Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1807
Domestic semiconductor equipment breaks through and needs more than lithography machines
Last week, at a domestic semiconductor equipment industry event, Li Jinxiang, chief engineer of Shanghai Jita Semiconductor, said that after years of hard work, domestic equipment seems to be able to do everything except lithography machines, but in fact a piece of equipment from There is still a long way to go before the research and development is completed and can be put into use on a large scale on the chip production line to ensure the yield rate of chip manufacturing.
Jita is a well-known domestic specialty craft wafer factory, and Zhang Rujing, the founder of SMIC, currently serves as its executive director. Li Jinxiang himself was engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of semiconductor equipment in his early years, and later joined the fab in charge of chip production. He has a say in the actual application of equipment in production. In his speech that day, he frankly pointed out some shortcomings of domestic equipment. board, such as:
- At present, there is not a single domestic lithography machine in use on the chip production line, and most of them are still in the research stage. As for the mass-produced domestic lithography machines discussed on the Internet, they all belong to back-end packaging, not front-end manufacturing.
- Yield is the lifeblood of a fab. If the yield rate is not up to standard, the more the company produces, the more it will lose, and it will not be able to survive. Correspondingly, domestic equipment needs to make up for the gap as soon as possible in terms of efficiency, stability and meeting the needs of unique processes. For example, a fab buys a lithography machine with a price of one billion yuan from an overseas manufacturer. The speed is very fast, but if the domestic equipment in other links cannot keep up, it will cause great waste.
- For some small and difficult equipment, many domestic equipment manufacturers are unwilling to do it out of economic benefits. But now overseas competitors have come up with the strategy of “packaging” sales. If you want to buy those niche devices with high technical difficulties, you must bundle and purchase “large and simple” devices. In this way, even if domestic fabs want to use domestic Equipment, there is no choice.
- Lack of systematic training materials. ASML’s lithography machine training materials, the online training video alone is close to 500 hours, from the basic principles to how to use, but many domestic equipment manuals are too simple, if there are not a large number of engineers to master and use, it is difficult to open the market.
Although he asked a lot of sharp questions at the scene, after Li Jinxiang finished his speech and returned to his seat, he was immediately surrounded by dozens of audiences who wanted to add contact information. Since the guest seats were in the middle of the venue, the crowd swarming up once affected the normal progress of the forum. In desperation, Li Jinxiang’s personal assistant led everyone to the corner of the venue while holding up the mobile phone displaying the WeChat QR code. , just solved the siege.
For equipment manufacturers, obtaining the approval of the chief engineer of a mainstream domestic fab will undoubtedly increase the chance of winning an order. For investors, it is difficult to judge whether a specific equipment company’s product is “good or not”. The technical person in charge of the factory is obviously the most suitable person to consult. Li Jinxiang’s assistant later revealed to Wanwan Finance that among the many friend application records that day, equipment manufacturers and investors accounted for almost half each.
The full name of the event that Li Jinxiang attended is China Semiconductor Equipment Annual Conference. It is hosted by the China Electronic Special Equipment Industry Association. Discussion and exchange of industry trends. Since the tenth session last year, an exhibition link has been added outside the forum, and the designated venue for the conference has also begun to be fixed at the Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center.
As it is no longer affected by the epidemic, the popularity of this year’s exhibition is significantly higher than last year. The shared charging cabinet at the entrance of the exhibition is almost always in a state of “borrowing”; the cafeteria where the organizer arranges meals is obviously “undersupplied” from waiters to dishes to seats; some exhibitors participate in larger-scale The number of product manuals was prepared based on the experience of the event, but they were all received in just one day; the main forum of the annual meeting had more than 1,000 seats, and it was still full, and many audiences could only stand on the sides and the last passage of the venue; a participant Institutional investors at the meeting said that in the context of the downturn in the semiconductor industry cycle, they only look at the field of equipment and components.
According to the data disclosed by the organizers, a total of 389 companies participated in the exhibition this year, with an exhibition area of more than 28,000 square meters, 2.7 times and 3.5 times that of last year, respectively. During the event, the intended transaction volume reached on site was at least 2.65 billion yuan. A staff member of an industrial park who came to attract investment told Wanwan Finance and Economics that even though the impact of the epidemic last year had been taken into account that there was less traffic due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of manufacturers consulting and relocating this year still exceeded expectations.
The changes in the scale of activities intuitively reflect the increasing heat and attention of the industry, and all of this is rooted in the fact that semiconductor equipment itself is too important, and the shortcomings of Chinese manufacturers in this field are too obvious.
