Huawei's flagship phone, the Pura 70 series, is on direct sale. TSMC lowered its chip market expansion forecast. ASML's CEO said there was no reason not to serve Chinese customers. Tesla's market capitalization fell below $500 billion. TSMC, Changdian Technology, Netflix, Alcoa, and Blackstone Group announced results. Huawei announced on the morning of April 18 that the Huawei Pura 70 series pioneer program was officially launched. The Pura 70 Ultra and Pura 70 Pro go on sale at 10:08 a.m. From the pricing point of view, the price of the Pura 70 mobile phone starts at 5499 yuan, the price of Pura 70 Pro starts at 6499 yuan, the price of Pura 70 Pro+ starts at 7999, and the price of Pura 70 Ultra starts at 9999 yuan. The Pura 70 series is equipped with HarmonyOS 4.2, the Pura70 Ultra is equipped with a super-focused telescopic camera, and the Pura 70 Pro+ and Ultra versions support both satellite calls and Beidou image messaging. This is also the second time that after last year's Mate 60 series, Huawei terminals have launched flagship models without holding a press conference.
TSMC lowered its forecast for chip market expansion, warning that the smartphone and PC market remains weak. The world's largest advanced chipmaker lowered its forecast for semiconductor market growth (excluding memory chips) to around 10% in 2024. CEO Wei Zhejia also lowered his growth forecast for TSMC's leading foundry. At the same time, the company has maintained its spending estimate for capacity expansion and upgrades this year at between $28 billion and $32 billion.
The U.S. and Dutch governments are negotiating on restricting lithography machine manufacturer ASML (ASML) from providing services for relevant equipment purchased by Chinese customers, in this context, ASML CEO (CEO) Peter Wennink said on the 17th that the company has no reason not to provide services for equipment that has been sold to Chinese customers. ASML's chief financial officer, Roger Dassen, said that about 20 percent of the company's unfulfilled orders came from Chinese customers. He also said that Chinese chipmakers are expanding the production of some "mature" chips.
Oracle will invest more than $8 billion over 10 years from 2024 to add a data center in Japan. In terms of cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) development, it will be possible to store and process important data and personal information in Japan without having to take it overseas. The Japanese government has passed the Personal Information Protection Act to restrict the cross-border transfer of personal data. Around Japan's data centers, tech giants have proposed huge investment plans. Microsoft will invest a total of $2.9 billion in two years, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the largest cloud service company, will invest 2.26 trillion yen over five years.
Apple will invest more than $250 million to expand its regional center in Singapore to support growth and new business in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), a move that comes as the U.S. tech giant works to diversify its business in Asia. Apple will begin construction later this year to expand its existing campus in Singapore, including upgrading two buildings acquired in 2022 to provide a better working environment for its more than 3,600 local employees.
Google on Wednesday announced a new round of layoffs and said it would move some jobs overseas. The layoffs will affect a large number of employees in Google's finance and real estate divisions, but the exact number is unknown.
According to Canalys research, the Indian smartphone market performed strongly in the first quarter of 2024, with 35.3 million units shipped. Samsung maintained its No. 1 position in the market with a 19% share and shipments of 6.7 million units. Xiaomi ranked second with 6.4 million units, Vivo ranked third with 6.2 million units shipped, and OPPO (excluding OnePlus) and realme ranked in the top five with 3.7 million and 3.4 million units, respectively.
Volkswagen will launch a lower-priced electric vehicle production platform aimed at strengthening its position in China. The German automaker and China's Xpeng have reached a new framework agreement to jointly develop electrification and digital architectures for Volkswagen-branded electric models produced in China. From 2026 onwards, GAO will launch four electric vehicles produced in China based on this platform. Volkswagen and Xpeng have been working together in China since last year.
Tesla's board of directors asked shareholders to vote again for the tens of billions of dollars compensation package for its chief executive, Elon Musk. The board approved the compensation package in 2018, but a Delaware court rejected it in January because it found the approval process was "seriously flawed." Tesla is also seeking to move its company registration from Delaware to Texas, where the company is headquartered. Tesla's market capitalization fell below $500 billion for the first time in nearly a year.
Boeing's quality problems have prompted a growing number of former employees to come forward and express concerns about its manufacturing processes. The latest is Roy Irvin, a quality manager who retired in 2020, who said Boeing discourages 787 Dreamliner employees from pointing out problems or suggesting changes to prevent confusion.
British Petroleum (BP) has restructured its top management. In order to simplify the organizational structure and increase the value of the company, the executive leadership team will be reduced to 10 people. Murray Auchincloss, the company's chief executive, said we needed to be a simpler, more focused and more valuable company. These changes will help us do just that.
Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has a nearly 6% stake in rare earth developer Lynas. Over the course of a week, Reinhardt's Hancock Prospecting bought shares in Australia's Lynas and acquired a 5% stake in US-listed MP Materials. The two companies, two of the largest rare earth developers outside of China, recently entered into merger talks.
Following the announcement of the business integration in February, Meituan CEO Wang Xing released an internal email on April 18, announcing the progress of the organizational iteration after the integration. According to the email, the previously integrated Meituan platform, the store group, the home business group and the basic R&D platform will be merged into the "Core Local Commerce" (Core Local Commerce) sector, and Wang Puzhong will be the CEO of the core local business. According to the email, Meituan will no longer set up the in-store business group and the home delivery business group, and the departments under the jurisdiction of the two business groups will be adjusted to directly belong to the "core local business".
The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan in March 2024 and the tourism consumption in January~March both set new records. Driven by the depreciation of the yen, "experiential consumption" is booming to experience experience-based services. According to data released by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) on April 17, the number of visitors to Japan reached 3,081,600 in March, 11.6% higher than in March 2019, before the pandemic. The number of people exceeded the previous monthly high (2,991,189 in July 2019) and exceeded 3 million for the first time. By country and region, South Korea topped the list with 663,100 tourists, followed by Taiwan with 484,400. Chinese mainland came in third with 452,400 people.
Financial Reporting Information
JCET, a provider of integrated circuit finished products manufacturing and technology services, announced its 2023 annual report. For the full year of 2023, the Company achieved operating revenue of RMB29.66 billion and net profit of RMB1.47 billion, of which revenue in the fourth quarter was RMB9.23 billion, up 11.8% quarter-on-quarter and approximately 3% year-on-year, and net profit of RMB500 million in the fourth quarter, up 3.9% quarter-on-quarter. The company's R&D investment in 2023 reached RMB1.44 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%.
TSMC announced its first-quarter 2024 results. Quarterly consolidated revenue was NT$592.64 billion, down 16.5% year-on-year and down 5.3% sequentially, and net profit was NT$225.49 billion, up 8.9% year-on-year and down 5.5% sequentially. The quarterly operating profit was 249.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. Driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence, the world's largest foundry chipmaker saw its profits rise for the first time in a year.
Netflix announces first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $9.37 billion, compared to $8.162 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $2,332 million, compared to $1,305 million in the year-ago quarter.
Alcoa reports first-quarter 2024 results. Quarterly revenue was $2.6 billion, down approximately 2.6% year-over-year. Net loss widened to $252 million. Adjusted EBIT was $132 million.
Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager, has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Total revenue for the quarter was $3,688 million, compared to $1,382 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income attributable to the Company for the quarter was $847 million, compared to $85.81 million in the year-ago quarter. Distributable earnings for the quarter reached $1,266 million, up 1% year-over-year. Blackstone's assets under management increased 7.1% from the year-ago quarter to $1.06 trillion.
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