Here’s what we have for you today:
• Micro adjustments
• China hawk-eyed
• Japan’s comeback
Microsoft in a time of adversity
2023 lag: Microsoft will freeze pay for all full-time workers this year to help itself navigate through macroeconomic challenges.
Trade-off: CEO Satya Nadella explained the move as necessary to generate “enough yield” to invest in the major platform shift toward artificial intelligence.
Power cycling: Satya stated “This year the economic conditions are very different across many dimensions, including customer demand, the labor market, and the investments required for the next cycle of innovation.”
Capvision gets capped
Background: Started in 2006, Capvision runs one of China’s largest expert-research platforms. The company has a global network of more than 450,000 experts providing services such as industry research and business consulting.
The leak: China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission shared a report claiming the company had accepted consulting projects from overseas companies with close ties to foreign governments, and military and intelligence agencies.
Additionally: Capvision has been accused of leaking state secrets, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Others: Officials have questioned staff at the Chinese offices of Bain & Company and targeted New York-based due-diligence enterprise Mintz Group.
Japan’s next industrial push
Bold-build: Tetsuro Higashi the former chairman and chief executive officer at chipmaking-equipment supplier Tokyo Electron is creating a globally competitive semiconductor manufacturer in Japan in four years’ time (a cutting-edge chip foundry by 2027).
Going all in: Tetsuro claims the newly created state-backed Rapidus can quickly get up to speed against the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics, with help from the Japanese government (allocation of $2.4 billion), domestic equipment makers, and global partnerships.
Time warp: The effort is an attempt to turn the clock back to the 1980s and 1990s, when Japan was home to some of the most advanced factories in the industry, such as Toshiba and NEC in the past.
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