Last week's highlights: The U.S. revokes its license to sell semiconductors to Huawei. TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Apple became Warren Buffett's riskiest investment. Alibaba's large model has attracted more than 90,000 enterprise users. Amazon invested $9 billion in Singapore. BMW Volkswagen warns the EU not to raise tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. BYD aims to become the largest seller of electric vehicles in Europe. Ford lost more than $100,000 per electric car. AstraZeneca pulls COVID vaccines from the market. BBVA launched a hostile takeover of Sabadell.
1
The U.S. revoked the sale of semiconductor licenses to Huawei
The U.S. government has further tightened export controls on Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, and revoked licenses for American chip companies Qualcomm and Intel to sell semiconductors to Huawei, a key move to stop China from developing advanced artificial intelligence. The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed that it had "revoked some of its export licenses to Huawei," but did not say which U.S. companies were affected. The latest measures of the U.S. government against Huawei will affect the supply of chips for Huawei's mobile phones and laptops. Related: Intel said its current quarterly revenue will be lower than previously expected due to new restrictions on chipmakers selling chips to Huawei.
2TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government
TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, said they had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government challenging a law that would force the company to delist from TikTok or ban the app. Last month, Washington passed legislation requiring TikTok's parent company to divest it by Jan. 19, 2025, or the app would face a U.S.-wide ban. The lawsuit accuses the U.S. government of trampling on TikTok's First Amendment rights, as well as the free speech rights of millions of Americans, in the name of national security.
Related: TikTok will be the first social media platform to automatically tag certain artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content. The current rapid development of generative AI has deepened concerns about the spread of online disinformation and deepfakes. Online groups such as TikTok and Facebook owner Meta have asked users to disclose whether they have produced realistic images, audio or video with the help of AI software.
3. Apple has become Warren Buffett's riskiest investment
Apple was Warren Buffett's best investment, and today it is one of his riskiest investments. The legendary investor and his longtime partner, Charlie Munger, changed their investment style for Apple's tech stocks. Now, the size of the holdings is worrying some Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Apple is currently facing challenges such as falling stock prices, slowing sales in the Chinese market, and lagging behind in the AI race, which increases the risk of investing in Apple. Berkshire held a total of $135.4 billion worth of Apple stock at the end of March, down 22% from the end of December. Related: iPhone loses its technological lead in China. Apple's sales in China have declined even after a rare iPhone discount, suggesting that some Chinese consumers no longer see it as the only company leading the way in mobile phone technology. One reason for this is that the iPhone doesn't yet come with built-in artificial intelligence (AI)-related features from competitors like Huawei.
4. Ali's large model attracts more than 90,000 enterprise users
Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has attracted more than 90,000 enterprise users with large language models, which could fuel the company's efforts to reverse the slowdown in the growth of its cloud computing division. Alibaba Cloud says the number of enterprise users of the technology has been increasing rapidly since it first launched its large language model Qwen in China a year ago. Related: French AI startup Mistral AI is on the verge of closing a funding deal of about $600 million, nearly tripling its valuation to $6 billion. In February, Microsoft invested $16 million in Mistral AI and partnered with it to deliver Mistral AI's AI models through the Azure cloud computing platform.
5. Amazon's $9 billion investment is in Singapore
Amazon (Amazon.com) will invest an additional US$9 billion in its Singapore cloud infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cloud technologies and services. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud computing arm, said at the AWS ASEAN Summit in Singapore that the investment will be in place over the next four years. With these new investments, AWS plans to double its investment in Singapore's cloud infrastructure to more than US$17 billion by 2028.
Related: Microsoft will invest $3.3 billion to build a new data center in Wisconsin and conduct a training program to train locals on manufacturing AI jobs. It's the latest stop in the tech giant's global investment in AI infrastructure to quell concerns about the powerful technology.
6. BMW Volkswagen warns the EU not to raise tariffs on China
Philip Zipzer, the chief executive of Germany's BMW Group, said on May 8 that the EU's possible measures to impose additional tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China would only "shoot itself in the foot," arguing that "Europe's auto industry does not need trade protection." Zipzer also warned that tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles could also jeopardize the EU's plans to reduce emissions. The head of the Volkswagen brand also warned that Brussels should not raise tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles. The European Commission is investigating Chinese imports of electric vehicles, and it is widely expected to raise tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in the coming months. Related: Many multinational automakers, including Toyota, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz, are increasingly turning to Chinese tech giants in an attempt to regain market share in one of the world's largest and fastest-changing car markets. Recently, South Korea's Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors (Kia) announced plans to cooperate with Chinese internet giant Baidu to develop maps and artificial intelligence (AI) technology for China's autonomous driving and automotive software systems.
7
BYD wants to become the largest seller of electric vehicles in Europe
A BYD executive said the Chinese automaker is aiming to overtake Volkswagen, Tesla and Stellantis as Europe's biggest seller of electric vehicles this decade. Michael Shu, BYD's general manager for Europe, said the company plans to make "huge investments" in factories, dealerships and marketing in Europe to convince motorists to buy its electric and hybrid vehicles.
Related: Geely Holdings' premium electric vehicle brand Zeekr was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10, when Zeekr ADS closed at $28.26 per share, with a market capitalization of about $6.9 billion. The company raised $441 million through the issuance of 21 million shares, 3.5 million more than planned, and priced at the upper end of the $18-$21 offer range. The IPO is the largest initial public offering of a Chinese company in the U.S. since 2021. Since its establishment in 2021, ZEEKR has knocked on the door of the US stock market in only 3 years, becoming a new car-making force with the "fastest IPO in history".
8
Ford lost more than $100,000 per electric car
Ford Motor has begun cutting orders from battery suppliers to mitigate the growing losses in its electric vehicle business. The move is part of a strategic contraction in Ford's electric vehicle business, which, in addition to cutting battery orders, plans to reduce spending by $12 billion on battery electric models, delay the release of new electric vehicles, lower prices for vehicles such as the F-150 Lightning, and postpone and shrink planned battery plants. As EV prices plummeted and demand slowed, Ford lost more than $100,000 per EV in the first quarter, more than double last year's figure.
Related: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the X platform: "It's extremely difficult to build a great electric car at a great price. ”
9
AstraZeneca pulls COVID vaccines from the market
AstraZeneca, the British pharmaceutical giant, has pulled its once-popular coronavirus vaccine from the market, largely due to a lack of demand for the vaccine, which was initially hoped to play a key role in protecting the world from the virus. AstraZeneca said in a statement that the vaccine is no longer manufactured or available, a decision that is not related to any safety reasons. AstraZeneca's vaccine does not require an ultra-low temperature storage environment like some rival vaccines, so it is considered the best choice for the vaccine in most parts of the world. More than 3 billion doses of vaccines have been delivered.
Related: Novavax has announced a multibillion-dollar partnership agreement with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. According to the agreement, the two parties will jointly commercialize Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine from next year and jointly develop a combination vaccine against coronavirus and influenza.
10BBVA initiates a hostile takeover of Sabadell
BBVA has launched a hostile takeover offer worth €12.23 billion to smaller rival Banco de Sabadell, although the Sabadell bank's board of directors had earlier rejected the offer on the same terms. BBVA's vision is to create a bank with more than 100 million customers worldwide and assets of more than 1 trillion euros, which will make it second only to Santander in the Spanish banking sector. The combined bank will also overtake Caixabank as the largest domestic bank in Spain. RELATED: BBVA and Sabadell had previously negotiated a merger in November 2020, but the talks were eventually cancelled due to a failure to agree on terms, including price.