Tech

Alibaba is the ultimate contrarian China bet

21 Feb 2024

The $188 bln e-commerce group was once emblematic of the country’s growth and tech innovation. But over-expansion, regulatory crackdowns, and slowing consumption are forcing CEO Eddie Wu to perform a hard reset. Winning back investors requires Beijing to correct course too.

Capital Calls: Lyft

14 Feb 2024

Concise views on global finance: The US ride-hailing firm mistakenly forecast 500 basis points of margin improvement for 2024, causing its stock to surge some 60% before it came back to earth.

Arm’s weirdly high valuation has legs

13 Feb 2024

The $150 bln chip designer’s shares have doubled since last week’s positive outlook. The good news supports a higher valuation, but Arm’s current level is excessive. Yet with a small free float and majority owner SoftBank unlikely to sell any time soon, it may stay in the clouds.

EU’s AI ambitions may fail on two fronts

8 Feb 2024

Brussels wants to set the global standard for artificial intelligence rules while helping Europe’s most promising startups to thrive. But its AI Act may be too fussy for others to copy, even as risks remain. And it will do little to help local champions take on US tech giants.

Capital Calls: Maersk, SoftBank, Adyen

8 Feb 2024

Concise views on global finance: The Danish shipping giant’s shares fell 14% after it missed expectations and warned of years of earnings pain; the Japanese investment firm posted its first net profit in five quarters; the Dutch payment company is slowly recovering.

Why tech giants will rake in AI’s big gains

6 Feb 2024

Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet powered roughly 8% of 2023’s North American venture deals, largely in artificial intelligence. In this Exchange podcast, Altimeter Capital investor Apoorv Agrawal explains why these companies are reaping rewards from the latest tech craze.

China tech is running to stand still in AI race

2 Feb 2024

Tencent reckons it's "not too behind" on artificial intelligence. The $340 bln Chinese giant and peers like Baidu made it this far by stockpiling Nvidia chips and devising workarounds to US export curbs. Keeping pace with Western peers will soon be less straightforward, however.  

Huawei revs up a new way to feed the beast

30 Jan 2024

China’s tech champion may sell half of its autos unit at a $35 bln valuation. It’d raise funds for more research into chips, AI, 6G and more. That’d be welcome after geopolitical tensions and US sanctions sapped sales. But its excursion into EVs could hit some potholes.

Capital Calls: SAP, Abrdn

24 Jan 2024

Concise views on global finance: The German software giant is cutting 7% of its workforce, sending shares to an all-time high; outflows at the British fund manager accelerated in the second half of 2023, exacerbating the company’s effort to turn itself around.

ASML is underplaying its strengths

24 Jan 2024

The semiconductor giant kept its 2024 outlook reined in despite hefty quarterly earnings. US and Dutch export controls that affect chipmaking tools have begun to dip into China sales. But a hefty orders backlog and rising chip demand should help the $330 bln group fly higher.

AI startups’ key challenge is creativity, not cost

9 Jan 2024

Developing humanlike models is notoriously expensive. In this Exchange podcast, venture capital investor Konstantine Buhler of Sequoia Capital discusses how new breakthroughs are starting to lower costs and how that presents opportunities for challengers like OpenAI.

Atos plea to creditor banks could backfire

3 Jan 2024

The 780 mln euro French IT group wants lenders to roll over its large debt pile. Plans to raise cash by selling Atos’s cybersecurity arm to Airbus suggest they should. But the company’s threats to seek legal protection if they don’t may give banks pause for thought.

Artificial intelligence will embark on a data dash

22 Dec 2023

Text and photos produced by professionals are key to training and improving AI models. But accessing this information is getting harder and pricier. AI firms will have little choice but to pay for data, pushing up already-high costs – and delivering a windfall to publishers.

CATL prepares to power up wildest electric dreams

5 Dec 2023

The world’s largest battery maker boasts $14 bln in net cash, making a possible Hong Kong listing seem unnecessary. But the extra funds would help CATL grow in Europe and could potentially fuel explosive expansion in Southeast Asia and the US too.

Capital Calls: SoftBank

10 Nov 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Japanese conglomerate’s finance chief reckons its Vision Funds have ‘hit a bottom’. The firm’s broader surprise $6.2 bln quarterly loss, though, prompted shareholders to wipe 9% off the stock.

Capital Calls: CVC, Grocer wars, Atos

2 Nov 2023

Concise views on global finance: The European buyout group has postponed its plans to list in Amsterdam; British supermarket Sainsbury’s is thriving, which is bad news for rivals like CD&R-owned Morrisons; French IT firm Onepoint has grabbed a 10% stake in ailing peer Atos.

Worldline crash is pivotal moment for payments

25 Oct 2023

The $7 bln French group’s shares fell 60% after it said sales would be hit by a call to ditch riskier merchants. Investors expect payment providers to be on top of flaky transactions. The fact that a leading player has had to rethink will scare them, and alert regulators.

‘Tomb Raider’ maker’s odyssey charts gaming pains

12 Oct 2023

Embracer’s share price is back at 2018 levels, when it stepped up an M&A spree that saw it become Europe’s largest video game group. The $2.5 bln Swedish firm has slipped on its own banana skins. But its decline also shines a light on the sector’s post-pandemic struggles.

Israel’s robust economy faces a major stress test

10 Oct 2023

The Middle East state’s thriving tech sector and strong institutions have helped it weather past security crises. Its latest one is much bigger, though. One key indicator will be whether foreign capital can retain its recent enthusiasm for investing in the $500 bln economy.

Spying suspicions will stalk Alibaba and Wall St

6 Oct 2023

Belgium is scrutinising the tech giant’s European logistics hub as its courier unit prepares to list. The issues may be old but the risks facing Chinese firms going global are rising. Elections in the US and beyond will only make China deals harder to execute.