Robyn Mak

A smaller Ant can still sting. Just ask Ken Griffin. The fintech firm has outbid the billionaire's Citadel Securities for Credit Suisse's investment-banking unit in China, Bloomberg reports. A deal makes little sense but would signal the Jack Ma-founded payments-to-lending group is back in good standing with Beijing.

Global investors just can't get enough of AI stocks, except if it's Baidu , . China's $36 billion search-engine operator lags artificial intelligence leaders like Microsoft , but has made progress on its answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Yet its stock plunged 8% in New York trading on Wednesday despite decent results. It now trades below 10 times forward earnings. Blame a wider rout in Chinese equities

HONG KONG, March 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chinese online retail giant JD.com prides itself on competitive prices. The same can be said for its own stock.

Saying goodbye to Hong Kong will be hard. Luggage-maker Samsonite International , skincare group L'Occitane International and Asian real estate fund manager ESR have emerged as potential buyout targets as stocks languish in the financial hub. These businesses are broadly doing well and could command a higher price tag on another bourse now or later. But that also means shareholders can demand a ge

HONG KONG, March 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - TikTok's Chinese parent is stuck in a Washington doom loop.

Game on. Tencent is being outplayed. Revenue is shrinking in its core video gaming business in China and overseas. The $350 billion Shenzhen-based company founded by Pony Ma admits it needs to get its 'own house in order'. That looks increasingly urgent.The lucrative division remains the company's crown jewel, accounting for over a quarter of its top line. Yet Beijing's years-long regulatory assault on the sector, including imposing curbs on how much time and money minors can spend online, has taken its toll.Tencent has suffered from weak growth before. Total group revenue contracted for the first time in 2022 by a small amount. The company then returned to growth, thanks to advertising, fintech and other units. But the disappointing fourth quarter it reported on Wednesday in its domestic and international gaming division is troubling.At home, where Beijing's crackdowns have eased, Tencent President Martin Lau partly blamed the slowdown on zealous gamers spending their money on titles in the first quarter last year, according to Reuters. On a separate call with analysts, he elaborated that 'monetisation has temporarily stagnated' at the company's two biggest titles 'Honour of Kings' and 'Peacekeeper Elite'. The company's 3% year-on-year fall in gaming revenue within the People's Republic, to 27 billion yuan ($3.75 billion), is a far cry from smaller rival NetEase, which reported a 29% jump in mobile games sales over the same period.Tencent's global expansion has also hit a speed bump, with revenue falling 1% excluding currency fluctuations. Back in 2022, the company blamed 'a post pandemic digestion period'; this time, it cryptically said its Supercell subsidiary, which Tencent bought eight years ago in a $8.6 billion deal, was 'repositioning' its games.The company pledged to 'at least double the size' of share buybacks this year to $12.8 billion. It also committed to overhauling leadership for some games and focusing on big-budget titles.Shares of Tencent were up as much as 3% on Thursday. Still, the Hong Kong stock is down over 10% in the past year. It is underperforming NetEase's U.S.-shares that have surged by a quarter and trade on 14 times forecast next 12 months earnings, per LSEG data, slightly above Tencent. The company needs new hits, and fast.Tencent is being outplayed. Revenue is shrinking in its core video gaming business in China and overseas. The $350 billion Shenzhen-based company founded by Pony Ma admits it needs to get its 'own house in order'. That looks increasingly urgent.The lucrative division remains the company's crown jewel, accounting for over a quarter of its top line. Yet Beijing's years-long regulatory assault on the sector, including imposing curbs on how much time and money minors can spend online, has taken its toll.Tencent has suffered from weak growth before. Total group revenue contracted for the first time in 2022 by a small amount. The company then returned to growth, thanks to advertising, fintech and other units. But the disappointing fourth quarter it reported on Wednesday in its domestic and international gaming division is troubling.At home, where Beijing's crackdowns have eased, Tencent President Martin Lau partly blamed the slowdown on zealous gamers spending their money on titles in the first quarter last year, according to Reuters. On a separate call with analysts, he elaborated that 'monetisation has temporarily stagnated' at the company's two biggest titles 'Honour of Kings' and 'Peacekeeper Elite'. The company's 3% year-on-year fall in gaming revenue within the People's Republic, to 27 billion yuan ($3.75 billion), is a far cry from smaller rival NetEase, which reported a 29% jump in mobile games sales over the same period.Tencent's global expansion has also hit a speed bump, with revenue falling 1% excluding currency fluctuations. Back in 2022, the company blamed 'a post pandemic digestion period'; this time, it cryptically said its Supercell subsidiary, which Tencent bought eight years ago in a $8.6 billion deal, was 'repositioning' its games.The company pledged to 'at least double the size' of share buybacks this year to $12.8 billion. It also committed to overhauling leadership for some games and focusing on big-budget titles.Shares of Tencent were up as much as 3% on Thursday. Still, the Hong Kong stock is down over 10% in the past year. It is underperforming NetEase's U.S.-shares that have surged by a quarter and trade on 14 times forecast next 12 months earnings, per LSEG data, slightly above Tencent. The company needs new hits, and fast.

