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Messi's Inter Miami team strikes 2-game deal to play in China in November_我的网站

A |     FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Lionel Messi is evidently going back to China, after Inter Miami took advantage of not making the Major League Soccer playoffs by signing a deal to play two exhibitions there next month.The team said it would play a pair of friendlies against Chinese Super League teams, first in Qingdao, China against Qingdao Hainiu on Nov. 5 and then against Chengdu Rongcheng in Chengdu, China on Nov. 8. Those two stadiums can both hold between 50,000 and 60,000 fans.Those dates coincide with the first round of the MLS playoffs. Inter Miami was eliminated from playoff contention earlier this month.Inter Miami's announcement of the deal did not specifically mention Messi or any other player, though it would be surprising if Chinese officials agreed to the games without some sort of guarantee that the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner and the team's other best-known standouts — Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba among them — would be making the trip if physically able.“This will be a great opportunity to continue building on our 2023 campaign, in which we achieved our first-ever trophy,” Inter Miami sporting director and chief soccer officer Chris Henderson said in a release distributed by the team. "We will take this as an opportunity to begin our preparations for 2024, as we look to build on last season and find more success moving forward.”If Messi — who led Argentina to the World Cup title last year — plays, it would be at least the eighth time he has traveled to China for exhibitions for club or country since 2005. Ticket for all previous Messi appearances have sold at a wild pace in China, a nation that has a massive soccer following even without much in the way of global success by the men's national team. China's women made the World Cup final in 1999, falling to the U.S. in a penalty-kick shootout to decide the title at the Rose Bowl in California.Messi has played in China as recently as this past June, shortly after he stunned much of the soccer world by announcing that he was signing a 2 1/2-year contract worth around $150 million to come to MLS and play for Inter Miami. He scored barely one minute into a match for Argentina against Australia in Beijing on June 15, and later was surprised by fan — one wearing a Messi jersey — somehow getting onto the field to ask for a hug.Messi also won Olympic gold in China, helping Argentina win the title at the Beijing Games in 2008. He and Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham have enormous followings in Asia, along with several endorsement deals in the region.This is the first international tour for Inter Miami, which is about to end its fourth MLS season. The team won the Leagues Cup this season, doing so shortly after Messi began playing for Inter Miami in July.The team didn't reveal television or ticket information. The lowest-priced seats for Messi's appearance at Beijing in June were listed at $80 and the highest-priced were around $670 at face value; if the price points for that match are similar to what's set on this tour, the two matches could generate well over $20 million in ticket revenue alone.That suggests this trip could be another major financial win for Inter Miami. MLS officials said Messi's jersey has been the league's top seller in 2023 — even though it wasn't on sale until July — and the team has told its season ticket holders that it plans to increase prices dramatically for the 2024 season.“We’re very excited to continue to expand our club's global reach, bringing our team to play in front of incredible fans across the globe," Inter Miami chief business officer Xavier Asensi said in remarks distributed by the club. "This is a special opportunity to share the passion as we reach new audiences and put ourselves on display in new places, and we’re looking forward to beginning this adventure.”Inter Miami finishes its MLS season this week with matches against Charlotte on Wednesday and Saturday. Messi is currently with Argentina's national team for World Cup qualifying and — given that nothing is at stake — it would seem unlikely that he'll appear in either of the final two MLS matches of the season for his club.The team hasn't publicly revealed plans for any other international tours for 2024, but others are expected given Messi's enormous global popularity.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer。

B |     Unitree: Valuation rise reflects optimism    Investors are showing a strong appetite for Unitree Robotics' initial public offering, reflecting growing optimism about China's ambition to turn its industrial chain strengths into commercially viable artificial intelligence applications in the physical world, market experts and investment banks said.    Though still at an early stage of commercialization, China's embodied intelligence industry is gaining momentum in scaling up applications, first in business scenarios and later in consumer markets, creating a distinctive opportunity set for global investors, they said.    The IPO of Unitree on Shanghai's STAR Market — the first A-share listing of a major producer of humanoid robots — has entered the subscription stage, with buoyant demand helping to lift its issue price and fundraising size above earlier expectations.    Its issuing announcement showed that it had priced its IPO at 150.80 yuan ($22.35) per share, with expected proceeds amounting to 6.099 billion yuan, higher than the 4.202 billion yuan estimated in its earlier IPO filing at an implied price of about 104 yuan per share.    Its IPO price represents a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.23 times, far surpassing the industry average of 38.56 times and giving it a market capitalization of about 60.99 billion yuan at the IPO price, the announcement said.    The offering attracted a group of strategic investors, including the National Council for Social Security Fund, DeepSeek, as well as investment arms or affiliates of China National Petroleum Corp, China Southern Power Grid, China Telecom, Tencent and CITIC Securities.    Notably, the social security fund has become Unitree's largest strategic investor, subscribing to 933,402 shares, or 2.31 percent of the offering, for around 141 million yuan.    The move underscores long-term institutional capital's recognition of the humanoid robotics sector's prospects.    Retail investors have also shown enthusiasm ahead of Unitree's online subscriptions that open on Monday, with posts wishing for successful allocations piling up on financial information platform Eastmoney's online stock forum for the company.    Yang Shuning, executive director and partner at Wenzhi Capital, a Beijing-based private equity company focused on high-tech investments, said the keen demand and high valuation reflect investors' optimism about Unitree's commercialization prospects and its positioning in the embodied intelligence sector.    "Given the scarcity premium enjoyed by leading players in tech sectors and the multibillion-dollar valuations seen among overseas humanoid robotics peers, Unitree's valuation is not without justification," he said.    But Yang cautioned that Unitree's valuation is less about current earnings than about investors pricing in its future profitability. "If Unitree falls behind in scaling up commercialization, revenue growth weakens or investors start using a different valuation yardstick, valuations would come under pressure."    Commercial promise    Wang Xingxing, Unitree's founder and chairman, said on Friday that the company's pure humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units in 2025, the highest in the world.    Unitree's rise has come as China's humanoid robotics sector takes the lead worldwide in terms of shipments, with its commercialization prospects becoming increasingly visible.    Citing exhibition examples at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, UBS said in a recent report that humanoid robots are "increasingly being evaluated as production tools rather than exhibition assets".    Commercialization should first scale in structured business-to-business scenarios such as factories, logistics and smart pharmacies, while consumer use cases remain a longer-term prospect, the report said.    Zhao Liang, a partner at Unique Capital, an investment institution focused on AI innovation, said that humanoid robots may integrate with specific application scenarios on a large scale in the next three to five years.    "Given China's advantages in industrial supply chains and talent, the country's embodied intelligence industry chain may bring a surprise to the world," Zhao said.    Unitree's listing, which took only 104 days to go from the application acceptance stage to registration approval, is expected to further boost financing, investment and development of China's embodied intelligence sector, experts said.    Besides Unitree, another major Chinese humanoid manufacturer, AGIBOT, is seeking an IPO in Hong Kong. According to UBS, China's embodied AI sector saw a wave of IPO filings and strong primary market financing this year, with first-half funding going above 34.5 billion yuan.    With a buoyant listing pipeline, China's embodied intelligence industry — and the broader physical AI sector — could offer global investors a distinct exposure to the next phase of AI development where physical-world applications become increasingly important, experts added.    Goldman Sachs said in a report that while the US and North Asian tech companies hold a dominant position in sectors such as semiconductor and AI models, China's AI opportunity set seems better populated in power, infrastructure and physical AI, implying a potentially strong value proposition and diversification benefits to global investors.                    。

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