Lots has happened this past week in the tech world! With Samsung reporting a predicted profit surge in the second half of 2024, the EU raising tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Tesla posting its second-quarter report, and more, there’s much to catch up on. So, let’s get started!
Samsung Electronics anticipates a 15-fold increase in profits for the three months ending June 2024 compared to the same period last year. This surge is driven by an AI boom that has raised the prices of advanced chips, boosting the firm’s second-quarter forecast. The South Korean tech giant, the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips, smartphones, and televisions, saw its shares rise more than 2% during early trading hours in Seoul following the announcement.
Additionally, Samsung reported a more than tenfold increase in profits for the first quarter of this year. For this quarter, it expects its profit to reach 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion; £5.9 billion), up from 670 billion won last year, surpassing analysts’ forecasts of 8.8 trillion won according to LSEG SmartEstimate.
The European Union has increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in an effort to protect its motor industry. These new tariffs on individual manufacturers range from 17.4% to 37.6%, in addition to the existing 10% duty on all-electric cars imported from China.
This increase could make EVs more expensive across the EU, reducing affordability for European consumers. The move is a significant setback for Beijing, which is already engaged in a trade war with Washington. The EU is the largest overseas market for China’s EV industry, and the country relies on high-tech products to help revive its struggling economy.
Tesla shares surged 10% after the company reported second-quarter vehicle production and delivery figures that surpassed analyst expectations. The company delivered 443,956 vehicles and produced 410,831 vehicles in Q2 2024, exceeding the expected 439,000 deliveries, as per estimates from FactSet StreetAccount. Despite a 4.8% year-over-year decline in deliveries from 466,140, there was a 14.8% increase from the first quarter. Tesla’s stock closed at $231.26 on July 3, though it remains down about 7% for 2024.
EU regulators accused Facebook’s parent company, Meta, of not complying with the bloc’s landmark antitrust rules regarding its recently introduced ad-supported social networking service.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, described the ad-supported subscription option as a “pay or consent” model, where users must either pay for ad-free access to Meta’s platforms or consent to have their data processed for personalized advertising. This service was introduced for Facebook and Instagram in Europe last year.
Amazon is accelerating its development of artificial intelligence technology by hiring top talent from AI agent startup Adept and licensing the company’s technology.
In a memo to employees, Rohit Prasad, a senior vice president and head scientist overseeing Amazon’s artificial general intelligence unit, announced that the company has hired Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan along with “a few other deeply talented team members” for its AGI team. Luan will lead Amazon’s “AGI Autonomy” division and report to Prasad.
