Finance news

Artificial intelligence: Big expectations, small budgets – medium-sized companies are hesitant about AI

AI is considered a future technology in medium-sized businesses, but investments remain low. A study shows where the reluctance comes from.

2 PLA navy ships to visit Hong Kong for 5-day port call

Two People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval vessels are set to visit Hong Kong for a five-day port call from July 2, during which residents will be able to board them and take part in cultural exchange activities. China’s Ministry of National Defence said on Monday that a PLA naval task group would visit Hong Kong waters from Thursday to next Monday to mark the 29th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty. The guided-missile destroyer Nanning and the guided-missile frigate Hengyang.

There’s a 67% chance stocks will suffer a bear market when this rare signal flashes — like it’s doing now

The Dow Industrials are trouncing the Nasdaq composite. That’s an alarming sign for your portfolio.

Malaysia narrows hunt for replacement missiles after Norway axes contract

Malaysia has narrowed its search for a replacement anti-ship missile system to four potential suppliers after Norway revoked an export licence for a deal that Kuala Lumpur said was already more than 90 per cent paid for. The cancellation came after Oslo tightened arms-export rules in a shift that analysts say reveals how access to advanced arms can depend as much on supplier-country politics as on signed contracts. Turkey, South Korea and two unspecified European nations were being assessed as..

Chinese vessels shadow US-Philippine naval drills in South China Sea near disputed shoal

The People’s Liberation Army said it dispatched vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea in response to a joint US-Philippine maritime drill in the waters near Scarborough Shoal over the weekend. The PLA’s statement came a day after Manila said four Chinese vessels monitored a US-Philippine maritime exercise near the disputed shoal, which was reported by Philippine media on Monday. A week ago, a rare stand-off between the Chinese and Philippine navies took place near the atoll. Over the...

Artificial intelligence: South Korea wants to invest billions in chips and AI

South Korea is launching a trillion-dollar program for semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Why the approach is criticized.

Police officer admits taking upskirt footage and trying to grab colleague’s gun

A Hong Kong national security police officer has admitted filming upskirt footage of a woman and attempting to grab a colleague’s handgun in an apparent bid to harm himself after his arrest last year. West Kowloon Court heard on Monday that Constable Ko Chun-chung, 40, felt ashamed and was unable to face the consequences after being caught for the offence against the woman on January 15, 2025. He pleaded guilty before a deputy district judge to operating equipment with intent to record or...

ASML: Here artificial intelligence depends on Europe

The machine manufacturer ASML can hardly be replaced anywhere in the world. This is also due to European strengths. A visit to a company without which nothing works in the semiconductor industry worldwide.

Beyond the obvious: Digital Colony Europe

Why Germany is dramatically falling behind when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Between AI and financial investors: The accounting profession is divided

The auditors elect the new board of their professional chamber. The fierce election campaign revolves around how the elite guild should deal with artificial intelligence or private equity funds.

Australia's Firmus announces Nvidia-backed 'AI factory' in Indonesia

Artificial intelligence: Baidu AI division Kunlunxin is apparently planning an IPO

Baidu's Kunlunxin division wants to go public in Hong Kong. The AI ​​chip maker is aiming for a valuation of around $50 billion.

Nasa turns to robotic spacecraft to save telescope from falling back to Earth

Nasa is racing to save an ageing telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The US$30 million salvage operation gets under way as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. Nasa hired start-up Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe’s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the..

Japan’s new AI police chief takes on US$2 billion scam epidemic

She has a young woman’s voice, a friendly face and a police chief’s badge. Her name is “AIko” and she may be Japan’s most unconventional weapon in a war against fraud that cost the country a record US$2 billion last year. AIko – a blend of the abbreviation for artificial intelligence and “ko”, the Japanese feminine name suffix – made her public debut in late May on Osaka Prefectural Police’s YouTube channel, warning viewers about the tactics used by scammers posing as police officers,...

Baidu shares jump 7% as AI chip arm Kunlunxin said to target $50 billion Hong Kong IPO

Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares rose over 6% amid reports that its AI chip unit Kunlunxin is targeting a $50 billion initial public offering in the city.

AI agents that provide ‘economic value’ are next frontier, says Meta AI research chief

The next frontier of artificial intelligence will be agents that can perform “economically valuable” work across a broad range of real-world domains, according to Dawn Song, Meta Platforms’ new vice-president of AI research. “The goal is not to replace humans,” Song told the South China Morning Post last week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, also known as Summer Davos, days before joining Meta. “But we want these AI agents to be more effective in these important real-world

‘Pass on the warmth’: blind Chinese teen aces gaokao, chooses medicine to help others

A teenager from northern China who lost his sight in a brutal attack has emerged as one of the top scorers in the national college entrance examination for students with disabilities. Thirteen years ago, Guo Bin was just six years old when a middle-aged woman lured him away from his home in Shanxi province. After threatening to gouge out his eyes if he continued to cry, the woman attacked him with a tree branch, resulting in permanent blindness. Guo was later found conscious but covered in...

