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A Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Smartphones with displays capable of repairing themselves could start appearing on the market by 2028, according to analyst firm CCS Insight.

In its roundup of top tech predictions for 2024 and beyond, CCS Insight said that it expects smartphone makers to begin producing phones with “self-healing” displays within five years. The way this could work is by incorporating a “nano coating” on the surface of the display that, if scratched, creates a new material that reacts when exposed to air and fills in the imperfection.

“This is not in the realms of science fiction, it can be done,” Wood told CNBC on a call earlier this week. “I think the biggest challenge with this is setting expectations correctly.”

Companies have been talking about smartphone display technology that can be self-repaired for several years now.

LG, the South Korean consumer electronics giant, was touting self-healing technology in its smartphones as far back as 2013. The company released a smartphone called the G Flex which featured a vertically curved screen and a “self-healing” coating on the back cover. It didn’t explain how exactly the technology worked at the time.

'Sea of sameness': Are smartphone makers out of ideas?

“There’s some new technologies that people are working on right now that looks as though this could become something that people have another go with. We’re not talking about smashed screens miraculously coming back. This is all just little cosmetic scratches,” Wood told CNBC.

A few other phone makers have touted self-healing materials in smartphones. In 2017, Motorola filed a patent for a screen made from a “shape memory polymer” which, when cracked, repairs itself. The idea is that, when heat is applied to the material, it heals over the cracks.

Meanwhile, Apple also previously secured a patent for a folding iPhone with a display cover that would fix itself when damaged.

Still, the technology is yet to be found in a commercially successful handset. And there are a few barriers to launching such phones at a mass scale.

For one, companies require lots of investment in research and development to ensure they can identify new innovations in smartphone screens. Cash is also required to market and sell the phones in big volumes — and ensure consumers are actually properly informed about what level of damage in the phones can be fixed without any manual intervention.

Wood jokingly said he fears that tech tear-down enthusiasts like the popular YouTuber JerryRigsEverything will take a knife to test their self-healing capabilities. This, he says, isn’t the point of self-healing devices. Rather, it’s about technology that can make minimal repairs to the surface of its own accord.

Phone makers are getting more and more inventive when it comes to display technology. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Motorola released a rollable concept smartphone that extends vertically when pushed upward.

Samsung is pretty far along in the journey toward commercial smartphones with more advanced displays, with its folding Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 phones now capable of folding hundreds of thousands of times over their lifetime.

HTC could exit VR market by 2026

HTC has largely staked its future on the merging of virtual and physical worlds. In January, the company launched its Vive XR Elite device, a lightweight headset focused on gaming, fitness and productivity, at a $1,099 price point.

CCS Insight thinks that the firm will quit the VR space due to dwindling revenues and growing competition from Meta, Sony, and, more recently, Apple.

“HTC was one of the pioneers of VR, they’ve done a lot there,” CCS Insight’s Wood said. “But they have kind of struggled to compete, because they haven’t gone for the race to the bottom on price, whereas Meta, with Quest, have been prepared to take very aggressive pricing — almost just above cost pricing — to drive adoption.”

HTC “may get a little bit of an uptick with Apple coming into the space as it’s kind of renewed interest in the category,” Wood continued. “But, ultimately, we think it’s hard for them to stay in it. So we’re predicting that by 2026, they’ll exit the market, and they’ll sell their IP [intellectual property] to some of the other players who are bigger in the space.”

Apple takes control of second-hand market

CCS Insight also predicted that Apple will seek to gain more direct control over the second-hand smartphone market to avoid the growing popularity of second-hand devices denting sales of new iPhones.

Apple may do this by encouraging customers to trade in their phones with the company directly, rather than relying on third-party marketplaces like PCS Wireless; or by incentivizing carriers to give in their old phones to get credits to offset the cost of buying a new iPhone, the firm’s analysts said.

Apple could also start focusing on a “verified” system for grading refurbished iPhones, in order to encourage quality secondhand devices, according to CCS Insight — reinforcing the move in the technology industry toward more “circular” products that can be repaired and resold to avoid electronic waste.

