Top Taiwan Tech Fund Predicts Continued AI Boom & Semiconductor Surge!

Why UPAMC's New Asian Tech Fund Sees More Gains in AI and Semiconductors

Top Taiwan Tech Fund Says There’s Still More Juice in AI Rally - Bloomberg

• A Taiwanese tech fund expects sustained demand for AI to drive an upward trend in the semiconductor cycle.

• The UPAMC New Asian Technology and Energy Fund has outperformed 98% of peers this year, up 45%

• Fund holdings include Nvidia Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., and Micron Technology Inc

• Valuations in the tech sector may be too hot, with some stock valuations potentially increasing by 60% to 70% this year

• Fears of worsening US-China relations may result in tougher trade restrictions on semiconductors and a rotation away from larger-cap equities are adding to fears of more geopolitical and trade risks

• Funds are more focused on higher-quality companies tied to AI rather than companies linked to consumer electronics

• Meidensha Corp. is one of the fund’s top holdings, making light machinery including power generation and water treatment systems.

Samsung Union Plans Another Rally on Monday as Talks Continue - Bloomberg

• Samsung Electronics Union is holding a rally at the company’s chip production complex.

• The rally is expected to attract around 1,500 people.

CrowdStrike’s Mistake Was a ‘Huge Deal,’ US Cyber Official Says - Bloomberg

• CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. caused a global IT outage by pushing a defective update.

• The outage affected 8.5 million devices that rely on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

CrowdStrike Crash Affected 8.5 Million Microsoft Windows Devices - Bloomberg

• A faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. affected 8.5 million devices globally that rely on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

• The outage caused broad economic and societal impacts, paralyzing businesses and governments for hours.

Airlines Rush to Get Back on Track After Global Tech Disruption - Bloomberg

• Transport providers, businesses, and governments are working to restore systems after a widespread technology outage caused by CrowdStrike.

• Air travel has been the biggest affected, with thousands of flights cancelled and many planes and crews in the wrong place

• CrowdStrike’s faulty update caused the outage, not a security incident or cyberattack

• Britain’s travel and transport industries are struggling to get back on schedule after the global security outage

• Eurowings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, expected to return to mostly scheduled flight operations on Saturday

• Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled more than a quarter of their schedule on the East Coast by midafternoon Friday

• Portland, Ore. declared an emergency Friday after more than half of the city’s computer systems were affected

• San Diego’s border crossings were delayed by the internet outage.

China Shows Few Signs of Tilting Economy Toward Consumers in New Plan - New York Times

• The Chinese Communist Party released a plan on Sunday that rebuffed calls to shift away from investment-led growth and toward consumer spending.

• The document offered more than 300 steps on taxes and religion, with little mention of addressing China’s plunging real estate prices or the millions of unfinished apartments left behind by failed developers.
  The document called for the central government to become responsible for more of the country’s spending and expanding local tax revenues, but had only a bare mention of a real estate tax. It also called for efforts to improve maternity leave policies and establish a system of subsidies for childbirth to address the plunging birthrate and aging population.
  The Central Committee doubled down on industrial policy, promising to promote the development of strategic industries in eight sectors to replace imports of high-tech goods with locally produced products.

• There has been considerable skepticism about whether the committee’s actions will signify a change in direction for policies on the Chinese economy, which faces slowing growth and heavy debt.

Wall Street Republicans Worry About Vance as Trump’s Running Mate - New York Times

• The financial world fears being marginalized in Washington after former President Trump chose a running mate openly hostile to Wall Street as his running mate.

• Senator JD Vance of Ohio, a harsh critic of corporate interests and a former venture capitalist, solidified a feeling in the world of high finance that the balance of power in the party had shifted westward.

• Trump brushed off personal entreaties from some of the Republican Party’s biggest donors, who were reliable supporters of traditional rightward causes like corporate tax cuts, freewheeling trade policies, and internationalism. (

• The choice of Mr. Vance was a repudiation of conservative donors on Wall Street, including the hedge-fund titan Kenneth Griffin, who opposed the senator’s nomination right up until the hours before Mr. Trump’s announcement. The finance set must now either slink back to a candidate they have savaged publicly and privately or risk being shut out no matter who wins the White House in November.

