SoftBank AI Fund?; Currys Bidding War; Apple Fined

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Will SoftBank Go Toe-to-Toe with Nvidia?

Shares in Tokyo’s SoftBank Group [9984:T] hopped as much as 3.2% after Bloomberg reported that founder Masayoshi Son is weighing a $100bn artificial intelligence (AI) chip venture. Code-named Izanagi, it would work alongside Arm [ARM], which is majority-owned by SoftBank, and compete with Nvidia [NVDA]. An investment of that scale would represent some 20% of the global semiconductor market.

Shots Fired in Currys Bidding War

E-commerce titan JD.com [JD] has confirmed that it is in the early stages of a possible cash bid for UK firm Currys [CURY:L]; the UK electronics retailer rejected a £700m offer from Elliott Investment Management over the weekend. Currys has attracted interest of late, following a three-year bad spell that saw the firm lose 60% of its value. Its share price jumped as much as 38% on the news.

EU Slams Apple with Fine

The Cupertino company [AAPL] is facing a fine of some €500m from the EU, over allegations that it supressed other music-streaming services, including Spotify [SPOT], across its platforms. Elsewhere, Apple’s Vision Pro has met with a mixed response, with some customers returning their $3,500 headsets, citing complaints about its size and weight, as well as issues with the interface, Bloomberg reported.

Switch 2 Delay Hurts Nintendo Share Price

Having hit an all-time high last week, Nintendo [7974:T] fell by up to 8.8% — its biggest intraday drop since October 2021 — on news the Kyoto-based game maker is to push back the release of the next generation of its Switch console until the start of 2025. It had initially been slated for release in the Q4 of this year. The share price eventually pared its losses to a 5.8% decline for the day Monday.

New BYD Models

The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) leader [1211:HK] has launched a new, cheaper version of its plug-in hybrid sedan, the Qin Plus DM-i. The company has also said it is going to launch several “high-end luxury” models this year. Elsewhere, Chinese EV maker Human Horizons Group, manufacturer of the premium HiPhi brand, has suspended operations for at least six months.