Third annual forum co-hosted with Mastercard and FTAHK to explore how AI is reshaping financial services
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 September 2026 – As artificial intelligence (AI) moves from experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption, organizations across Hong Kong are increasingly exploring how AI can transform customer experience, productivity and decision-making. Against this backdrop, Citi, Mastercard and the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) co-hosted the third edition of Citi's annual fintech forum under the theme "Beyond AI-Ready: Shaping the Agentic Future of Finance". The event brought together regulators, financial industry leaders and fintech innovators to discuss how financial institutions can responsibly scale the adoption of agentic AI and unlock its potential across wealth management, banking and payments.
Discussions focused on the opportunities and challenges presented by agentic AI, including customer engagement, advisor productivity, governance, cybersecurity, operational resilience and the future of work. Speakers included representatives from Citi, Mastercard, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC), Accenture, AlipayHK, Ant International, Google Cloud, Hong Kong Cyberport and NVIDIA.
Vicky Kong, Head of Wealth, Asia North and Australia, Citi, said, "The industry conversation is no longer about whether organizations will adopt AI, but how they can scale it responsibly and effectively. At Citi, we are working closely with regulators and partners to help advance AI adoption across Hong Kong's financial industry. By investing in data, technology and talent, we aim to equip our advisors with deeper insights and enhance the customer experience, while ensuring that trust, accountability and human judgment remain at the heart of financial services."
Joe Bonanno, Head of Wealth Intelligence, Citi Wealth, said, "We are entering a new era where agentic AI can transform how financial institutions harness data and intelligence to elevate the colleague and client experience. At Citi Wealth, platforms such as Citi Sky represent a major step forward, bringing together research, superior client service, expertise and advanced AI capabilities on a single platform. By connecting these capabilities more seamlessly, we can provide advisors and clients with faster access to actionable insights based on their financial goals and objectives."
A key highlight of the forum was the showcase of Citi Sky, Citi Wealth's conversational AI capability developed using Google Cloud and Google DeepMind technologies. Engineered as an always-on digital companion, the platform is designed to redefine how clients access market insights, identify financial opportunities and engage with their wealth advisors. Built on a secure data foundation and leveraging real-time interactive capabilities, Citi Sky represents a significant step in translating advanced data intelligence into highly personalized and accessible wealth management experiences.
Dr. Peter Robejsek, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Asia Pacific, Mastercard, said, "Asia Pacific is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the opportunities presented by agentic AI. Consumers and businesses are increasingly leveraging AI to enhance discovery, decision making and transactions, shaping the next generation of commerce. At Mastercard, we are committed to providing a safe, secure and intelligent infrastructure that fosters innovation, efficiency and responsible growth across the evolving agentic ecosystem."
Michele Fung, Board Member, FinTech Association of Hong Kong, said, "Building on last year's vision of turning Hong Kong into a leading AI-ready economy, we are now entering the next frontier of financial evolution. It is no longer just about preparing our systems for artificial intelligence, but actively shaping an agentic future where intelligent, autonomous technologies drive real-world outcomes. By continuing to unite the collective expertise of regulators, financial institutions, and technology innovators — alongside our AI Strategic Advisory Council — the FTAHK partnering with Citi and Mastercard remains dedicated to pioneering the frameworks that will define this next era. Together with industry leaders, we are moving beyond readiness to ensure Hong Kong leads the global financial ecosystem in responsible, agentic innovation."
The forum reflects Citi's continued commitment to supporting Hong Kong's development as a leading international financial center and fostering industry collaboration on the responsible adoption of emerging technologies.
Hashtag: #Citi
http://www.citigroup.com/#_blank
http://www.linkedin.com/company/citi#_blank
https://twitter.com/Citi#_blank
http://www.facebook.com/citi#_blank
http://www.youtube.com/citi%7C#_blank
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Citi
Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in more than 180 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | X: @Citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi
** This press release is distributed by Media OutReach Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
First smartphone to run HarmonyOS 7 and include chip design breakthrough LogicFolding
SHENZHEN, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 September 2026 – Huawei released the HUAWEI Mate XT 2 | ULTIMATE DESIGN trifold smartphone on September 7. The phone is the first to run HarmonyOS 7, and is the slimmest and largest foldable smartphone in the industry. The Mate XT 2's Kirin 9050 chip also includes a major breakthrough in semiconductor design. As the first smartphone to feature the LogicFolding Tau (τ) Chip, the Mate XT 2 marks the chip's official entry into mass commercialization.
World-class engineering and design
The device is proving popular with consumers due to its foldable wing-like form, which means it can be opened up, transforming the phone into a tablet.
The engineering to make this possible is unprecedented. The glass screen must be tough enough to withstand daily use, whilst being able to fold thousands of times. The hinge to allow the screen to fold is the first of its kind. Once open, the handset is just 3.5mm thick. However, the screen is not the only remarkable folding technology in the device.
