enterprises by end-2027.

The Anhui Provincial People's Government issued Wanzhengmi [2025] No. 108 (皖政秘〔2025〕108号), "Several Policies (Version 2.0) for Building a General Artificial Intelligence Industrial Innovation and Application Highland," on 2025-08-11, effective immediately and running through 2027-12-31. The package replaces and expands an October 2023 predecessor version, bundling grants, project subsidies and application-scenario support to accelerate large-model and general-AI adoption across the province's industrial base. The first 2025 disbursement batch under the scheme funded 30 of 34 submitted projects for a combined RMB 49.5831 million (approx. USD 6.9 million).

The Mauritius Finance Act 2025 (Act No. 18 of 2025), assented to by Acting President Dharambeer Gokhool G.C.S.K. and gazetted in August 2025, is an omnibus financial-sector statute amending the Companies Act, Financial Services Act 2007, Income Tax Act, Bank of Mauritius Act, and FIAMLA. Its headline provisions are: (i) introduction of a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (QDMTT) aligned with the OECD GloBE Pillar Two rules, imposing a 15% effective minimum tax on Mauritius profits of MNE groups with consolidated revenue ≥ EUR 750 million; (ii) new fiscal incentives for investments in AI infrastructure and Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licensees; (iii) enhanced beneficial-ownership (UBO) identification and record-keeping requirements under the Companies Act, aligned with FATF Recommendation 24; (iv) tightened substance and economic-presence requirements for Global Business Companies (GBCs); and (v) an expanded AML/CFT administrative- penalty framework under FIAMLA.

The Henan Provincial People's Government issued "Several Policy Measures to Support the Development of the AI Industry Ecosystem" (河南省支持人工智能 产业生态发展若干政策措施, Yuzheng [2025] No. 17) on 2025-08-04, effective for three years from issuance. The package establishes a RMB 3 billion (approx. USD 420 million) AI industry investment fund alongside a suite of per-project subsidies: up to RMB 1 million for enterprises passing national generative-AI model filing, an annual RMB 50 million compute-voucher pool (capped at RMB 1 million per recipient), up to RMB 1 million per high-quality training-corpus library, and RMB 2-10 million grants for benchmark application projects, industry-empowerment centres and national-level innovation platforms.