SUPERMARKETS
JD open in Beijing
JD.com Inc (京東) has opened its first of a chain of high-tech supermarkets in Beijing, following archrival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) into the world of physical retail. The chain of “7Fresh” stores represent its biggest foray into traditional retail, and like Alibaba it is counting on reaching new customers and securing valuable data by connecting online and offline shopping. JD’s new stores and Alibaba’s Hema chain both allow shoppers to use a mobile app and digital payments.
AUTOMOBILES
BlackBerry, Baidu partner
Canadian telecommunications software company BlackBerry Ltd and China’s Web giant Baidu Inc (百度) on Wednesday announced a partnership for autonomous and connected vehicles. The two are to collaborate to accelerate the deployment of connected and autonomous vehicle technology for automotive original equipment manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, they said. BlackBerry’s operating system is to be the foundation for Baidu’s Apollo autonomous driving open platform, they added.
TELECOMS
AT&T launches 5G in US
AT&T Inc aims to be the first US carrier to provide 5G mobile service to customers this year, pitting the wireless giant against Verizon Communications Inc and T-Mobile US Inc in a costly network upgrade race to spur revenue growth. Unlike current trials using 5G technology to beam signals between stationary antennas, AT&T said in a statement it would introduce a commercial mobile service in more than a dozen US cities later this year. AT&T said it has upgraded networks in 23 cities for 5G.
AUTOMAKERS
US sales decline
Automakers on Wednesday reported the first annual decline in US sales since the end of the financial crisis, a dip offset by continued strength in sales of trucks and other large vehicles. The three leaders in the US market — General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp — all reported modest declines compared with the sales records set in 2016. The results put an end to US auto industry’s eight-year streak of increases, as the national total slipped 1.5 percent to 17.23 million, Autodata said.
ENERGY
Petrobras to settle lawsuits
Brazil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras has agreed to pay US$2.95 billion to settle lawsuits in the US over the sprawling corruption scandal that has ensnared dozens of officials and business executives across Latin America. The company on Wednesday said that the deal ends a legal battle with investors who allegedly suffered losses after a corruption probe exposed mushrooming corruption in the company. Petrobras also says it was a victim of the corruption scheme and that the “agreement does not constitute any admission of wrongdoing or misconduct” by the company.
INDIA
Services sector expands
The nation’s services sector expanded last month, reversing November last year’s decline and boosting expectations that the worst is over for the third-largest economy in Asia. The Nikkei India Services purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.9 from 48.5 in November, data showed yesterday, above the 50 mark that separates growth and contraction. The manufacturing gauge had advanced to 54.7 from 52.6, pushing up the composite index to 53 from 50.3 — the highest since October 2016.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”