Yin Zhiyao, chairman of China Micro, said in a speech at the same forum that since 2019, the U.S. government has introduced 16 measures to restrict the development of integrated circuits in China, and almost every one of them is making a fuss about equipment, intending to let the The chip manufacturing process in mainland China is at least 5 generations behind overseas. The reason for this is that the inverted pyramid structure of the digital industry is supported by semiconductor equipment (as well as components and materials) with the smallest output value as the bottom and most important support.
Although China is already the world’s largest semiconductor equipment market, there is no domestic equipment company that ranks among the top 15 in terms of revenue. In all links of the entire chip industry chain, mainland China accounts for 20%, 10% and 30% of the global output value in chip design, wafer foundry, and packaging and testing, respectively, but the output value of equipment and consumables accounts for less than 20%. 5%. The United States, together with Japan and the Netherlands, still account for 85% of the domestic semiconductor equipment supply. (Qiu Hao)
Office for National Statistics suspends publication of youth unemployment rate
On August 15, the National Bureau of Statistics announced economic data for July. Industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales increased year-on-year, while private enterprise fixed investment and real estate development investment data declined. The urban surveyed unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 5.3%. The release of urban surveyed unemployment rates for young people and other age groups across the country has been suspended since this month.
- Industrial value added rose 3.7% YoY in July (from 4.4% in June). Among them, the very important automobile manufacturing industry grew by 6.2% year-on-year (8.8% in June);
- Total retail sales of consumer goods rose 2.5% YoY in July (from 3.1% in June). Among them, the retail sales of goods increased by 1%, and the retail sales of catering increased by 15.8% , which was weaker than that in June;
- The cyclical performance of optional and mandatory consumer goods is not obvious, and overall mandatory is better than optional;
- In the first 7 months, online physical retail sales increased by 10% , accounting for 26.4% of the total;
- In the first seven months, the cumulative growth of fixed asset investment was 3.4% (3.8% in the previous value). Among them, private enterprise investment decreased by 0.5% accumulatively, and the completed investment in real estate development decreased by 8.5% accumulatively;
- The surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.3% in July.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics and director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department, commented on the latest economic data that “the national economy continues to recover, production demand is basically stable, employment prices are generally stable, and the quality of development is steadily improving.” Regarding why the publication of the urban survey unemployment rate by age group was suspended, he said:
As the economy and society are constantly developing and changing, statistical work needs to be continuously improved, and labor force survey statistics also need to be further improved and optimized. For example, in recent years, among the urban youths in our country, the number of students in school has continued to expand. In 2022, there will be more than 96 million urban youths aged 16-24 in my country, including more than 65 million students in school. The main task of students in school is to study. Whether students who are looking for a job before graduation should be included in the labor force survey statistics has different views from various aspects of society, and further research is needed. For another example, with the improvement of the education level of Chinese residents, the time of young people studying in school has increased. In the labor force survey and statistics, the definition of the age range of young people also needs further research…
Fu Linghui said that after the relevant statistical methods and systems are further improved, the release of unemployment rate data related to age groups such as young people will resume in time. “The release of data on the unemployment rate by age group is currently suspended, and it does not affect the statistical survey of the overall unemployment rate. The overall unemployment rate can reflect the overall employment situation in the economic operation.” He said. According to the latest survey unemployment rate of employed persons aged 16-24 in China in June, it was 21.3%. (Gong Fangyi)
“Big shorts” clear JD.com and Ali, betting US stocks will fall with US$1.6 billion
At the end of the first quarter, US hedge fund manager Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management had 20% of its positions in JD.com and Alibaba, its top two holdings.
However, according to public information, Burry liquidated JD.com, Alibaba and 13 other companies in the second quarter, and bought 2 million S&P 500 put options and 2 million Nasdaq 100 put options at the same time—that is, leveraged to bearish on U.S. stocks . These puts have a notional value of $1.625 billion.
Restricted by the rules of information disclosure, the details of the strike price, expiration time and purchase price of the put option purchased by Michael Burry are currently unclear.
Michael Burry is the prototype of the movie “The Big Short”. One year before the outbreak of the subprime housing mortgage crisis in 2008, Burry predicted the “bubble bursting” of US subprime mortgage bonds, and went against the trend by shorting for his personal gain. reached a fortune of US$100 million and helped investors earn a total of more than US$700 million. In recent years, he has made a lot of money on GameStop and other cigarette butt stocks, and he has also left the market when he shorted Tesla.
