Dec 21 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is offering $7,500 discounts on Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles (EV) delivered in the United States this month, its website showed on Wednesday, amid concerns the automaker is facing softening demand as economies slow and EV tax incentives loom.
That is up from the $3,750 credit it has offered on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered before the end of the year. It has also recently started offering free supercharging for 10,000 miles (16,093 kms) for the December vehicles.
The latest discount came just days after the U.S. Treasury Department delayed restrictions on EV incentives until March, meaning Teslas and other U.S-made electric vehicles are likely to qualify for the full $7,500 credits temporarily.
Customers have canceled their orders and held off their purchases until the new credits take effect in January, weighing on Tesla demand.
Analysts also worry that rising interest rates and CEO Elon Musk’s controversial Twitter management could hurt the Tesla brand and sales.
“The fact they seem to be cutting price to increase deliveries volumes doesn’t raise confidence, particularly at a time where we see increasing competition,” Craig Irwin, a senior analyst at ROTH Capital Partners, said.
The rare discounts follow a series of price hikes over the past couple of years by the automaker, which blamed supply chain disruption and inflation.
Tesla is also offering $5,000 credit in Canada on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered before the end of the year. The U.S. automaker has also given a discount of 6,000 yuan ($860) on some models in China to the end of 2022.
Tesla in October said it would miss its vehicle delivery target this year, but downplayed concerns about demand after its revenue missed Wall Street estimates.
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Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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German citizens will get shot; Berlin pushes for wider use
Shipment comes after Scholz visit to China last month
Comes as infections spike in world’s No. 2 economy
BERLIN, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Berlin has sent its first batch of BioNTech (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, a German government spokesperson said on Wednesday, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.
No details were available on the timing and size of the delivery, although the spokesperson said Berlin is pushing for foreigners other than German nationals, estimated at about 20,000, to be allowed access to the shot if they want it.
The shipment comes after China agreed to allow German nationals in China to get the shot following a deal during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit in Beijing last month, with the German leader pressing for Beijing to allow the shot to be made freely available to Chinese citizens as well.
In a letter to be sent to German citizens in mainland China, the government said it would offer basic immunisations and booster shots of vaccines approved for use in the European Union for free to anyone over 12 years of age.
Family members of other nationalities would not be included. Vaccinations for children under 12 may follow at a later date.
“We are working on the possibility that besides Germans also other foreigners can be vaccinated with BioNTech,” the spokesperson told journalists in Berlin.
The shots will be delivered to German companies in China as well as embassy locations and talks are underway with other EU governments about getting them to citizens of other nationalities, a source familiar with the situation said.
China would need to approve expanding access beyond German nationals, the source said.
In return, Chinese citizens in Europe can be vaccinated with China’s SinoVac (SVA.O), the spokesperson said.
The comment comes after a report earlier this month that Germany’s health ministry had granted a permit allowing China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to be imported to Germany to be given to Chinese citizens in that country.
The shot has not been approved for use by Europe’s drug regulator, but the World Health Organization has given its green light for its use.
Beijing has so far insisted on using only domestically produced vaccines, which are not based on the Western mRNA technology but on more traditional technologies.
The shipment comes amid Beijing dismantling its strict “zero-COVID” regime of lockdowns, which has led to a surge of cases that caught a fragile health system unprepared.
Experts predict that the country of 1.4 billion people could face more than a million COVID deaths next year.
Allowing German expats access to a Western shot is a big gesture to Berlin, reflecting Beijing’s effort to strengthen ties with EU’s biggest economy after years of tensions over trade and climate between the two countries.
Shares in BioNTech rose on news of the shipment, closing 2.3% higher in Frankfurt while Pfizer shares in New York were up 1.25% in late morning New York trade.
BioNTech was not immediately available to comment on the situation on Wednesday.
China is stuck between rising Covid-19 cases and stalled vaccination rates
NO WESTERN SHOTS
China has nine domestically developed COVID vaccines approved for use, more than any other country. But none has been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (MRNA.O) have for boosters in many developed countries.
