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HSBC has cut about 10 per cent of its US-based debt capital markets team as part of an ongoing cost-cutting drive and broader restructuring announced in October 2024, according to media reports. At least six staff in New York were laid off on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Those affected included a managing director, two directors, two associates and an analyst. Europe's largest lender by assets, and one of Hong Kong's biggest banks, unveiled a sweeping......

As American figure skater Ilia Malinin launched into a quad – a jump with four airborne revolutions – at this month's Winter Olympics, millions of television viewers witnessed something brand new: a replay of the jump separated into frames that appeared to orbit the athlete. It was just one of many new perspectives offered to viewers thanks to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, where the technology is not only enhancing broadcasts but also helping......

Hong Kong's residential property market made gradual and steady gains in the Year of the Snake, with the momentum set to continue in the Year of the Horse, according to the city's largest real estate agencies. “The Year of the Snake marked the end of three years of decline and a strong rebound fuelled by policy easing and wealth effect [from the Hong Kong stock market's gain],” said Derek Chan Hoi-chiu, head of research at Ricacorp Properties. “The Year of the Horse will build on the momentum,”......

The artificial intelligence boom has swept through consumer electronics – from smart wearables and AI-powered home devices to voice-interactive toys and robotic pets – but its most significant impact may be on the interface itself. Technology is moving off the screen and onto the face, with smart glasses increasingly seen as the next frontier. “The next interaction revolution will happen right in front of our eyes – driven by AI agents and the inevitable miniaturisation of hardware,” said Wu......

Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle (EV) brand owned by Geely Auto, has entered the Italian market, with customer deliveries and retail openings set to follow in spring. The move is part of its broader European expansion, following the launch of sales in Germany in December last year. In partnership with local distributor Jameel Motors Italia, Zeekr began taking orders for its full model range on Thursday, according to a press release. “Italy is a key market in our European expansion, and the......

Hong Kong's financial markets on Friday greeted the Year of the Horse with a mixed response, with stocks and gold moving in different directions on the first trading day of the year. Markets reopened on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, with the Hang Seng Index falling 1 per cent in early trading and gold advancing 0.2 per cent to HK$46,518 (US$5,964) a tael (37.9 grams). Hong Kong Gold Exchange (HKGX) chairman Haywood Cheung Tak-hay said the exchange would team up with AGTech Holdings, a......

Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, led by tech heavyweights, with escalating tensions between US and Iran hurting sentiment. The Hang Seng Index declined 0.2 per cent to 26,657.84 at the open on the first trading day of the Year of Horse after the market reopened following a three-day holiday for the Lunar New Year. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.7 per cent. Mainland's bourses are closed this week and will reopen on Tuesday. E-commerce major Alibaba Group Holding slumped 3 per cent to HK$150......

Gold's volatile run is far from over, with the precious metal increasingly reasserting itself as an alternative form of “risk-free” money alongside the US dollar amid persistent inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, according to Jupiter Asset Management. With physical bullion in short supply, the firm sees mining companies as a more efficient way to gain exposure, offering potentially higher returns from smaller allocations thanks to strong profits and free cash flow. The outlook follows a......

Thousands of Hong Kong bank employees will receive a return-to-work lai see on Friday, with some banks handing out extra benefits and gifts to their staff amid improving economic and market sentiment. While it is a Chinese tradition for companies to give their staff lai see on the first working day of the Lunar New Year as a token of appreciation for their hard work, many banks nowadays give their staff lai see and other goodies before the holiday. Bank of China (Hong Kong) is giving each of its......

China's “big tech” giants – including Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings – released preliminary figures showing impressive gains for their new flagship artificial intelligence offerings during this year's Spring Festival Gala marketing blitz. While red packet giveaways and extensive advertising campaigns have been a fixture of past Lunar New Year holidays, this year's multi-billion-yuan competition surrounding a crop of new artificial intelligence products was so intense that......

