Asia's Worst Stock Loser, Samsung's Historic Strike, and More

Thai Billionaire's Downfall, Samsung Strike, and Tesla's Market Share Drop

Asia’s Worst Stock Loser Erases Thai Founder From Billionaire Status - Bloomberg

• Thai billionaire Somphote Ahunai’s efforts to diversify Energy Absolute Pcl into a Tesla-like transport specialist have failed, resulting in a record monthly drop of 51% in June.

• The stock has lost about 70% of its value this year, the biggest decline among almost 1,400 companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index

• Energy Absolute has spent billions to build production facilities for batteries, buses, ferries, and trains under the Mine brand, borrowing heavily to fund its ambitions

• Investors are worried about the ongoing price wars and oversupply in the EV industry, and the company has sufficient cash flow to service its debt

• Power division remains strong, with annual cash flow of at least 4 billion baht through 2026

• EV business faces challenges with rising competition and lower demand for electric buses and trucks

• Stake in Energy Absolute dropped to slightly over 30% after the stock slide forced a foreign bank to sell pledged shares to repay loans.

Samsung Workers Plan to Strike ‘Indefinitely’ in Risk to Global Tech - Bloomberg

• Samsung Electronics Co. labor union of 28,000 workers declared an indefinite strike, threatening production at the world’s largest maker of memory chips.

• The strike is the largest organized labor action in the South Korean conglomerate’s half-century history, aimed at disrupting production at one of the company’s most advanced chip facilities.

Musk Beats $500 Million Severance Suit Over Mass Twitter Layoff - Bloomberg

• X Corp. and Elon Musk have defeated a lawsuit over the firing of thousands of employees after Musk’s takeover of Twitter.

• The lawsuit alleged that X owed at least $500 million in severance pay to about 6,000 laid-off employees under provisions of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

TikTok, Instagram Influencers Help Aging NATO Connect With Gen Z - Bloomberg

• NATO is turning to 20-something influencers to spread its message at its summit in Washington on July 9-11

• 16 content creators from the UK, Germany, and France with social media followings on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms have been invited

• Another 10 influencers from the US will attend at the invitation of the US Defense and State Departments

• The move is an acknowledgement that traditional media outlets may not reach Generation Z and NATO needs to think outside the box to bolster public support

• NATO paid for the content creators’ travel expenses but doesn’t exert any editorial control over their posts and won’t pay them a fee

• Creators will be given the opportunity to attend the NATO Public Forum and engage with numerous experts and senior NATO and allied officials

• This is not the first time a group of content creators has visited NATO headquarters in Brussels to mark its 75th anniversary

• A similar program was organized in 2022.

Apple Sees Biggest Gains as Quarterly Personal Computer Shipments Jump - Bloomberg

• Apple reported a 21% gain in personal computer shipments in Q2, the biggest jump among global PC makers

• Worldwide shipments of desktops and laptops increased by 3% from a year earlier in the period ended in June

• The PC industry experienced historic declines in recent years after the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but a cycle of new purchases is underway

• Computer makers are touted as helping fuel a new wave of upgrades with AI PCs, but only about 3% of PCs shipped this year will be AI-optimized

Synapse Bankruptcy: When a Fintech Isn’t a Bank and Savings Accounts Are Frozen - New York Times

• Online-only lenders with hundreds of millions of dollars of deposits between them are facing a crisis. Customer accounts have been frozen, preventing people from cashing out their life savings. The crisis was set off by the bankruptcy of Synapse Technology, a little-known intermediary that operated banking software for fast-growing online lenders. The start-ups offer accounts that charge lower fees and pay higher interest rates than traditional brick-and-mortar banks. The banks, including Evolve Bank & Trust of West Memphis, Ark., are the ones that actually manage the depositors’ money. If one link breaks in this sequence, it can become intensely complicated for people to access their funds. The customers of the online lenders were not eligible for automatic federal banking insurance because Evolve itself did not fail. The companies involved point the finger at each other, and there is no direct legal authority for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to intervene.

Tesla’s Share of U.S. Electric Car Market Falls Below 50% - New York Times

• Tesla’s share of the US electric vehicle market fell below 50% in the second quarter for the first time since 2012

• The company accounted for just under half of all battery-powered vehicles sold in the US in Q2

• Tesla lost ground to General Motors, Ford Motor, Hyundai, and Kia in the market

• U.S. electric vehicle sales climbed 11.3% from a year earlier, with Americans buying or leasing more than 330,000 electric cars and light trucks

• Established carmakers like BMW and Ford are offering more electric models than Tesla, with competitive prices and newer designs

• There are well over 100 electric models available in the United States, with prices falling as the supply and variety of models have increased

• Intense competition is leading to continued price pressure, helping to push EV adoption slowly higher

• Democrats are expected to benefit from the growing market for fully electric vehicles.

