Shares of Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc jumped 20% Thursday after its vehicle deliveries more than doubled in April.

Hong Kong-listed shares of the company jumped as much as 23% to 44.20 Hong Kong dollars, touching their highest level in over six weeks. Nio shares also helped boost the broader Hang Seng index, which jumped 2% by midday trading.

Nio said it delivered 15,620 vehicles in April, a 134.6% year-on-year increase.

“The deliveries consisted of 8,817 premium smart electric SUVs, and 6,803 premium smart electric sedans,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nio has delivered 45,673 vehicles so far this year, 21.2% higher than the same period a year earlier.

The Chinese EV maker has also been expanding its battery swap partnerships as it seeks to get an edge on the infrastructure side of the EV ecosystem. Efforts like these are aimed at relieving consumers’ anxiety about driving range. 

Other Chinese EV makers including Li Auto, Xpeng, and BYD also reported April deliveries on Wednesday, while Li Auto was the only company to have reported lower deliveries than the previous month.

Li Auto delivered 25,787 vehicles in April, down 11% from March. Hong Kong-listed shares of the company were still 3% higher.

Xpeng said it delivered 9,393 EVs in April, up 4% from the prior month. BYD’s sales volume for EVs was 313,245 in April, up 3.6% from March’s 302,459.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Xpeng jumped 7.5%, while those of BYD added 5%%.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi recently joined the fray, and launched an electric car in early April. The company priced the SU7 at about $4,000 less than Tesla’s Model 3. The company also claimed the new car would have a longer driving range.

Just last week, CEO Lei Jun said its new EV is selling better than expected, and the company hopes to break even sooner than anticipated despite selling it cheaper than Tesla’s Model 3.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this story.

Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced “significant commitments” to build a new regional data center in Thailand, among other initiatives, as the U.S. tech giant doubles down on Southeast Asia.

The firm said it will also commit toward AI skills training for over 100,000 people and support local developers, but did not reveal the investment amount.

A day earlier, Nadella said the firm will invest $1.7 billion into Indonesia over the next four years to build new cloud and AI infrastructure.

“Thailand has an incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Nadella said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the investments will help drive impact and growth in Thailand’s public and private sectors.

Microsoft said there is rising demand for cloud computing services in Thailand from its companies and the commitments will allow the country to tap on economic and productivity opportunities arising from AI.

“Today’s announcement with Microsoft is a significant milestone in the journey of our ‘Ignite Thailand’ vision — one that promises new opportunities for growth, innovation, and prosperity for all Thais,” said Prime Minister of Thailand Srettha Thavisin, in the press release.

Microsoft has been expanding its footprint in Southeast Asia, announcing plans for new regional data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2021. It currently houses its Southeast Asia data center in Singapore.

The AI boom has boosted demand for cloud computing services and data centers, as large amounts of data are required to train AI models and the cloud provides access to vast datasets. Data centers are facilities where data resides.

Microsoft on Tuesday also revealed broader plans to provide AI skilling opportunities to 2.5 million people located in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — which members include Thailand and Indonesia — by 2025.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated federal labor law in comments he made to media outlets about unionization efforts at the company, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday.

NLRB Administrative Law Judge Brian Gee cited interviews Jassy gave in 2022 to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bloomberg Television and at The New York Times’ DealBook conference. The interviews coincided with an upswing in union campaigns in Amazon’s warehouse and delivery operations.

Jassy told CNBC in April 2022 that if employees were to vote in a union, they may be less empowered in the workplace and things would become “much slower” and “more bureaucratic.” Similarly, in the Bloomberg interview, Jassy remarked, “if you see something on the line that you think could be better for your team or you or your customers, you can’t just go to your manager and say, ‘Let’s change it.'”

At the DealBook conference, Jassy said that without a union the workplace isn’t “bureaucratic, it’s not slow.”

Gee said the comments “threatened employees that, if they selected a union, they would become less empowered and would find it harder to get things done quickly.”

The NLRB filed the complaint against Amazon and Jassy in October 2022. In his ruling Wednesday, Gee said Jassy’s other comments that unionization would change workers’ relationship with their employer were lawful. But the Amazon chief’s other remarks that employees would be less empowered and “better off” without a union violated labor law, “because they went beyond merely commenting on the employee-employer relationship.”

Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in a statement that the company disagrees with the NLRB’s ruling and that it intends to appeal.

“The decision reflects poorly on the state of free speech rights today, and we remain optimistic that we will be able to continue to engage in a reasonable discussion on these issues where all perspectives have an opportunity to be heard,” Paradis said.

The judge recommends Amazon be ordered to “cease and desist” from making such comments in the future, and that the company be required to post and distribute a notice about the order to employees nationwide.