The first chip with semiconductor design breakthrough, LogicFolding
The Mate XT 2 Ultimate Design includes a major breakthrough in semiconductor design. The phone is the first to use Huawei's LogicFolding Tau chip Kirin 9050 Pro. Designed by engineers in Huawei's HiSilicon team, the chip offers a solution to the problem of geometric scaling.
With Moore's law (the historical observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years) believed to be reaching its physical limit, making chips smaller is becoming more challenging and costly.
For Huawei, faced with external restrictions, the need to find a solution came sooner than expected.
Huawei releases world’s slimmest and largest foldable smartphone
In May this year, He Tingbo, President of Huawei's HiSilicon division, unveiled a new way of designing and making chips, alongside a new law to measure their performance, the τ (Tau) Scaling Law. The work led to Ms He being recently named one of the world's leading AI innovators by Time Magazine.
The point of shrinking transistors was never the smallness itself, it's what the smallness delivered. Shoppers looking to buy the latest smartphone don't care if the chips inside have 7, 5 or even 2-nanometer nodes, they care about the performance of the device in their hands. What matters to consumers is the time it takes for a task to be completed, a video to be shared or a game to load. The performance of the chip should be measured in the same way: by time, not size. This is why Huawei proposed τ (Tau) Scaling Law as an alternative to Moore's Law.
Breaking through barriers to improve performance
The Kirin 9050 Pro uses 3D integration to boost performance. Traditional chip advancement focussed on packing more and more transistors into a linear plain by making each one smaller. LogicFolding uses 3D integration to reduce the distance between transistors by stacking them on top of one another, increasing the number of transistors whilst reducing the distance between them.
In fact, in the Kirin 9050 Pro transistor density has risen from approximately 155 to 238 million transistors per square millimetre. That's an equivalent increase to what was achieved in the previous three years using geometric shrinking.
It was thought that stacking active transistors on top of each other and sealing them inside a solid mobile device would present an engineering challenge. Power turns into heat, which in a confined space would raise the temperature and ultimately break the device.
The key to the solution came in recognising that integrated chips have both transistors and circuits. As He Tingbo explains in her IEEE article, Huawei's τ Chip Was Supposed to Melt?, the inner workings of a chip can be compared to an office worker's day of work. Many office workers will use more energy on their commute to and from the office than they do at their desk because they are moving around more on the road. The 'work' part of their day is not the most energy intensive part as they are often seated at their desk.
The same is true for chips. The most energy intensive part of the process is the 'commute', moving data from point A to point B, not processing it. Integrated circuits use power in two main ways. The first is switching, flipping a transistor gate to change a bit from 0 to 1 and back. The second is the transmission of that data, moving the bits from one part of the chip to another.
This is important in mobile phones where a lot of performance requirements are asked of a single chip. Equally, however, in a large AI cluster 80% of the energy is used in the moving the data, not processing it. In both cases, LogicFolding reduces the space between transistors which in turn reduces the power used. The previous assumption that packing transistors on top of one another would increase the heat turned out to be false. In fact, even with a higher transistor density per millimetre, LogicFolding chips run cooler per unit of work. The result is Huawei's most powerful smartphone ever.
The first phone to run HarmonyOS 7
The Mate XT 2 is the first smartphone to run HarmonyOS 7. Forty-two percent more powerful than the previous generation, it remains the slimmest and largest foldable display in the industry when open. The cover screen spans 6.5 inches, boosting the screen-to-body ratio from 86.4% to 92.8%. Enhanced with 70% better anti-reflection, the screen exhibits a deeper, cleaner black when off, and pure, crystal-clear transparency when lit.
The Huawei Mate XT 2 also introduces the world-first Smart Shield Privacy Screen on a foldable screen. Two independent pixel sets co-exist within the 10.2-inch display at a micro-pitch of just 9 μm. When Privacy Mode is activated, the screen seamlessly switches from a wide viewing angle to a narrow one while maintaining identical resolution and clarity, protecting your privacy in public spaces without compromising your view.
Industry first ECG analysis
Health tech is increasing important to consumers, and so the Mate XT 2 is the industry's first smartphone to introduce ECG analysis. Capitalising on the innovative tri-fold form factor, users can simply hold both side frames with both hands while unfolded to capture a 30-second ECG signal. Paired with the medically certified analysis software, it generates detailed ECG reports to help identify Sinus Rhythm, Atrial Fibrillation, and Premature Beats.
Huawei releases world’s slimmest and largest foldable smartphone
The launch of the Mate XT 2 marks a significant moment in Huawei's journey. The company's R&D has delivered industry leading, and industry changing innovation. More than half of Huawei's employees work in R&D. That's over 100,000 people. The company currently holds 160,000 active patents worldwide. In the first half of 2026 alone, Huawei's R&D investment was over RMB 121 billion, accounting for 25.94% of revenue, up 25.2% year on year.
The HUAWEI Mate XT 2 | ULTIMATE DESIGN starts at RMB 19,999 and is now available for purchase, along with a stylus set, following its official sales launch at 10:08 on September 12th.
Hashtag: #Huawei
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
** This press release is distributed by Media OutReach Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