‘Twisters’ Takes Off at the Box Office - New York Times

• Hollywood has delivered nostalgia-heavy sequels after a dismal start to the summer ticket-selling season

• Disaster movie “Twisters” was on pace to sell roughly $80 million in North America over the weekend, 60% more than expected

• Box office analysts had predicted it would take in about $50 million, citing prerelease surveys that track audience interest

• The movie cost an estimated $155 million to make, not including tens of millions in marketing costs

• Reviews were largely positive, and the movie was smartly cast to target a heartland audience

• Americans were tiring of sequels and remakes in spring 2023

• Originality has not been filling seats in the last few months, at least not on the scale that movie theater companies need to stay afloat

Corvette Bucked a Sports Cars Decline. Can It Thrive in an E.V. Era? - New York Times

• General Motors has released the 2024 Corvette E-Ray, the first hybrid version of the Corvette model and one of the first mass produced sports cars.

• The Corvette has recently regained near-record popularity and sales, with 53,785 sales worldwide in 2019 and nearly twice as many in 2019 as in the previous year.

• Sales of sports cars have been declining for about three decades, but the Corvette has bucked the trend of American drivers moving away from cars and coupes and toward sport-utility vehicles.

• Chevrolet moved its V-8 engine behind the passengers, a midengine design typically associated with supercars from Ferrari or Lamborghini, to avoid the traditional front-engine two-seater model. - The car’s success has been driven by its exotic design, relatively affordable prices, and unapologetic attitude, making it an authentic sports car that resonates with potential buyers. The Corvette is unlikely to sell a significant number to 100-year-olds, according to a former chief auto critic.

Global CrowdStrike Outage Proves How Fragile IT Systems Have Become - New York Times

• A failed software update caused a worldwide outage, the biggest in history

• The incident was not caused by terrorists or rogue hackers, but rather a routine upgrade by CrowdStrike

• CrowdStrike, a Texas-based cybersecurity company, failed to do its due diligence and sent a small Windows software update that crashed every computer it touched

• Any system can fail in unexpected ways, as seen in past disasters such as the Great Blackout of 1965 and a bad relay at a Canadian power station

• Living in the modern world is an act of faith, and technology is built on systems piled on systems that we take for granted

• Disaster is at least as likely to creep in quietly, perhaps from a piece of technology so mundane that hardly anyone knows it exists

• Silicon Valley has been warning about the risks of A.I. for a couple of years now

• CryptoHarlem, a cybersecurity education and advocacy organization, warns that disasters can happen quietly as well.

PBoC cuts short-term rates in bid to shore up economy - Financial Times

• The People’s Bank of China has cut its main short-term policy rate for the first time since August 2023 to support the economy.

• The central bank also cut the one-year and five-year loan prime rates by 10 basis points to 3.35% and 3.85% respectively, reflecting its intention to transition towards a rate-based monetary policy framework.

• Chinese equities fell after the central bank unexpectedly cut two key lending rates, with the CSI 300 stock index falling 0.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropping 0.3%.

• Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised US President Joe Biden for his support of democracy and climate initiatives, citing the Aukus pact and US Inflation Reduction Act as significant achievements.

Cyber watchdogs warn on phishing scams as IT outage fallout lingers - Financial Times

• Cyber security watchdogs warn against increased phishing activity exploiting the CrowdStrike software update outage

• Malicious websites claiming to fix glitches are being released claiming to help entities recover from the incident

• Hackers were trying to leverage the outage to conduct malicious activity, including distributing a ZIP archive file targeting CrowdStrike users in Latin America

• Healthcare services are set to suffer from lingering fallout after the outage prevented appointment bookings and patient records from being saved

• CrowdStrike recommends organizations to verify they are communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels

• The aviation sector was largely returning to normal on Sunday, but some carriers were still struggling to get their operations back on track

• Train services are also grappling with residual effects.

Japan’s copyright rules draw AI groups — and alarm from creators - Financial Times

• Japan’s copyright law allows widespread use of copyrighted images and materials for commercial purposes to train AI models without seeking permission

• AI companies are attracted to Japan due to the country’s need for rapid digital development and declining population

• Japan has an open-armed approach to AI, unlike other places such as the US, EU, and China

• Leaders in the creative industries have voiced concerns about their work being used by AI companies without permission or a fee

• The government has released guidelines outlining cases in which AI companies could be held liable for copyright infringement, but has stopped short of recommending a revision to the law

• Regulations are necessary to create an environment where users feel safe to use generative AI

• To attract tech start-ups, the Kishida government is using subsidies, such as offering government-funded computing power to some key companies, including Sakana.

