Daily Tech Roundup: China Gains on U.S. With Surge in New Drug Approvals
Tesla China shipments plunge to lowest in more than a year, China Unicom sees 12% rise in 2023 net profit
China closes in on U.S. with surge in new drug approvals
Despite the global pharmaceutical industry experiencing big fluctuations in funding, China has made great strides in launching new drugs over the past five years, narrowing the gap with the U.S., a new industry report showed. Between 2019 and 2023, China ranked second in the number of new medicines with 192 approvals, closing in on the U.S., which had 267, according to the Global Trends in R&D report by life sciences researcher the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science.
Tesla China shipments plunge to lowest in more than a year
Tesla Inc. shipments from its factory in Shanghai fell to their lowest in more than a year amid a Lunar New Year holiday sales lull and renewed price competition in the world’s biggest electric vehicle market. The U.S. automaker shipped 60,365 vehicles from its China factory in February, according to preliminary data released Monday by China’s Passenger Car Association. That figure was the lowest since December 2022 and down almost 16% month-on-month and 19% year-on-year.
JCET to acquire 80% in Western Digital unit for $624 million
Semiconductor packaging and testing specialist JCET Group Co. Ltd. announced Monday that it intends to acquire 80% of SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (SDSS) for approximately $624 million. SDSS, a subsidiary of global digital storage giant Western Digital Corp., focuses on the packaging and testing of flash memory chips. Western Digital is one of JCET’s key clients. JCET said that the deal will help it strengthen its strategic partnership with Western Digital and enhance customer loyalty.
China Unicom sees 12% rise in 2023 net profit
China United Network Communications Ltd., or China Unicom, estimated Monday that its net profit attributable to its parent company grew 12% to 8.2 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in 2023, marking the seventh consecutive year of double-digit growth, according to its annual performance projection. It estimated that its core business revenue rose 5% to 335.2 billion yuan for the year.
Xiaomi chairman call for AI literacy education
Xiaomi Corp. Chairman Lei Jun, who is also a delegate to China’s National People’s Congress, proposed on Monday integrating artificial intelligence (AI) literacy education into the curriculum for children during their nine-year compulsory education. He also advocated for the expansion of AI-related programs in universities and the support of large technology companies and educational institutions in developing application-oriented AI talent.
Alibaba Cloud price cuts herald new price war
China’s public cloud market is in the early stages of another price war. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud unit kicked off the offensive on Thursday with its second bout of steep discounting within a year. The previous price reductions “failed to meet expectations,” said Liu Weiguang, president of public cloud business at Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud has slashed the prices of more than 100 products by up to 55% as growth in the sector, and the company’s market share, has diminished. Rival JD.com responded later that day with its own round of price cuts.
Alibaba replaces head of delivery arm
Alibaba has replaced the head of its local services group, who oversaw Amap and Ele.me, splitting his duties between executives from a younger generation in its latest management shake-up. Yu Yongfu, one of Alibaba’s partners and longest-serving executives, will step down at the end of March, a company representative said. His empire then gets split between several managers: Chief Technology Officer Wu Zeming becomes chairman of Ele.me, the food delivery service, while Han Liu will take the chief executive’s role. Liu Zhenfei and Guo Ning hold the same roles at Amap, one of China’s largest mapping and navigation services.
Li Auto founder unveils vehicle charging expansion plan
Li Auto Inc. founder and CEO Li Xiang announced Friday that the company plans to invest 6 billion yuan ($833.6 million) in the construction of more than 5,000 supercharging stations, enough to cover 95% of China’s national highways and key roads. On the same day, the automaker launched its first all-electric vehicle (EV) model, Mega, priced at 559,800 yuan. Prior to Mega, Li Auto had introduced four extended-range hybrid models.
Geely isn’t giving up on conventional cars just yet, chairman says
Despite the rising sales of new-energy vehicles, conventional automobiles still make up the vast majority of the cars people own. Consequently, Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd. won’t give up making them easily, company Chairman Li Shufu said on a CCTV program Saturday.
Baidu’s profit halves after AI spending erodes bottom line
Baidu Inc.’s profit plunged a worse-than-anticipated 48% in the last quarter, underscoring the growing costs of training and developing AI to fend off challengers in the burgeoning arena.
The company reported a December-quarter net income of 2.6 billion yuan ($361 million) that missed projections, though this was mainly due to a loss from equity accounting for preferred shares. It overshadowed a 6% rise in revenue after Baidu’s ChatGPT-style service began to augment advertising sales, helping the Chinese AI leader weather a severe economic downturn.
IQiyi posts record revenue, profit for 2023
Chinese video platform iQiyi Inc. reported on Wednesday record high revenue, profits and cash flow for 2023. The Baidu unit’s revenues reached 31.9 billion yuan, a 10% increase from the previous year, with non-GAAP net profit attributable to the company surging 121% to 2.8 billion yuan. Free cash totaled 3.3 billion yuan, achieving its first full-year positive.
“2023 stood as our best-performing year in corporate history,” said founder and CEO Yu Gong.
Huawei launches commercial AI model for telcos
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has launched a new version of its AI large language model (LLM) Pangu for commercial use in the telecom sector, the latest effort by the Chinese tech giant to promote the emerging technology as it seeks to expand its revenue base.
The Telecom Foundation Model — which Huawei unveiled at the MWC Barcelona mobile tech expo on Monday local time — provides technologies that “support service innovation, improve operations efficiency, revolutionize network productivity” and assist mobile operators in reaching business targets in the 5.5G network era, the company said.
Embattled EV-Maker HiPhi approaches state rival in search for revival
China’s beleaguered premium electric vehicle (EV) startup HiPhi is reaching out to state-owned automotive behemoth Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd. as the cash-strapped carmaker faces a ticking clock in its quest for survival.
Ding Lei, the founder of HiPhi, visited the headquarters of Changan Automobile in Chongqing on Tuesday and met with chairman Zhu Huarong, Caixin learned. Representatives from HiPhi and Changan Automobile confirmed the meeting with Caixin without disclosing details of the discussion.
HiPhi, the brand name of Human Horizons Group Inc., is teetering on the brink of collapse due to financial woes. The Shanghai-based manufacturer on Feb. 18 said it would halt production for six months and has dismissed contract workers at its manufacturing facility located in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, sources told Caixin.
Chinese chipmaker cleared in U.S. criminal trade secrets case
A Chinese chipmaker was cleared of economic espionage and other criminal charges in a setback for a U.S. Justice Department crackdown on intellectual property theft by China.
More than five years after the Commerce Department blacklisted Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. as a threat to national security, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco found the company not guilty following a non-jury trial. Her ruling on Tuesday may temper the Biden administration’s pursuit of aggressive prosecutions to protect American technology.
Chesney concluded that U.S. prosecutors failed to prove that the Chinese state-sponsored company misappropriated proprietary data from Micron Technology Inc., American’s largest memory-chip maker, that allegedly passed through Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp. in a manufacturing deal with Fujian Jinhua.