GERMANY
GDP growth flat in Q1
Europe’s largest economy narrowly dodged a recession in the first quarter of this year, but growth stagnated contrary to expectations for a slight rebound, preliminary data showed yesterday. GDP growth was flat in the quarter, federal statistics agency Destatis said. The industrial powerhouse, which had long been heavily reliant on Russian energy, was hit hard after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices surging. Analysts and the government predicted for months that surging prices, particularly of energy, would push the economy into a sharp winter recession, but expectations changed in the past few weeks as the vast industrial sector rebounded. While the economy appears to have avoided the worst, the first-quarter reading was below expectations from analysts surveyed by financial data firm FactSet for an expansion of 0.2 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Huawei profit plummets
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) profit plunged 46 percent in the first quarter of this year, while revenue barely grew, as the Chinese telecom equipment maker spent heavily on research and development (R&D) to try to get around US sanctions. Net income dived to 3 billion yuan (US$433.5 million). That followed Huawei’s first annual profit decline in more than a decade, as years of US sanctions obliterated a once-thriving smartphone arm that competed with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co. Huawei executives pledged to keep its R&D investment high to stay competitive in the market. The company earlier disclosed that last year’s research spending was 161.5 billion yuan, or about one-quarter of its annual sales.
ELECTRONICS
Sony offers cautious outlook
Sony Group Corp offered a conservative profit outlook for this fiscal year, signaling caution about the effects of a global consumer spending slump on its entertainment businesses. The Tokyo-based firm said it expects operating income of ￥1.17 trillion (US$8.6 billion) in the year ending March next year, below average analyst estimates of ￥1.27 trillion. This was largely down to its PlayStation division, for which Sony’s guidance fell short of consensus and the firm said it expects fewer sales of PlayStation Studios games this year. Sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 console reached 6.3 million units last quarter, more than tripling the supply-constrained numbers from the same period last year and showing Sony is finally able to distribute the hardware at scale. However, game sales fell to 68 million units from 70.5 million in the same period a year earlier. The firm reported operating profit of ￥128.5 billion.
INTERNET
Zuckerberg’s net worth soars
Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth soared by more than US$10 billion on Thursday, his third-biggest jump on record, after the Facebook parent surprised investors with robust first-quarter sales. Meta shares rose 14 percent after the earnings report, lifting Zuckerberg’s fortune to US$87.3 billion and boosting him up a notch on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to 12th place. It was the highest Zuckerberg’s wealth has been in more than a year. Thursday’s move reversed the wealth destruction Zuckerberg experienced last year, when his net worth fell 57 percent, or US$71 billion, after a costly pivot to the metaverse and an industry-wide slump stirred concern over the company’s growth prospects. Zuckerberg used Thursday’s results to burnish his case for pressing on with investments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
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