Looking for ideas on an extra long-term investment account for our kids

My wife and I have two kids (ages 6 and 3). We contribute enough to both of their RESPs each year to receive the full CESG grant. We’re now thinking about saving some additional money for each of them beyond the RESP over the next 15–20 years. Most of our own investments are in TD e-Series following the Canadian Couch Potato model, and the RESPs are invested the same way. We’re considering either: Wealthsimple + XEQT with automatic recurring purchases. TD + TEQT (commission-free), although I’d h

Chinese farmer’s forest of cameras fails to bear fruit in compensation bid

A Chinese farmer has generated a buzz online by planting a forest of more than 170 surveillance cameras on his land in the hope of boosting his compensation under a land purchase scheme. Footage circulating on social media – which showed the poles standing almost shoulder to shoulder on a hillside in Badong county, Hubei province – prompted rampant speculation about what could possibly warrant such heavy security for an ordinary orchard. On Friday, the local village committee explained the man..

Everything tied to the data center is suddenly suspect. Can Big Tech fix it?

The hyperscalers are just beginning to figure out the consequences of the AI arms race, and now everyone seems to be against them.

UK’s likely next leader Andy Burnham to unveil plan to shift power from London

Andy Burnham, the Labour lawmaker expected to replace Keir Starmer as British prime minister, will outline his vision for Britain on Monday, his office said, promising to change how the nation is governed with power moving from London to ‌the regions. Burnham, who returned to Westminster earlier this month after winning a parliamentary seat, is currently the only declared candidate to take over from Starmer and could be installed in Downing Street within weeks. Starmer announced last week he...

Artificial intelligence: Baidu AI division Kunlunxin is apparently aiming for an IPO with a valuation of $50 billion

Potential investors were asked to purchase chips worth three to seven times their planned subscription volume. There was no immediate comment from Baidu.

Pupils as young as 7 hooked on online games as expert warns of alarming trend

Hong Kong school pupils as young as seven are being referred for addiction counselling for online gaming, with requests for help involving increasingly younger children, a digital habits workshop has heard. Crystal Leung Chui-yee, officer-in-charge of the Sunshine Lutheran Centre, a counselling and treatment centre for problem gamblers, revealed the alarming frontline trend at the workshop organised by Young Post and the South China Morning Post’s student business, SCMP Learn, which about 70...

How is China shaping up in the global competition to sell air defence weapons?

Chinese firms joined their global competitors at Eurosatory, the recently concluded arms fair, where the latest air defences were the centre of attention in a market made more important by the drone warfare seen in Ukraine and the Middle East. Experts said China could anticipate sales from the Global South thanks to its cost efficiency, but geopolitical constraints would continue to bar it from US-allied countries that were looking for combat-proven and interoperable systems. China’s largest...

Micron is about to be more profitable than any U.S. company except Nvidia and Google

Big Tech companies are willing to pay astronomical prices for AI memory components, helping spark a dramatic turnaround in Micron’s finances.

Bonds: Big Tech issues billions in bonds in the euro area: What does this mean for European corporate bonds?

US technology companies such as SpaceX, Nvidia and Amazon have issued bonds for $219 billion since January. This is also what concerns companies and investors in Europe.

The more I follow Palantir Technologies, the less I think it's just an AI software company.

A few years ago I would've described Palantir as a defense contractor with great software. Now I'm not so sure. It feels like it's evolving into an operating system for organizations that need to make decisions from massive amounts of data. The government side is still a huge part of the story, and that's probably not changing anytime soon. Defense, intelligence, logistics, battlefield software... those businesses continue to grow. But what caught my attention recently is how much the commercial

Old-age security: How the Pension Commission wants to combat old-age poverty - without expensive gifts

Almost one in five pensioners is considered to be at risk of poverty. But the problem could be solved politically with a very simple but effective trick.

Australian arrested after Thai teen girl found dead in suitcase

The family of a 17-year-old Thai ⁠girl whose body ⁠was found in a suitcase ⁠in Pattaya said they were devastated by her death, for which an Australian man has been arrested and charged with murder. Thai police said they arrested an Australian man in his 40s at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport ‌early on Saturday in connection with the killing in Pattaya, about 150km (93 miles) east of Bangkok. The suspect, identified as Simon Peter Carman, faces charges of murder, concealment of a body, moving or..

Artificial Intelligence: Google apparently limits Gemini AI for Meta

According to media reports, Google is restricting the use of its Gemini AI for Meta - due to bottlenecks in computing power and increasing demand.