AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai, Kia recalls probed
US safety regulators have opened a formal investigation into the recall of nearly 1.7 million vehicles by Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motor Corp over engine defects, according to filings published on Saturday. A South Korean whistle-blower reported concerns last year to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is to probe the timeliness of three recalls carried out in the US and whether they covered enough vehicles. A Hyundai spokesman in Seoul said the company “has conducted recalls in compliance with US regulations and procedure” and will “sincerely” cooperate with the investigation.
CANADA
Home price growth slows
Home price growth in Toronto slowed in the first two weeks of this month and sales fell 16 percent from last year, signaling that a new tax on foreign buyers and funding crisis at mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc might be cooling the market in the nation’s biggest city. The average selling price for all home types was C$890,284 (US$658,000) through Sunday last week, up 17 percent from a year earlier and down 3.3 percent from the previous month, according to data from the Toronto Real Estate board. Housing prices jumped 25 percent last month and 33 percent in March from the year-earlier periods.
AUTOMAKERS
Audi, SAIC reach agreement
Audi and its dealers in China have reached an agreement on how cars produced with SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車) will be sold in the country. The deal, announced on Saturday in a statement, ends months of tension after Audi-parent Volkswagen AG set out plans in November last year to produce cars with SAIC. Previously, the German company had made Audis in China exclusively with China FAW Group Corp (第一汽車). Under the accord between Audi and the dealers, any SAIC-produced cars would be distributed through the existing sales network.
BANKING
JPMorgan CEO optimistic
JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said he remains optimistic about the global economy and the prospects for regulatory reform under US President Donald Trump. “Japan is growing more than it has grown in 15 years, Europe is doing well all things considered, America is chugging along,” Dimon said on Saturday in Riyadh. “Even the IMF, which is always warning about stuff, is saying the world will grow faster than expected.” Dimon said he is comfortable about JPMorgan’s future given its positioning in emerging markets like Saudi Arabia, which is moving to privatize assets and gaining increased attention from international investment banks.
UNITED STATES
Crowdfunding gets slow start
It has been a year since US rules went into effect enabling anyone — not just the ultra-wealthy — to buy a slice of a start-up. However, investors sprinkled just about US$38 million across 142 companies since May last year, when Title III of the JOBS Act allowed equity crowdfunding for non-accredited investors, according to data from industry tracker NextGen Crowdfunding LLC. Richard Swart, a founding board member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association, said the slow start is a little surprising, adding that the practice is still in its infancy. Wefunder, StartEngine and SeedInvest are the primary crowdfunding platforms and many founders are not aware that equity fundraising is an option, he said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured