Technology

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.

Samsung may finally listen to pushy shareholders

24 Jan 2024

Palliser and other outsiders want the South Korean conglomerate’s defacto holding firm, Samsung C&T, to boost returns. It’s underperformed for years but if a court ruling goes in the favour of group leader Jay Y Lee next month, he’ll have a new reason to listen to agitators.

Sony enters a painful new M&A season in India

23 Jan 2024

The Japanese giant is ditching the agreed union of its Indian unit with $3 bln broadcaster Zee. Sony dodges a difficult partner but it will prolong the slugfest in the country's cutthroat entertainment industry. The plot could thicken and disrupt rival Disney's dealmaking too.

Ola IPO will drive Indian EVs back to the future

19 Jan 2024

The SoftBank-backed e-scooter maker is revving up to go public at a mooted $8 bln valuation. The deal, plus a burgeoning home market, marks a moment reminiscent of an earlier mania for Chinese upstarts like Nio. Investors hoping for a similar ride, though, may be disappointed.

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.

Samsung is primed to seize AI chipmaking crown

9 Jan 2024

The $390 bln Korean giant could become a one-stop shop for AI semiconductors. Losses in its memory chip unit are probably shrinking, and it is bulking up in logic chips and packaging. Samsung is rapidly moving towards a level of integration that could give it an edge over TSMC.

VinFast charges up its stock market unsuitability

9 Jan 2024

The $16 bln electric-vehicle maker has replaced both its CEO and CFO within five months of going public via a SPAC. The new boss is founder Pham Nhat Vuong, who owns almost all its stock. The latest moves are a reminder that VinFast looks and acts like a private firm.

Mobileye’s bullwhip will come for Nvidia too

4 Jan 2024

The maker of chips for autonomous-car systems warned that customer stockpiling would hit first-quarter revenue. Gluts are inevitable across the industry, but this one sent the Intel-backed company’s shares down 25%. AI-semiconductor suppliers are bound to face similar surpluses.

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.

Tesla-BYD rivalry is mostly manufactured, for now

3 Jan 2024

Elon Musk’s outfit ceded its title of world’s biggest EV maker to the Chinese company. In a growing industry, that’s irrelevant, plus BYD has a home advantage. The longer-term danger to Tesla, assuming geopolitics doesn't upend its supply chain, is if its peer advances in tech.

Microsoft will finally make its mark in mobile

29 Dec 2023

The software giant has famously tripped itself up in smartphones for years, but boss Satya Nadella is primed to play catchup. His Activision and OpenAI deals pave the way with ‘Candy Crush’, Xbox and ChatGPT. Bruising app wars at Apple and Google may exact a high price, however.

New York Times arrives in new tech with AI lawsuit

28 Dec 2023

The 172-year-old newspaper publisher is suing OpenAI and its backer Microsoft for alleged unauthorized use of its articles to train chatbots. It could help compel tech companies to pay publishers for news content, shifting a modicum of power back to the battered media industry.

Intel becomes proxy for Biden’s America Inc

27 Dec 2023

The chip giant’s $3.2 bln subsidy to build a plant in Israel follows similar outlays from the USA and Germany. The investment loop is a unique boon to shareholders: President Biden wants to build an allied semiconductor supply chain to fend off China; he must use Intel to do so.

EU tech rules will create clicks, not competition

27 Dec 2023

Brussels wants to force Google, Meta and Apple to open up app stores, messaging networks and search engines. The US giants will have to let startups compete and offer consumers more opt-outs. It’s likely to result in lawsuits and hassle for users rather than rivals for Big Tech.

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.

China policy risk returns as stock market grinch

22 Dec 2023

Shares in Tencent and NetEase plunged after surprise new curbs from Beijing on video-game spending and rewards. It smacks of President Xi Jinping’s crackdowns on private tutoring, tech and other sectors – and gives overseas investors another reason to be wary jumping back in.

China’s automakers will defy the great uncoupling

22 Dec 2023

There are industries, like microchips, where American trade warriors can cleave friendly supply chains from China. Cars aren’t one of them. Despite $80 bln of announced investments, lagging tech holds US champions back. In 2024, that will prove the limits of protectionism.

Disney’s 2024 lifeline leads to Tim Cook

21 Dec 2023

Boss Bob Iger is seeking a partner for sports network ESPN. Tim Cook’s Apple would be a nice co-owner. The brands are aligned, the executives have a history with movie studio Pixar, and the iPhone maker is getting deeper into sports.

China’s Huawei could be the surprise IPO of 2024

21 Dec 2023

Ren Zhengfei has long insisted the telecoms giant and chip designer he founded will never go public, but the company is now central to Beijing’s technology ambitions, which require heavy funding. A Huawei listing would also breathe life into China’s ailing stock market.