The two shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are the most widely used around the world.
Early on in the pandemic, BioNTech struck a deal with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (600196.SS) with a view to supply the shots to greater China.
While the shots became available in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the regulatory review for mainland China has not been concluded. BioNTech has said that decision was up to Chinese regulators and has not given a reason for the delay.
China’s zero-COVID policy and lockdown measures have kept death and infection rates minimal over the past months but caused massive disruptions both domestically and in global trade and supply chains.
China uses a narrow definition of COVID deaths and reported no new fatalities for Tuesday, even crossing one off its overall tally since the pandemic began, now at 5,241 – a fraction of the tolls of many much less populous countries.
The National Health Commission said on Tuesday only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths.
Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Alexander Ratz and Christian Kraemer; additional reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan and Amanda Cooper in London;
Writing by Miranda Murray;
Editing by Josephine Mason and David Evans
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Thomson Reuters
Berlin correspondent who has investigated anti-vaxxers and COVID treatment practices, reported on refugee camps and covered warlords’ trials in The Hague. Earlier, he covered Eastern Europe for the Financial Times. He speaks Hungarian, German, French and Dutch.
Dec 12 (Reuters) – Microsoft (MSFT.O) is to take a 4% equity stake in London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) as part of a 10-year commercial deal to migrate the exchange operator’s data platform into the cloud, the British company said on Monday.
It is the latest sign of deepening ties between financial services providers and a handful of big global cloud companies such as Microsoft, Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and IBM (IBM.N), which have prompted regulators to scrutinise the ties more closely.
Microsoft has longstanding links with LSEG, but the exchange group’s Chief Executive David Schwimmer said that about a year ago they began talks on closer ties.
“It’s a long term partnership. In terms of the products we will be building together, I would expect our customers to start to see the benefits of that 18 to 24 months out and we will continue building from there,” Schwimmer told Reuters.
Regulators have expressed concern about the over-reliance of financial firms on too few cloud providers, given the disruption this could cause across the sector if a provider went down.
The European Union has just approved a law introducing safeguards on cloud providers in financial services, with Britain set to follow suit.
“You should assume we do not like to surprise our regulators,” Schwimmer said, when asked if LSEG has ensured that regulators were on board.
LSEG said the link with Microsoft was a partnership to reap the benefits of “consumption-based pricing”, and not a traditional cloud deal.
“We will continue to maintain our multi-cloud strategy and working with other cloud providers,” Schwimmer said.
The deal was not about savings by outsourcing activities to the cloud, but about meaningful incremental revenue growth as new products come on stream over time.
“This feels like a key milestone in LSEG’s journey towards being information solutions-centric, even if ‘meaningful’ revenue growth specifics are lacking,” analysts at Jefferies said.
As part of the deal, LSEG has made a contractual commitment for minimum cloud-related spend with Microsoft of $2.8 billion over the term of the partnership.
Microsoft said the basis of the partnership will be the digital transformation of LSEG’s technology infrastructure and Refinitiv platforms on to the Microsoft Cloud.
“The initial focus will be on delivering interoperability between LSEG Workspace and Microsoft Teams, Excel and PowerPoint with other Microsoft applications and a new version of LSEG’s Workspace,” the U.S. company said.
LSEG shares were up 4% in early trade.
LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27 billion from a Blackstone and Thomson Reuters’ consortium, which turned the exchange into the second largest financial data company after Bloomberg LP.
LSEG has made “good progress” on its programme for the delivery of its cloud-based data platform since the completion of its Refinitiv acquisition in January 2021, it said in a statement.
Microsoft will buy LSEG shares from the Blackstone (BX.N)/Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), Consortium, the exchange operator said.
Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters News, has a minority shareholding in LSEG following the Refinitiv deal.
Microsoft’s purchase is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023.
Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Jane Merriman and Louise Heavens
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WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Army on Monday awarded the contract for its next-generation helicopter to Textron Inc’s (TXT.N) Bell unit, ending a years-long competition for the technology that will replace the Black Hawk utility helicopter.