Nvidia has ridden the wave of excitement about artificial intelligence to become the world’s third most valuable company. Yet founder Jensen Huang says the $2.3 trillion chip designer would not exist without Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing . His statement underscores how indispensable the $625 billion Taiwanese group is for the global technology industry.

Samsung Electronics investors are used to the chip market's notoriously brutal boom-and-bust cycles. Artificial intelligence, though, might help ease future swings.

New memories. Samsung Electronics investors are used to the chip market's notoriously brutal boom-and-bust cycles. Artificial intelligence, though, might help ease future swings.On Friday, the $420 billion tech conglomerate estimated first-quarter operating profit to be 6.6 trillion won ($4.9 billion), a 10-fold surge from the same period a year ago. It's a welcome sign that the market for memory semiconductors used for data storage has finally bottomed out.Consumer demand for electronics is recovering globally, while inventory levels have probably peaked; tech companies are starting to restock chip supplies again. After falling for much of the past two years, the average selling price for DRAM chips in the three months to March rose by more than a fifth from the previous quarter, according to Bernstein analysts. Samsung, which generates the bulk of its operating profit from semiconductors, is forecast to more than double earnings this year, per analysts' estimates gathered by LSEG.This upturn could be different. Semiconductors accounted for roughly a quarter of Samsung's top line last year. Mainstream memory ones are commoditised products, and vulnerable to cycles of excess inventory. Industry consolidation has helped, with Samsung, compatriot SK Hynix and U.S.-based Micron Technology dominating the market today, but they were still caught out in the past two years.That might gradually change: AI customers like Nvidia are asking for more specialised and customised storage chips including high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and low latency DRAM. Demand for the former is expected to surge 60% annually in the mid-to-long term, SK Hynix reckons.HBM revenue at Samsung could top $13 billion in 2025, or 13% of its total semiconductor sales, per JPMorgan analysts. Over the longer term, that could help cushion volatility. The company also looks well-positioned to grab share in the market for making logic chips used to process data.Shares of Samsung are up 28% over the past six months and now trade on over 16 times forecast next 12-month earnings, LSEG data show, above its five-year average of 13 times. The AI boom can help rewrite Samsung's fortunes.Context NewsSamsung Electronics on April 4 estimated operating profit for three months to March 31 to be 6.6 trillion won ($4.9 billion), an increase of 931% from the same period a year earlier. Revenue was likely 71 trillion won, up 11% year-on-year. The company is due to release detailed earnings on April 30. Samsung shares were down 1.3% to 84,200 won during late morning Seoul time on April 5.

HONG KONG, April 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China's factories will keep chugging along, regardless of what overseas officials like Janet Yellen say.