Huang doesn't believe AI will make human jobs disappear. Restrictions on the use of Tesla in various parts of the country have been lifted one after another. Another regional bank in the United States collapsed. L'Occitane announced that it had received a privatization offer from the company's controlling shareholder. PetroChina, Sinopec, ExxonMobil, Chevron, SAIC, BYD, Celis, Yum China, All Nippon Airways and Honeywell announced results. Nvidia's chips are driving the AI revolution. But while CEO Jensen Huang believes AI will change the world, he doesn't believe human jobs will disappear. Huang said that as AI technology helps some companies grow, it's only natural that those companies will scale. He also believes that AI will help businesses expand naturally, increase revenues and create more jobs. Huang emphasized that even if some work becomes obsolete, people still want humans to be involved in the process: "Because we have good judgment, there are situations that machines simply can't understand." ”
OpenAI's Sam Altman and tech industry leaders such as the CEOs of Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet will join a new U.S. federal advisory committee focused on the safe use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the nation's critical infrastructure. This is the latest effort by the U.S. government to fill the regulatory vacuum for rapidly developing AI technologies. The AI Safeguards Committee is part of the U.S. government's efforts to protect the economy, public health, and vital industries from AI threats, U.S. officials said.
IBM is partnering with the federal government of Canada and the government of Quebec to jointly invest C$187 million ($136.9 million) to establish a chip packaging business in Quebec. The blue-chip technology company has reached this agreement with the governments of Canada and the governments of Quebec to strengthen the country's semiconductor industry.
Paramount Global's board of directors is considering removing CEO Bob Bakish and forming a committee of top executives to temporarily manage the entertainment giant. Under the plan under discussion, Paramount's board of directors and Shari Redstone's controlling shareholder, National Amusements, will set up an "office of the chief executive officer" comprised of heads from various parts of the company following Bakish's departure.
Blackstone said Monday that it had agreed to buy the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which is the rights holder for artists such as Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for about $1.57 billion. Under the agreement, Blackstone's music rights portfolio will add more than 65,000 songs, including songs by Blondie and Neil Young. Blackstone's rights portfolio already includes songs by Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake.
Tesla, a U.S. stock, rose 15.31% on Monday, its biggest one-day gain in three years, and its market value increased by $82.168 billion. Tesla China confirmed to the media on Monday that restrictions on the use of Tesla in various parts of the country have been lifted one after another. This breakthrough is also seen as clearing the way for fully autonomous driving (FSD) technology to be implemented in China. Tesla Inc. may work with Baidu on maps and navigation features to clear a key hurdle to rolling out advanced driver assistance features in China.
BMW Group announced on April 26 that it will deepen its presence in China and plan to invest an additional CNY 20 billion in its Shenyang production base. The investment will focus on large-scale upgrades and technological innovations at the Dadong Plant, the birthplace of BMW's production in China, laying a solid foundation for the launch of local production of BMW's "Next Generation" models in 2026. The BMW Group and BMW Brilliance will take the new investment as an opportunity to leverage the localization of BMW's "Next Generation" models to deepen strategic cooperation with Liaoning Province and Shenyang in multiple fields such as industrial upgrading, technological innovation, supply chain strengthening, and talent training, so as to promote the high-quality development of new energy and intelligent connected industry clusters in Northeast China.
U.S. regulators took over the troubled Philadelphia bank, Republic First Bancorp, and sold it to fellow regional lender Fulton Financial, the fourth high-profile bank failure since last spring. Pennsylvania regulators shut down the bank on Friday and put it up for sale after an auction by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
BHP is considering a higher takeover offer after BHP Group's initial US$39 billion takeover offer to Anglo American plc was rejected. BHP Billiton is discussing a revised offer for Anglo American in the coming weeks, which is still under consideration and the group has yet to make a decision on the size and structure of the new proposal. If the negotiations between the two sides reach an agreement, the deal would be the world's largest mining acquisition so far in 2024 and would be among the top 10 largest deals in the industry's history.