The Army’s “Future Vertical Lift” competition aimed at finding a replacement as the Army looks to retire more than 2,000 medium-class UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters built by Sikorsky since the 1970s.
The Army was looking for an aircraft capable of moving about a dozen troops 400 nautical miles. “We are ready to equip soldiers with the speed and range they need to compete and win using the most mature, reliable, and affordable high-performance long-range assault weapon system,” Mitch Snyder, CEO of Bell said in a statement.
The Army said the initial award was for $232 million, but the first batch of helicopters in low rate production will be worth $7.1 billion. Ultimately, the contract is potentially worth around $70 billion – over decades – depending on how many the Army and U.S. allies order, the Army told reporters on Monday evening.
“The thoughtful and disciplined execution of the FLRAA (Future Long Range Assault Aircraft) program strategy will deliver the transformational capabilities we need to support the Joint force, strengthen deterrence and win in multi-domain operations,” said Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the army for acquisition, logistics, and technology.
In the FLARAA competition was Bell’s V-280 “Valor,” a tiltrotor aircraft that has reached speeds in excess of 340 mph (547 km) according to the Army. It beat out the entrant from Lockheed Martin’s (LMT.N) Sikorsky and Boeing Co’s (BA.N) SB-1 “Defiant” which has two coaxial rotors and a single pusher propeller and has reached speeds of 265 mph, according to the Army.
Often defense procurement awards of this magnitude are protested. Bush said “we planned for that contingency, but that is completely up to the vendor.” It is likely that if a protest were to be filed it would be in several weeks once administrative meetings occurred.
Textron’s shares rose about 8.5% in trading after the bell on the news.
Reporting by Mike Stone and Idrees Ali; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Stephen Coates
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Thomson Reuters
National security correspondent focusing on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Reports on U.S. military activity and operations throughout the world and the impact that they have. Has reported from over two dozen countries to include Iraq, Afghanistan, and much of the Middle East, Asia and Europe. From Karachi, Pakistan.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Sept 17 (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone 14 models contain a Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) chip that can talk to satellites, but have additional custom-designed Apple components used in the phone’s biggest new feature, according to an analysis of the phone by iFixit and an Apple statement.
Apple released its iPhone 14 lineup on Friday. One of the major new features is the ability to connect to satellites to send emergency messages when there is no WiFi or cellular data connection.
Apple said earlier this month that the iPhone 14 models contain new hardware that makes possible the emergency message service, which Apple plans to turn on with a software update coming in November. Apple did not give details about the satellite-specific hardware.
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iFixit, a San Luis Obispo, California-based firm that disassembles iPhones and other consumer electronics to assess how easily they can be repaired, took apart an iPhone 14 Pro Max model on Friday, revealing a Qualcomm X65 modem chip.
The Qualcomm chip provides 5G connectivity for cellular networks but is also capable of using what is called band n53, the frequency band used by satellites from Globalstar (GSAT.A).
Globalstar earlier this month announced a deal in which Apple will take up to 85% of Globalstar’s satellite network capacity to enable Apple’s new emergency messaging feature.
In a statement to Reuters on Saturday, Apple said there is additional proprietary hardware and software in the iPhone 14 for the new messaging feature.
“iPhone 14 includes custom radio frequency components, and new software designed entirely by Apple, that together enable Emergency SOS via satellite on new iPhone 14 models,” Apple said in a statement.
Qualcomm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Luis Obispo, California; Editing by Leslie Adler
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Anshu Jain, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, addresses the bank’s annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, May 21, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
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Aug 13 (Reuters) – Anshu Jain, a top finance executive best known for helping German lender Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) take on the largest Wall Street firms, died overnight on Saturday after a five-year battle with cancer, his family said. He was 59.
Jain, who was born in India, spent two decades building Deutsche Bank into one of the world’s top universal banks. He was the first non-European to lead the German institution.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008 and the European debt crisis that followed, Jain pushed Deutsche to remain Europe’s “last man standing” as U.S. firms pulled ahead in global banking.
