Alibaba 97% Price Cut Sparks AI Price War

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Alibaba 97% Price Cut Sparks AI Price War

Alibaba [BABA] cut the prices of nine artificial intelligence (AI) services by up to 97% on Tuesday. Hours later, Baidu [BIDU] announced free services based on its Ernie AI models, reported Bloomberg. The moves follow last week’s announcement from ByteDance that the TikTok-owner’s Doubao LLMs will be 99% cheaper than similar AI services from its Chinese competitors. Alibaba closed down 1% and Baidu fell 4% following the news Tuesday.

Sanofi Drug Discovery Gets AI Boost

Sanofi [SNY] announced Tuesday it is partnering with OpenAI and Formation Bio to accelerate its drug discovery programmes with AI. OpenAI is to supply the French drugmaker with proprietary data, while Formation Bio will bolster its engineering capacities. Elsewhere, OpenAI has pulled a voice from its new chatbot after Scarlett Johansson alleged it sounded “eerily similar” to her own. Though the actress previously declined a request by the company to voice the software, OpenAI insisted any resemblance was unintentional.

Eli Lilly Wins Weightloss Nod in China

Eli Lilly’s [LLY] blockbuster drug tirzepatide will be available to adults with type-2 diabetes in China, the company announced on Tuesday. Though the country’s regulators have not yet approved the drug for chronic weightloss management, the move could eat into Novo Nordisk’s market share in the country, the world’s second-largest market. Goldman Sachs has forecast the global weightloss market to top $100bn by 2030.

Li Auto Pauses Electric SUV, Drops 17%

Li Auto’s [LI] share price dropped more than 17% Tuesday after the automaker announced it was pausing a launch of pure electric SUVs; the company could be hesitant to expose yet another fully electric model to what it deems an insufficient number of fast chargers after its Mega offering failed to meet sales targets. Elsewhere, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a probe into a fatal crash of a VinFast [VFS] VF 8 EV in California in April.

AI Medical Platform Files for IPO

Intelligent diagnostics company Tempus AI filed for an IPO on Monday. The Chicago-based technology platform was founded in 2015 and uses AI to process medical data. According to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, over 7,000 physicians have used the platform so far, while the company is run by approximately 2,300 employees — over 10% of whom hold a medical degree or doctorate. Tempus AI operated at a net loss of $266m in 2023, a 20% improvement from 2022.