Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a Chinese tech-share selloff after the Pentagon added some of the country’s biggest names to a list of companies aiding the military — only to withdraw that roster minutes later without explanation. The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US F...
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a Chinese tech-share selloff after the Pentagon added some of the country’s biggest names to a list of companies aiding the military — only to withdraw that roster minutes later without explanation. The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. The Pentagon’s moves come at a fraught time in Washington’s debate over China tech policy. The US has now said that three of China’s AI frontrunners — Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — help the Asian country’s military. Their addition is almost certain to provoke Beijing. The designation of BYD, meanwhile, targets the country’s top electric-vehicle company. While the list carries few immediate legal repercussions, the Pentagon is increasingly using it to restrict companies’ abilities to contract with the military or get research funding. A so-called 1260H designation also serves as a warning to US investors, and is widely considered a red flag that can precede more punitive trade restrictions. Read More: US Briefly Names Alibaba, Baidu as Firms Aiding China’s Military Alibaba said in a statement it’s “not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy. We will take all available legal action against attempts to misrepresent our company.” A Baidu spokesperson said in a statement “we categorically reject the inclusion,” which has “no credible basis.” The “suggestion that Baidu is a military company is entirely baseless and no evidence has been produced that would prove otherwise.” Shenzhen-based BYD didn’t respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours. The 1260H list, first published in 2021, now includes more than 130 entit...
The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
The Chinese AI leader’s stock slid more than 3% in Hong Kong, while BYD Co. and Baidu Inc. were down about 1%. All three appeared on the updated Pentagon list on the US Federal Register, though it was later declared “unpublished.” The agency also removed two of China’s leaders in memory chips, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co.
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong could experience its warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve since records began in 1884, with temperatures expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday. The Hong Kong Observatory said temperatures on Monday were expected to range between 22 ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong could experience its warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve since records began in 1884, with temperatures expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday. The Hong Kong Observatory said temperatures on Monday were expected to range between 22 and 28 degrees. The previous record for the warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve was 27.8 degrees in 1953,...
India kicks off one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence summits Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to clear a path for India in a heated race to develop frontier models. World leaders, tech moguls, AI founders and investors are expected to arrive in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit , potentially the largest gathering of AI luminaries to date. Sundar Pichai of Alph...
India kicks off one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence summits Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to clear a path for India in a heated race to develop frontier models. World leaders, tech moguls, AI founders and investors are expected to arrive in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit , potentially the largest gathering of AI luminaries to date. Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. , Sam Altman of OpenAI Inc. , Dario Amodei of Anthropic PBC and Meta Platforms Inc. ’s Alexandr Wang are on the guest list, alongside researchers including Yann LeCun and Arthur Mensch . During the summit’s final two days — Feb. 19 and 20 — French President Emmanuel Macron will deliver the keynote, followed by Modi’s remarks. For Modi, the summit offers a chance to showcase India’s vast tech-savvy population and engineering talent as forces that could tilt the next phase of the global AI race in its favor. The country has digital infrastructure powered by data from over a billion citizens, identifiable through Aadhaar, a biometric ID system. It has a proven track record of scaling technology quickly despite late starts — missing the personal computer boom but becoming a software services powerhouse and leaping from limited landlines to nearly a billion smartphones in under two decades. “By overlaying AI over existing digital identity, payment rails as well as health care, education and governance stacks, India is attempting to compress decades of development into years,” said Abhishek Singh , additional secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT. “And what gets built for India won’t stay only in India.” The country is already exporting its digital identity and payments blueprint. MOSIP , an open-source platform inspired by Aadhaar’s architecture, is now helping countries including the Philippines, Morocco and Uganda build national ID systems. Some countries are creating digital payment platforms atop the same scaffolding. In AI competitiveness, India ranks th...
Shares of Chinese jeweler Laopu Gold Co. and miner CMOC Group Ltd. rallied in Hong Kong, after Hang Seng Indexes Co. added the stocks to Hong Kong’s equity benchmark gauge following its quarterly review. CMOC and Laopu each gained more than 7% on Monday. Electric-vehicle battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. , another stock to be added to the list, rose as much as 3.8%. Prices may have...
Shares of Chinese jeweler Laopu Gold Co. and miner CMOC Group Ltd. rallied in Hong Kong, after Hang Seng Indexes Co. added the stocks to Hong Kong’s equity benchmark gauge following its quarterly review. CMOC and Laopu each gained more than 7% on Monday. Electric-vehicle battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. , another stock to be added to the list, rose as much as 3.8%. Prices may have been amplified by thin liquidity during holiday-shortened trading hours. The changes, effective March 9, will bring the number of members on the Hang Seng Index to 90 from 88, according to a statement . The index compiler said it will remove auto retailer Zhongsheng Group Holdings Ltd. , which fell as much as 3.2%. The reshuffle is closely watched as a sign of which listed companies have excelled across key metrics, such as market capitalization and turnover. “In aggregate, the rebalancing could generate nearly $8 billion in gross two-way passive flows,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists including Alvin So wrote in a note Friday. Read: CATL, CMOC, Laopu Gold to Join Hong Kong’s Stock Benchmark Index
Discover how Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is leveraging its connected‑trip strategy and AI partnership to reshape travel bookings and margins. See what could drive its next move by watching the video below. Continue reading
Discover how Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is leveraging its connected‑trip strategy and AI partnership to reshape travel bookings and margins. See what could drive its next move by watching the video below. Continue reading
rustycanuck/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Another quarter in the books, and the market still treats Boston Pizza ( BPZZF ) as nothing more than a royalty machine. Seeking Alpha Since the upgrade to 'Buy,' unitholders have picked up nearly 20% in total returns versus just 6% for the S&P, collecting distributions along the way. To be very honest with you, all my Canadian royalty fund picks have ...
