Finance news

Is South Korea making one of the biggest long-term industrial investments of the AI era?

South Korea has announced a long-term national strategy centered on AI infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and industrial infrastructure, with Samsung and SK Hynix expected to play central roles. What makes this interesting to me is that this appears to go beyond expanding semiconductor production. It looks like an attempt to accelerate the construction of an entire AI industrial ecosystem, including: AI semiconductor manufacturing Large-scale AI data centers and

After triggering price war, DeepSeek reverses course with surcharge on peak-hour API use

Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn DeepSeek is introducing peak-hour surcharges for its API services, bucking a fierce domestic price war it helped start, in which rivals have been aggressively undercutting each other to capture market share. The Chinese AI champion will double the price for access to its V4 AI models through its application programming interface (API) during peak hours – 9am to noon and 2pm to 6pm Beijing time – according to an email sent to service subscribers on Monday..

Meta is not getting AI right

https://imgur.com/a/0eWPf60 This morning, while opening WhatsApp on my Mac, the app updated and restarted, ask me to scan the QR code with phone to log in. For no clear reason, the computer app gets flagged as spamming. I haven't used it for 2 days, (I don't use WhatsApp normally, like 3, 4 times a week) It gets me to think how Meta's use of AI might be pretty bad and this is an example where AI is making things worse than it should. submitted by /u/whoisjian [link] [comments]

'I've applied for 8,000 jobs': Tech grads at top US schools feel shut out by AI

How South Korea’s AI megaprojects aim to ‘maintain edge’ over China, meet demand

South Korea’s US$518 billion semiconductor push aims to tap the artificial intelligence boom into a durable industrial advantage and keep up with leading rival China, according to observers. The plan is intended to secure supplies of advanced memory chips needed for AI data centres and computing infrastructure, while easing pressure on the Seoul metropolitan area by creating a second major chipmaking base in the country’s southwest. President Lee Jae Myung on Monday unveiled the government’s...

Not Even Musk Has The Answer To AI’s Power Shortage

The White House issued a stark warning in July 2025: Without $1.4 trillion in new infrastructure investment, electricity prices could surge as much as 58% by 2030. That’s driven mostly by the insatiable power demand from the rise of AI data centers and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. According to Axios, new reports show that power demand is set to grow up to 10x between now and 2030. The grid we’ve relied on for decades simply can't keep pace, and that’s threatening to put a major strain on both

'I've applied to 8,000 jobs': Tech grads at top US schools feel shut out by AI

Salesforce is on an AI buying spree, but Wall Street still has its doubts

The company has announced three deals in the month of June alone.

This rare, widening gap between Big Tech and semiconductor stocks is flashing a warning for the broader market

Semiconductor stocks have surged more than 80% this year, riding a wave of AI demand from the “Magnificent Seven.” Meanwhile, the companies writing those checks find themselves in correction territory.

#003 | About HOT US inflation, BREXIT review and Rheinmetall! 🦆

Good evening on the floor! The Schnattersee 🦆 has produced new material! In this episode we talk about US inflation data, take a quick look back at Brexit, and talk about various issues at OpenAI, MicroStrategy and Rheinmetall. There is also a small insight into the quarterly figures for the current week. As always, we look forward to your feedback, your topic requests and thank you for listening :) submitted by /u/Alpha3K [link] [comments]

The AI Power Boom Is Reopening the Public Utility Debate

Following the June 2026 primary elections in NYC, in which democratic socialist Mayor Mamdani’s preferred slate enjoyed considerable electoral success, much has been written about the political implications. Our take is really simple. The last time the democratic socialists gained power, especially in major US cities, many of their policies were adopted by Progressives or New Dealers. In either case, that meant a far more intrusive regulatory environment for utilities. The Progressives laid the

Alphabet stock pops 4% on Dow debut, but the tech giant faces major AI questions

Alphabet shares rose Monday as the company joined the Dow, but the blue-chip milestone comes as the stock remains under pressure.

Handelsblatt Live: US stock market expert Koch: Tech stocks are recovering

After the shares in the Nasdaq closed with losses last week, the tech stocks started trading on Monday on a solid note. The AI ​​trade seems to be stabilizing, reports Markus Koch.

