Features

China has shaky upper hand in battle of the robots

26 Mar 2025

Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang have talked up the potential of humanoid machines. Unitree and peers in the People's Republic have an early lead thanks to the country's sophisticated manufacturing supply chains. But US tech sanctions risk derailing China's robot rise.

Ignoring US white-collar crime will run up big tab

25 Mar 2025

The Trump administration is vowing to turn a blind eye to bribery, money laundering, tax avoidance and other fraud. CEOs will be wary of flouting laws left on the books, but there’s scope for backsliding. Lower standards will test investor faith and keep future prosecutors busy.

Stargate is test of SoftBank financial engineering

20 Mar 2025

Masayoshi Son’s group is handling the money side of the $500 bln data-centre build for OpenAI. A planned 90% debt funding ratio looks aggressive and depends on a giant slab of pricey hybrid financing. SoftBank has used savvy fundraising ploys before but this looks like a stretch.

China has spicy menu of US trade war reprisals

19 Mar 2025

Donald Trump has yet to impose the levies he threatened on the $19 trln economy. Yet the People’s Republic has a banquet of options, from non-tariff barriers and squeezing firms like Tesla to devaluing the yuan and banning rare earth exports. Escalation means indigestion for all.

Stingy Uncle Sam subverts both suppliers and state

18 Mar 2025

Abrupt spending cuts and pressure to justify existing deals are wreaking havoc on US government contractors from Lockheed to Pfizer. Some $760 bln of annual outlays are at risk, spooking investors. Worse, frugality threatens to impair national strategic capabilities for decades.

Russia’s economy would struggle to cope with peace

17 Mar 2025

After years of overheating, the $2 trln economy risks a hard landing if President Vladimir Putin ends his Ukraine war. A credit boom presages a default wave, while long-term demographic problems have worsened. All the more reason for Putin to avoid switching off the war machine.

EU’s big Starlink headache is time, not money

14 Mar 2025

Investors seem confident $3 bln Anglo-French satellite group Eutelsat can replace Elon Musk’s company on Ukraine’s front lines. The swap could be costly, but this won’t deter a newly defence-focused EU. Whether the company can deploy what’s needed quick enough is another matter.

Buyout barons risk choking on their stuck assets

13 Mar 2025

Blackstone, KKR, CVC and their ilk have $3 trln of companies to sell. The backlog is too big for public markets or corporate buyers to absorb. That implies a new era for the industry of longer holding periods, lower returns, and a further push to win individual investors' cash.

How the World Bank can defend itself from Trump

12 Mar 2025

The US president is reviewing Washington’s membership of the global lender. Donald Trump could in theory quit the bank or just block its policies. Yet there’s hope for boss Ajay Banga, who has scope to argue that his work is surprisingly compatible with an ‘America First’ agenda.

China’s new financial captain faces tough mission

11 Mar 2025

Beijing has given sovereign fund Central Huijin control of key players in previous market bailouts. The state giant now oversees firms with more than $27 trln in assets. That better equips it for complex tasks such as defusing local government debt and reflating stock prices.