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The years of expansion into risky investment banking businesses came back to haunt the bank, as regulation made complex trades more costly. As co-chief executive he struggled to cut back the risk and to get a grip on a long list of scandals that led to billions of dollars in fines.
He resigned from the German lender in 2015, and had been the president of U.S. financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald since 2017.
“He will be remembered for his leadership in financial services and his deep commitment to conservation,” said Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock Inc, who said he knew Jain well.
Born in the Indian city of Jaipur, Jain earned his bachelors at the University of Delhi before completing an MBA at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
A lifelong vegetarian, he loved wildlife photography, safaris in Kenya’s Masaai Mara and wilderness conservation, his family said.
He joined Deutsche in 1995 to launch a division specializing in hedge funds and derivatives. He then headed bond trading and emerging markets and later, as head of the investment bank, he out-earned his boss, then-CEO Josef Ackermann.
He was appointed to Deutsche’s management board in 2009 and was responsible for the corporate and investment bank division from 2010. From 2012 to 2015, he was co-CEO.
“Anyone who worked with Anshu experienced a passionate leader of intellectual brilliance,” said present CEO, Christian Sewing.
Jain was diagnosed in January 2017 with duodenal cancer, which affects the small intestine, but managed to outlive his initial diagnosis by four years, the family said.
“To his last day, Anshu stood by his lifelong determination to ‘not be a statistic’,” the family said.
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Reporting by Vera Eckert in Frankfurt and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul and Clelia Oziel
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Aug 4 (Reuters) – The United States has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, the health secretary said on Thursday, a move expected to free up additional funding and tools to fight the disease.
The U.S. tally topped 6,600 on Wednesday, almost all of the cases among men who have sex with men.
“We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a briefing.
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The declaration will improve the availability of data on monkeypox infections that is needed for the response, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said, speaking alongside Bacerra.
The U.S. government has come under pressure for its handling of the outbreak.
The disease began spreading in Europe before moving to the United States, which now has the most cases in the world. Vaccines and treatments have been in short supply and the disease often left for historically underfunded sexual health clinics to manage. read more
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” its highest alert level. The WHO declaration last month sought to trigger a coordinated international response and unlock funding to collaborate on vaccines and treatments. read more
Governments are deploying vaccines and treatments that were first approved for smallpox but also work for monkeypox.
The U.S. government has distributed 600,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s (BAVA.CO) Jynneos vaccine and deployed 14,000 of Siga Technologies’ (SIGA.O) TPOXX treatment, officials said, though they did not disclose how many have been administered.
Walensky said the government aims to vaccinate more than 1.6 million high-risk individuals.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency was considering freeing up more Jynneos vaccine doses by allowing doctors to draw 5 doses of vaccine from each vial instead of the current 1 dose by using a different subcutaneous method of inoculation.
U.S. President Joe Biden this month appointed two federal officials to coordinate his administration’s response to monkeypox, following declarations of emergencies by California, Illinois and New York. read more
First identified in monkeys in 1958, the disease has mild symptoms including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions, and people tend to recover from it within two to four weeks, the WHO says. It spreads through close physical contact and is rarely fatal.
Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told Reuters on Thursday that it was critical to engage leaders from the gay community as part of efforts to rein in the outbreak, but cautioned against stigmatizing the lifestyle.
“Engagement of the community has always proven to be successful,” Fauci said.
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Reporting by Manas Mishra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Caroline Humer and Leela de Kretser, Editing by Anil D’Silva, Deepa Babington and Howard Goller
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Pipes at the landfall facilities of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/
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FRANKFURT/LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – Russia delivered less gas to Europe on Wednesday in a further escalation of an energy stand-off between Moscow and the European Union that will make it harder, and costlier, for the bloc to fill up storage ahead of the winter heating season.