He bought Alibaba and JD.com in the fourth quarter of last year. He bought 50,000 shares and 75,000 shares respectively, accounting for 9.46% and 9.05% of his investment portfolio. In the first quarter of this year, it increased its position in JD.com significantly, an increase of 233% compared with the fourth quarter; its position in Alibaba also doubled compared with the fourth quarter. Soon after, Ali and JD.com implemented major adjustments one after another.
In the second quarter of this year, Alibaba’s revenue, profit, and user data resumed growth in an all-round way . The total revenue was 207.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%; the gross profit was 91.8 billion yuan, and the interest rate was 39.21%; the number of daily active users increased by 6.5% year-on-year. In addition, in the case of official announcements to expand investment, costs and expenses are better controlled.
JD.com will announce its second quarter report on August 16. Due to the stronger-than-expected demand during the 618 period, JD.com has performed well in its core retail business, and its GMV growth is expected to be higher year-on-year. The market expects JD.com’s revenue growth rate in the second quarter to be 6% (previously 5.4%), and will continue to maintain an industry-leading position in the electronics and home appliance sales field. However, the market is worried that JD.com’s daily necessities business may still be affected by factors such as fierce competition and a high base last year.
Therefore, taking profits or avoiding risks in advance can be the motivation for Burry to clear the two major Chinese e-commerce companies. As for bearishness on U.S. stocks, Burry sent a one-word tweet at the end of January this year, “Sell (Sell)”, but with the strong rebound of U.S. stocks, he changed his view on the stock market three months later and withdrew his sell recommendation. Now, he is preparing for a sharp correction in the stock price again. (Intern Chen Yutong)
Berkshire bought developers in the second quarter, reduced its stake in Activision Blizzard
It’s time for major investment institutions to announce their portfolios. As recognized value investment masters in the industry, Buffett and Munger’s Berkshire are particularly concerned.
As of the end of the second quarter, the market value of Berkshire’s holdings rose to $348.2 billion, an increase of $23.1 billion from the previous quarter. That’s largely because of a rise in Apple’s stock price, which saw the market value of Berkshire’s Apple stake rise by nearly $27 billion to $178 billion over the period.
Investors care more about portfolio changes. In the second quarter, Berkshire created 3 new stocks, increased its holdings of 2 stocks, reduced its holdings of 5 stocks, and liquidated 3 stocks, with a net sale of nearly $8 billion in stocks .
The three newly added stocks are all house builders, and their stock prices have risen by more than 30% this year. The total market value of their positions exceeds US$800 million, accounting for less than 0.3%. CFRA Research analysts believe this is a hedge. In the second quarter of this year, due to insufficient housing supply, Berkshire’s real estate brokerage business net profit was $50 million lower than the same period last year, and home builders can benefit from it.
In addition, Berkshire increased its positions in Occidental Petroleum (5%) and Capital One Credit (26%), and reduced its positions in Activision Blizzard, Chevron, General Motors, chemical company Celanese, and insurance company Global Life. Among them, Activision Blizzard significantly reduced its position by 70%. In April this year, the British agency announced an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard , and the current prospects are still unclear.
As of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire’s top ten holdings accounted for 91.26% of the total holdings, followed by Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Coca-Cola, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Moody’s, Hewlett-Packard, pharmaceutical company DaVita, and Compared with last quarter, only Activision Blizzard fell out of the top ten. (Lin Guangying)
Arowana’s revenue exceeds 100 billion yuan, but net profit is less than 1 billion yuan
In the first half of this year, Arowana’s revenue fell by 0.64% year-on-year to 118.7 billion yuan, its net profit was halved to 970 million yuan, a record low, and its net profit rate dropped to 0.8%. The company said that the sales volume of products is actually increasing, but the average price of some products has dropped.
More than 60% of Arowana’s revenue comes from kitchen food, namely rice, noodles, grains, oils, seasonings, etc. In the first half of the year, sales volume increased by nearly 10% year-on-year, but revenue decreased by 3.4%, and gross profit margin dropped slightly to 6.6%. The main reason is that as people resume dining out, the sales of low-margin catering channels have increased significantly, while retail channels that focus on household consumption and have more stable prices have decreased.
Feed raw materials and oil technology business suffered losses, during which sales volume increased by 16%, and gross profit margin fell by 8.37 percentage points to -0.3%. The announcement pointed out that due to the high cost of soybeans and the drop in the price of refined soybean oil, the crushing business lost money. In addition, the downstream, such as pig farming, generally loses money, which also suppresses the prices of feed ingredients such as soybean meal.
