Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Thursday Hong Kong's first five-year plan provides a clear framework for policymaking and investment, urging businesses to understand the government's strategies and priorities so they can "plan and invest with confidence". Speaking at a business forum, Chan highlighted two connected priorities – finance, and innovation and technology – in the plan, which was unveiled last month. "For Hong Kong, we are equally determined to turn opportunities into lasting outcomes," he said. The government's "Finance+" approach, Chan pointed out, aims to develop new growth engines, support new industries and finance Hong Kong's green transition. "Hong Kong brings together capital, innovators, enterprises and professional expertise. "We want to put these strengths to fuller use, thereby developing new growth engines, supporting new industries, helping businesses transform and expand, as well as financing the green transition. "The question is not simply how much capital we attract but what that capital makes possible." Chan noted that Hong Kong's close connection with the mainland is central to this role, helping take technologies from the laboratory to the market at scale while marrying mainland strengths with international capital and global markets. He cited strong IPO momentum in this regard, saying Hong Kong raised some HK$388 billion in the first nine months of this year, which was more than double that of a year earlier. International investors from the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are major players, while enterprises from the last two regions as well as Central Asia are exploring listing or bond-issuance opportunities. On innovation and technology, Chan said the Northern Metropolis project is more than just about land and buildings. "We are bringing education, research, talent, enterprises and industry together to create a new engine of growth," he said. He highlighted the Hetao co-operation zone as a clear example, where Hong Kong and mainland authorities are strengthening cooperation in clinical research and drug regulation, attracting international pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and set up manufacturing facilities. Edited by Aaron Tam

Google has introduced its new frontier AI model, namely Gemini 4 Carbon. Google announced that Gemini 4 Carbon will be available at the same introductory price as Argon. The Mountain View-based tech giant is currently working with the US government in a voluntary pre-release testing process. The company will start releasing the Gemini 4 Carbon AI model to a “subset ...

The iQOO 16 was launched in China last month and is expected to make its India debut soon. It features Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset, a high-refresh-rate AMOLED display, and a large battery. While the company has yet to announce a launch date, it did showcase the iQOO 16 at the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026. A tipster has now shed light on the launch timeli...

Massive demand for AI chips delivered record quarterly profits to South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Thursday, but shares fell as investors questioned the resilience of the global tech boom. Samsung is the world's largest maker of memory chips – components in short supply as advanced types are snapped up for use in data centres powering artificial intelligence. The company posted July-September operating profit at 107.4 trillion won (US$80.5 billion) – up more than 780 percent year-on-year. It marked the first time any technology company had reported quarterly operating profit over 100 trillion won, Samsung said. Net profit jumped more than 510 percent from last year to 75.1 trillion won, while sales reached 195.3 trillion won. The global race to build data centres to train and run chatbots, image generators and other AI tools has turbocharged the fortunes of Samsung and other chipmakers, despite concerns that the sector may be overvalued. Samsung shares fell more than five percent on Thursday morning. Investors were disappointed by a miss of market expectations for operating profit by the semiconductor division, according to Bloomberg News. The company's memory business achieved "another record-breaking quarter by managing its product mix, with a focus on AI products, amid capacity constraints," Samsung said in a statement. "Strong demand momentum for servers led to higher market prices across all applications." (AFP) Edited by Aaron Tam

Amazon launched a new range of Alexa-powered devices on Wednesday. The company has introduced upgrades across its Echo speakers, smart displays, and home accessories. Its latest lineup includes a new Echo Dot with a built-in smart home hub, an Echo Studio variant with a camera, a bedside smart clock with sleep sensing, and an Alexa-powered digital photo frame. Amazon ...

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday reminded the public to carefully manage interest rate risks when making property, investment or borrowing decisions, after the US Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate unchanged. The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee decided to hold the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75 to four percent, a move in line with market expectations. "Hong Kong's monetary and financial markets have continued to operate in an orderly manner," the HKMA said in a statement. It noted that with the persistent interest rate differential between the Hong Kong and US dollars, trade activities may cause the local currency to gradually ease. However, the HKMA said the outlook for the Hong Kong dollar and interbank rates could vary depending on factors such as market risk appetite for carry trades and the supply-demand conditions for the local currency, which are in turn influenced by capital market activities and other seasonal factors. It added that US interest rate adjustments remain subject to considerable uncertainty and will depend on developments in inflation, the labour market and other economic data, which may in turn affect the interest rate environment in Hong Kong. The HKMA said it will continue to closely monitor market developments to maintain monetary and financial stability. Edited by Aaron Tam