The French government has proposed to buy key assets of the heavily indebted technology company Atos, as Paris wants to keep them in its own hands. The French government wants to buy three strategic parts of Atos: a supercomputer for quantum computing, which is used by the French military in the country's nuclear weapons program, secure communications technology that is also used by the military, and certain cybersecurity assets.
Philips, a medical device maker, said on Monday it would pay $1.1 billion to settle hundreds of personal injury lawsuits in the United States over its defective sleep apnea device, which has been subject to a massive global recall. The Dutch manufacturer did not admit any fault and said that an agreement had been reached to resolve any uncertainties faced in the case. The payout also includes medical monitoring claims from patients who use the company's devices, who may be at risk in the future. Monday's announcement is another step in addressing the largest medical device recall in the industry's history, which has been delayed for nearly three years.
L'Oreal's first intelligent operation center was officially put into operation in Suzhou on April 26. Located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, the Suzhou Smart Operation Center will be an important hub for L'Oréal to process D2C and B2B (business-to-business) orders in China, covering a wide range of commercial customers such as e-commerce platforms, offline retail, hair salons, etc., and supporting 10 brands of the Group, including L'Oréal Paris, CeraVe and Kérastase. Spanning 46,000 square meters, the center is purpose-built for exceptional execution scale and fulfillment efficiency. Equipped with state-of-the-art automation and information technology systems, the center has significantly improved the efficiency of order fulfillment – processing more than 7,000 D2C orders per hour.
The Board of Directors of L'Occitane International announced that L'Occitane Groupe, the controlling shareholder of the Company, has proposed to acquire all of the Company's shares (excluding treasury shares) that it does not currently hold, and plans to privatize the Company and delist the Company's shares from the Stock Exchange. The company's current management team will remain in place and continue to operate as a privately held company on an as-is basis. The Offeror is ultimately controlled by Mr. Reinold Geiger, who is the Chairman of the Board and a Director of the Company and the Offeror. The Offeror and the parties acting in concert jointly hold 72.64% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company.
French groups Hermes, LVMH and Kering saw very different sales growth in the first quarter, a test of the industry's resilience after years of rapid expansion and profit growth during the pandemic. This is partly a reflection of the customer base they serve, with the winners being brands that target the ultra-wealthy. The fortunes of the world's three luxury groups are beginning to diverge as the industry shifts to a low-growth phase and the key Chinese market faces more challenging conditions.
The Carlyle Group, a U.S. investment fund, has initiated final coordination for the acquisition of Japan's KFC Holdings. Around KFC Japan, Mitsubishi Corporation is looking for a buyer for its stake and locks in the final candidate as the Carlyle Group. A final decision will be made as soon as May. Carlyle is expected to acquire a 35% stake from Mitsubishi Corporation to privatize it. KFC Japan is currently doing strongly. Affected by the rise in raw material prices, the prices of major products have been raised in stages, and the sales of existing stores have exceeded the previous year for 18 consecutive months.
The UAE recently approved the design of a new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), which will be the largest in the world and cost up to AED 128 billion (US$34.85 billion). DWC Airport in Dubai South is planned to cover an area of 70 square kilometres and will eventually handle more than 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo per year. Dubai expects the first phase of the project to be completed within 10 years, with an annual passenger throughput of 150 million. Located approximately 45 kilometres from the existing Dubai International Airport, DWC opened its cargo operations in June 2010 and its passenger terminal opened in October 2013 and is currently designed to carry passengers between 5 million and 7 million passengers per year.
Financial Reporting Information
PetroChina announced its first quarter report for 2024. In accordance with the International Financial Reporting Accounting Standards, the Group achieved operating income of RMB812.184 billion, an increase of 10.9% from RMB732.471 billion in the same period of last year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of RMB45.683 billion, an increase of 4.7% from RMB43.624 billion in the same period of last year, mainly due to the increase in domestic sales of refined oil, natural gas, chemicals and other products, as well as the further promotion of quality and efficiency improvement.
Sinopec released its first quarter 2024 earnings report. During the reporting period, the operating income was 789.967 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%. net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 18.316 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.9%. In the first quarter, the output of oil and gas equivalent was 18.12 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.4 percent, the output of natural gas was 9.9 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 6.0 percent, the crude oil processing volume was 63.3 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, the total sales volume of refined oil products was 59.81 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent, the output of ethylene was 3.279 million tons, and the total business volume of chemical products was 19.51 million tons.
