Apple is offering hefty discounts on iPhones in China in a bid to boost sales amid intense competition from local brands such as Huawei, as promotions for the country’s 618 shopping festival get underway.

Chinese e-commerce marketplaces JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall have been selling select iPhone models at discounts as high as 20% since promotions for 618 festival started on Monday.

Apple’s 256-gigabyte iPhone 15 Pro Max was being sold for 7,949 yuan (US$1,120), down from the original 9,999 yuan, a significantly higher discount than those reported in February. 

Tmall and JD.com are some of Apple’s sales channels in the country that regularly promote discounts during the mid-year 618 shopping festival. 

According to a statement from Alibaba, this year’s event will include two sales periods from May 20 to May 28, and from May 31 to June 20. 

Apple is also offering discounts of up to 6,100 yuan on the iPhone 15 when Chinese buyers trade in iPhone 11 or later versions, according to the company’s website.

While the promotions coincide with the shopping festival, the steep discounts are also likely tied to slowing iPhone sales, Le Xuan Cheiw, an analyst at technology market research firm Canalys, told CNBC. 

“Apple’s second price cut in 2024, following the first in February, aims to boost sales and counteract Huawei’s resurgence,” he said, noting that earlier cuts had boosted sales momentum. 

The company has been experiencing headwinds in China, one of its largest markets, since Chinese telecoms company Huawei launched new smartphone models late last year, utilizing advanced chips, which the U.S. had sought to restrict the company from gaining access to. 

In the first three months of this year, Apple experienced a 25% year over year decline in sales in China, with its market share dropping from 20% to 15% over the same period, according to data from Canalys.

Meanwhile, last month, Huawei introduced another challenger to the iPhone with a new series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70.

However, despite the struggles in China and a 10% decline in global iPhone sales in the March quarter, the company has managed to maintain investor confidence following an earnings beat and massive stock buyback earlier this month.

Apple also expanded its gross profit margin by 46.6% in the quarter, thanks in large part to its growing services business, with the company signaling revenue growth in the current quarter. 

A fire broke out at Tesla‘s vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, California on Monday afternoon, according to a statement from the Fremont Fire Department, posted on social network X.

No injuries were reported among employees and fire fighters present at the scene, the department said.

An undisclosed number of fire fighters had responded to the fire, which broke out before 5:00 p.m., at the Tesla facility at 45500 Fremont Boulevard. The incident was described as a two-alarm, commercial structure fire in a two-story building.

The fire apparently originated in an oven used in vehicle manufacturing operations, the department said, adding that cause of the fire was “under investigation” as of Monday evening.

The fire was “knocked down” in a matter of hours, the department said, and the fire-fighting crew had been released from the scene as of around 8 p.m.

The Fremont factory is Tesla’s first mass EV manufacturing facility. It was first to produce the company’s popular Model 3 sedans, and Model Y crossover utility vehicles, as well as its higher-end Model S sedan and Model X, an SUV with falcon wing doors.

On May 17, 2024 Tesla celebrated a milestone for its Fremont factory in conjunction with their battery factory outside of Reno, Nevada, saying they had surpassed production of 3 million vehicles.

Monday’s fire followed sweeping layoffs at the Elon Musk-led automaker. Tesla recently cut another 601 jobs in California, including 164 at the Fremont factory.

Among jobs cut in Fremont in this latest wave of the layoffs were two directors of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and a myriad of others involved in EHS, security, equipment maintenance and emergency services, according to filings by the company with the California Employment Development Division.

Tesla’s Fremont factory has a history of fires. For example, several fire incidents occurred at the factory from 2014 to 2018, including a mix of indoor and outdoor fires in 2018 alone, with more still in 2019 and 2021.

Fires at the Fremont factory in the past have sometimes necessitated a pause in production.

Tesla did not respond to a request for further information on Monday evening.

Local environmental regulators, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAMQD), recently accused Tesla of allowing “unabated emissions” at the Fremont plant, and said that toxic air pollution should have been prevented.

The BAAMQD is now seeking an abatement order that would force Tesla to implement changes to its factory operations to prevent further pollution.

On Monday night, the BAAMQD told CNBC via e-mail that it was “aware of the fire and assessing” the situation in Alameda County.

Samsung Electronics named a new head for its semiconductor business on Tuesday, as the firm strives to lead the AI chip race.

Young Hyun Jun will replace Kyehyun Kyung, who will now head the future business division, which focuses on discovering new growth opportunities, as well as Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.

The firm aims “to strengthen its competitiveness amid an uncertain global business environment,” Samsung Electronics said, adding that Jun has extensive experience leading the company’s memory and battery manufacturing divisions.

Samsung is in intense competition with SK Hynix to produce the most advanced memory chips in the market to ride the AI wave. The memory chip market is currently dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron — the world’s top three suppliers.

SK Hynix has been leading on the high-bandwidth memory front, having been the sole supplier of HBM3 chips to Nvidia, which is at the forefront of AI chips. Nvidia is reportedly considering Samsung as a supplier too.

“We expect the competition in high-bandwidth memory to intensify in 2025. For the HBM3 generation, SK Hynix is the exclusive supplier to Nvidia, and we believe there were a few quarters of technology gaps between SK Hynix and Samsung,” Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, said in a report earlier this month.

SK Hynix plans to begin mass production of its latest generation of high-bandwidth memory chips, the 12-layer HBM3E, in the third quarter, while Samsung Electronics aims to do the same within the second quarter, having been the first in the industry to ship samples of the latest chip.

“[This suggests] that Samsung is quickly closing the gap in the technology roadmap. As a result, we expect that all three major suppliers will be able to ship HBM3E to Nvidia, intensifying the price competition,” Ito said.