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Lionel Lim

Lionel Lim

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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

yesterday 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 4

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

Singapore’s prime minister warns of a ‘third world war’ if U.S. and China force rest of the world to pick sides

Fortunately, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong thought a full split was unlikely: “I can’t see how a full decoupling can happen at this stage.”

24.01.2025 30

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Trump says new 10% tariff on China could come by Feb. 1, repeating November pledge

Markets were cautiously optmistic after Trump took a lighter approach to China on Monday. That sentiment lasted a day.

22.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

French customs seize illegal ‘aphrodisiac honey’ that the nation can’t get enough of

Use of the "aphrodisiac honey" has increased in recent years, with officials warning of potentially serious health risks from ingredients not listed...

21.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Trump throws TikTok a lifeline—yet floats 100% tariffs on China if a deal isn’t reached

Trump signed an executive order on Monday that delays a divest-or-ban law for TikTok for 75 days.

21.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

A Chinese actor’s kidnapping reignites fears over travelling to Southeast Asia, and renews concerns over scam centers run by criminal gangs

Users on Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu asked if it was safe to travel to Thailand while a Hong Kong singer-actor canceled his Bangkok concert.

21.01.2025 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Nintendo finally unveiled its long-awaited Switch successor. Investors weren’t impressed

Nintendo's shares slid by as much as 7% when markets opened Friday, after the company released few details about its next gaming device.

17.01.2025 8

Fortune

Lionel Lim

What is ASEAN and why is it popping up in Trump cabinet nominee hearings?

The bloc has a GDP of around $4.2 trillion and came up during a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday.

16.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

After ‘historic’ investment in chips and data centers, can Malaysia maintain its optimism in the age of Trump 2.0?

"We are no longer satisfied with playing the spectator."

15.01.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO blasts ‘evil’ Japan, home of rival Nippon Steel: ‘You did not learn anything since 1945’

There’s renewed uncertainty over U.S. Steel’s future after President Biden decided to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition bid, worth over $14...

14.01.2025 30

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Biden argues China ‘will never surpass us’, as Washington aligns on being tough on Beijing

Biden's final foreign policy featured harsh rhetoric on China, as Washington embraces tough-on-China policies.

14.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Chinese EV brands make their presence known at the Singapore Motor Show

BYD's new luxury supercar, the Yangwang U9, stole the show with its "dance" in a massive booth near the exhibition's entrance.

13.01.2025 20

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Smaller countries must ‘double down’ on being open and neutral to survive a multipolar future, says Malaysia’s economic minister

“Defending global trade is very important to us as a country," Rafizi told Fortune the day after Malaysia and Singapore unveiled the Johor-Singapore...

09.01.2025 9

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Singapore slots itself into the HBM supply chain—key to the AI boom—with a $7 billion Micron investment

It's Singapore's first facility dealing with HBM, part of the AI chips that's powering companies like Nvidia and TSMC to new heights. 

08.01.2025 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby wants a new competitor to Airbus and Boeing—but think it’s ‘unlikely’ China’s COMAC fills the gap

"We need more competition in the aerospace business," Kirby said during an aviation podcast interview.

07.01.2025 2

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Foreign-branded smartphones are losing a lot of ground in China

Data from government-affiliated research firm show an almost 50% year-on-year decline in shipments of foreign-branded phones in November 2024.

06.01.2025 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Vietnam’s economy smashes growth forecasts as trade-obsessed Trump returns to the White House

Vietnam's GDP grew by 7.09% in 2024, ahead of government forecasts of 6.5%. Yet Vietnam's trade surplus with the U.S. could put it at risk of new...

06.01.2025 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Malaysia wants Big Tech to get licensed as Asia-Pacific cracks down on social media platforms

From Jan. 1, social media platforms with more than 8 million users in Malaysia need to have a license to operate or risk getting blocked.

04.01.2025 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

China plans to curb exports of minerals and battery technology—key to your EVs and electronics

Beijing may be taking a page out of Washington's playbook in its use of export controls and trade blacklists.

03.01.2025 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

After BYD’s bumper December, here’s how many cars Tesla must sell to keep its crown as the world’s top EV seller

BYD sold 1.7 million battery EVs in 2024, nearing the 1.81 million EVs sold by Tesla in 2023.

02.01.2025 4

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Trump is set to hike tariffs. Should Southeast Asia be worried?

Countries like Vietnam benefited from Trump's trade war. That could put them at risk in the second round.

27.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

China’s in the driver’s seat as EV sales are set to keep growing into 2025

China “will add nearly twice as many EV sales next year as the rest of the world combined," predicts Rho Motion's Will Roberts.

24.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Singapore’s Straits Times Index is Southeast Asia’s best performing index for 2024—and it’s all due to its Big Three banks

A share rally in Singapore's biggest banks—DBS, UOB and OCBC—lifted the Straits Times Index to end the year above Malayis'a Kuala Lumpur Composite...

23.12.2024 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Malaysia’s auto industry releases its first-ever EV—but locals wonder if it’s really homegrown

Proton's e.MAS 7, unveiled on Monday, was developed concurrently with Geely's Galaxy E5.

20.12.2024 6

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Malaysia’s plan to build a high-speed train to Singapore struggles to leave the station

The ambitious high-speed rail project has been bogged by financial issues since it was first announced in 2013.

19.12.2024 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim

How a Global 500 insurer’s $1.6 billion Singapore deal fell apart

Allianz's bid to take over Singapore's Income Insurance drew scrutiny from both public officials and prominent Singaporeans.

18.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

The U.S. reportedly plans to investigate China’s dominance of legacy chips

The Biden administration's investigation, reported by the New York Times, could lead to tariffs or import bans.

17.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Starbucks hires its first-ever China chief growth officer as it battles fierce local competition

Starbucks' China revenue fell 7% last quarter, as Chinese shoppers turned to more affordable drinks sold from local chains like Luckin Coffee.

16.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

‘No time to spare’ to address Japan’s baby bust as Tokyo promises free daycare to all preschoolers

It's the second family-friendly out of Tokyo, following the municipal government's decision to offer a 4-day work week to employees.

12.12.2024 6

Fortune

Lionel Lim

The AI boom nets hundreds of Australian data center employees a $41,300 holiday bonus

AirTrunk is giving away the money to celebrate its $16 billion acquisition by the U.S. private equity giant Blackstone.

11.12.2024 10

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Nvidia slapped with a Chinese antitrust probe as Beijing collects ‘bargaining chips’ ahead of Trump’s return

An analyst from the consultancy firm Trivium China thinks Beijing is preparing for some tough negotiations ahead.

10.12.2024 4

Fortune

Lionel Lim

Founders must embrace ‘design with a capital D’ if they want to convince investors, says partner at Alphabet’s GV

“Design is critical for a successful company,” said Vanessa Cho, design partner at GV, at Fortune's Brainstorm Design conference on Dec. 5

10.12.2024 7

Fortune

Lionel Lim

BYD could near Honda and Ford in cars sold this year as EV giant looks set to surpass its 4 million sales target

BYD sold around 3.8 million cars in the first 11 months of 2024, a 40% year-on-year jump.

09.12.2024 5

Fortune

Lionel Lim