Asian shares gave up earlier gains on Thursday as AI-related earnings announcements prompted wildly mixed responses, raising the stakes for Amazon and Intel results due later in the day. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened down six points, or 0.03 percent, at 23,088. The tech index slipped 19 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,834 while the China Enterprises Index inched down six points, or 0.08 percent, to 7,797. Up north, the Shanghai Composite Index opened down four points, or 0.13 percent, at 3,676. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 94 points, or 0.82 percent, to 11,379 while the ChiNext Index lost 38 points, or 1.46 percent, to open at 2,596. In Tokyo, the Nikkei opened 172 points, or 0.27 percent, at 64,126 but regained ground to be 11 points off the pace at one stage before noon. In Seoul, the Kospi inched up four points, or 0.08 percent, to open at 6,017, gained ground before slipping into loss territory to the tune of 182 points at one stage before lunch. The opening losses for Asian markets came as a hefty cash burn at Alphabet sent its shares 10 percent lower in after-hours trading, wiping nearly US$400 billion off its market value. That drove Nasdaq futures one percent lower. Microsoft, by contrast, beat forecasts with better-than-expected cash flows that lifted its shares by three percent. Overnight, the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady as widely expected, but two committee members voted for a hike. Chairman Kevin Warsh struck a more confident note on the inflation outlook during his press conference, sparking a rally in Treasuries. However, the bigger test came from earnings. Samsung Electronics said on Thursday its operating profit rose nearly ninefold to a record high in the third quarter, driven by robust demand for AI chips. Its shares still slid more than four percent. "The reason why Alphabet is down is because their traditional revenue service of ad generation has been impacted by the very thing which is the AI boom. So it's causing a mix of results for Google," said Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments at VanEck. "Both of Alphabet and Microsoft confirmed that the AI revenue generation is still solid. We saw that through the data centre growth, the cloud services. So that part of the business is solid, which then flows into a lot of the information coming out of Asia with SK Hynix yesterday as well in Korea." (Reuters & Xinhua) Edited by Aaron Tam

Google parent Alphabet on Wednesday missed Wall Street profit and revenue expectations, and AI spending accelerated its cash burn, sending its shares down more than 10 percent in extended trading. Capital expenditures, driven by AI, will increase significantly in 2027, said Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi, adding that this year's capex forecast was unchanged. She said she also expected near-term margin pressure from the use of third-party cloud capacity. The tech giant reported negative free cash flow of US$9.07 billion, compared with analyst expectations that it would come close to breaking even, according to data compiled by LSEG. The results reflect the huge costs of the AI buildout, with investors in the sector concerned both by potential overspending and the risk of falling behind rivals by not spending enough. The quarterly cash burn is an increase from US$5.9 billion in the prior quarter, which was the first time the company went into the negative in its 22-year history as a public company. Alphabet's cash burn was driven by spending to boost cloud capacity and fund AI research. It reported a US$7.66 billion operating income loss in "Alphabet-level activities," which it said primarily reflected expenses related to AI research and development. The tech giant's total revenue for the third quarter was US$127.6 billion, short of analysts' estimate of US$128.2 billion, according to LSEG data. The revenue miss was caused by Google's core advertising business that reported US$82.01 billion in revenue, about US$1.41 billion short of expectations. Net income available to common shareholders fell 25 percent to US$26.17 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of US$2.67 missed Wall Street targets of US$3.02. Earlier on Wednesday, Google sought to preempt its results and counter the perception it had fallen behind in the AI race by announcing its new Gemini 4 Carbon model, which CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts during the earnings call meant it was again "leading at the frontier." Revenue at Google Cloud exceeded estimates and more than doubled to US$30.71 billion in the third quarter ended September 30, but was not enough to make up for the ad-side performance. (Reuters) Edited by Cecil Wong