CCS Insight estimates iPhone accounts for around 80% of the organized secondary smartphone market.

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India’s Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

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India's Reliance ties up with Google and Meta to drive AI push

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, arrives to pay his last respect to Indian industrialist Ratan Tata at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) ahead of its cremation in Mumbai on October 10, 2024. 

Punit Paranjpepunit Paranjpe | AFP | Getty Images

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday announced new partnerships with Google and Meta to accelerate the company’s push into artificial intelligence.

Speaking at an annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani also disclosed ambitions to list Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network, in the first half of 2026.

“A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance — the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger,” Ambani said, as he revealed a new fully owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence.

In a pre-recorded video played during the AGM, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Reliance would leverage the internet giant’s AI and cloud computing capabilities to boost innovation across sectors like energy, retail, telecommunications and financial services.

The pair will establish a dedicated cloud region in India, powered by clean energy provided by Reliance Industries and connected through Jio’s network.

Separately, Ambani also announced a new joint venture with Meta to make use of the tech group’s open-source AI models and deliver “sovereign, enterprise-ready AI for India.”

Under the new venture, Reliance Industries and Meta have committed an initial investment of $100 million to capitalize the unit in a ratio of 70% and 30% respectively, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership as “a key step forward towards ensuring that everyone has access to AI and eventually super intelligence.”

The partnerships signal a deeper push from U.S. tech names into India at a time when the country is seeing significant economic growth. It is not the first time that either Google and Meta has shown an interest in Reliance.

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, which is the parent company of Reliance Jio. Google separately announced a $4.5 billion investment in Jio Platforms that same year.

Jio Platforms owns a number of brands, including its telecommunications business Reliance Jio, which has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks to competitive pricing.

Reliance’s deeper pacts with Google and Meta come at a precarious time for U.S.-India relations. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed hefty tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

Trump’s tariffs versus India’s growth story - who wins?

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The Trump family crypto empire looks to Asia: Eric Trump talks Bitcoin in Hong Kong

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The Trump family crypto empire looks to Asia: Eric Trump talks Bitcoin in Hong Kong

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Eric Trump said Friday he is certain bitcoin will eventually hit a $1 million valuation as he spoke at a Hong Kong conference, marking the first of a series of Asian crypto events that will feature U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons.

Speaking at Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Asia 2025 conference, Eric Trump discussed his strong involvement in the crypto space.

“I really believe in the next several years, Bitcoin hits a million dollars. There’s no question,” he said, adding that 90% of his time is now spent with the crypto community. 

During his panel, the American businessman and former reality TV presenter also showered praise on Simon Gerovich, president and CEO of Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet. Eric joined the Tokyo-listed company’s board of advisors earlier this year. 

Bitcoin’s price has risen about 86% in the last 12 months amid buoyant investor sentiment surrounding President’s Trump’s election victory and a more positive U.S. regulatory environment on crypto. However, it’s worth noting that cryptocurrencies generally can be highly volatile and the space has been shrouded in the past by illicit activity and corporate scandals. In 2022, bitcoin and other digital currencies slumped sharply after a slew of major crypto companies went bankrupt.

Asia push

Eric Trump, along with his brother Donald Trump Jr, have become major players in the Trump family’s growing crypto empire. The two are co-founders of the bitcoin-mining venture American Bitcoin and also help manage the Trump family-backed project World Liberty Financial.

Now the brothers are broadening their push into digital assets to Asia. Soon after his Hong Kong visit, Eric Trump is reportedly headed to Japan to attend a shareholder meeting of Metaplanet, according to a recent report from Bloomberg News.

Later in September, both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are expected to speak at a South Korean crypto conference, and the pair is slated to appear as key speakers at Singapore’s Token 2049, one of the world’s largest crypto events.

Once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, President Trump has also embraced the crypto industry, branding himself as the first “crypto president.” 

