Leaders of Apple Inc, Google and other US technology giants are heading to China this weekend to pursue a familiar goal: to do more business in the world’s most populous country. Such efforts have had mixed results in the past.
With a trade war brewing between the world’s two largest economies, the goal has gotten loftier still.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM Corp chairwoman and CEO Ginny Rometty are scheduled to attend the China Development Forum, an annual gathering that helps Western corporations build relationships with Chinese government officials.
Cook is cochairing the event this year and Apple has the most at stake in China among US tech companies. Its iPhones and other gadgets have sold well in China, but revenue from the region fell in Apple’s last fiscal year. The Cupertino, California-based company has also been criticized for relocating the data of Chinese iCloud users to Chinese state-controlled server farms.
At last year’s forum, IBM announced a deal with Chinese company Wanda Group (萬達集團). The deal was meant to help IBM expand in the Chinese cloud market, although Caixin has reported that Wanda would stop working with IBM.
Google pulled out of China in 2010 over government censorship of its search results. The company has been trying to return over the past few years, but has made little progress.
These hurdles would only get higher if a trade war were to erupt between the US and China. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump ordered 25 percent tariffs on at least US$50 billion of Chinese imports, including information and communication technology. He also accused China of stealing intellectual property. China responded with its own duties on some US imports.
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf is to attend the conference, but has canceled his plan to speak.
The conference comes just days after Bloomberg News reported that Chinese regulators are seeking more protections for local companies before approving Qualcomm’s proposed purchase of NXP Semiconductors NV.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is not satisfied with the remedies that Qualcomm has offered so far and has told the company to propose more, people familiar with the matter have said.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS