As the White House pushes on with sweeping export restrictions to contain China’s rise, President Xi Jinping is starting to retaliate. Officials are swatting U.S. firms like chipmaker Micron Technology and the Mintz Group, a due diligence investigator, but on balance Beijing has resisted wholesale scapegoating of American capital. Xi perhaps recognises he can ill-afford to indulge his temper for now.
Credit Suisse’s Swiss business is theoretically the jewel in the bank’s tarnished crown. But for UBS Chair Colm Kelleher, getting rid of his rival’s local unit may nonetheless be the least-bad option.
Six months into Washington’s sweeping export restrictions on semiconductors, Chinese and global chipmakers including TSMC are navigating the fallout. In this Exchange podcast, author Chris Miller talks about the fight for the critical technology and how Beijing may retaliate.
The United Arab Emirates is finding more strategic places to park its cash. On Monday, $55 billion Emirates Telecommunications (e&), majority owned by the Gulf state, revealed it is splurging $400 million to scoop up a 50% stake in a so-called “super app” managed by Careem, Uber Technologies’ Middle Eastern subsidiary. The telecoms giant’s purchase follows a $4.4 billion investment in Vodafone in May last year. It’s a way to advance an ambition, revealed last June, to be a technology and investment powerhouse.
Tupperware Brands’ options are looking less airtight. The U.S.-based maker of reusable plastic containers, which chemist Earl Tupper founded in 1946 after taking inspiration from the design of paint can lids, cited “substantial doubt” on Friday about its ability to continue as a going concern, sending its share plummeting 48% on Monday. As with other direct selling companies, it casts doubt over its business model, as well as how speedily it can remake itself as consumer habits shift.