A Chinese flag is displayed next to a “Made in China” sign seen on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, in this illustration picture taken February 17, 2023.
Florence Lo | Reuters
Major Asian chip stocks outside of China rose Tuesday, shrugging off a new round of U.S. semiconductor export curbs aimed at impairing Beijing’s capability to produce certain high-end chips.
Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank, which owns a stake in British chip designer Arm, saw its shares rise 3.6%.
The Biden administration’s latest chip curbs will also target sales of high-bandwidth memory chips, which could affect the world’s two largest memory chip makers — South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung.
Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, however, rose 0.9% and 1.8%, respectively.
Derrick Irwin, portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia,” on Tuesday that the high-bandwidth memory controls would impact South Korean players to a degree.
“Although our belief is that the impact and sales of high bandwidth memory chips into China are reasonably small from these players in the scheme of things, and they’ll probably be able to shift that demand into the U.S. and other markets,” he said.
The Department of Commerce announced on Monday that it was curbing semiconductor exports to 140 new companies in its latest effort to limit China’s ability to access cutting edge chip technology that could be used for advancing its military capabilities.
Naura Technology Group, Piotech and ACM Research were among the largest Chinese companies to be included in the export controls list.
Shares of Naura Technology and ACM Research fell 3% and 1%, respectively, in China while Piotech rose 1%. China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, fell 1.5% in Hong Kong.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Monday that the new export controls were the “culmination of the Biden-Harris Administration’s targeted approach to impair the PRC’s ability to indigenize the production of advanced technologies that pose a risk to our national security.”
In addition to the entities added, the latest U.S. restrictions include new controls on 24 types of manufacturing equipment and three types of software tools used for developing semiconductors.
Last month, the effectiveness of U.S. chip restrictions had been thrown into question when it was reported that a chip made by TSMC had been found in a Huawei product.
The latest export restrictions include a new “red flag guidance” to address compliance concerns, and several “critical regulatory changes” to enhance the effectiveness of existing controls.
Sam Altman, co-founder and C.E.O. of OpenAI, speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
After months of C-suite changes, tender offers and a soaring valuation, OpenAI has reached a new milestone: 300 million weekly active users.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed the new figure Wednesday at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. A source familiar with the company told CNBC last week that the company’s weekly active user count was still at 250 million.
Over the next year, though, the company is reportedly targeting 1 billion active users.
It’s part of a serious growth plan for OpenAI, as the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup battles Amazon-backed Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI, the latter of which Altman said he views as a “fierce competitor” on Wednesday at DealBook. The company is also up against established tech giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon for a bigger slice of the generative AI market, which is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.
OpenAI on Tuesday announced it had hired its first chief marketing officer, nabbing Kate Rouch from crypto company Coinbase — an indication that it plans to spend more on marketing to grow its user base. In October, OpenAI debuted a search feature within ChatGPT that positions it to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft‘s Bing and Perplexity and may attract more users who otherwise visited those sites to search the web.
Also at DealBook on Wednesday, Altman denied reports that the company had asked investors not to also invest in its competitors but said that those who decide to wouldn’t have access to OpenAI’s “information rights,” like the company’s roadmap and other materials.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, appears on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024.
Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Salesforce popped more than 8% Wednesday, a day after the company reported third-quarter results that exceeded analysts’ estimates for revenue and guidance and showed strong promise for its artificial intelligence offerings.
Salesforce’s revenue grew 8% year over year to $9.44 billion in its third quarter, up from the $9.34 billion expected by LSEG. The company’s net income was $1.5 billion in the quarter, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago.
Salesforce raised revenue guidance to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion for its fiscal 2025, up slightly from $37.7 billion to $38 billion it had previously reported. The new range puts the midpoint for Salesforce’s fiscal 2025 revenue guidance at $37.9 billion, ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on the stock, stating in a note that “the force is strong with this one.” The analysts said they are encouraged by Salesforce’s strong start with its artificial intelligence agent, Agentforce, as it closed more than 200 deals during the quarter with “thousands” more in the pipeline.
Salesforce’s Agentforce is an example of so-called AI agent technology. Several companies believe these advanced chatbots represent the next logical step from ChatGPT and other related tools powered by large language models.
