Elon Musk filed documents with a US federal court last Friday (16th), seeking up to US$134 billion from AI startup OpenAI and its investor Microsoft (MSFT.US), and claiming that he is entitled to the unjust enrichment OpenAI gained from his early support, according to Reuters.

In the documents, Musk stated that when he co-founded OpenAI in 2015, the Company gained between US$65.5 billion and US$109.4 billion from his investment, while Microsoft gained between US$13.3 billion and US$25.1 billion.

Musk's legal representatives asserted that, without Musk, OpenAI would not exist, as he provided most of the seed funding, lent his personal reputation, and imparted all knowledge regarding business expansion.
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The US Department of Commerce announced on Wednesday (14th) the imposition of a 25% national security tariff on certain high-end semiconductors.

On Thursday (15th), a White House official described this move as a "phase one" action to protect the industry, and the content of future announcements may depend on the progress of negotiations with various countries and companies, according to a Reuters report.
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The number of initial jobless claims in the US surprisingly sank to 198,000 last week, leading US bourse to open higher and drift higher on Thursday. The DJIA rallied as much as 431 points, and closed up 292 points or 0.6% at 49,442. The Nasdaq narrowed its gains, ending up 58 points or 0.3% at 23,530. The S&P 500 finished up 17 points or 0.3% at 6,944.

Banks rebounded, with Morgan Stanley (MS.US) charting fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat, resulting in a 5.8% spike in its stock price. Goldman Sachs (GS.US) saw its fourth-quarter net profit hike by 12%, also beating expectations, with its stock price soaring 4.6%. Citi (C.US) swelled 4.5%, whereas JPMorgan (JPM.US) edged up 0.5%.

Chip makers were well-shaped, with TSMC (TSM.US) reporting a 35% YoY rise in quarterly net profit, exceeding expectations, and its ADR stock price leaping 4.4%. NVIDIA (NVDA.US) jumped up 2.1%, and Micron (MU.US) rose 1%.
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Owing to tight memory chip supply, the number of export licenses granted by the US to Nvidia (NVDA.US) for selling H200 AI processors to Chinese customers will be limited, said John Moolenaar, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives and Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, on Thursday.

This situation arose from new export rules announced by the US Department of Commerce this week.

A spokesperson for Nvidia responded that the company, having always managed its supply chain neatly, is able to fulfill all approved H200 orders without affecting other products or customers.
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Apple (AAPL.US) announced the expansion of Apple Pay cross-border payment services for Chinese users, enabling them to use locally issued Visa credit and debit cards for contactless payments both in-store and online overseas.

This service will be supported by Visa credit cards issued by ICBC (01398.HK), BANK OF CHINA (03988.HK), ABC (01288.HK), BANKCOMM (03328.HK), CM BANK (03968.HK), CITIC BANK (00998.HK), Ping An Bank, and Industrial Bank, as well as Visa debit cards issued by CITIC Bank and China UnionPay.
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The global large model market has humungous potential, CMBI said in its report. On the ride of the iteration of large models and the increased penetration of AI applications, strong revenue growth is envisioned in the future. The broker believed that manufacturers with advantages in model capability, product capability, and financial resources are likely to lead in their respective segments.

In specific segments, the broker was bullish on AI general assistants such as ByteDance, TENCENT (00700.HK), and BABA-W (09988.HK); for AI entertainment companions, it favored MINIMAX-WP (00100.HK); and for visual generation, it favored KUAISHOU-W (01024.HK).

CMBI stated that in the AI general assistant segment, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI have already formed the first tier in overseas markets, leading in various aspects such as model capability and user volume. In the Chinese market, the competitive landscape is still in its early stage and is dynamically evolving. The broker was upbeat that ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba, and DeepSeek will form the first tier in the future.

Other manufacturers like Kimi and Minimax, despite having an advantage in model capability, may face certain disadvantages in infrastructure and traffic acquisition as competition in the AI general assistant segment escalates.

CMBI, optimistic about the mid-to-long-term global AI visual generation application market, estimated that the global AI visual generation application market size could reach USD16.6 billion by 2027, maintaining an Outperform rating.
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Under a new national security order released by the White House, US President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imports of specific AI chips, according to Reuters.

The announcement follows a nine-month investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and targets a number of high-end semiconductors and their application devices that meet certain performance benchmarks, with the aim of promoting chip manufacturing within the US.

The US currently produces only about 10% of the chips it needs, and is highly dependent on foreign supply chains, the announcement said. It emphasized that this dependency poses significant economic and national security risk.

The tariffs do not apply to chips and derivative devices used for US data centers, startups, non-data center consumer applications, non-data center civil industrial applications and US public sector applications, the White House's fact sheet noted.

Pursuant to the announcement, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has broad discretion to approve further exemptions.
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US bourse descended for the second consecutive trading day on Wednesday, as investors digested a new round of corporate earnings and economic data while keeping an eye on the latest geopolitical developments.

Techs were subdued, with the Nasdaq leading the downfall, closing down 238 points or 1% at 23,471. The S&P 500 dipped 37 points or 0.5% to 6,926. The DJIA dropped 42 points or 0.1% to 49,149.

Techs hijacked the market, with chip stocks being exceptionally weak. Broadcom (AVGO.US) plunged 4.2%. Nvidia (NVDA.US) reportedly received a notification from Chinese customs not to approve its H200 chips for entry into China, causing Nvidia to fall 1.4%. Micron (MU.US) also lost over 1%.

Banks were similarly under pressure. Wells Fargo (WFC.US) logged fourth-quarter revenue miss, with its stock price sliding 4.6%. Although Bank of America (BAC.US) and Citigroup (C.US) reported earnings beat, their stock prices both dived more than 3%.
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In the fourth quarter of last year, Apple (AAPL.US) ranked first in smartphone shipments in the Chinese market, followed by vivo, OPPO and Huawei, as well as Honor and XIAOMI-W (01810.HK) which both tied for fifth place, according to data from research firm IDC.

Furthermore, Chinese smartphone manufacturers achieved new breakthroughs in overseas markets last year, with Honor's global shipments topping 71 million units for the first time.

In the first three quarters of 2025, Honor's overseas shipments were projected to grow by approximately 55% YoY, the highest growth rate among the top ten global brands, according to Omedia data.
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In 2025, China's auto industry continued to demonstrate strong development resilience and vitality, pushing various economic indicators to new highs, according to the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Specifically, China's automobile production and sales grew by 10.4% and 9.4% YoY to new highs of 34.531 million units and 34.4 million units respectively, maintaining the global lead for 17 consecutive years.

During this period, new energy vehicle production and sales also exceeded 16 million units, accounting for over 50% of the total new car sales in China.
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