After the financial report was released, Arowana’s stock price fell by nearly 13% in two days. Some investors believe that the company has no say in the upstream and downstream. On the enterprise client side, the Arowana brand has little advantage and the products are highly substitutable. On the consumer side, it is difficult to significantly increase the price of grain, oil and people’s livelihood products, and it is facing new brand challenges . In addition, the price of raw materials often fluctuates and the uncertainty is high.
In order to hedge the risk of price and import exchange rate fluctuations, Arowana has always conducted hedging transactions on futures varieties of raw materials such as soybean oil, soybean meal, and palm oil. For example, while buying soybean raw materials at a high price, buy a short position in soybean futures with the opposite trend. From 2017 to 2019, Arowana’s cumulative investment income was about 5.4 billion yuan, and from 2020 to 2022 it lost about 4.6 billion yuan. As a comparison, the cost of raw materials for Arowana alone last year was 219.9 billion yuan, equivalent to 85% of the revenue for the same period.
In the first half of this year, Arowana’s investment income and fair value change profit and loss totaled about 1.01 billion yuan, which was higher than the net profit. In addition, Arowana is also expanding businesses with higher profit margins such as condiments and prepared dishes. (Lin Guangying)
The IPO has been known for a long time丨Googoo Technology’s first-day increase reached 466.67%
A total of 2 A-share companies were listed today:
- Guangzhou Iron and Steel Gas: Guangzhou Iron and Steel Gas is a comprehensive service provider of electronic bulk gas. The opening price was 16.88 yuan, 71% higher than the issue price. The total fundraising was 3.255 billion yuan, and the company’s market value was 17.4 billion yuan.
- Googol Technology: It is the supplier of high-speed and high-precision motion controllers with the largest market share in China. It raised 480 million yuan and closed at 68 yuan per share, an increase of 466.67%, with a total market value of 27.2 billion yuan.
A total of 1 companies subscribed for A shares today:
- Doppler: Doppler is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the R&D, production and sales of nondestructive testing equipment, and a professional provider of industrial nondestructive testing equipment and testing solutions. It is reported that the company has been widely recognized by domestic and foreign customers, including PetroChina, State Grid, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China Aviation Industry Corporation, China National Nuclear Corporation, BYD, etc. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the company’s operating income will be approximately 128 million yuan, 150 million yuan, and 202 million yuan, respectively, and its net profit will be approximately 51.5709 million yuan, 64.2232 million yuan, and 85.5199 million yuan. The issue price is 71.8 yuan per share, the upper limit of subscription is 3,500 shares, the price-earnings ratio is 56.76 times, and the planned fundraising is 489.2753 million yuan. (Intern Chen Yutong)
OTHER NEWS
China lowered policy interest rate by 0.15 percentage points.
On August 15, the People’s Bank of China lowered the one-year medium-term lending facility rate (MLF) by 0.15 percentage points to 2.5%. MLF is a policy tool created by the central bank in 2014 to better guide the interbank market interest rate. By adjusting the financing cost of financial institutions (paying interest for financing to the central bank), it has an impact on the balance sheet of financial institutions and market expectations. It is therefore regarded by the market as China’s policy rate. The central bank lowered the one-year MLF interest rate by 0.1 percentage point to 2.65% on June 15. The previous adjustment was August 15, 2022.
Offshore yuan fell below the 7.32 integer mark.
The time-sharing trend chart of offshore RMB in the past 10 trading days:
The central bank said it will vigorously support the issuance of financial bonds by consumer finance companies and auto finance companies.
According to CCTV news, sources close to the central bank said that the central bank will vigorously support the issuance of financial bonds and credit asset-backed bonds by consumer finance companies and auto finance companies. Eight consumer finance companies and auto finance companies have communicated with CICC, CITIC Securities, China Merchants Securities and other institutions, and are expected to issue a total of about 50 billion yuan in financial bonds and credit asset-backed securities in the near future.
The price of raw materials rose, and the net profit of Taoli Bread fell by more than 20% in the second quarter.
In the second quarter of this year, the revenue of Taoli Bread fell by 1.3% year-on-year to 1.73 billion yuan, and the net profit after deducting non-profits decreased by 21.4% to 150 million yuan, and the decline expanded from the previous quarter. The announcement pointed out that the decline in performance was due to the price increase of raw materials, and the production capacity of new projects was not fully released, which raised costs. As of the end of last year, Taoli Bread had 22 production bases in use and 7 under construction. Among them, the capacity utilization rate in the northern region was generally higher than 80%, that in central China was less than 70%, and that in southwest and southern China was about 70% and 75%.