Goldman Sachs analysts raised their Salesforce price target from $360 to $400 and reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts said the company’s Data Cloud and Agentforce are driving “notable pipeline generation,” and they’re starting to contribute to the fundamentals of the business.
“We believe that Salesforce remains poised to be one of the most strategic application software companies in the $1tn+ TAM cloud industry and is on a path to $50bn in revenue,” the analysts said in a Tuesday note.
Similarly, analysts at Bank of America said Salesforce’s third-quarter results suggest it is “leading the way” with Agentforce, and they reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts raised their price target to $440 from $390.
The analysts said the emerging AI agent product cycle is not derailing Salesforce’s margin expansion, and that a meaningful pipeline exists in the service and sales sectors.
“Commentary suggests no contribution for Agentforce is assumed in the guide, suggesting early Agentforce deal closure could provide a source of upside,” they wrote Wednesday.
–CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report
Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued Amazon on Wednesday, accusing the company of covertly depriving residents in certain ZIP codes in the nation’s capital from access to Prime’s high-speed delivery.
The lawsuit from AG Brian Schwalb alleges that, since 2022, Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes from its expedited delivery service while charging Prime members living there the full subscription price. Amazon’s Prime membership program costs $139 a year and includes perks like two-day shipping and access to streaming content.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” Schwalb said in a statement. “While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one zip code is worth less than a dollar in another.”
Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said in a statement it’s “categorically false” that its business practices are “discriminatory or deceptive.”
“We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Kelly said in a statement. “In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
Kelly said Amazon has offered to work with the AG’s office on efforts “to reduce crime and improve safety in these areas.”
In June 2022, Amazon allegedly stopped using its own delivery trucks to shuttle packages in the ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 based on concerns over driver safety, the suit states. In place of its in-house delivery network, the company relied on outside carriers like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to make deliveries, according to the complaint, which was filed in D.C. Superior Court.
The decision caused residents in those ZIP codes to experience “significantly longer delivery times than their neighbors in other District ZIP codes, despite paying the exact same membership price for Prime,” the lawsuit says.
Data from the AG shows that before Amazon instituted the change, more than 72% of Prime packages in the two ZIP codes were delivered within two days of checkout. That number dropped to as low as 24% following the move, while two-day delivery rates across the district increased to 74%.
Amazon has faced prior complaints of disparities in its Prime program. In 2016, the company said it would expand access to same-day delivery in cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, after a Bloomberg investigation found Black residents were “about half as likely” to be eligible for same-day delivery as white residents.
The ZIP codes in Schwalb’s complaint are in areas with large Black populations, according to 2022 Census data based on its American Community Survey.
The Federal Trade Commission also sued Amazon in June 2023, accusing the company of tricking consumers into signing up for Prime and “sabotaging” their attempts to cancel by employing so-called dark patterns, or deceptive design tactics meant to steer users toward a specific choice. Amazon said the complaint was “false on the facts and the law.” The case is set to go to trial in June 2025.
According to Scwalb’s complaint, Amazon never communicated the delivery exclusion to Prime members in the area. When consumers in the affected ZIP codes complained to Amazon about slower delivery speeds, the company said it was due to circumstances outside its control, the suit says.
The lawsuit accuses Amazon of violating the district’s consumer protection laws. It also asks the court to “put an end to Amazon’s deceptive conduct,” as well as for damages and penalties.
To get packages to customers’ doorsteps, Amazon uses a combination of its own contracted delivery companies, usually distinguishable by Amazon-branded cargo vans, as well as carriers like USPS, UPS and FedEx, and a network of gig workers who make deliveries from their own vehicles as part of its Flex program.
Amazon has rapidly expanded its in-house logistics army in recent years as it looks to speed up deliveries from two days to one day or even a few hours. In July, the company said it recorded its “fastest Prime delivery speeds ever” in the first half of the year, delivering more than 5 billion items within a day.
In relying on its own workforce, Amazon has assumed greater control over its delivery operations.
In his complaint, Schwalb cites an internal company policy that says Amazon may choose to exclude certain areas from being served by its in-house delivery network if a driver experiences “violence, intimidation or harassment.” The company relies on UPS or USPS to deliver packages in excluded areas.
