Economy

SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics released on Wednesday a fourth-quarter operating profit estimate that missed analyst estimates by a large margin, as it lagged behind rival SK Hynix in supplying high-end chips to Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). The world’s largest memory chip, smartphone and TV maker estimated an operating profit of 6.5 trillion won ($4.47 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, versus a 7.7 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate. The estimated result was 131% higher than the same period a year earlier, but down 29% from the third quarter. Samsung (KS:005930) shares were down 1% in early trading, while the broader South Korean market was up 0.1%.Samsung said in a statement that amid slowing demand for conventional memory chips used in PCs and mobile phones, its memory chip earnings for the fourth-quarter were dented by rising research and development costs and investments in manufacturing capacity for advanced chip processes. It also said earnings fell in its non-memory chip business, which spans contract chip manufacturing and logic chip design, due to lower utilisation rates at its factories and higher research and development costs. Earnings for its devices business, which includes mobile phones, TVs and household appliances, fell due to the fading effect of sales of new mobile phone models and rising competition, Samsung said.In October, the South Korean company made a rare apology for its disappointing third-quarter performance and said it was making progress in supplying artificial intelligence chips to Nvidia.But it has not provided any update since, and delays to providing Nvidia with high-end chips have continued to weigh on its earnings, analysts said. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday that Samsung has to “engineer a new design” to supply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia, adding that “they can do it and they are working very fast,” Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Samsung’s statement on Wednesday did not include any update on its progress in supplying HBM to Nvidia.($1 = 1,454.6000 won) More

LONDON (Reuters) – British luxury automaker Rolls-Royce (OTC:RYCEY) said on Wednesday it will invest 300 million pounds ($376 million) to expand its Goodwood plant to focus more on bespoke cars for high-end clients, featuring anything from gold sculptures to mother-of-pearl artwork. As with other high-end automakers, Rolls-Royce has seen rising demand for high-margin, personalized car content from wealthy consumers.In 2024 alone, the BMW (ETR:BMWG) unit said its “artisans crafted exquisite details” that included solid 18-carat gold sculptures, embroideries consisting of more than 869,500 stitches, wood veneers including 500 individually-shaped pieces of wood and holographic paint finishes. Rolls-Royce said that the Goodwood plant expansion is to serve customers for its Bespoke services and Coachbuild programme – an invitation-only service where wealthy clients get to “craft an entirely original motor car.”The investment is the largest since the plant opened in 2003, when it employed 300 people and made one car a day, the company said. Today, Goodwood employs 2,500 people and produces 28 cars daily, it said.Rolls-Royce also said that globally it sold 5,712 cars in 2024, a drop of more than 5% versus the 6,032 cars it sold in 2023, which it said was in line with its expectations as it switches over to new models.($1 = 0.7979 pounds) More

The U.S. IPO market has seen an uptick amid falling interest rates, strong equity markets, and hopes of a friendlier regulatory environment under the incoming Trump administration. Maze’s decision follows a strong 2024 for biotech companies, with firms such as Septerna and Bicara Therapeutics receiving a positive response from investors at their debut. Maze said it earned $9.03 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2024, compared with a loss of $73.84 million in the year-ago period. The terms of the IPO were not disclosed in the offering. The San Francisco, California-based company is also backed by healthcare investors ARCH Venture Partners and General Catalyst. Maze is advancing two fully-owned lead programs, MZE829 and MZE782, both of which represent a “novel precision medicine-based” approach for chronic kidney disease. The funds raised from the IPO will be used to advance the clinical development of these lead programs. The company is also developing another program, MZE001, for a genetic disorder called Pompe disease through a partnership agreement with Japanese firm Shionogi. France-based healthcare company Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) had previously announced a global licensing agreement with Maze for MZE001 in May 2023. However, Sanofi later scrapped the agreement following an administrative complaint issued by the Federal Trade Commission, which cited the French firm’s monopoly in the treatment of Pompe disease. Maze Therapeutics intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “MAZE”. J.P. Morgan, TD Cowen, Leerink Partners and Guggenheim Securities are the lead underwriters of the offering. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday unveiled a new label for smart thermostats, baby monitors, app-controlled lights and other internet-connected devices that will allow consumers to see how the increasingly popular items rate on cybersafety criteria. The Cyber Trust Mark – a stylized shield logo with microchip-style detailing – is meant to give American consumers a quick and easy way to evaluate the security of a given smart product, much like U.S. Department of Agriculture labels on food or Energy Star ratings on appliances.Companies seeking the label for their products must meet established cybersecurity criteria from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology via compliance testing by accredited labs.An increasing number of everyday devices are being connected to the internet: garage doors, fitness trackers, security cameras, voice-activated assistants and even ovens and trash cans, providing users with added convenience but introducing novel risks. “Each one of these devices presents a digital door that motivated cyber attackers are eager to enter,” U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber Anne Neuberger told reporters on a call.The Cyber Trust Mark is voluntary. But Neuberger said she hoped “consumers will start asking for the label and saying, ‘Look, I don’t want to connect another device in my home, a camera, a baby monitor that risks my privacy.'”She said the government plans to start with consumer devices such as cameras before moving on to home and office routers and smart meters. Products bearing the label should be hitting store shelves sometime this year, she said. The White House is also planning an executive order in the final days of the administration of President Joe Biden that will restrict the U.S. government to only buying Cyber Trust Mark products beginning in 2027. The program has bipartisan support, she added. More

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPO) leader Herbert Kickl called on the conservative People’s Party (OVP) to be “honest” in their imminent coalition talks or face the prospect of a snap election, with his support still rising and the OVP’s falling.The eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, won the last parliamentary election in September with around 29% of the vote but was initially sidelined as centrist parties attempted to form a coalition without it.Those efforts collapsed at the weekend, prompting President Alexander van der Bellen to task Kickl with forming a government, giving Kickl a chance to become Austria’s first FPO chancellor since his party was founded in the 1950s under a leader who had been a senior SS officer and Nazi lawmaker.”Honest government must be preceded by honest negotiations,” Kickl said, adding: “No little games, no tricks, no sabotage.” He also called on new, interim OVP leader Christian Stocker to ensure his party is stable and united, a reference to divisions that appear to have helped collapse the centrist coalition talks.”If that is not the case, then … there will be snap election. We are prepared,” Kickl said, a clear threat given that opinion polls show FPO support has only risen since September while the OVP’s has fallen, with the gap growing to more than 10 percentage points.Kickl’s statement, his first since Van der Bellen announced that he had tasked him with forming a government, was short on policy details.He said he wanted a “massive political firefighting operation” to bring the Alpine republic’s finances under control but did not give specifics.How to bring the budget deficit back within the European Union’s limit of 3% of economic output was the main sticking point in the centrist coalition talks. It is unclear how the FPO and OVP would achieve that – they both prefer to trim government spending to raising taxes, but are wary of cutting big-ticket items like pensions. Kickl said he would extend the invitation to talks to the OVP, his only potential coalition partner, after his party’s leadership signs off on the move on Tuesday evening, and that once the talks begin they should quickly establish whether a coalition is possible.On Tuesday evening, the FPO and Kickl said the party’s leadership had given its approval.”Minutes ago I spoke to Christian Stocker on the phone and there will be an initial meeting soon,” Kickl told reporters after the leadership meeting. More

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