Ping An’s premium income in the first seven months rose 7.2% YoY to RMB 521.35 billion.
In the first seven months of this year, China Ping An’s original insurance contract premium income totaled approximately 521.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. Among them, the total income of Ping An Property Insurance and Ping An Life Insurance accounted for 96%, and Ping An Pension and Ping An Health accounted for 4%. During the same period, the five major listed insurance companies (China Life, China Insurance, Ping An, China Pacific Insurance, and New China Insurance) had a total premium income of 1.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%.
In the first half of the year, Weil shares, a mobile phone image sensor equipment manufacturer, dropped by more than 90% in net profit.
According to Weir’s announcement, in the first half of the year, the company achieved operating income of 8.858 billion yuan, a decrease of 19.99% from the same period last year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 153 million yuan, a sharp drop of 93.25%. Weil’s explanation for the double decline in revenue and profits is that changes in geopolitics and macroeconomic conditions have led to sluggish overall downstream demand. At the same time, due to the mismatch between supply and demand caused by the high inventory at the end of the industrial supply chain, the price of some products was under pressure during the process of destocking, and the gross profit margin was greatly affected. Not long ago, mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm released a disappointing quarterly report and guidance for the second half of the year.
A real estate project in Nanchang County was sent a letter by the relevant department requesting rectification due to its low sales ranking.
According to the Financial Associated Press, a real estate sales project in Nanchang County, the Xinguang Garden Project, received a letter from the Nanchang County Housing Security Center due to its low sales ranking in the second quarter of 2023. It is mentioned that the development of the county’s real estate market has been seriously affected by the low sales ranking of the project. It is hoped that the project will adjust its marketing strategy in a timely manner according to market changes, increase marketing efforts, and compact marketing responsibilities. Interview, adjustment, dismissal, and submit sales rectification measures before July 15, 2023.
Chabaidao submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial Co., Ltd. today (August 15) submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the sole sponsor is CICC. The company’s revenue in 2020, 2021, and 2022 will be 1.08 billion yuan, 3.64 billion yuan, and 4.23 billion yuan, respectively, with net profit margins of 22.0%, 21.4%, and 22.8%, respectively. In terms of equity structure, Hengsheng Herui, which is actually controlled by the founder couple Wang Xiaokun and Liu Weihong, directly owns 67.6758% of the equity. In addition, the two separately own about 18.0167% and 5.7449% of Chabaidao’s equity. The employee incentive platform directly holds approximately 0.4802% equity.
Hillhouse HHLR increased its holdings of Microsoft, JD.com, etc., and reduced its holdings of Pinduoduo, Ideal and other companies.
On August 15, according to the SEC, Hillhouse’s fund management platform HHLR Advisors announced the second quarter US stock holdings data. In the second quarter, HHLR increased its holdings of Microsoft, JD.com, Huazhu, Baidu, etc., and became one of Microsoft’s top ten shareholders. It is reported that Microsoft benefited from the investment in OpenAI and the AI updating of products, and its stock price hit a record high in the first half of the year. In addition, HHLR also reduced its holdings of 26 companies including Pinduoduo, Ideal Auto, and Vipshop, but Pinduoduo is still HHLR’s second largest US stock holding.
In the second quarter, Gates supported his old friend Buffett.
According to the latest announcement, the Gates Foundation Trust held US$42.06 billion worth of US stocks in the second quarter, and the top ten holdings accounted for 96.14% of its investment portfolio. In the second quarter, it increased its holdings of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to 25.14 million shares, with a market value of US$8.57 billion (accounting for 1.9% of the outstanding shares), and its proportion in the investment portfolio rose to 20.38%, from the original No. The three climbed to the second place, and at the same time will continue to hold heavy stocks such as Microsoft and Canadian National Railway.
HKUST Xunfei said that the chairman’s huge reduction of holdings “did not sell 1 cent more shares for consumption”.
HKUST Xunfei announced that chairman Liu Qingfeng announced that he would reduce his holdings by 2.35 billion yuan for debt repayment, and sold 39.96 million shares through block transactions, reducing his shareholding ratio from 7.27% to 5.54%. Regarding the criticism in the market about the reduction of the chairman’s shareholding, iFlytek announced that the reduction was used to repay the loan that participated in the fixed increase last year, and Liu Qingfeng said that he did not sell 1 cent more shares for personal consumption.