FII released its first quarter report for 2024. The quarterly revenue was 118.688 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.09%, the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 4.185 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.77%, and the non-net profit was 4.272 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.22%.
SAIC Motor announced its first quarter 2024 results. The total operating income for the quarter was 143.072 billion yuan, down 1.95% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 2.714 billion yuan, down 2.48% year-on-year.
BYD released its first quarter 2024 report. In the quarter, the company achieved operating income of 124.944 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.97%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 4.569 billion yuan, an increase of 10.62%.
Cialis announced its results for the first quarter of 2024. The quarterly operating income was 26.561 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 421.76%, mainly due to the sales of 94,800 new energy vehicles in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 374.77% and a month-on-month increase of 14.66%, and the sales of new energy vehicles in a single quarter hit a record high. The net profit attributable to the parent company was 220 million yuan, a year-on-year turnaround, mainly due to the increase in sales and gross profit margin of new energy vehicles, as well as the decrease in expense ratio during the period of cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
Yum China Announces Unaudited Financial Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2024. Total revenue increased 1% to $2.96 billion. Among them, KFC's total revenue was $2.23 billion, and Pizza Hut's total revenue was $595 million. Operating profit was $374 million, compared to $416 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income was $287 million, compared to $289 million in the year-ago quarter. As of March 31, 2024, the total number of stores reached 15,022, including 10,603 KFC stores and 3,425 Pizza Hut stores. Net new store additions in the quarter were 378.
ANA Holdings announced its consolidated financial results for fiscal year 2023 (April 2023 ~ March 2024). Net profit rose 75.6% from the previous fiscal year to a record high of 157 billion yen. Sales increased by 20.4% to 2.0559 trillion yen. Passenger revenue from international flights operated by ANA reached 728.1 billion yen, surpassing domestic flights for the first time.
According to Murata Manufacturing's consolidated financial results for fiscal 2023 (ending March 2024), sales decreased by 3% year-on-year to 1.6401 trillion yen, and net income decreased by 26% to 180.8 billion yen.
Allianz Partners announces its 2023 annual results. Total revenues amounted to 9.3 billion euros, up 13.0% compared to 2022. Operating profit amounted to 301.2 million euros, up 5.8 percent compared to 2022. This was Allianz's strongest financial performance in its history. The health business grew significantly by 23.4 percent, with revenues of 2,959 million euros in 2023. The travel insurance business grew by 8.0% to €3,297 million in 2023. Mobility & Assistance generated revenues of 2,902 million euros, representing an annual growth rate of 11.2 percent.
DEKRA Group announces its results for the 2023 fiscal year. Global turnover reached an all-time high of 4.1 billion euros, up 8% from 3.8 billion euros in 2022. At the same time, the Group's earnings increased significantly, with adjusted EBITDA of 455.5 million euros, up 7.8 percent compared to 2022. Adjusted EBIT amounted to EUR 255.3 million, up 12.8 percent on 2022. Regionally, DEKRA Americas (up 27 percent) and Central and Eastern Europe & the Middle East (up 13 percent) enjoyed the highest growth rates in 2023. In terms of turnover, the GSA region (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) has the highest turnover at 2.6 billion euros.
ExxonMobil announced its first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $83.083 billion, compared to $86.564 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income attributable to the Company for the quarter was $8.22 billion, compared to $11.43 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Chevron reports first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $48.716 billion, compared to $50.793 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income attributable to the Company for the quarter was $5,501 million, compared to $6,574 million in the year-ago quarter.
Honeywell reports first-quarter 2024 results. Quarterly sales were $9,105 million, compared to $8,864 million in the year-ago quarter. Among them, the sales of Aerospace Technology Group were 3.669 billion US dollars, the sales of Intelligent Industrial Technology Group were 2.478 billion US dollars, the sales of Intelligent Building Technology Group were 1.426 billion US dollars, and the sales of Energy and Sustainable Technology Group were 1.525 billion US dollars.
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