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Temu, the e-commerce app run by Chinese company PDD Holdings, plans to run a Super Bowl ad on Sunday, a spokesperson told CNBC, as it looks to continue growing rapidly in the United States.

It’s rare for a Chinese firm to buy a Super Bowl ad spot, which costs millions of dollars. But this will be Temu’s second ad at the football event — it ran its first commercial last year, underscoring how aggressively its parent company PDD is trying to crack the U.S. market.

In addition to the commercial, Temu will be giving away $5 million in coupons and credits, an initiative already underway. On the day of the Super Bowl, Temu plans to do an additional $10 million in giveaways, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson offered no more details on the contents of the ad or the price paid for the spot.

Temu launched in September 2022 and shortly after aired its Super Bowl ad in 2023. That commercial features a young woman amazed at the cheap prices on clothing and accessories that Temu has to offer.

“The prices blow my mind. I feel so rich. I feel like a billionaire. I’m shopping like a billionaire,” goes the ad’s jingle.

In a survey of 150 people carried out by market research firm Zappi, 51% said they “loved” last year’s ad, giving it a score of eight or more on a 10-point scale. That number is in line with the average of other ads that Zappi conducted surveys for. However, 21% of respondents “hated” the ad, giving it a score of four or less on the same scale. That’s significantly above the average, Zappi said. More than one in three (34%) of viewers found the claims made in the ad not to be believable.

Still, Temu is continuing to spend big on marketing to acquire users via platforms like Facebook. Temu’s U.S. ad spend increased 318% and 101% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2023 on Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, respectively, according to data from Sensor Tower.

And that spending has paid off. Sensor Tower said Temu was the No. 1 most-downloaded app in the U.S. last year. Temu’s monthly active users reached 51 million in January, up nearly 300% year on year.

Temu’s challenge now is to retain those users and increase its share of the U.S. e-commerce market as it looks to take on players like Amazon.

Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients last month that according to its survey, the number of households shopping on Temu was 20% lower in January than in September. The investment bank also said any U.S. share gains in 2024 will likely be “modest” and that growth “may be more reliant on capturing a higher share of its existing shoppers’ wallets.”

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.

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Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.

The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.

For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.

Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.

Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

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Shares in South Korea’s SK Hynix extended gains to hit a more than 2-decade high on Tuesday, following reports over the weekend that SK Group plans to build the country’s largest AI data center.

SK Hynix shares, which have surged almost 50% so far this year on the back of an AI boom, were up nearly 3%, following gains on Monday. 

The company’s parent, SK Group, plans to build the AI data center in partnership with Amazon Web Services in Ulsan, according to domestic media. SK Telecom and SK Broadband are reportedly leading the initiative, with support from other affiliates, including SK Hynix. 

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory or DRAM — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

The company’s DRAM rival, Samsung, was also trading up 4% on Tuesday. However, it’s growth has fallen behind that of SK Hynix.

On Friday, Samsung Electronics’ market cap reportedly slid to a 9-year low of 345.1 trillion won ($252 billion) as the chipmaker struggles to capitalize on AI-led demand. 

SK Hynix, on the other hand, has become a leader in high bandwidth memory — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — supplying to clients such as AI behemoth Nvidia. 

A report from Counterpoint Research in April said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM strength helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%. 

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OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract

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OpenAI wins 0 million U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.

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OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.

The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.

Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.

The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.

In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information. 

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