The “Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services” has come into effect.
China’s first generative artificial intelligence (AIGC) regulatory document “Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services” issued by seven departments including the State Cyberspace Administration of China has been officially implemented on August 15. The Interim Measures stated that this move is based on the regulatory principle of “inclusiveness, encouragement, and prudent supervision” to improve the chain of supervision for the development of artificial intelligence technology.
Sino-Ocean Group failed to pay 20.94 million US dollars of interest on time, resulting in the suspension of the bill default.
On August 14, Sino-Ocean Group issued an announcement related to the suspension of the notes, saying that due to the failure to pay the interest on the notes from January 30 to July 30, 2023 (US$20.94 million) on time, a breach of contract under the notes occurred , and was suspended yesterday. Despite the failure to pay interest on schedule, Sino-Ocean Group still has the opportunity to fight for a waiver of default. In the first half of this year, the company achieved contracted sales of 35.66 billion yuan and delivered a total of 16,000 residential units. On the same day, the company announced that it expects a loss of approximately RMB 17 billion to RMB 20 billion in the first half of the year. The major shareholders of Sino-Ocean Group are China Life Insurance and Dajia Life Insurance (formerly Anbang Insurance).
The total box office of the 2023 summer season exceeded 17.3 billion.
According to the Beacon Professional Edition, as of 16:00 on August 15, the total box office (including pre-sales) of the 2023 summer season (June 1-August 31) exceeded 17.3 billion. The previous two breaks of 17.3 billion were in 2018 (17.377 billion) and 2019 (17.778 billion). “The Missing She”, “In the Octagonal Cage”, “Fengshen Part I”, “All or Nothing”, and “Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang’an” all exceeded 1.7 billion at the box office and ranked among the top five.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia purchased 3,000 Nvidia H100 chips.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly buying large quantities of high-performance Nvidia chips to power artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Among them, Saudi Arabia has purchased more than 3,000 Nvidia H100 chips through the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust), a public research institution, with a total value of about 120 million US dollars. The Nvidia H100 is “the world’s first computer (chip) designed for generative artificial intelligence,” and Kaust will use it to build its own large-scale language models, similar to OpenAI’s GPT-4.
David Limp, Amazon’s head of consumer devices in charge of Alexa, Echo and other products, is leaving.
Limp, who has been working for Amazon for 13 years since March 2010, oversees the development of the company’s consumer electronics devices, such as the Kindle, Fire TV and Echo, as well as its Alexa voice assistant. This is another longtime executive departure from Amazon’s core leadership, known as the S-Team, since Andy Jassy took over as CEO two years ago. Prior to this, Limp’s department became the hardest hit area for Amazon’s layoffs. Amazon has eliminated about 27,000 jobs in the past year.
Sea’s revenue in the second quarter was lower than expected, and the growth rate of e-commerce revenue hit a new low.
In the second quarter of this year, the largest Internet company in Southeast Asia achieved revenue of US$3.096 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, and a net profit of US$331 million, a sharp turnaround in losses year-on-year. Among them, the revenue of digital financial services increased by 53.4% year-on-year to US$427.9 million; the growth rate of e-commerce Shopee revenue fell to 21%, the lowest level in history. Sea began aggressively cutting manpower and marketing spending last year in an effort to become cash flow positive.
Threads has cooled down rapidly, and the number of daily active users has dropped by nearly 80% from the peak.
According to Similarweb data, on August 7, Threads under Meta had 10.3 million Android daily active users worldwide, down nearly 80% from the peak when it was just launched last month, and the average daily usage time also dropped from 14 minutes to 3 minutes. At the same time, X (Twitter) has more than 100 million Android daily active users, with an average daily usage time of 25 minutes. Some users think that Threads is not rich enough, and compared with X, there are fewer discussions about news and current affairs.
Japan’s real GDP grew by 6% year-on-year in the second quarter.
Preliminary statistics show that in the second quarter of this year, Japan’s real GDP grew by 1.5% quarter-on-quarter and 6% year-on-year, significantly exceeding expectations. Among them, exports increased by 3.2% month-on-month, mainly due to the increase in automobile exports and the growth of service exports driven by inbound tourism. Private consumption fell 0.5% month-on-month, and business investment was flat month-on-month. The agency predicts that with the opening of group tours in China , more Chinese tourists will enter the country, which is expected to support economic growth in the second half of the year.
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