Russia is turning to microchip manufactures in China to circumvent western sanctions which have boosted demand for bank cards linked to the Mir payment system, an executive with the domestic payment system said.

Tesla has notified workers and suppliers that production at its Shanghai factory will not resume on Monday as it had hoped, according to an internal notice shared with Reuters.

US automaker Tesla is suspending production at its Shanghai factory for four days after the financial hub said on Sunday it would lock down in two stages to carry out mass testing for COVID 19, two people familiar with the matter said.

Apple plans to make about 20% fewer iPhone SEs next quarter than originally planned, in one of the first signs that the Ukraine war and looming inflation have started to dent consumer electronics demand, sources briefed on the matter told Nikkei Asia.

Oil prices fell more than 5% early Monday as the Chinese city of Shanghai announced lockdown restrictions, triggering fears over weakened demand.

Chip designer Shanghai Biren Intelligent Technology is seeking to raise fresh funds at a valuation of about CNY17 billion (US$2.7 billion) to fuel its growth, according to people familiar with the matter.

The CEO of South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix said on Monday that its largest shareholder, SK Square, is considering merger and acquisition deals involving chip companies.

The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing.

The Russian Federation government is considering adding chip designers Baikal Electronics and MCST to the list of 'backbone enterprises.' The status will provide Baikal and MSCT with numerous benefits, including subsidies. State aid might help these companies to transition the production of their chips from Taiwan to China. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether fabs like SMIC and Hua Hong are interested in making chips for Russian companies and risk additional sanctions.

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor and 'flying car' firm SkyDrive said on Tuesday they have signed a deal to team up in research, development and marketing of electric, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in northern Japan on Wednesday night, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people. A small tsunami reached shore, but the low-risk advisory was lifted by Thursday morning.

Tesla is suspending production at its Shanghai factory for two days as China tightens restrictions to contain the latest Covid outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter.

Japan will stop exporting semiconductors to Russia next week, joining the US and its European allies in efforts to cripple Russia's military capability.

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in dozens of cities, the highest daily count in about two years, with the Omicron variant forcing a northeastern city to go under lockdown and the financial hub Shanghai to close schools.

Two of China's largest cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, imposed stringent restrictions on Sunday on the movements of their residents, as a coronavirus outbreak continued to spread across much of mainland China.

Masayuki Soube said: "we are also developing a self-propelled service robot that moves on wheels, but legs are still suitable for moving on rough terrain rather than wheels. So, halfway between humanoid robots and wheeled robots, [we]l wondered if there was an opportunity. That's why we started developing Bex, a quadruped walking robot."

Several traders said that the soaring price of crude and question marks over the supply of oil-derived naphtha - a popular feedstock in Asia - from Russia are challenging the economics of producing plastics in crackers in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. They added that the problems are an early indication of the difficulties Russia?？ invasion of Ukraine may create for industries that rely on raw materials.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is on fire following a Russian attack, Ukraine's foreign minister said on Friday, as he called for a security zone and firefighters to be allowed to tackle the incident. A generating unit at the plant has been hit during an attack by Russian troops and part of the station is on fire, RIA news agency cited the Ukrainian atomic energy ministry as saying on Friday. A plant spokesperson told RIA that background levels of radiation had not changed.

Companies will prioritize vendors that can provide consistent and dependable supplies, likely paying a premium. In the end, those costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. While prices will become an important consideration for consumers, brands that offer a consistently and predictably available set of choices will enjoy pricing power.

That sophisticated tracing system emerged from a relatively low-tech and crowd sourced development process.

This week's announcement that India's Vedanta has tied up with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology to make chips is being lauded as proof that New Delhi is gaining traction with its plans to build a semiconductor industry. That's hardly the case.

Despite multiple COVID-19 resurgences, offline channel disruptions due to restrictions and sustained component shortages affecting OEMs, key SEA countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam) saw a 5% YoY growth in smartphone shipments in 2021, according to Counterpoint Research. At 96 million units, the 2021 shipments were the highest ever for a calendar year and more than the pre-pandemic levels.

China's No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker ZTE has been quietly boosting its chip design capabilities as a US crackdown continues to hobble its bigger domestic rival, Huawei Technologies, Nikkei Asia has learned.

Thai-Chinese joint venture SAIC Motor-CP, the manufacturer and distributor of MG cars, plans to spend THB2.5 billion (US$75.8 million) developing a factory to produce batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and start making BEVs domestically next year.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage will construct a new 300-milimeter wafer fabrication facility for power semiconductors at its main discrete semiconductor production base, Kaga Toshiba Electronics, in Ishikawa Prefecture. Construction will take place in two phases, allowing the pace of investment to be optimized against market trends, with the production start of Phase 1 scheduled for within fiscal 2024. When Phase 1 reaches full capacity, Toshiba's power semiconductor production capacity will be 2.5 times that of fiscal 2021.

China plans to set up a special organization that facilitates collaboration between domestic companies and overseas semiconductor powerhouses such as Intel to foster development hubs for software, material and manufacturing equipment.

Samsung Electronics is stepping up spending on advanced chipmaking technology as it sees growing demand for its smartphones, displays and memory products.

Memory chip maker Micron Technology will shut its DRAM chip designing operations in Shanghai by the end of this year, the company confirmed late on Wednesday.

The Biden administration is reviewing e-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud business to determine whether it poses a risk to US national security, according to three people briefed on the matter, as the government ramps up scrutiny of Chinese technology companies' dealings with US firms.

Toyota Motor is cutting its February production by around 20% due to chip shortages, the Nikkei newspaper reported Tuesday, though that output target is still up from a year earlier.

More global automakers have been caught in China's latest coronavirus outbreak in Tianjin, adding further stress to already strained supply chains.

Taiwan's GlobalWafers is close to clearing an important regulatory hurdle in its $5.3 billion acquisition of German silicon wafer manufacturer Siltronic, according to people familiar with the matter.

Officials in Beijing are on high alert just weeks out from the start of the Winter Olympics, after China's first local outbreak of the Omicron variant spread from the northern port city of Tianjin to the central province of Henan.

Japan's Sony Group plans to launch a company this spring to examine entering the electric vehicle market, looking to harness its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play a bigger role in next-generation mobility.

It follows a similar lockdown in Xi'an, where 13 million have been confined to their homes since 23 December.

GM said its sales, which fell 13%, were hurt by semiconductor shortages affecting the car industry. Japan's Toyota claimed the top spot, selling more than 2.3 million vehicles last year, up 10%.

South Korea's factory production jumped the most since mid-2020 last month, suggesting supply disruptions that hurt manufacturing in key industries were easing before an omicron-triggered surge in global infections.

Apple said it had placed the southern Indian factory of iPhone assembler Foxconn on probation after both companies found that some worker dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards.

China's ride-hailing firm Didi Global on Wednesday reported a 1.7% decline in third-quarter revenue, as its domestic business took a hit from a regulatory crackdown.

Beijing is hunkering down after experiencing more Covid infections in the current cluster than at any time in the past 17 months, with officials asking for events and activities to be moved online.