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Lionel Lim

Lionel Lim

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‘China plus one’ bets unravel as Southeast Asian economies get steep ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

Companies that embraced supply-chain diversification by moving some operations to economies geographically close to China now face an array of bad...

yesterday 0

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Asia tries to prepare for Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ wave of new tariffs: ‘We’re working on this matter nonstop, even on weekends’

Vietnam cut import duties on Monday while other governments like Japan and Australia have tried negotiating with Washington.

wednesday 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

BYD outshines Tesla on total revenue—but there’s still some way to go before it takes Tesla’s place at the top of the EV sector

The Chinese manufacturer's revenue from its autos business is still lower than Tesla's.

25.03.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Malaysia is reportedly tracking the flow of Nvidia chips through the Southeast Asian country after pressure from Washington

The country's trade minister has reportedly formed a task force with the digital minister to tighten regulations around Malaysia's data centers.

24.03.2025 9

Fortune

Lionel Lim

A bubble tea chain and a toy doll are the latest casualties of Beijing and Hanoi’s competing claims over the South China Sea

Vietnamese flooded Chagee with negative comments after the bubble tea chain's app used a map that endorsed Beijing's expansive territorial claims.

21.03.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Singaporean taxi operator ComfortDelGro hopes robotaxis can future-proof the industry, as aging populations lead to fewer drivers

ComfortDelGro is partnering with Chinese self-driving startup Pony.ai to launch a two-year pilot program in Guangzhou, China.

18.03.2025 9

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Trump tariffs on Thailand may be unavoidable says the CEO of one of the country’s biggest conglomerates

Berli Jucker CEO Thapanee Techajareonvikul says she’s preparing for a trade war by exploring new markets and fending off new Chinese competition.

14.03.2025 30

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Intel’s incoming Malaysian-born CEO is the latest Fortune 500 semiconductor exec to hail from Asia

Lip-Bu Tan, who was born in Malaysia and went to university in Singapore, will take over as Intel's CEO on March 18. The news sent shares up over 10%.

13.03.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

TSMC’s $100 billion promise to invest in the U.S. won’t shake up the chip supply chain: ‘Most of its capacity is still in Taiwan’

In recent days, Taiwan's government and TSMC have come out to say that the chipmaker's decision was not due to Washington pressure.

13.03.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

China needs to unleash ‘$20 trillion’ in household savings to drive economic growth, says Alibaba chair Joe Tsai

Tariffs and geopolitics mean China can't count on export for growth anymore but restoring consumer confidence could allow domestic consumption to...

12.03.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Chinese advances like DeepSeek have ‘narrowed’ AI gap with U.S., says CSIS think tank: ‘Unrealistic to expect a lead of more than a year or two’

"DeepSeek’s technological innovations are real," Gregory Allen, director of CSIS’s Wadhwani AI Center, wrote on Friday.

11.03.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Toyota unveils an all-electric China SUV that’s priced to compete in the world’s most fierce car market

The bZ3X, developed by GAC Toyota, was reportedly so popular it crashed the company's servers.

07.03.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Outgoing DBS CEO Piyush Gupta gets a 57% pay bump, reversing a massive cut in 2023

Gupta will take home $13.2 million following the bank's "stellar all-round performance as well as its improved technology resiliency”

06.03.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

AI and logistics lift Sea Group to its second-ever annual profit—including e-commerce success in an unexpected market

The Singapore tech firm, whose businesses cover e-commerce, video games, and digital finance, reported an annual profit of $447.8 million.

06.03.2025 9

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Malaysia is buying Arm’s blueprints for $250 million to realize its ambitions to be a ‘non-aligned’ chip player

Malaysia hopes its Arm deal will help foster 10 local chip companies with annual revenue between $1.5 billion to $2 billion each. 

05.03.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Indonesia’s nickel strategy proved to be a ‘great success’—but overcapacity and tech shifts could challenge Jakarta’s ‘downstreaming’ hopes

Indonesia exported just under $8 billion worth of nickel and its derivatives last year, 10 times more than what it exported in 2020.