I travelled to Zurich, Switzerland, last month to attend the Asia Leaders Series, a forum designed to foster candid exchange between Europe and Asia, offering policymakers, economists and business leaders a trusted setting to engage seriously with global challenges. The event took place on the eve of the World Economic Forum meeting. I was asked to moderate a session on a topic that was hardly novel: US-China rivalry. I approached the event with modest expectations. Strategic competition between......

Rising battery costs and a cooling car market are likely to tilt China's electric-vehicle race in favour of hybrids this year, as budget-conscious consumers turn away from fully electric models, analysts say. Material cost inflation is expected to slow momentum for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), allowing plug-in hybrids to regain market share after years of rapid electrification in the world's largest car market. “A loss of pure electric car sales can be expected this year due to consumers'......

Chinese tech companies from Tencent Holdings to AgiBot have named Millennials and even Gen Z talent as chief scientists to lead cutting-edge research into artificial intelligence and robotics. The most watched is Vinces Yao Shunyu, who turns 28 this year. He is a former researcher at OpenAI and joined Tencent in December as chief AI scientist under the CEO's office, reporting directly to president Martin Lau Chi-ping. A graduate of Princeton University and Tsinghua University, Yao was a core......

Producers across the world are likely to ramp up output of commodities such as copper and lithium, limiting the kind of runaway price gains seen in gold even as markets anticipate a prolonged rally in raw materials, Goldman Sachs said. Gold has surged to record highs, while a range of other commodities have also climbed, as governments and investors seek the perceived “insurance” value of hard assets amid geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty, the US bank said in a report addressing what......

The family behind one of Mongolia's largest mining conglomerates has bought a detached house in Hong Kong's upmarket Southern district for HK$247 million (US$31.5 million), with the buyer intending to use it as a “retirement residence”. Land Registry records showed Tisara Holdings, whose director is Tselmuun Nyamtaishir, signed a provisional agreement on January 29 to acquire House 5 in One Stanley at 128 Wong Ma Kok Road. Nyamtaishir is the president and CEO of Mongolyn Alt (MAK), a......

Moonshot AI, the Chinese start-up behind the powerful Kimi artificial intelligence models, has added at least another US$700 million to its war chest after launching another funding round that could value it at up to US$12 billion. The new round, which comes just over a month after its last one, could almost triple Moonshot's previous valuation of US$4.3 billion amid exploding investor interest in China's AI enterprises. It was jointly led by existing investors including Alibaba Group Holding,......

Consumer interest in robots has surged in China since several leading models appeared on stage at Monday's Spring Festival Gala, with delivery dates pushed as far back as late April. This development follows the featuring of robots from four domestic firms – Unitree Robotics, Magiclab, Galbot and Noetix – at the event after they signed partnerships reportedly worth around 100 million yuan (US$14 million). One of the biggest beneficiaries was Hangzhou-based Unitree, whose G1 humanoid robots......

A surge in drug research in China has driven the cost of a laboratory monkey to about 140,000 yuan (US$20,260), a sum that exceeds the country's average annual wage. Official government procurement records showed that prices had doubled in the last five years for such monkeys, which are widely used in the preclinical stage to check whether a drug is safe and how it is absorbed, broken down and cleared by the body. Analysts said the soaring cost was underpinned by a flood of drug-licensing deals......

Owning a white vehicle in China may mean lower car insurance premiums because it is less likely to get in an accident, according to an executive from SunCar Technology Group, which uses artificial intelligence from ByteDance to personalise services. “This is what we found based on our massive data,” said SunCar chief strategy officer Breaux Walker in an interview with the South China Morning Post. Other factors also affect premiums, including car usage, commuting routes and driving habits.......

We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China becomes Brazil's biggest vehicle exporter in January, surpassing Argentina China surpassed Argentina in January to become Brazil's largest exporter of vehicles, solidifying Chinese brands' dominance in the region's biggest car market and undercutting a long-standing Argentine......