Last week's highlights: Generative AI is not yet ubiquitous in business. Nvidia delivery wait times have been significantly reduced. TSMC will receive $6.6 billion in subsidies for building chip factories in the United States. ByteDance's divestment of TikTok's U.S. assets may be extended to one year. Blizzard and NetEase will return to the Chinese mainland market. Jack Ma said that Ali has returned to the track of healthy growth. Volkswagen admits that electric vehicles can't lead in China. Tesla has reached a settlement with the family of the driver who died in the assisted driving accident. Boeing aircraft have another hood falling off. Shell is considering moving its listing location from London to New York. 1. Generative AI is not yet widely available in the business sector
ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI have experienced rapid growth, but many businesses are still hesitant to jump headlong. Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT have all tried to bring generative AI to business. Proponents hope the technology will be transformative. Extensive surveys of business confidence show that many businesses are treading cautiously. Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in March showed that an estimated 5.4 percent of businesses use some type of AI to produce products or provide services. Data from the Census Bureau shows that the information industry and large enterprises are using AI relatively more.
Related: Japan's largest telecommunications company and the country's largest newspaper have called for legislation to limit generative AI as soon as possible, saying democracy and social order could collapse if AI is allowed to develop. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings made this suggestion in an AI manifesto released. The Japanese company's manifesto points to the potential benefits of generative AI in terms of increased productivity, but is generally skeptical of the technology. The manifesto did not provide specifics, but said that AI tools have begun to undermine human dignity because they are sometimes designed to capture the attention of users without regard for ethics or accuracy.
2. Nvidia delivery waiting time has been significantly reduced
A TSMC executive said that the waiting time for delivery of the Nvidia H100 has been significantly reduced in the past few months, from the initial 3-4 months to the current 2-3 months (8-12 weeks). Server OEMs also revealed that compared with the situation that it is almost impossible to buy Nvidia H100 in 2023, the current supply bottleneck is gradually easing. Six months ago, the H100 had an 11-month wait time, and most Nvidia customers would have to wait nearly a year to get their AI GPUs. Related: Chip design company Arm has made a name for itself for putting a lot of thought into minimizing smartphone power consumption and extending battery life. Now, the company's head says that in AI applications, there is also a need to improve energy efficiency. Rene Haas, Arm's chief executive, said that AI models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT "simply can't satisfy their thirst for electricity." "The more information they collect, the smarter they get, but the more information they collect in order to get smarter, the more electricity they need. "Without improving efficiency," AI data centers could consume as much as 20 to 25 percent of U.S. electricity by the end of the decade. Honestly, it's hard to sustain."
3 TSMC will receive $6.6 billion in subsidies from the United States
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will receive no more than $6.6 billion from the U.S. government for a factory complex under construction in Phoenix, and will expand the plant's production range and precision. TSMC will invest more than $65 billion in total and will add a third chip factory to the production complex that began construction in 2021. As the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, the company will also produce the most cutting-edge 2nm chips available at one of its factories. The company will receive the above funding in phases when the project reaches the milestones agreed upon. TSMC is the third company to receive large sums of money under the CHIPS Act, after GF and Intel. Related: Samsung Electronics will unveil plans to invest $44 billion in U.S. chip manufacturing. The world's largest memory chip maker has received more than $6 billion in U.S. government grants for an investment program that is expected to expand to $44 billion within a few years. In 2021, the company announced a $17 billion project in Taylor, Texas, not far from the existing Samsung factory in Austin.
4. Divestment of TikTok's U.S. assets may be extended for a longer period of time
After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last month to require ByteDance to divest TikTok, the U.S. Senate is discussing extending the deadline for TikTok's divestiture, and lawmakers may extend the deadline to force ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets to one year. This would push back any possible TikTok ban until 2025, after the presidential election in November this year. This undoubtedly won a little respite for TikTok, which is struggling to survive in the cracks. The bill is largely unpopular with TikTok users, many of whom also happen to be young voters who could have significant influence in the 2024 U.S. election, and senators are well aware of this. Related: Statistics show that TikTok will generate $14.7 billion in revenue for small and medium-sized businesses in the United States in 2023 and contribute $24.2 billion to the U.S. economy, and about seven out of ten small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States believe that TikTok has brought an increase in sales.
5 Blizzard NetEase Composite will return to the Chinese mainland market
Blizzard Entertainment will partner with Netease to bring its best-selling games back to Chinese mainland this summer, extending a partnership that ended in January. Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Gaming and NetEase issued a statement saying that the updated game publishing agreement will include Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and other games. Microsoft Gaming and NetEase also said they would also consider bringing new NetEase games to Xbox and beyond.
Related: On November 17, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, announced that most of Blizzard's game services in Chinese mainland will be suspended due to the expiration of the existing licensing agreement with NetEase on January 23, 2023.
