AUTOMAKERS
Tesla cuts prices
Tesla Inc has cut the price of several of its models again in a further sign that chief executive officer Elon Musk is willing to sacrifice the automaker’s profitability in the face of rising interest rates that might dent consumer demand. The Austin, Texas-based company said on its Web site that the price of its Model Y long-range all-wheel drive model would decrease by 5.6 percent to US$49,990, while the price of the Model Y Performance would drop by 5.2 percent to US$53,990. The cost of a Model 3 rear-wheel drive would be cut by 4.7 percent to US$39,990. It is the second price cut this month as the automaker seeks to stoke demand.
AUTOMAKERS
Sales in Europe jump
Auto sales in Europe jumped the most since May 2021 as supply of key components including semiconductors continues to improve. Registrations of new vehicles jumped 26 percent last month to 1.42 million, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said yesterday, extending the industry’s growth streak to eight consecutive months. Automakers are benefiting from orders accumulated during the worst of their supply crises and a weak showing in the same month last year. Last month’s gains were especially pronounced in Spain and Italy, where sales expanded 66 percent and 41 percent respectively. In Germany, the region’s largest market, registrations increased 17 percent. Volkswagen AG and Renault SA led gains among major European automakers with respective increases of 35 percent and 27 percent.
BEVERAGES
Heineken gets a boost
Heineken NV’s first quarter was boosted by beer drinkers in Europe even as inflation persists in many key markets, which helped offset a weaker performance in the Asia-Pacific region and Nigeria. Shares in the world’s second-largest brewer rose nearly 4 percent in early trading yesterday after it said that consumers in Europe were still largely accepting higher prices for its beers, which include its namesake brand and more premium offerings such as Birra Moretti, Beavertown and El Aguila. Overall volumes fell 3 percent on an organic basis for the quarter ended last month, below the average analyst estimate for a 1.04 percent decline. Vietnam and Nigeria had tough quarters, but investors were expecting that. Heineken stuck to its outlook for adjusted operating profit to grow organically by mid to high-single digits this year even as chief executive officer Dolf van den Brink warned of cloudy consumer demand for its products.
TECHNOLOGY
El Salvador passes AI bill
Lawmakers from the ruling party in El Savador on Tuesday approved a bill to eliminate for 15 years taxes on companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) and other computer programming work in a bid to make the country a more attractive tech destination. The technology tax cut was championed by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who first touted the legislation late last month. The bill exempts eligible companies from income tax, capital gains and local government taxes, as well as tariff payments on imported goods that technology businesses need. Lawmakers approved the bill with 69 voting in favor among the 84-member unicameral legislature. Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party holds 56 of the seats.
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
NVIDIA PLATFORM: Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and a Taiwan site is to enter production next month, Nvidia wrote on its blog Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer, yesterday said it is expanding production capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) servers based on Nvidia Corp’s Blackwell chips in Taiwan, the US and Mexico to cope with rising demand. Hon Hai’s new AI-enabled factories are to use Nvidia’s Omnivores platform to create 3D digital twins to plan and simulate automated production lines at a factory in Hsinchu, the company said in a statement. Nvidia’s Omnivores platform is for developing industrial AI simulation applications and helps bring facilities online faster. Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and the
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
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