How a Wall St. Law Firm Wants to Define Consequences of Gaza-War Protests - New York Times

• Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, is requiring job applicants to explain their participation in protests related to the war in Gaza.

• The firm is working with a background check company to scrutinize students’ behavior for statements or actions about the conflict, including explicit instances of antisemitism and pro-Palestinian student groups.

• Participation in an anti-Israel protest, on or off campus, could be a disqualifying factor for job applicants, even if they did not use problematic language or were involved in a protest where others did. The policy is seen as an effort to silence criticism of Israel on campus and to paint all protesters as equivalent to those who have been heckling or threatening Jewish students. b

• Critics argue that the policy is a way to silence speech about the war and discourage Muslims and Arabs from discussing their views on Israel and its actions. c. Some private employers in the US can hire whom they want, with only a few restrictions meant to prevent discrimination. d. Some elite rivals on Wall Street are considering adopting similar rules. e.

David Ellison Poised to Become a New Mogul in a Diminished Hollywood - New York Times

• David Ellison is set to take over Paramount Pictures and other entertainment assets after the Redstone family relinquished the studio to him.

• In 1994, Sumner M. Redstone bought Paramount Pictures for $10 billion, equivalent to about $22 billion today, giving him the cultural throne and a valuable business on the verge of hitting a mother lode with the DVD. (

• Top ticket sellers in 1994 included touchstones like “The Lion King, Schindler’s List, and Pulp Fiction)

• The box office has been a relative wasteland in recent years, with most streaming services and movies being financial disasters

• Hollywood has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, two lengthy union strikes, and the rise of TikTok

• Artificial intelligence is threatening jobs in visual effects and animation, and streaming has made it easier to pirate content

• Mr. Ellison plans to spend roughly $8 billion on a collection of assets including Paramount, CBS, two streaming services, and a portfolio of cable networks.

Political Gridlock Will Raise the Economic Stakes in France - New York Times

• French election results point to political paralysis

• Attention has been on France’s ballooning debt and deficit

• S&P Global Ratings warned over France’s future government architecture

• Investors are worried about France’s ability to manage its finances

• The new Parliament may fail to pass a budget in the autumn.

Samsung Electronics union declares indefinite all-out strike - Financial Times

• S&P 500 closed at a record high for the fifth session in a row

• Bond yields edged higher and investors looked ahead to the next round of inflation data due on Thursday

• Trump demands Europe to send $100bn to Ukraine to equalise US support

• Tesla shares surge almost 44% during rare 10-session win streak

Microsoft and Occidental sign carbon credit deal to help offset AI energy surge - Financial Times

• Microsoft and Occidental Petroleum have signed a record carbon credit deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Occidental will sell 500,000 carbon credits for an undisclosed amount to Microsoft over six years, allowing Microsoft to offset its emissions by paying Occidental to have the carbon removed and stored underground.

• The deals come as the technology industry struggles to contain a rise in energy emissions driven by AI expansion, particularly from data centres and power-intensive infrastructure. Microsoft and Google have both pledged to be carbon negative by 2030, while Occidental has committed to achieving net zero by 2030. The use of carbon credits to help meet these goals has come under scrutiny due to concerns over verifying claims about how much carbon is removed by new projects. The credits will come from Occidental’s first DAC project, Stratos, in West Texas, which is set to be the world’s biggest such facility when it goes online next year. The cost of DAC credits is estimated at $800-$1,200 per tonne of carbon emitted, making it a high cost for bulk contracts.

Australia accuses China-backed hackers of breaching government networks - Financial Times

• Australia has accused a Chinese state-backed cyber hacking group, APT40, of targeting its government and private sector networks.

• The statement was backed by other Five Eyes partner countries, including the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, citing a shared understanding of the group’s threat to Australian networks.- The group conducted malicious cyber operations for China’s Ministry of State Security and overlapped with a similar group previously identified as Advanced Persistent Threat 40 (APT40).

• AAPT40 repeatedly targeted Australian networks and government/private sector networks in the region, exploiting vulnerabilities in software developed by companies including Microsoft and Atlassian to breach networks and steal data and passwords.

• Australia and other countries have previously warned of the risks posed by Chinese hacking and espionage, including recruiting western fighter jet pilots to train Chinese flyers and infiltrating western political systems. The report marks the latest action by western governments to crack down on Chinese cyber security threats.

