Author: Jack Mulligan

China’s shifting focus draws investor attention While the U.S. remains the world’s largest economy, investors and financial advisors would be remiss to overlook China’s growing significance. As the second-largest global economy, China plays a critical role in shaping worldwide market trends. Ongoing tariff tensions with the U.S. have introduced new uncertainties, but China is actively adapting its strategy to offset external pressures. Recent insights from American Century Investments highlight how China is moving to stimulate domestic consumption. Measures include local employment subsidies, legislation for paid annual leave, and policies to stabilize its stock and real estate markets. These efforts reflect…

Tariff shock sends copper prices to record highs President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will impose a 50% tariff on all copper imported into the United States, marking the fourth broad tariff of his second term. The announcement came during a Cabinet meeting, though the administration has not provided a specific timeline for implementation. “Today we’re doing copper,” Trump said, confirming that the tariff rate would be 50%. The White House declined to comment further on when the measure would take effect. The tariff follows a Section 232 investigation launched in February, which allows the president to impose trade restrictions…

Strategic expansion taps into Europe’s AI infrastructure push U.S. semiconductor startup Groq has opened its first data center in Europe, selecting Helsinki, Finland as its operational base. The facility, developed in partnership with Equinix, marks a major step in Groq’s global expansion as it aims to meet surging demand for AI inference capabilities across the continent. Groq, valued at $2.8 billion and backed by the investment arms of Samsung and Cisco, builds Language Processing Units (LPUs) optimized for AI inferencing—a critical task where trained models analyze real-time data. Unlike Nvidia’s dominant GPUs, which are essential for training large-scale models, Groq’s…

Public backlash reveals rising pressure in China’s AI race Huawei’s usually silent AI research arm, Noah’s Ark Lab, broke protocol over the weekend to reject allegations of code plagiarism linked to its new AI model, Pangu Pro MoE. The model, designed to run on Huawei’s proprietary Ascend chips, came under scrutiny after a GitHub group named HonestAGI claimed it contained uncredited code fragments. Though the original post was deleted, a follow-up titled Pangu’s Sorrow accused Huawei’s team of lagging behind domestic competitors and facing internal pressure to deliver results. In a rare public response, Huawei strongly denied any wrongdoing, asserting…

China’s overcapacity and BYD dominance put smaller rivals at risk Thailand’s electric vehicle (EV) market is witnessing the fallout of China’s hyper-competitive EV sector as smaller players like Neta struggle to survive. Once a promising entrant, Neta is now facing dealer lawsuits, unpaid government incentives, and plummeting market share, threatening its local production ambitions. Introduced to Thailand in 2022, Neta benefited from a government incentive program that waived import duties in exchange for a commitment to match imports with domestic production by 2024. However, citing slowing demand and tight credit conditions, Neta has failed to meet production targets. Thai authorities…

Traders brace for possible August output hike by OPEC+ Oil prices edged lower on Friday in light U.S. holiday trading, as investors anticipated this weekend’s key OPEC+ meeting, where a potential increase in crude production for August is expected. Brent crude settled down 50 cents, or 0.7%, at $68.30 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped 0.75% to $66.50. The session saw limited activity due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday, with investors largely in a holding pattern ahead of Saturday’s OPEC+ gathering, which was moved forward from Sunday. Despite the dip, both benchmarks ended the week higher,…

Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7 and possible Ultra model expected Samsung has officially set its next Galaxy Unpacked event for July 9 at 10AM ET, marking the company’s third major launch of the year. Following the Galaxy S25 series in January and the virtual unveiling of the Galaxy S25 Edge, this mid-year presentation is expected to spotlight foldables, wearables and artificial intelligence integrations. All signs point to the unveiling of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, continuing the annual refresh of Samsung’s flagship foldable lineup. Recent leaks hint at larger displays (up to 6.5 inches cover…

Campaign sparks fierce debate over game preservation and dev freedom The digital games industry is witnessing a growing ideological feud between two influential voices: Ross Scott, creator of the Stop Killing Games (SKG) campaign, and Thor, the outspoken developer behind Pirate Software. What started as a unified call for consumer protection has now evolved into a full-blown debate about digital ownership, game preservation, and developer autonomy. Ross Scott’s crusade to save vanishing games Launched by YouTuber Ross Scott in response to Ubisoft’s 2023 takedown of The Crew, the SKG campaign argues that consumers are being sold games with hidden expiration…

Cupertino explores third-party AI after delays in internal Siri revamp Apple is reportedly exploring the use of artificial intelligence models from OpenAI or Anthropic to power a future version of Siri, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. The company is said to be in early-stage talks with both firms about using their large language models (LLMs) as a foundation for Siri’s next-generation capabilities. Shares of Apple rose 2% on Monday following the report. Discussions have involved training third-party LLMs that could run on Apple’s cloud infrastructure for testing, although no final decision has been made. Apple, OpenAI, and Anthropic…

Mark Zuckerberg reveals new AI unit, recruits top talent from rivals Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a new unit aimed at consolidating the company’s AI efforts and accelerating development of cutting-edge foundation models. The move puts Meta in direct competition with AI leaders like OpenAI and Google as the global race toward superintelligence intensifies. The new division will be led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, who now serves as Meta’s Chief AI Officer, and Nat Friedman, ex-CEO of GitHub and co-founder of an influential AI investment firm. Both leaders…