Last night and this morning, the world's largest companies | Microsoft China requires hundreds of cloud and AI engineers to be transferred abroad; Ping An is considering reducing its stake in HSBC worth $13.3 billion

Microsoft China requires hundreds of cloud and AI engineers to be transferred abroad to work. Huawei's Chinese tablet market share exceeded 36% in the first quarter. The Dow Jones crossed the 40,000-point mark for the first time. Ping An is considering reducing its stake in HSBC worth $13.3 billion. GlaxoSmithKline plans to sell all of its remaining shares in Helion. Richemont announces results. Microsoft is asking hundreds of employees in China's cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) business units to consider moving abroad. Most of these employees are Chinese engineers who have recently been offered reassignments to countries such as the United States, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Approximately 700 to 800 employees have been offered this opportunity, most of whom work in machine learning and other cloud computing-related jobs. The move comes as the U.S. government seeks to impose stricter restrictions on China's development of state-of-the-art AI technology. A Microsoft spokesperson said Thursday that it would "continue to do business [in China] and other markets where we do business."

OpenAI has struck a deal with social media platform Reddit to use the platform's content for its AI chatbot, a move that pushed Reddit shares up as much as 15% in after-hours trading. The Microsoft-backed startup has struck multiple deals with media companies, the latest in Thursday's announcement as the race for high-quality, reliable data to prop up powerful new AI models intensifies. At the same time, OpenAI is dealing with copyright lawsuits filed by publishers who are reluctant to allow the ChatGPT developer to use their content.

Apple is working on a thinner version of the iPhone, which could be released as early as 2025. The thinner iPhone, which could be released at the same time as the iPhone 17, which is expected to be released in September 2025, is estimated to be more expensive than Apple's most expensive model, the iPhone Pro Max, which starts at $1,200. The new thinner iPhone may reignite consumer interest in the product, giving consumers a reason to upgrade their devices. Since the release of the iPhone 12 in 2020, Apple has been criticized for making only minor changes to the iPhone's design every year.

IDC released a quarterly tracking report on China's tablet market in the first quarter of 2024, with shipments of 7.13 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%, of which the consumer market increased by 10.7% year-on-year and the commercial market increased by 6.3% year-on-year. Huawei continued to rank first with 2.59 million units shipped, with a market share of 36.3%. Apple's share is 24.4%, Xiaomi's share is 12.8%, Honor's share is 8.5%, and Lenovo's share is 4.7%.

According to data released by market research agency Counterpoint Research, the global TV market continued to be sluggish in the first quarter of 2024, with shipments falling by 4% year-on-year. Samsung Electronics ranked first with a market share of 16%, followed by Hisense (10%) and TCL (10%). LG Electronics came in fourth with 9%.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe expects the global sales boom of hybrid vehicles to continue until the end of the decade. The Japanese automaker expects its hybrid vehicle sales to increase to 1.8 million units a year by the end of the decade. Toshihiro Mibe said that Honda will stick to its goal of phasing out gasoline and diesel engine vehicles by 2040. This goal makes it one of the most ambitious Japanese automakers in terms of transformation.

Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier of jet airframes, is laying off 400-450 workers at its Wichita, Kansas, plant as it grapples with a slowdown in production at its largest customer, Boeing. Spirit, which was spun off from Boeing 20 years ago, has been at the center of quality issues affecting the 737 MAX jet. The Wichita plant employs approximately 13,000 people.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 40,000-point mark for the first time, a milestone that seemed impossible just as the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates more than two years ago to cool an overheated economy. At that time, all kinds of pessimistic expectations were overwhelming. As the Federal Reserve ended the era of ultra-low interest rates that followed the global financial crisis, economists predicted that the U.S. economy would face the bitter consequences of a recession and rising unemployment. Many economists had predicted a recession that had not yet occurred, raising hopes that the stock market could continue to climb. U.S. stocks closed on Friday, with the Dow closing above the 40,000-point mark for the first time at 40,003.59.

Ping An Insurance (Group) of China is studying options to reduce its 8% stake in HSBC Holdings. Possibilities under consideration include the sale of shares, sovereign wealth funds or Middle Eastern investors taking over large shares. The shares are currently worth $13.3 billion.

German aluminium producer Trimet Aluminium will ramp up production at its smelters in France and Germany to full capacity in the coming year. This is a sign that falling energy prices are helping the European aluminium industry recover from the brink of an existential crisis. For the past two years, Trimet Aluminium's smelters in Germany and France have been operating at less than 50% capacity utilization. The company said Thursday that it plans to ramp up capacity to full capacity by mid-2025, with a target of 540,000 tonnes per year. The company said it signed a long-term power supply contract with EDF last year for production plans at its French smelter.

Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, said its obesity drug had reduced patients by nearly 19 percent in early trials. Roche is looking to challenge Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's dominance in the burgeoning weight loss space. Roche's once-weekly CT-388 injection resulted in "clinically meaningful and statistically significant" results in obese patients compared to a placebo comparator, with a 18.8% weight loss over 24 weeks. Novo Nordisk said Thursday that its side effects were similar to those of other GLP-1 weight loss drugs, such as the company's Wegovy, including nausea and vomiting.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced on Thursday that it plans to sell all of its remaining shares in consumer care company Haleon. Haleon was spun off from GlaxoSmithKline through a capital markets deal and the company went public in July 2022. Haleon was formed by the merger of Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health business. Previously, Pfizer reduced its stake in Haleon from 32% to about 24% in March.

Temu, a discount retail app owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, is facing complaints from consumers who say its business practices violate Europe's new online content laws. Europe is one of the company's fastest-growing markets. The European Consumer Organization filed a 26-page complaint with the European Commission on Thursday, alleging that some of Temu's business practices violated requirements such as product traceability. In just over a year, Temu, an online shopping platform founded by a Chinese company, has become the most downloaded app in the United States.

Financial Reporting Information

Richemont reported a 1% drop in sales for the fourth fiscal quarter ending at the end of March 2024, confirming the slowdown in the luxury sector. Quarterly sales fell to 4.8 billion euros, up 2 percent in constant currency terms. In the fiscal year ended in March, Richemont's sales rose 3% to 20.62 billion euros, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 2.36 billion euros, below market expectations.

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