“The Bitcoin community embraced my father unlike anything I had ever seen before,” Eric Trump said Friday adding: “And I hope that’s paid off in spades.”

The Trump administration has launched a number of executive orders and backed policies welcomed by the digital asset industry and has filled his cabinet with crypto advocates like David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar. 

Trump has also been involved in crypto business ventures, including World Liberty Financial and his $TRUMP meme coin, leading to accusations of corruption and self-dealing from opposition lawmakers, as well as calls for ethics investigations.

Given the shared interests between the American president and his son’s crypto activities, market watchers will be monitoring how the two brothers are received by government officials during their Asia tour. 

Eric Trump on taking American Bitcoin public and the family’s growing crypto empire

The visits come against the backdrop of President Trump’s ongoing global trade war, which has made Asia a major target.  

A Hong Kong official and a lawmaker withdrew from a Bitcoin Asia conference in the city following advice not to engage with Eric Trump, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

An archived version of the event webpage confirmed that Eric Yip, executive director at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and lawmaker Johnny Ng had previously been on the list of speakers for the event, before being removed. 

The SFC told CNBC that Yip was unable to attend the event because of a business trip, while the South China Morning Post reported that Ng said he withdrew for family reasons. 

The Hong Kong legislative council did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

– CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.

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Alibaba’s cloud unit shines even as rivalry heats up in China’s ‘instant commerce’ space

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Alibaba's cloud unit shines even as rivalry heats up in China's 'instant commerce' space

The Alibaba office building in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Aug. 28, 2024.

CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Alibaba posted a better-than-expected bottom line in the June quarter fueled by accelerated sales at its cloud computing unit and a continued revival of its e-commerce business.

Still, the Chinese giant’s revenues came in under analyst forecasts.

Alibaba’s stock was up around 4% in premarket trade in the U.S. after initially dipping.

Here’s how Alibaba did in its fiscal first quarter ended June, compared with LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 247.65 billion Chinese yuan ($34.6 billion), versus 252.9 billion yuan expected.
  • Net income: 43.11 billion yuan, compared with 28.5 billion yuan expected.

Revenue rose 2% year-on-year, while the company’s net income was up 78%. Alibaba attributed the increase in profit to gains in some of its equity investments and the disposal of Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol. This was offset by a decrease in income from operations.

However, excluding investment gains, Alibaba’s net income would have decreased 18% year-on-year as it continues to invest in the cut-throat instant commerce space in China.

Alibaba has a delicate balancing act between investing areas such as artificial intelligence and new e-commerce models, while showing that it can continue to grow in China’s competitive market. So far, investors have rewarded Alibaba with a 40% rally in its U.S.-listed stock this year.

That’s partly thanks a continued growth acceleration at its key cloud computing division as well as improvements at both its China and international e-commerce businesses.

Cloud accelerates

Cloud computing was one of the bright spots.

Alibaba said revenue at the division totaled 33.4 billion yuan, up 26% year-on-year. That was faster than the 18% growth rate seen in the previous quarter. Alibaba’s cloud unit is seen as key to the company monetizing artificial intelligence, much like Microsoft or Google.

“Driven by robust AI demand, Cloud Intelligence Group experienced accelerated revenue growth, and AI-related product revenue is now a significant portion of revenue from external customers,” Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said in a statement.

Investors are focused on Alibaba’s investments in artificial intelligence, where it has become a major global player. The company has aggressively launched various AI models and is selling services through its cloud computing division.

While Alibaba has focused open source AI — meaning its models can be used for free and built on by developers — it also sells AI services through its cloud unit.

Alibaba said AI-related product revenue “maintained triple-digit year-over-year growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.”

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA), a measure of profitability, jumped 26% year-on-year in the cloud unit.

New York-listed Alibaba shares have risen more than 40% this year as revenue growth at its core China e-commerce business has improved and its cloud computing division has accelerated.

The company is dealing with uncertainty in the Chinese economy, which lost momentum in July. Earlier this year, Beijing had launched initiatives to boost consumption.

‘Quick commerce’ wars

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