AI is not a sector it’s a capital rotation ladder from chips to apps (with ETFs for every layer)

I don’t really see AI as a single sector. To me, it’s more like a supply chain where money slowly rotates down the stack. It usually starts with compute, basically chips. That’s NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, names like that. This is the stage where sentiment is strongest and the market is mostly pricing in expectations. The ETFs here are usually SMH or SOXX. This is basically the first wave of the AI trade. Then the money tends to move into data centers. Stuff like SMCI, Dell, Equinix. At this

From Crypto early 10s, to Ai in early 20s, now

I was a Crypto boy in early 2015-2016, and caught it quite well .. The run before it became a total s-show of rug devs and pump-funs was amazing. Became quite wealthy.. lost it all unfortunately.. My friends in the meantime 2020+ started investing in some AI stock, went slow, didn't do much, they stayed ''poor''... until now.. AI Stocks remind me of what Crypto was back in the days. You can put some money in weekly, and just sleep (not even talking alts, Im talking micro-alts) However, I feel li

Raw materials: AI shortens the search for critical minerals

The AI ​​platform Terra AI links drill cores, seismic data and muon tomography to create subsurface models. Khosla Ventures is now joining as a financier.

China warns popular phone games may provide map data to train foreign military AI models

China’s top anti-espionage agency on Monday warned gamers that a company with overseas defence ties may be obtaining geospatial data via an augmented reality game. The warning quoted media reports about “the militarisation of civilian data” that said billions of environmental scans from a popular mobile phone game were being used to train AI models with potential battlefield applications. In a social media post, Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) cited reports that said an AI company...

From invention to impact: Hong Kong Science Fair gives young innovators a wider stage

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] This year’s event drew more than 60,000 visits over two days at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Around 120 shortlisted teams from primary and secondary schools presented inventions that combine AI with other technologies to tackle everyday challenges. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Professor Sun Dong described the Hong Kong Science Fair as an annual flagship innovation and technology...

The central bank of central banks warns AI frenzy could trigger stock-market slump and jeopardize economy

Rich stock market valuations, investor complacency, circular financing, and the potential knock-on effects in credit markets are a clear warning in the BIS annual report

South Korea unveils US$576 billion megaprojects to dominate global AI, chip market

South Korea rolled out sweeping chip and AI megaprojects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung pledged to cement overwhelming industry leadership with investments worth more than US$576 billion over several years. The announcement marks ⁠Lee’s boldest push yet to align South Korea’s AI and chip ambitions with ‌his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area. Lee was joined by the leaders of ‌Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two...

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

The AI boom is colliding with a new threat: severe weather

Heatwaves and severe weather are raising risks for AI data centers, from grid strain to higher insurance and repair costs.

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,...

China’s aircon scarce in Europe, Wu Chun’s luggage ordeal: 5 weekend reads you missed

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success 2. Why Malaysia’s tourism boom lives and dies on a Chinese app 3. As Europe sizzles amid extreme heat, the hunt for China’s aircon remains elusive 4. Cathay Pacific says sorry to actor Wu Chun over 3-day luggage delay...

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.

Is it possible to have a broadly invested portfolio, without automatic purchasing of SPCX or AI IPO’s?

Regardless of whether or not owning SPCX is a good financial choice (whether directly or through index funds) I do not want to participate in it because I believe this whole IPO situation is financial fraud and I don’t want to participate. There exists funds like SPXT, which is the same as SPY, but they exclude all Information Technology companies. This is OK, but a blanket exclusion of an entire sector is a little simple. Is there some better choice of index that still broadly represents the ec

China’s first AI-powered cancer vaccine production line set to launch in Beijing

China has broken ground on what developers say is the country’s first production line for AI-assisted personalised tumour vaccines, raising hopes for millions of new cancer patients every year – a disease that ranks as the nation’s second-leading cause of death. By October, Beijing-based Likang Life Sciences is expected to complete a new drug research and manufacturing centre in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a total investment of about 110 million yuan (US$16.1...

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

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.

Asia's AI rally winners face a rising leverage problem