News updates from July 9: Powell hails progress in tackling US inflation; Moscow court orders arrest of Alexei Navalny’s widow - Financial Times

• Trump demands Europe to pay $100bn to Ukraine to equalise US support

• European countries have committed more to Ukraine than the US

• Tesla shares surge almost 44% during rare 10-session win streak

• S&P 500 closes at a record high for the fifth session in a row

• Ariane 6 lifts off from its launch pad near Kourou in French Guiana, ending Europe’s space satellite crisis

• Stress levels at the ECB are increasing, putting almost 40% of staff at risk of burnout

Ellison says Paramount will become ‘media and tech’ company - Financial Times

• David Ellison aims to transform Paramount into a modern media and technology giant to challenge Netflix

• Paramount needs to adapt to technological shifts disrupting Hollywood, from streaming to artificial intelligence

• Ellison plans to combine his production studio, Skydance, with Paramount, transferring control of the group from Shari Redstone

• The new Paramount will have an enterprise value of $28bn and will explore partnerships with other streaming services to cut costs and decrease customer churn

• Even legacy media companies like Disney have struggled to catch up to Netflix in a costly and ultra-competitive streaming battle

• Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBC, will become president of the newly combined company and will become the president of Paramount+

• He plans to rebuild the technology behind Paramount+ to make it more consumer-friendly and improve the algorithm-powered recommendation engine

• There has been speculation about the potential sale of some of Paramount’s cable networks and sports assets due to its decline in popularity.

For AI Giants, Smaller Is Sometimes Better - Wall Street Journal

• Tech giants and startups are using small or medium language models to make AI software cheaper, faster, and more specialized. These models are trained on less data and often designed for specific tasks. Smaller models cost less than $10 million to train and use fewer than 10 billion parameters. Microsoft, Google, and Apple have all released smaller models this year. OpenAI recently released a version of its flagship model that it says is cheaper to operate. Businesses and consumers are looking for ways to run generative AI-based technology more cheaply. Small models can answer questions for as little as one-sixth the cost of large language models in many cases. Fine-tuning small models on specific sets of data allows them to perform as effectively as large models at a fraction of the cost.

In an Era of Fakes, How to Know When Someone Online Is Real - Wall Street Journal

• Personalized schemes to dupe internet users are on the rise

• The single best step to determine someone’s identity online and protect yourself is to slow down

• Tech companies are beginning to help, with Google, LinkedIn and Bumble introducing features to detect suspicious messages and users

• Guidelines for operating online are changing, some old rules still apply

• Before transferring funds, ask for your prearranged secret word.

Sam Altman Startup Names Former X Executive as First Head of Privacy - Wall Street Journal

• Tools for Humanity has appointed Damien Kieran as its first head of privacy as the company faces regulatory scrutiny over its Worldcoin venture. Kieran left his job as chief privacy officer at Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social-media platform.- Worldcoin lets users download a wallet app that supports a digital identity known as World ID, which scans people’s eyes in exchange for cryptocurrency tokens.

• Kieran faces the task of liaising with regulators globally and addressing concerns over how Worldcoin handles biometric data, which has raised eyebrows in countries such as Spain and Germany.

• The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision launched a review of Worldcoin last year, citing the high sensitivity of the biometrically data it processes. Worldcoin tokens are distributed to users in countries where they are legally available, and nearly 6 million users across more than 160 countries have signed up for World ID.

How the Kindle Became a Must-Have Accessory (Again) - Wall Street Journal

• TikTok’s literary subculture, BookTok, is giving e-readers the Stanley cup treatment. Kindle has become the gadget of choice among the community of book lovers. Kindle sales have grown in double-digit percentages for each of the past two years and are on track for similar gains this year. People under 45 are Kindle’s fastest-growing customer segment. BookTokkers share reading habits, book clubs, book challenges, library cards, and people’s reading setups. Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s $12-a-month subscription service allows customers to borrow more than four million digital books. Kindle newbies are driving the sales growth, with about 60% of Kindle sales growth coming from people who’ve never owned one of the devices before. Print and ebook sales rose during the pandemic but have declined since, according to market-research firm Circana. Library checkouts have jumped 75% since 2019, reaching 370 million ebooks last year.

Apple Watch Is Becoming Doctors’ Favorite Medical Device - Wall Street Journal

• Doctors are using the Apple Watch as part of diagnosing and managing heart-rhythm disorders in patients.

• The Apple Watch is being used informally in medical care despite other approved devices being available to track the same metrics

• Dr. Rod Passman, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Northwestern Medicine, is conducting a six-year, National Institutes of Health-funded study to determine if data from the Watch can be used to reduce the time spent on blood-thinning medications for atrial fibrillation patients

• Passman has received an exception to FDA rules to use the Watch to alert patients who have already been diagnosed with the disorder that they are having an irregular heartbeat

• Many doctors are encouraging patients to buy an Apple Watch to monitor stress levels and assess stress levels

• Apple shipped about 40 million of its watches in 2023 alone, making it a popular choice for healthcare professionals

• Compliance with medical-monitoring devices is an issue, but doctors are opting for the Watch due to its simplicity, affordability, and ubiquity

• Patients wear the Watch for an average of more than 14 hours a day.