rustycanuck/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Another quarter in the books, and the market still treats Boston Pizza ( BPZZF ) as nothing more than a royalty machine. Seeking Alpha Since the upgrade to 'Buy,' unitholders have picked up nearly 20% in total returns versus just 6% for the S&P, collecting distributions along the way. To be very honest with you, all my Canadian royalty fund picks have been working, especially now that the market seems to be rotating out of tech and back into value, particularly steady cash cows with predictable cash flow. Just look at Diversified ( DIV:CA ), for example. Since I pointed out that the Cheba Hut deal could drive decades of inflation-linked royalty growth, the fund is already up just over 25%. But don't forget that restaurant royalties aren't the safest investment in the world. For distribution to continue growing, they need either same-store sales to continue growing or franchisees to open more restaurants for the royalty pool. Boston Pizza hasn't had any net new openings in at least three years. I told you last February that they were relying too heavily on same-store sales growth to sustain this increase in distribution. And that's by far the biggest risk for this royalty fund. Seeking Alpha Things started to improve when they launched a prix fixe meal. Same-store sales finally got a boost, and they were able to capitalize on the ' Fast-Food Exodus ' movement from routine occasions, something many other full-service restaurants in the U.S. had done. But with the macroeconomic scenario showing signs of deterioration (especially in January), what will happen to Boston Pizza? I mean, if same-store sales growth is so important, will they be able to maintain it? That's exactly what I want to try to answer here. What's on the Canadian Table? In my last write-ups, I told you that despite all the problems in the Canadian economy, the consumer remained strong and spent a lot of money on discretionary purchases, especially services...
The Year of the Horse is set to bring volatility for the investments of Hong Kong’s 4.8 million Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) members, following a record-breaking Year of the Snake that ended on Monday, according to analysts. The next zodiac year, which begins on Tuesday, is the seventh in the Chinese lunar calendar’s 12-year cycle, each represented by an animal. The Year of the Snake delivered e...
The Year of the Horse is set to bring volatility for the investments of Hong Kong’s 4.8 million Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) members, following a record-breaking Year of the Snake that ended on Monday, according to analysts. The next zodiac year, which begins on Tuesday, is the seventh in the Chinese lunar calendar’s 12-year cycle, each represented by an animal. The Year of the Snake delivered estimated earnings of HK$251.6 billion (US$32 billion), the highest on record since the MPF was...
After Years Of Border Crisis, Small Texas Town 'Back To Mayberry' Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), BRACKETTVILLE, Texas— The chaos caused by millions of illegal immigrants flooding across the southwest border under the Biden administration left scars on this border town. Samira Bouaou; Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times The constant high-speed chases, ...
After Years Of Border Crisis, Small Texas Town 'Back To Mayberry' Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), BRACKETTVILLE, Texas— The chaos caused by millions of illegal immigrants flooding across the southwest border under the Biden administration left scars on this border town. Samira Bouaou; Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times The constant high-speed chases, buzzing helicopters, screaming emergency sirens, hurried school lockdowns, torn barbed-wire fences, and decomposing bodies on ranches and along the Rio Grande all took their toll on Texas towns near the Mexican border. The border crisis drained resources and changed the lifestyle of Brackettville, a little town with two traffic light intersections in Kinney County. Residents of the county and beyond said the madness stopped almost overnight after President Donald Trump took office. Now they say the chaos of illegal immigration has just moved into the country’s interior to places that include Minnesota. Illegal border crossings plummeted to record lows after Trump took office. In fiscal year 2025, Customs and Border Protection reported 443,000 encounters at the southwest border with Mexico. In 2024, that number stood at a little less than 2.5 million. ‘Back to Mayberry’ Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people per year moved through the county in 2022 and 2023. Images of illegal immigrants were caught on game cameras meant to give ranchers photos of deer and wildlife on their property, which allowed Coe to estimate the traffic. “ If we hadn’t stepped up when we did in the way we did—I think it would totally destroy the county, had the wave of illegal immigrants continued, ” he told The Epoch Times. Brackettville sits north of the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Route 57 past Eagle Pass and west of the Uvalde checkpoint, making it an ideal location for gotaways, or illegal immigrants who evade capture. “ It’s really a geographical thing wi...