INTERNET
Tencent beats forecast
Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) revenue grew a faster-than-expected 29 percent after it expanded the world’s largest online gaming empire in defiance of an economic downturn. Sales rose to 114.9 billion yuan (US$16.5 billion) in the three months that ended in June, versus the 112.4 billion yuan average forecast. Net income was 33.1 billion yuan, compared with the 27.3 billion yuan projected. China’s biggest social media company has benefited from an Internet resurgence during COVID-19, but is grappling with economic malaise as well as a US ban on its WeChat (微信) app with potentially far-ranging effects.
BANKING
Amro to wind down units
ABN Amro Bank NV is to stop providing corporate finance outside Europe and exit trade and commodity financing altogether as the Dutch bank tries to turn around an investment banking division hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. As many as 800 jobs, or one-third of the total, are at risk in a plan to hive off and wind down activities that account for about 45 percent of the unit’s client loans, the bank said yesterday. The process would take three to four years, it said. The bank reported a net loss of 5 million euros (US$5.9 million) for the quarter on writedowns and a slowdown in lending prompted by the pandemic.
E-COMMERCE
Asos has positive outlook
British online fashion retailer Asos PLC yesterday forecast full-year sales and profit significantly ahead of market expectations, saying it was benefiting from stronger-than-anticipated underlying demand. It said revenue growth for its 2019-2020 year was now expected to be 17 to 19 percent with pretax profit in the region of ￡130 million to ￡150 million (US$170 million to US$196 million). Asos made a pretax profit of ￡33.1 million in 2018-2019. “Looking forward, the consumer and economic outlook remains uncertain and it is unclear how long the current favorable shopping behavior will persist,” Asos said.
ELECTRONICS
Court finds Apple at fault
Apple Inc must pay more than US$500 million in damages and interest for 4G patent infringements held by intellectual property company PanOptis Patent Management LLC, a Texas court has ruled. The US tech giant — now worth almost US$2 trillion — would appeal Tuesday’s decision, local media said. PanOptis took Apple to court in February last year, saying it refused to pay for the use of 4G LTE technologies in its smartphones, tablets and watches. The Texas court has twice ruled against Apple in the past, demanding it pay hundreds of millions of dollars to VirnetX Holding Corp — another company specializing in patent litigation.
VIETNAM
Trade surplus increases
The country last month recorded a trade surplus of US$2.8 billion, widening from a surplus of US$1.85 billion in June, government customs data released yesterday showed. Exports rose 10.2 percent from June to US$24.87 billion, while imports were up 6.7 percent to US$22.10 billion, the Customs Department said in a statement. For the first seven months of this year, exports rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier to US$147.61 billion, while imports fell 3 percent to US$139.21 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$8.4 billion.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
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