Microsoft on Wednesday forecast fiscal second-quarter cloud growth and overall sales that beat Wall Street estimates, sending shares up more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. The forecast came after Microsoft had earlier beaten expectations for first-quarter cloud revenue, offering fresh evidence that its hefty AI investments were paying off as Wall Street grows increasingly wary of Big Tech's debt-fuelled spending. The software and cloud company also generated US$18.6 billion in free cash flow in its fiscal first quarter ended September – some US$10 billion more than analysts expected – as capital spending came in below the company's own forecast and Microsoft's Azure cloud computing business surged 48 percent. Microsoft said it expects second-quarter Azure growth of 49 to 50 percent, above analyst estimates of 47.6 percent, according to Visible Alpha data. The company forecast overall sales of US$96 billion to US$97.1 billion, above estimates of US$95.6 billion, according to LSEG data. That financial firepower set Microsoft apart from rivals such as Alphabet and Meta, whose heavy AI investments have squeezed free cash flow and increased their reliance on borrowing. Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of US$9.07 billion in the third quarter as capital spending jumped, overshadowing a doubling of its cloud sales and sending its shares down 8 percent in extended trading. Microsoft shares have risen about 9 percent so far this year, through Wednesday's close. Its five-year credit default swaps – a measure of perceived default risk – remain the tightest among the largest tech companies, according to Truist, even as spreads have widened across much of the AI trade. The results also show Microsoft capitalising on corporate demand for AI, easing fears that the technology threatens its software empire and that its AI fortunes are too closely tied to unprofitable OpenAI. CEO Satya Nadella has sought to capture that demand by giving customers cheaper options, as businesses grapple with the rising cost of deploying AI. Microsoft has rolled out a string of lower-cost models, while its new Copilot Cowork agent allows users to switch between models. "By helping organisations build and own their own intelligence, and earning trust through agent safety and security, we are translating our innovation into growing adoption," Nadella said in a statement on Wednesday. "Microsoft's first-quarter report was about as clean as it gets for a company this size," said Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com. "After Meta's and Alphabet's numbers revived AI-spending anxiety, this is the counterweight. Demand still exceeds supply, the commercial backlog is enormous, and returns are finally showing up in earnings and overall revenue." Revenue at Microsoft's Azure cloud computing business grew to US$33.17 billion in the quarter, topping Visible Alpha's estimate of US$32.84 billion. Overall revenue rose by a fifth to $92.28 billion, and an adjusted profit of US$4.89 per share beat an average estimate of US$4.73 a share. (Reuters) Edited by Cecil Wong

The cloud security startup raised a Series C at a $3.8B valuation, instead of selling itself for the same price.

Prepare to cough up around $14,549 if you want the new touchscreen MacBook Pro to have every upgrade.

Microsoft has never disclosed Azure's quarterly revenue in dollars. But for the first time, we can see just how close it is getting to besting the biggest competitor in the market, AWS.

The announcement came alongside parent company Alphabet's third-quarter earnings report, which saw revenue grow 25% year over year to $127.6 billion.

Microsoft said it made $10 billion in revenue from commercial arrangements with OpenAI, including revenue-sharing payments, in the quarter ending September 30. It underscores the still-enormous financial dependency of the partnership.

Whatever the future of AI might be, the current situation is still very good for Microsoft. The tech giant reported yet another record for quarterly revenue on Wednesday: $92.3 billion, a 19% increase over the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street stocks finished higher on Wednesday after a choppy session, digesting a status quo US Federal Reserve decision as markets monitored the latest earnings from US tech giants. The Fed, as expected, held interest rates steady, citing the need for more data in the fight against inflation despite persistently elevated pricing pressure. Two dissenting members of the panel voted for an immediate interest rate increase. Major US indices spent most of the day in positive territory but traded within a fairly narrow range. The broad-based S&P 500 finished up 0.3 percent. Art Hogan of B Riley Wealth Management said the market's biggest priority this week is sifting through a deluge of earnings, including Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet, two of the biggest companies in artificial intelligence. The tech results are "100 percent the focus," said Hogan. "The market is taking a 'nothing to see here' attitude towards what the Fed did today." Citing higher energy prices in recent weeks, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said "our job is to ensure that relative price changes in some sectors do not broaden out across the economy," Warsh said at a news conference. Still, he said the Fed needed more information in the coming weeks to "determine the policy stance appropriate to ensure a timely return of inflation to the two-percent goal." The AI trade enjoyed a broad lift earlier on Wednesday from blockbuster earnings from the South Korean chip giant SK hynix, which soared almost 11 percent, helping to lift Seoul's Kospi index more than six percent. SK hynix, a specialist supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips to US industry behemoth Nvidia, unveiled plans to return an additional US$45 billion to shareholders after reporting operating profits about seven times the year-ago level. The global race to build AI data centres has transformed the company's fortunes, despite concerns that the sector may be overvalued. The report by SK hynix added to optimism surrounding the sector after Anthropic, the creator of Claude AI, said on Monday that its first-half revenue surged about 1,300 percent and flagged heavy capital spending ahead, fuelling enthusiasm ahead of an expected IPO next month. AI stocks took a beating earlier this month over worries about the massive investments and debt levels in the sector, but then welcomed Anthropic's IPO. In other markets, oil prices moved higher following reports that the United States is planning to mount a new military attack in Iran after the US midterm elections. Gains in the US dollar, meanwhile, moderated after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference. Warsh is saying the Fed's first interest rate hike in September "had a large impact, which indicates that he doesn't think the Fed has that much more to do," said Adam Button, currency analyst at investingLive. The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent, to 7,744, the Dow rose 0.2 percent, to 52,475, while the Nasdaq rose 0.3 percent, to 26,550. (AFP) Edited by Robert Kemp