6
Jack Ma said that Ali has returned to the track of healthy growth
On April 10, Jack Ma published a post titled "To Reform and Innovation" on Alibaba's intranet, highly affirming the courage of the new management composed of Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, saying that Alibaba has returned to the track of healthy growth and supports continued reform. It is reported that this is the first time in five years that Ma Yun has shared his thoughts on the company's reform and innovation and future prospects after retirement. Ma Yun believes in the article that the core change of Ali in the past year is not to catch up with KPIs, but to recognize itself and return to the track of customer value. By operating on the disease of large companies, Ali has returned to the supremacy of efficiency and the market, and has become simple and agile. Related: Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma praised the company's top leadership and ongoing restructuring efforts in a notice to employees, a rare move by the billionaire after stepping out of the spotlight in recent years. Jack Ma praised Alibaba's chairman, Joe Tsai, and CEO Wu Yongming for their leadership. Alibaba announced a restructuring in March last year, splitting the group into six independently operated companies. But then it abandoned some of its restructuring plans, including plans to list its logistics business Cainiao in March this year. The company has also shelved a plan to spin off its cloud computing business.
7
Volkswagen admits that electric vehicles can't lead in China
Volkswagen Group CEO Bloom said Volkswagen wanted to avoid setting a "utopian" target for its market share in China, and that reaching double-digit market share in the long term in a highly competitive environment is already a very ambitious goal. In an interview with German media, Bloom said that Volkswagen "cannot maintain its leading position at the moment" in the field of electric vehicles in China. At the same time, he added that Volkswagen's upcoming new models in the next few years will improve its current position. Volkswagen's overall market share in China fell to 14% last year from 18% in 2018, while domestic EV makers are gaining market share.
Related: Volkswagen will spend 2.5 billion euros to expand its production and research base in China as part of its strategy to compete in the world's largest automotive market. The German auto giant said on Thursday that it would invest the money at its production center in Hefei, Anhui province, to accelerate innovation and strengthen local R&D capabilities. The company said the investment will accelerate the development of two Volkswagen-branded EVs in collaboration with Chinese partner XPeng. The investment is part of Volkswagen's strategy to develop new vehicles in China that will appeal to local consumers and bring them to market faster.
8
Tesla settles with the family of the driver who died in the crash
Tesla has reached a settlement with the families of the drivers who died in a 2018 crash involving the company's Autopilot, and lawyers were supposed to issue an opening statement in a few days. The wrongful death lawsuit involved a car accident involving Walter Huang, a 38-year-old Apple engineer. The driver who drove a Model X SUV while driving on Highway 101 in California crashed into a highway guardrail and died while using Tesla's Autopilot.
Related: A Tesla Model Y owner posted on X how he relied on Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) feature to drive 13 miles to the hospital without human intervention during a recent illness outbreak, and was promptly assisted by doctors to save a life, and thanked Tesla. The post has now been viewed more than 12 million times, and Musk responded: "I'm glad Tesla FSD can help you, and you feel good too!"
9
Boeing aircraft now has a hood falling off incident
The U.S. Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the hood of a Boeing 737-800 of Southwest Airlines as it took off from Denver, Colorado. Flight 3695, which was supposed to fly to Houston, Texas, returned safely to Denver International Airport after a crew member reported that one of the engine hoods had detached and hit the flaps of the wing during takeoff. Videos posted on social media appear to show the 737-800 aircraft beginning to disintegrate as it takes off on the runway at Denver International Airport. This is the latest accident with a Boeing aircraft.
RELATED: The FAA is investigating a Boeing engineer's report about the safety of the 787 Dreamliner. The whistleblower claimed that the various parts of the fuselage of the 787 he worked on were not properly fastened together, and that the problem could have weakened the aircraft's performance over time. In addition, aircraft maintenance and testing are done in the wrong way. In response, Boeing said, "This claim about the structural integrity of the 787 is inaccurate, and Boeing has taken comprehensive measures to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft, and the company's engineers are completing a detailed analysis under the supervision of the FAA to determine whether long-term inspection and maintenance are required."
10. Shell is considering moving its listing location to New York
Wael Sawan, chief executive of oil giant Shell, said the company was considering a major strategic shift — whether to move its listing location from London to New York. The reason given by the CEO is that Shell is grossly undervalued in the London market. The valuations of London-listed Shell and BP are sharply at odds with their main US rivals ExxonMobil and Chevron, which are about one-third lower than the latter two. Sawan made it clear that by mid-2025, if the valuation gap persists, then "nothing is taboo, including moving the listing location to New York". RELATED: The UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has recently been studying a potential takeover bid for British Petroleum (BP), but the company has ultimately decided not to act. The deal did not pass initial discussions, and political considerations also affected the deal evaluation. This decision boils down to the fact that the company is not in line with ADNOC's current strategy. With BP underperforming its peers in recent years, analysts and investors alike believe that the British company could be a potential acquisition target. Currently, US oil majors are in the midst of the industry's biggest wave of consolidation in decades, but European oil majors have so far not been involved.