NHS hack prompts tougher UK cyber security rules for private providers - Financial Times

• UK government plans to force private providers of essential public services to strengthen digital security against hackers

• June 3 ransomware hack on Synnovis public-private pathology joint venture disrupted healthcare for thousands of people registered with big London hospitals

• The increasing use of private service providers by the NHS highlights the extra digital security risks

• Legislation aims to strengthen cyber security rules and reporting requirements spread between 12 regulators covering core infrastructure sectors and digital services such as online marketplaces

• UK needed an urgent update to its rules so its infrastructure and economy were not “comparably more vulnerable” than those of EU counterparts

• Healthcare is a main focus of the UK move and a big target of hackers worldwide

LinkedIn turns to AI and games to build ‘daily habit’ among users - Financial Times

• LinkedIn is using AI to issue career advice and has introduced daily puzzles and games to increase engagement.

• The move is part of a wider overhaul of the platform, which has struggled with slowing revenue growth and a narrow focus on professional development.

• LinkedIn has registered record engagement of 1.5mn content interactions a minute in June, but declined to reveal figures for site traffic or active users. - The platform adopted an AI feature last year that generates advice questions and asks relevant specialists to add comments and contributions, that are compiled into “collaborative articles.

A Case for Backing Up Your Precious Photos and Files at Home - Wall Street Journal

• Back up your precious photos and files through the cloud to safeguard against loss

• Some cloud services have unexpectedly shut down or scaled back the space they give users

• Storage analysts recommend three moves: backing up files in the cloud, on solid-state drives, and keeping another copy in a remote location

• HDDs store files on discs that spin, while SSDs don’t have moving parts and are more fragile

• SSD prices have fallen 90% over the past decade and are cheaper long-term than cloud storage

• Don’t trust important files to companies you’ve never heard of, such as Samsung or SanDisk

• Transfer your files to an SSD to make the backup process completely pain-free

The Tesla of Stoves Comes With a Battery to Power Your Whole House - Wall Street Journal

• Battery-powered cooktops may replace gas-powered ranges in the future

• Electricity is the best way to power everything from cooking to driving

• America’s infrastructure is inadequate to distribute electricity

• Copper and Impulse are startups using batteries to upgrade appliances and make the power grid more robust

• Impulse plans to integrate its system directly into a home’s wiring to push electricity back into the grid

• The stored power could potentially be worth hundreds of dollars a year to a homeowner

• In the future, Impulse may sell an array of battery-powered appliances, including hot-water heaters.

Elon Musk Wants His AI Bot to Deliver the News. It Is Struggling With the Job - Wall Street Journal

• Elon Musk wants people to get news from Grok, an AI model accessible through his X platform

• Grok served up erroneous headlines in the hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump

• One headline wrongly said Vice President Kamala Harris was shot

• Another Grok news summary incorrectly named a purported shooter and claimed the man was a member of antifa

• The errors suggest that design can be a weakness and highlight the potential pitfalls of having a humor-inclined computer model trying to sort in real-time

• Journalists also can make mistakes following a surprising and dramatic event such as the attack on Trump.

Google Near $23 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Startup Wiz - Wall Street Journal

• Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

• The acquisition could boost Alphabet’s efforts in cloud computing and come at a time of intense antitrust scrutiny of the search company and other tech giants

• Wiz raised $1 billion earlier this year at a valuation of $12 billion, one of only a few startups outside the artificial-intelligence industry to raise money at a higher valuation in 2024

• Tech startups are still suffering from the hangover effects of the tech boom that peaked earlier this decade

• If a deal for Wiz comes together, it would be one of the largest technology deals of late

• Alphabet has been a more conservative acquirer than some of its big-tech peers in recent years

• Google is currently awaiting a verdict in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit over claims that it used illegal means to bolster its dominance in internet search.

Young Women With Eating Disorders Feel the Pull of Energy Drinks - Wall Street Journal

• Energy drinks have become more appealing to women, particularly those with unhealthy eating and exercise habits. Overconsumption of low-cal, highly caffeinated energy drinks is on the rise among young women with eating disorders. Brands like Celsius and Alani Nu pitch themselves as fitness aids and claim to boost metabolism and burn fat. High doses of caffeine can cause serious health problems, especially for people who aren’t eating enough. At Cleveland Clinic Children’s, about a third of the hospital’s eating-disorder patients consume energy drinks. Anne Arthurs, a college freshman diagnosed with anorexia, began drinking one or two cans of Celsius a day and found it helped her feel full and energized. Supplementing her energy drinks with diet soda regularly brought her daily caffeine intake to 500 mg. Other women interviewed for this story described drinking up to 800 mg of caffeine a day. Caffeine tends to have stronger effects on women, whose bodies metabolize it more slowly than men. Patients use energy drinks to temporarily boost vital signs and gain water weight to avoid hospitalization for eating disorders during the pandemic.