SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese search giant Baidu Inc will set up a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence applications, it said on Wednesday. The company will also launch a competition for developers to build applications off its ERNIE large language model (LLM)…
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea made a failed attempt at launching its first spy satellite on Wednesday, with the booster and payload plunging into the sea, North Korean state media said, a setback in its pursuit of a space programme that dates to the 1990s. The United States, South Korea and the West have condemned…
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s manufacturing production index (MPI) in April contracted by a more-than-expected 8.14% from a year earlier, as exports slowed and production costs rose, the industry ministry said on Wednesday. The figure compared with a forecast in a Reuters poll for a fall of 2.15% in April, and came after March’s revised 3.86%…
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Apple Inc supplier Foxconn said on Wednesday artificial intelligence applications would strongly drive demand for its server business this year but reiterated 2023 overall would be a flat one for the company on global economic woes. Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way told the company’s annual shareholders meeting the firm remained cautious about this…
By Stella Qiu SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s central bank will do whatever it takes to bring inflation under control, its governor said on Wednesday, warning households to brace for the pain ahead while risks of higher inflation persisted. Data released on Wednesday showed consumer prices rising by much more than expected in April, prompting markets to…
By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Reserve Bank of Australia will not sign any new contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia until a scandal over the firm’s misuse of confidential government tax plans is sorted out, the central bank’s governor said on Wednesday. The “big four” firm is on the defense after a former Australian tax…
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Legislation to hold a referendum to recognise Australia’s Indigenous people in the constitution cleared its first parliamentary hurdle on Wednesday as it was passed in the House of Representatives. Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum, likely to be held between October and December, on whether they support altering the…
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s factory output unexpectedly fell in April, government data showed on Wednesday, as production machinery orders slowed amid weakening global demand, casting doubts about recovery in the world’s third-largest economy. Japan has so far been spared the impact of deteriorating global economic conditions thanks in part to a recovery in services sector activity…
By Stella Qiu SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian consumer prices rose by more than expected in April on a jump in fuel prices and strong gains in housing, suggesting sticky inflation will likely keep pressure on the central bank. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.8% in April from a year earlier, Australian Bureau of Statistics…
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s factory production and retail sales fell in April, underscoring another tough quarter after the economy narrowly averted a recession in the first three months of the year. Factory production in April fell 1.2% from March, on a seasonally adjusted basis, official data showed on Wednesday, slightly softer than a 1.6% loss…