The US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, as expected, opting to delay any changes to borrowing costs until after next week's US midterm elections while it awaits further data on inflation, which the central bank said "remains elevated." The 10-2 decision to maintain the Fed's benchmark interest rate within the 3.75-4 percent range came with an upgraded assessment of an economy that the central bank now says is growing at a "strong pace." Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh also expressed confidence that inflation can be lowered to the 2 percent target without having to "throw sand in the gears" and slow growth or raise unemployment. Warsh, speaking at a press conference after the end of a two-day policy meeting, said he expects a report on third-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday to show strong investment and consumer spending and an acceleration of growth from the first half of the year. Warsh, however, said he still does not think the economy is "too hot" or generating demand-side inflation that needs to be curbed. "The economy is pointing in the right direction. Is the economy running too hot? Is the economy running too strong? That isn't the judgement of most of my colleagues," said Warsh, arguing, as he has before, that changes in productivity, even pre-dating the artificial intelligence boom, may allow the US to grow faster without as much inflation. "The goal, in my view... isn't to throw sand in the gears of the economy and throw people out of work. I don't think we have to do that." Rather, he said, a higher Fed policy rate is already showing its impact in slightly tighter credit conditions that could, for example, slow business investment and which arguably contributed to recent stock market declines, another potential source of "disinflation" if it slows spending among wealthier families. In comments to CNBC on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration continues to have faith that Warsh will "find the right balance" between the 2 percent inflation goal and continuing economic growth. The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee's latest policy statement, however, hinted that more rate hikes may be needed, and some of Warsh's colleagues have been explicit in their concerns that demand, fuelled by AI and healthy consumer spending, is starting to drive prices higher. Between now and the next policy meeting in December, "the accumulation of more information will help the Committee determine the policy stance appropriate to ensure a timely return of inflation to the Committee's 2 percent goal," the FOMC said. "The Committee will deliver price stability." Fed Governor Lisa Cook, currently being targeted by President Donald Trump for removal from the central bank, cast her first dissent on a central bank policy decision on Wednesday, favouring a quarter-percentage-point rate hike. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, a consistently hawkish voice, also dissented in favour of a rate increase. Market reaction was muted, with US stocks paring gains slightly after the decision but ending higher on the day. Longer-dated US Treasury yields extended their rise. Short-term interest-rate futures rose a bit, as traders scaled back a bit on bets of Fed rate hikes ahead. "The forces keeping the Federal Reserve hawkish haven't faded. Diesel and gasoline prices remain elevated, AI-driven inflation isn't easing, and the labour market remains resilient," said Michael Pearce, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. The outcome of this week's meeting was widely expected after top Fed officials indicated they saw no rush to raise rates again following the quarter-percentage-point increase approved last month, despite inflation data in the meantime that was stronger than forecast and concerns that price pressures are broadening across the economy. Financial markets are still pricing in a couple of additional rate hikes in the coming months, though with slightly less conviction than before Warsh spoke on Wednesday. Pricing shows about an 80 percent chance of a rate hike at the Fed's December 8-9 meeting, with another increase in borrowing costs likely by March. (Reuters) Edited by Cecil Wong

A hacker obtained personally identifiable information about more than 40,000 Homeland Security staffers, which has since been published online.

The frontier lab is lifting the curtain on how users spend money on its models ahead of a planned IPO.

The PHP scare may have faded from your feed, but the cleanup is far from over. Last week, two critical bugs in the open source language behind roughly 70% of websites left organizations scrambling to fix their systems, with some taking sites offline until the vulnerabilities could be patched. According to researchers who found the […]

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate untouched, but a December hike could make holiday borrowing more costly.

MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display has been launched in India, the Cupertino-based tech giant announced on Wednesday. The laptop was launched as part of the company's ‘Pro and Tell’ event. The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display arrives as Apple’s first laptop with an OLED display, and also the first MacBook Pro model to feature a touchscreen. The MacBook Pro m...

Apple's new touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899.

Xreal Aura will start at $1,279 and will have multiple XR specific apps at launch.

A new developer platform will let businesses bring their services to Google's AI experiences, potentially changing how consumers discover and use apps.

The autofill update lets Chrome pull flight confirmations, tracking info, order details, and other information from your inbox, with your permission.

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