The cut in supplies, flagged by Gazprom (GAZP.MM) earlier this week, has reduced the capacity of Nord Stream 1 pipeline – the major delivery route to Europe for Russian gas – to a mere fifth of its total capacity.
Nord Stream 1 accounts for around a third of all Russian gas exports to Europe.
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On Tuesday, EU countries approved a weakened emergency plan to curb gas demand after striking compromise deals to limit cuts for some countries, hoping lower consumption will ease the impact in case Moscow stops supplies altogether. read more
The plan highlights fears that countries will be unable to meet goals to refill storage and keep their citizens warm during the winter months and that Europe’s fragile economic growth may take another hit if gas will have to be rationed. read more
Royal Bank of Canada analysts said the plan could help Europe get through the winter provided gas flows from Russia are at 20-50% capacity, but warned against “complacency in the market European politicians have now solved the issue of Russian gas dependence.”
While Moscow has blamed the delayed return of a serviced turbine and sanctions for the supply cuts, Brussels has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon to blackmail the bloc and retaliate for Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov said the company has still not received a Siemens turbine used at Nord Stream 1’s Portovaya compressor station that has been undergoing servicing in Canada. read more
Markelov said there were sanctions risks associated with the machinery, while Siemens Energy said Gazprom needed to provide customs documents to bring the turbine back to Russia.
‘SAVE GAS’
On Wednesday, physical flows via Nord Stream 1 tumbled to 14.4 million kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) between 1200-1300 GMT from around 28 million kWh/h a day earlier, already just 40% of normal capacity. The drop comes less than a week after the pipeline restarted following a scheduled 10-day maintenance period.
European politicians have repeatedly warned Russia could stop gas flows completely this winter, which would thrust Germany into recession and send prices for consumers and industry soaring even further.
The Dutch wholesale gas price for August , the European benchmark, were up 7% at 210 euros per megawatt hour on Wednesday, up around 400% from a year ago.
Germany, Europe’s top economy and its largest importer of Russian gas, has been particularly hit by supply cuts since mid-June, with its gas importer Uniper (UN01.DE) requiring a 15 billion euro ($15.21 billion) state bailout as a result.
Italy, another major importer that typically gets 40% of gas from Russia, would face a gas supply crunch at the end of the coming winter if Russia were to totally halt supplies, Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani warned. read more
Uniper and Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI) both said they received less gas from Gazprom than in recent days.
German finance minister Christian Lindner said he was open to the use of nuclear power to avoid an electricity shortage. read more
Germany has said it could extend the life of its three remaining nuclear plants that produce 6% of its power, if Russia were to cut it off from its gas.
Klaus Mueller, head of the country’s network regulator, said Germany could still avoid a gas shortage that would prompt its rationing, while making another plea to households and industry to “save gas”.
German industry groups, however, have warned companies may have no choice but cut production to achieve bigger savings, pointing to slow approval for replacing natural gas with other, more polluting fuels. read more
Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) chief executive Ola Kaellenius said a mixture of efficiency measures, increased electricity consumption, lowering temperatures in production facilities and switching to oil could lower gas use by up to 50% within the year, if necessary.
Germany is currently at Phase 2 of a three-stage emergency gas plan, with the final phase to kick in once rationing can no longer be avoided.
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Reporting by Paul Carrel and Rachel More in Berlin, Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt and Nina Chestney in London; additional reporting by Angelo Amante in Rome and Reuters bureaux; editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Tomasz Janowski
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A man walks past the Alibaba Group office building in Beijing, China August 9, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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Expects to add HK primary listing by end-2022, keep NYSE listing
Hong Kong shares jump 5%; move will diversify investor base -CEO
Seen boosting mainland China investor access to Alibaba shares
In line with move Ant execs step down from Alibaba partnership
SHANGHAI, July 26 (Reuters) – Alibaba (9988.HK) will apply for a primary listing in Hong Kong and keep its U.S. listing, the first big company to take advantage of a rule change allowing high-tech Chinese firms with dual class shares to seek dual primary listings in Hong Kong.