04.03.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Shares in Mixue—a Chinese ice cream chain with more stores than McDonald’s—jump over 40% after Hong Kong’s largest IPO so far this year

Mixue raised $444 million in its IPO, a blockbuster listing that helps signal a turnaround in Hong Kong's IPO market.

03.03.2025 9

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Sovereign wealth funds are back in vogue as ‘an extension of a country’s industrial policy’

Indonesia, the Philippines and the city of Hong Kong all recently launched new funds. Now Trump's U.S. wants one too.

02.03.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

The Malaysian company behind Resorts World Las Vegas gets a new CEO—the first from outside the founding family

Tan Kong Han, currently CEO of Genting Plantations, becomes CEO of Genting Berhad on Mar. 1 replacing Lim Kok Thay, the founder's son.

28.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Singapore charges three with fraud in cases reportedly linked to smuggling of Nvidia chips to China

Officials in Washington are reportedly scrutinizing chip shipments to Singapore following the recent success of Chinese startup DeepSeek.

28.02.2025 30

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Rolls-Royce turnaround ‘so impressive’, hitting its 2027 goals two years early amid soaring shares and rising profits

Rolls-Royce supplies engines to the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, which are also enjoying a rebound in orders as the...

27.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Shares in 7-Eleven’s Japanese owner drop by as much as 12% as founding family fails to find enough money for a buyout

Last year, Seven & i rejected nearly $40 billion offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard, which would have been the biggest foreign buyout of a Japanese...

27.02.2025 6

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Father-son feud and an alleged ‘attempted coup’ rock one of Singapore’s largest property developers

Kwek Leng Beng, the chairman of City Developments Limited, is accusing his son Sherman Kwek, who is the CEO, of "serious lapses of corporate...

26.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

OCBC CEO Helen Wong thinks AI will create more banking jobs

As part of its earnings report, OCBC revealed that it will return 2.5 billion Singapore dollars to shareholders over two years through dividends and...

26.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, is cutting 4,000 temp roles due to AI: ‘For the first time, I’m struggling to create jobs’

DBS is the first of Singapore’s Big Three banks to suggest how AI might affect its headcount. 

25.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Chinese phones dominate Southeast Asia—but it’s ‘now or never’ for these budget brands to go premium

As the smartphone market matures, Chinese brands like Oppo are looking for growth by selling better phones, instead of more phones.

25.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Saudi Arabia snaps up Olam’s agribusiness division in a deal valued at $4 billion, more than the Singaporean firm’s entire market cap

Olam shares jumped by over 5% in Monday trading, following the announcement.

24.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

The U.S.’s chipmaking sector is ringing the alarm about Washington’s chip war with China

Recent earnings reports from manufacturers like Applied Materials and Lam Research show the U.S.’s broadside chip controls may be starting to bite. 

22.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Grab points to potential of ‘undertapped’ Southeast Asia market—but a disappointing forecast sends shares plunging over 10%

CEO Anthony Tan said Grab is currently serving just one out of 20 people in Southeast Asia despite hitting an all-time high of monthly transacting...

20.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Singapore’s UOB post record profits as it bets its Southeast Asia focus will drive growth amid global uncertainties

The bank's CEO Wee Ee Cheong said an enlarged customer base and enhanced platforms in the region positions UOB well.

19.02.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

BYD founder Wang Chuanfu, fresh from his meeting with Xi Jinping, claims Chinese EVs are 3 to 5 years ahead of the competition

"Behind each of our technologies is the hard work of 110,000 engineers," Wang said.

19.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

South Korea wants to stockpile 10,000 GPUs as AI becomes a geopolitical contest

The country's acting president said the AI rivalry has moved on from being solely between companies to a contest amongst nations.

