Record High for TSMC; Tesla Thailand Plan; Big BioVie Offering

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Record High for Chipmaker as Frenzy Continues

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. [2330:TW] share price rose 5.2% to close at NT$725 in Taipei on Monday: its highest-ever level. This took its market capitalisation to $597bn. The stock is up 22% year-to-date, buoyed by the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. This has in turn pushed the local benchmark Taiex Index to a record high. In Japan, chip-related stocks Socionext [6526:T] and Disco [6146:T] are to be added to the Nikkei share average, Reuters reported.

New Electric Vehicle Plants in India, Thailand

Electric buses are the next frontier in India’s shift to cleaner transport, according to Bloomberg. For example, Ashok Leyland [ASHOKLEY:NS] last month began work on a plant for electric commercial vehicles in Uttar Pradesh, which will go online next year with an initial annual capacity of 2,500 vehicles. Elsewhere, on Monday the Thai government said that Tesla [TSLA] had conducted a site survey for a production facility in the country.

Big BioVie Offering; Bayer Buys Heart Drug Rights

Clinical-stage biopharma BioVie [BIVI] has priced a public offering of 21 million shares, with a view to raising proceeds of some $21m. The offering is scheduled to close on 6 March. The stock price dropped 18.5% to $1.54 on Monday during pre-market trading. Meanwhile, Bayer [BAYN:DE] said on Monday that it paid $310m for exclusive European marketing rights to new heart drug acoramidis, which is currently under regulatory review.

Lifeline for Sea

Even as competition in the southeast Asian e-commerce space intensifies, legacy incumbent Sea [SE] has reported a smaller-than-expected fall in earnings for Q4. Rivals such as ByteDance’s TikTok, Alibaba’s [BABA] Lazada and PDD’s [PDD] Temu are all encroaching on the share of Sea’s Shopee in the fast-growing market. Shares in the Singapore-headquartered giant were up some 13% pre-market in New York.

Nearly 3,000 Preorders for Flying Car

California-based, SpaceX-backed flying car firm Alef Aeronautics says it has received 2,850 preorders for its electrical vertical takeoff and landing two-seater, the Alef Model A. The vehicle will cost $300,000 when it becomes commercially available. Meanwhile, top Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firm BYD [BYD] on Monday launched a new version of its best-selling unit, at a lower price than its predecessor — the latest in a series of cuts in an intensifying EV price war.

“A Consumer Goods Story” — Christian Magoon on Cannabis Legalisation

“Cannabis has been one of the top-performing themes of 2024”, Christian Magoon, CEO of Amplify ETFs, told OPTO Sessions. Magoon explained the tailwinds behind the cannabis industry, as lawmakers in the US and around the world appear set to relax legislation. He outlined cannabis’ two key use cases and the disruptive impact he feels legalisation could have on markets.