The e-commerce giant’s move, announced on Tuesday, comes as both Washington and Beijing sharpen scrutiny over Chinese companies’ listings, and after a devastating regulatory crackdown in China left Alibaba with a $2.8 billion fine and scuppered an initial public offering (IPO) of its affiliate Ant.
Alibaba’s stock jumped 4% at the start of trading in Hong Kong as analysts said the change should give mainland China investors easier access to the shares via a link to the Hong Kong bourse known as the Stock Connect. At 0303 GMT, the shares were up 5% while the Hong Kong benchmark (.HSI) was up 1.2%.
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Already present on the Hong Kong bourse with a secondary listing since 2019, Alibaba said it expects the primary listing to be completed by the end of 2022. Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said the dual listing would foster a “wider and more diversified investor base”.
The move comes after the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in January changed its rules to allow “innovative” Chinese companies – operating an internet or other high-tech business – with weighted voting rights or variable interest entities (VIE) to carry out dual primary listings in the city.
Under a VIE structure, a Chinese company sets up an offshore entity for overseas listing purposes that allows foreign investors to buy into the stock.
“Hong Kong is also the launch pad for Alibaba’s globalisation strategy, and we are fully confident in China’s economy and future,” Alibaba’s CEO Zhang said in a statement.
SWEEPING CRACKDOWN
Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, marking what was at the time the largest IPO in history.
Since 2020, the company’s share price has tanked in both markets, as a sweeping regulatory crackdown by Beijing has battered Chinese tech companies.
At the same time, U.S. regulators have stepped up scrutiny of accounts of Chinese firms listed in New York, demanding greater transparency.
While broad in scope, a core focus of China’s crackdown has been regulators seeking to expand oversight of public offerings.
Last year, Chinese authorities launched a probe into ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing just after it listed in New York, citing data privacy concerns.
The company later de-listed and began preparations to list in Hong Kong, leading analysts to interpret the probe as driven by a desire on Beijing’s part for data-rich companies to list domestically.
ANT DECOUPLING
Alibaba also found itself in similar crosshairs when regulators abruptly halted Ant Group’s planned $37 billion IPO in Hong Kong in Shanghai in late 2020.
Concurrent with the announcement of its dual primary listing, Alibaba said on Tuesday in its annual financial report that several Ant Group executives had stepped down from their posts in the Alibaba Partnership, a top decision-making body for the e-commerce giant. read more
The departures are part of an ongoing decoupling of the fintech division from Alibaba, spurred by the botched IPO. read more
Justin Tang, head of Asian research at investment advisor United First Partners in Singapore, said that Alibaba’s decision would boost Alibaba shares due to its potential inclusion in Stock Connect.
“With regards to other tech listings of similar kind, this will be the playbook for companies looking to hedge against regulatory risk that Chinese companies are facing on the U.S. bourses,” he said.
In order to switch to a dual primary listing, the HKEX said companies had to have a good track record of at least two full financial years listed overseas, and a capitalisation of at least HK$40 billion ($5.10 billion) or a market value of at least HK$10 billion plus revenue of at least HK$1 billion for the most recent financial year.
($1 = 7.8493 Hong Kong dollars)
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Reporting by Josh Horwitz in Shanghai, Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Anshuman Daga in Singapore; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell
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The logo for Google LLC is seen at their office in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
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July 22 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Friday it has dismissed a senior software engineer who claimed the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot LaMDA was a self-aware person.
Google, which placed software engineer Blake Lemoine on leave last month, said he had violated company policies and that it found his claims on LaMDA to be “wholly unfounded.” read more
“It’s regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information,” a Google spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.
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Last year, Google said that LaMDA – Language Model for Dialogue Applications – was built on the company’s research showing Transformer-based language models trained on dialogue could learn to talk about essentially anything.
Google and many leading scientists were quick to dismiss Lemoine’s views as misguided, saying LaMDA is simply a complex algorithm designed to generate convincing human language.
Lemoine’s dismissal was first reported by Big Technology, a tech and society newsletter.
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Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard
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