In late 2020, Alibaba founder Jack Ma also disappeared from public view for three months, after making comments critical of market regulators. Mr Bao's disappearance also comes after a series of cases of high-profile Chinese executives going missing as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign.

The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund will commit CNY12.9 billion towards Yangtze Memory Technologies, according to a government website that discloses company registration information. The capital infusion from the Big Fund, as Beijing's signature investment vehicle is commonly known, was slated for completion on Januar 31, according to Tianyancha.

Rare earth elements are a bone of contention in EV supply chains, as it can be hard to secure supplies of them, and a large majority of worldwide production is either sourced or processed in China.

Tesla's leadership said Wednesday at an investor event held at the company's factory near the Texan capital that while silicon carbide transistors are key components, "we've figured out a way to use 75% less without compromising the performance or the efficiency of the car."

VinFast, an electric carmaker backed by Vietnam's richest man, delivered its first 45 VF 8 City Edition electric SUVs to US customers at nine California showrooms March 1, according to an emailed statement from parent Vingroup JSC. The vehicles will continue be delivered to customers at VinFast's stores or through a home-delivery service, it said.

HP maintained its annual guidance for cash flow even as it grapples with slumping PC demand, a sign it expects a rebound later in the year.

Tesla will build a new plant in Monterrey, Mexico, and adhere to a series of commitments to address water scarcity, the nation's president Andr矇s Manuel L籀pez Obrador announced at a press conference Tuesday. AMLO said Tesla agreed to use recycled water at the plant throughout the entire vehicle manufacturing process, even down to the cars' paint. He said the company will reveal more information about the new plant during its Investor Day event Wednesday.

The Commerce Department on Tuesday kicked off the application process for semiconductor manufacturing subsidies under the $53 billion Chips Act, along with conditions aimed at advancing some of the Biden administration's priorities.

China has accused the US of overreacting after federal employees were ordered to remove the video app TikTok from government-issued phones.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger sees the first signs of a turnaround in the company's business during his nearly two years at the helm of the top US chipmaker, he said yesterday. Analysts contacted by EE Times were less optimistic.

TSMC plans to construct a second chip plant in Japan to manufacture 5- and 10-nanometre chips from the second half of the decade, the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported on Friday.

Since the beginning of this year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been receiving a surge in orders for high bandwidth memories (HBM).

Apple has a moonshot-style project underway that dates back to the Steve Jobs era: noninvasive and continuous blood glucose monitoring.

Employee doubts are rising about TSMC's US$40 billion investment in an Arizona factory.

Forrester Research analyst Rowan Curran told MarketWatch that ChatGPT is an "iPhone moment for AI," citing Apple's reinvention of consumer electronics in 2007.

According to analysis by Swiss bank UBS, ChatGPT is the fastest growing app of all time. In January, only two months after its launch, UBS analysis estimates that ChatGPT had 100 million active users. For comparison, it took nine months for TikTok to reach 100 million.

German carmakers Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) and VW (VOWG_p.DE) have urged the government to do more to scale up the number of electric vehicle charging stations across the country, German paper Bild am Sonntag wrote on Sunday. "To speed up the change (to electric vehicles), we need to be sure that the charging station infrastructure is being built up," Mercedes-Benz Chief Executive Ola Kallenius was quoted as saying by the paper. "That's also a question for politics."

Australia's graphite developer Magnis Energy (MNS.AX) on Tuesday said it has signed a binding offtake deal with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) to supply battery anode materials for a minimum three-year term beginning February 2025. The deal comes while automakers race to secure the supply of critical minerals as the world shifts to decarbonise and diversify global supply chains away from China, the world's biggest producer of electric vehicle batteries.

Huawei Technologies Co is reportedly co-developing high-end electric vehicles with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co Ltd, according to a contractor, showing that Huawei is getting increasingly involved in the vehicle industrial chain to grow its revenue. Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei's intelligent automotive solution business unit, said in a reply to news website Paper.com late on Tuesday that the company has no plans to make cars itself. It is partnering with JAC Motors to help the latter produce and sell cars in a better way.

Battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology has agreed to set up a battery joint venture with leading carmaker Changan Automobile Group and its new energy vehicle subsidiary, as NEV sales in China increase. The JV will have a registered capital of CNY1.5 billion (USD218.4 million), Changan Auto announced on Feb. 17. The Chongqing-based carmaker will contribute 19 percent, Changan NEV Technology 30 percent, and CATL the rest, it added.

Lithium Chile Inc., one of three Canadian miners affected by Ottawa's snap decision to block Chinese investment in critical minerals, said the order has been satisfied, although it regrets losing an "incredible shareholder" that supplied valuable expertise.

Chinese mineral resource developers Sinomine Resource Group, Zangge Mining and Chengxin Lithium have been instructed by the Canadian government to withdraw their investments in Canadian miners due to heightened concerns about national security and the critical minerals supply chain.

China will ramp up its internal hunt for minerals and energy resources to bolster strategic reserves and increase the sale of critical mining assets such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, as well as oil and gas, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced last month in a meeting laying out priorities for this year. The new policies will encourage investment in mining exploration and give priority to land use for extracting strategic elements.

Tesla (TSLA.O) has paused plans to produce entire batteries in Brandenburg, Germany, and will instead carry out some production steps in the United States where tax incentives are more favourable, the Brandenburg economy ministry said on Tuesday. Reporting by Victoria Waldersee Editing by Mark Potter

US curbs on China's access to advanced technology are killing its viability as a manufacturing base for exports, according to the head of Japan's Kyocera, as one of the world's largest makers of chip components shifts its production elsewhere and invests heavily in facilities at home.

Major computer chip equipment maker ASML says a former employee in China stole information about its technology.

Google has reached a key milestone in designing server processors aimed at reducing the cost of operating its data centers and keeping up with cloud business rival Amazon, according to one person with direct knowledge of the project and one person who was briefed about it. The progress means Google could start using the new chips by 2025, one of these people said.

By creating chatbot ChatGPT, artificial intelligence research and deployment company OpenAI has democratised AI, but, like all new technological developments, this carries the risk of challenges such as contextual errors, prejudice, information trustworthiness or credibility, analysts say.

While chip sales reached the highest-ever annual total in 2022, the slowdown in the second half of the year substantially limited growth. A deeper dive into the year-end data reveals how this pattern is consistent with the semiconductor industry's predictable cycle and why the current short-term downturn does not change the reality that long-term growth prospects for this foundational technology remain very promising.

Advanced Micro Devices has captured nearly a third of the market for central processor units while British chip technology firm Arm's rise in the PC market slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to an analyst report.

SoftBank's chip technology firm Arm's China joint venture laid off 90-95 employees last week to cope with a challenging business outlook this year, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

It's hard to feel sorry for Silicon Valley tech workers. From high salaries and generous stock options to nap pods and unlimited time off, they're among the most privileged class of employees in the world. Conversely, there's no denying that these pampered staffers engineered a technology revolution that's brought untold economic and social value to the entire planet.

Apple's earnings were an even bigger disaster than expected thanks to a combination of a stronger US dollar, global economic malaise, and more strife at its China factories. That analysts were unable to model for each of these known factors could signal that problems will persist even after supply returns to normal.

The job cuts are expected to affect about 5% of its global workforce.

Third-party retailers in China are offering discounts of as much as 10% on Apple's iPhone 14 Pro amid sluggish demand for smartphones.

The Japanese government is drawing up plans to impose export restrictions on advanced semiconductor-making machines, Kyodo News reported. The move reflects a US-led deal with Japan and the Netherlands to limit the development of China's advanced semiconductor industry.

Also, Tan said he was considering Intel as a potential new foundry partner, as an alternative to its main supplier, Taiwan-based TSMC.

Texas Instruments suffered its first sales decline since 2020 and gave a tepid forecast for the current quarter, hit by an industry slump.

Hesai Technology, a Chinese developer of sensor technologies used in self-driving cars, is planning to file for an initial public offering in the US that could raise about US$150 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

South Korea and Taiwan will still be key semiconductor hubs in years to come, even as pressure to diversify supply chains leads to new competition from places like the US and Germany, according to John Lee, president and CEO of MKS Instruments.