Satya Nadella-led Microsoft Corp. said a Russian-linked hacking group attacked its corporate systems, getting into a “small number” of email accounts, including those of senior leadership and employees who work in cybersecurity and legal.
31.12.2023 - 05:48 / tech.hindustantimes.com / Gina Raimondo
Chinese tech giant Huawei said Friday it "weathered the storm" of US sanctions as it announced a rise of almost nine percent in revenues in 2023, a year that saw it shock Washington with the release of a high-end smartphone.
The Shenzhen-based giant has been at the centre of an intense standoff between China and the United States, with Washington warning its equipment could be used for state espionage, an allegation the company denies.
Sanctions since 2019 have cut the firm off from access to US-made components and technologies, forcing it to diversify its growth sources.
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"After years of hard work, we managed to weather the storm," rotating chairman Ken Hu said in New Year's remarks released Friday.
In 2023, the group expected revenues of more than 700 billion yuan ($99.2 billion), Hu said -- an increase of nearly nine percent from last year.
But the revenue remains much lower than the 891.4 billion yuan it earned in 2020, the year before the company announced a sharp decline in turnover due to US sanctions.
The firm, however, appears to be bouncing back, announcing moderate sales growth for the first nine months of the year in October.
"Shared conviction has helped us break the siege and forge ahead together," chairman Hu said.
He warned the firm faces "serious challenges ahead of us".
"Geopolitical and economic uncertainties abound, while technology restrictions and trade barriers continue to have an impact on the world," Hu said.
But, he added, "changes in the business environment are not caused by geopolitical conflict alone, but also by fluctuating global economic cycles".
During an August visit to Beijing by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the firm released its Mate 60 Pro handset.
The device, powered by an advanced domestically-produced chip, sparked debate about whether attempts to curb China's technological advancements have been effective.
Commerce Secretary Raimondo this month told Bloomberg the development was "deeply concerning", promising the "strongest possible" response to ensure the breakthrough did not harm US national security.
And the Mate 60 Pro has shown the ability to bite into key competitor Apple's profits in China, analysts cited by Bloomberg in October said.
Huawei remains the world's leading equipment manufacturer for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet.
The United States is seeking to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group's products to monitor a country's communications and data traffic.
In June, the European Commission ruled that Chinese telecom equipment suppliers -- including Huawei -- posed a security risk to the EU.
Beijing in response to US curbs has repeatedly slammed what
Satya Nadella-led Microsoft Corp. said a Russian-linked hacking group attacked its corporate systems, getting into a “small number” of email accounts, including those of senior leadership and employees who work in cybersecurity and legal.
A slump in smartphone demand did not shake Apple’s resolve or the sales momentum of its iPhones because, according to the latest data, the California-based giant achieved one milestone that it took the firm 13 years to fulfill ever since it launched the first iPhone, and that is overtaking its closest adversary, Samsung, in global smartphone shipments.
Persona 5: The Phantom X may launch outside of China, as some newly emerged evidence suggests the upcoming mobile game has already been approved for release in South Korea. Atlus's fandom has been calling for Persona 5: The Phantom X to get an international release for nearly a full year by now.
A new Kirin chipset was rumored to be introduced by Huawei later in the year when it unveiled its P70 flagship series. While that might still be true, the company could use some of its Kirin 9000S supply for one model, which may not sit well with everyone.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was the buzzword of 2023, with rapid developments taking place throughout the year. From AI chatbots to AI tools that can be used for various purposes including image generation, code interpretation, multi-modal search, and more, the incorporation of AI has been expeditious. However, it has not been all smooth sailing so far. The same AI development has also led to deepfakes and AI-powered cybercrimes. This has led to various debates over AI governance and the need for AI regulations. One area where AI has had an impact but hasn't gotten much attention is art. Courtesy of multi-modal developments and programs such as Midjourney, AI has the potential to replicate art pieces with sheer accuracy. However, that would be meaningless, according to a Chinese artist.
A new report from Data.ai says that mobile consumer game spending hit $107 billion in 2023.
The P70 series will be Huawei’s first flagship lineup for the year, comprising of the regular model, followed by the P70 Pro and, likely, the top-tier model, the P70 Art. To make the launch slightly different from the Mate 60 from 2023 that featured the Kirin 9000S, a new rumor claims that Huawei is developing a new chipset for the upcoming family of flagship smartphones called the Kirin 9010.
Apple Inc.'s iPhone sales slump in China is deepening and the company is likely to see volumes decline further this year, according to Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee. The iPhone maker's latest generation, iPhone 15, got off to an atypically sluggish start in China last year, which most recently expanded to a 30% year-on-year decline, Lee and colleagues said in a note on Sunday, citing industry checks. The rest of the country's mobile market grew in December, with Huawei Technologies Co. growing fastest on the back of its new Mate 60 device lineup.
The Kirin 9006C was recently announced by Huawei for its Qingyun L540 and Qingyun L420 family of notebooks. Unfortunately, just like the Kirin 9000S and Kirin 9000SL, the single-core and multi-core performance is yet to match what the competition offers, but that is how difficult things become when you have global trade sanctions limiting your options.
Huawei Technologies Co.'s newest laptop runs on a chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a teardown of the device showed, quashing talk of another Chinese technological breakthrough. The Qingyun L540 notebook contains a 5-nanometer chip made by the Taiwanese company in 2020, around the time US sanctions cut off Huawei's access to the chipmaker, research firm TechInsights found after dismantling the device for Bloomberg News. That counters speculation that Huawei's domestic chipmaking partner, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., may have achieved a major leap in fabrication technique.
AMD is reportedly going to push back the launch of its upcoming Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB GPU in China as it tries to avoid a clash between its lineup.
Chinese chipmaker, Zhaoxin, has unveiled server solutions for the domestic market based on KH-40000 CPUs, featuring up to 64 cores in a single rack.