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George Zhao, Chief Executive Officer of Chinese consumer electronics brand Honor, smiles as he shows the new Honor Magic 6 Pro smartphones during a presentation on the eve of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 25, 2024.

Pau Barrena | Afp | Getty Images

George Zhao, the chief executive of Chinese smartphone firm Honor, has resigned from his position due to personal reasons, the company said on Friday.

“The company and the Board of Directors sincerely appreciate Mr Zhao’s outstanding contributions to the company during his tenure,” Honor said in a statement.

Jian Li, who’s been at Honor for four years in various senior management positions, will succeed Zhao as CEO.

In an internal memo posted by Chinese media and confirmed as accurate by an Honor spokesperson, Zhao said he was stepping down due to health reasons and planned to rest, recover and spend more time with his family.

Zhao called the decision to leave Honor “the most difficult decision” he has ever made.

Honor was spun off from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in 2020 in a bid to avoid U.S. sanctions that were crippling Huawei’s smartphone business.

Under Zhao’s leadership, Honor has aggressively launched smartphones with a focus on international markets. Zhao focused on high-end devices, including foldable smartphones, as he looked for Honor to look beyond China and challenge the likes of Samsung and Apple.

Honor’s market share in China has risen from 9.8% in 2020 to over 15% in 2024, according to Counterpoint Research. Outside of China, Honor’s market share hit 2.3% in 2024, compared to under 1% in 2020.

The company has looked to keep pace with rivals by launching artificial intelligence features on its device.

Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said the company’s focus on high-end devices and technology is likely to continue under the new leadership.

“Honor’s focus on premiumization should continue if the brand wants to continue building its brand equity and differentiation point vs existing competitors, especially in premium markets such as Europe,” Shah told CNBC. 

“The focus on innovative foldable designs and advanced AI features and close partnerships with leading component suppliers would be key.”

Zhao’s successor Li will be tasked with trying to expand Honor’s presence overseas amid fierce competition, with a focus on making the brand more recognizable.

“Many don’t know Honor” outside of China, Counterpoint’s Shah said. “Building brand equity is tough and the company needs more time, money and differentiation points.”

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What Dick’s Sporting Goods’ earnings report tells us about Nike’s turnaround

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What Dick's Sporting Goods' earnings report tells us about Nike's turnaround

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Musk’s xAI to close $15 billion funding round in December: sources

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Musk's xAI to close  billion funding round in December: sources

Elon Musk attends the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 19, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is expected to close a $15 billion round at a $230 billion pre-money valuation next month, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC’s David Faber.

The deadline for allocation is the end of day on Tuesday, with the round expected to close on Dec. 19, the sources said.

This confirms earlier CNBC reporting that the company was raising $15 billion. The Tesla CEO later called the report on the round “False” in a post on the social media platform X.

At the time, sources told CNBC that xAI would use a large portion of the money for funding graphics processing units responsible for powering large language models.

CNBC had previously reported in September that the startup was looking to raise $10 billion at a $200 billion valuation.

The funding round is yet another sign of the insatiable demand for AI tools. Companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have raised billions and reached sky-high valuations as investors pour more money into companies building foundational AI models.

Sam Altman‘s OpenAI finalized a $6.6 billion-share sale at a $500 billion valuation last month, and Reuters recently reported that the ChatGPT maker was eying a $1 trillion initial public offering.

Anthropic closed a $13 billion funding round in September that roughly tripled its valuation from March.

Musk’s xAI is responsible for creating the Grok chatbot that has come under fire for disseminating hate speech, including antisemitic content. The company recently debuted Grokipedia, an AI-powered competitor to Wikipedia.

In March, Musk announced the merger of xAI with X in a deal valuing the social media platform at $33 billion.

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TSMC stock falls as it sues former exec alleging he took trade secrets to Intel

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 TSMC stock falls as it sues former exec alleging he took trade secrets to Intel

TSMC on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against a former senior vice president it accused of leaking “confidential information” to Intel.

Wei-Jen Lo joined Intel after 21 years at TSMC, having left in July, the Taiwanese chip maker said in a statement, announcing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is based on Lo’s employment contract and non-compete agreement with TSMC, and regulations such as the Trade Secrets Act, the statement said.

“There is a high probability that Lo uses, leaks, discloses, delivers, or transfers TSMC’s trade
secrets and confidential information to Intel,” it said.

TSMC’s share price fell on Tuesday and was last seen over 3% lower.

Intel did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

It follows earlier reports by local media and later by Reuters, which stated Lo may have taken TSMC’s technology data to Intel. Taiwan’s High Prosecutors opened an investigation into the allegations.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told Bloomberg News last week that his “company respects intellectual property rights” and denied any wrongdoing.

The U.S. firm’s stock price moved 1.5% lower in mid-morning trade.

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