WEALTH
Bezos named world’s richest
Amazon.com Inc chief Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest person, having snatched the top spot from Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates who slips to second place, according to Forbes magazine’s annual billionaires list published on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump’s ranking on the list fell to 766th place from 544th in the last edition, his wealth now being estimated at US$3.1 billion, US$400 million less than a year ago. Bezos’ fortune shot up to US$112 billion, Forbes said, way ahead of the US$90 billion listed for Gates.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Broadcom deal opposed
Broadcom Ltd’s hostile takeover attempt of Qualcomm Inc could pose a national security risk because of Qualcomm’s leadership in developing critical semiconductor technology, the US Department of the Treasury said, setting up a potentially insurmountable hurdle to getting a deal done. Qualcomm’s sale to Singapore-based Broadcom could hurt the chipmaker’s competitiveness by reducing research and development, which would threaten US security, the Treasury said in a letter on Monday, which Qualcomm released the following day. Harm to Qualcomm’s innovation would allow China to expand its influence in key wireless technology, the US government said.
TELECOMS
Blackberry sues Facebook
Canadian telecom firm BlackBerry Ltd on Tuesday sued Facebook Inc, accusing the US social media company of infringing on its patents for messaging apps. BlackBerry is claiming infringement on patents it holds for message encryption and notifications, and is seeking an injunction as well as damages for lost profits, although no figure was given. Facebook and its wholly owned services Instagram and WhatsApp are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
LOGISTICS
Deutsche Post makes targets
German logistics group Deutsche Post DHL Group yesterday said it had hit its targets for last year and remained confident for this year, buoyed by continuing growth in online shopping. Net profit at the Bonn-based firm increased 2.8 percent to 2.7 billion euros (US$3.3 billion) last year, slightly short of forecasts from analysts surveyed by Factset. Operating profit grew 7.2 percent to 3.7 billion euros, while revenue added 5.4 percent to reach 60.4 billion euros.
TOYS
Lego sales, profit contract
Danish toy maker Lego saw profits shrink last year, as the company struggled in major markets, posting its first drop in revenue since 2004. The company’s revenue fell 7.7 percent from a year earlier to 35 billion kroner (US$5.82 billion), weighing down net profit, which plunged 17.2 percent to 7.8 billion kroner. Operating profit decreased 16.8 percent to 10.4 billion kroner.
? INTERNET
WeChat users hit 1 billion
China’s WeChat (微信) social media platform has crossed the 1 billion accounts mark, as its messaging, game and shopping services attract more users. The symbolic threshold was announced on Monday by Ma Huateng (馬化騰), chief executive of its parent company, Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), on the sidelines of China’s National People’s Congress session. The all-in-one app is a daily necessity for most Chinese, bringing together messaging, social media, mobile payment, games, news and other services.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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