18.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Indonesia’s ‘staggering’ growth puts Jakarta in a strong position as it plays hardball with Apple

As Apple’s traditional cash cow of China begins to dry up, emerging markets like Indonesia are quickly becoming a source of growth

17.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Baidu shares pop after it makes ERNIE, its flagship AI model, free in a bid to catch up to its competition

Baidu's ambitious play could intensify an ongoing price war in China's competitive AI sector.

13.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, is setting aside $23.6 million to reward staff for another ‘record performance’

The bank, driven by its wealth management business and an increase in loans, reported a net profit of $8.4 billion for 2024, up 11% from the year...

10.02.2025 40

Fortune

Lionel Lim

A ‘quite shy’ CEO steps in to lead one of the Philippines’ largest retailers as the country turns a corner on growth

Stanley Co, the first CEO from outside the founder's family, is confident that Robinsons Retail can thrive even amid Trump-era uncertainty.

10.02.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Coldplay’s latest music video—a ‘love letter to Singapore’—is a winning ‘investment’ in the fight for global tourists, say experts

“It’ll be interesting to know how much the Singapore Tourism Board paid for this endeavor," says Jose Raymond, managing director of PR firm SW...

07.02.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Huawei revenue exceeded $118 billion last year, and analysts think the company is showing it’s able to live with U.S. sanctions

The Chinese tech giant's 2024 revenue is a 22% year-on-year increase and marks a return to growth following Washington's restrictions.

07.02.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Vietnam’s Techcombank reports a 20% jump in profits as CEO predicts bumper growth for Southeast Asia’s new manufacturing hub

The bank targets younger Vietnamese and its growth was driven by loans and wealth management services.

07.02.2025 6

Fortune

Lionel Lim

South Korea is the latest government to block China’s DeepSeek on official devices, following Australia and Taiwan

Officials in South Korea and Australia have cited concerns about user data and national security as reasons to block the buzzy AI service from China.

06.02.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

GSK reports fall in profit over Zantac fallout—but boosts 2031 revenue target to £40 billion due to boom in cancer drug sales

"We expect another year of profitable growth in 2025, and have further improved our long-term outlook," said CEO Walmsley.

05.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Toyota unveils a plan to become ‘more loved’ in China by taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook: A wholly-owned Shanghai EV plant

The Shanghai factory is expected to start production in 2027 and will develop a new BEV under Toyota's premium Lexus brand.

05.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

The data center boom drives growing profits for Singaporean asset manager Keppel

Keppel's connectivity segment, which handles its data center business, was the only part that reported growth in profits last year.

05.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

OpenAI partners with one of South Korea’s tech giants as CEO Sam Altman looks for post-DeepSeek allies

Kakao, which owns one of Korea's largest taxi-hailing and messaging platforms, will use ChatGPT for its new AI services.

04.02.2025 50

Fortune

Lionel Lim

China hits back at Trump’s tariffs with an antitrust investigation into Google and a new 15% tax on U.S. coal and gas

Among other measures, China will impose a 15% tariff on imports of U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas.

04.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Call center employees in the Philippines aren’t worried about AI: The tech’s ‘not quite there yet’

Workers agree AI technology makes them more efficient, but it isn’t ready to replace them.

01.02.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Las Vegas Sands thinks more Asia casinos won’t hurt its business: ‘Four billion people are looking for a place to go’

Its CEO downplayed converns about cannibalization as tourist hotspot Thailand looks to open new casinos.

31.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

DeepSeek isn’t China’s only new AI model, and analysts are calling the flurry of new applications ‘coordinated psyops’

At least three other companies including those backed by Alibaba and Tencent released updates to their applications in recent weeks.

28.01.2025 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Chinese consumers can’t get enough of durian, a fruit so pungent it’s banned in Southeast Asian airports

Chinese imports of durian rose to 1.56 billion kilograms last year, 2.5 times what it imported in 2019. 

27.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Luckin Coffee beat Starbucks in China. It’s now taking its playbook overseas to markets like Malaysia

Luckin Coffee—booted from the Nasdaq in 2020—has overtaken Starbucks in China revenue and store count.

24.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim