TOPIC

/ company

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is one of the world’s biggest software makers and manufactures and licenses a range of products and services related to computing. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company is probably best known for its Windows software, although it has begun an aggressive drive into the mobile sector seeking to make inroads on market share held by Google and Apple. It paid 5.44 billion euros for the handset business of Nokia in September 2013.

Chairman / President

Satya Nadella

CEO / Managing Director

Satya Nadella

CFO / Finance Director

Amy Hood

Industry

Computer software
Consumer electronics
Computer hardware

Website

microsoft.com

Headquarters address

One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, United States

Stock Code

NASDAQ:MSFT

Year founded

1975

in partnership with:

C-SUITE MEMBER

Leo Liu

GM, HK & Macau

President Xi Jinping joins attendees for a group photo before the opening ceremony of the World AI Conference in China on Friday. Photo: Reuters

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Semiconductors

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Custom AI chips offer better performance per dollar and per watt when designed around a hyperscaler’s own software stack and data-centre architecture. Photo: Shutterstock Images

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ByteDance

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ByteDance is seeking wider deployment of its self-developed hardware across its own AI infrastructure. Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images

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2026 Xi-Trump summits

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Humanoid robots manufactured by Unitree Robotics dance on the opening day of Asia’s first embodied intelligence experience store in Shanghai on Sunday. Photo: AFP

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Google Data Center Southland is seen from the air in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on January 4, 2019. Photos: Reuters

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US President Donald Trump gestures as he departs Beijing Capital International Airport aboard Air Force One, in Beijing on Friday. Photo: Reuters

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A partial view of China’s new photonic quantum computing prototype, Jiuzhang 4.0. Photo: Xinhua

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Science

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Microsoft

US-China AI rivalry becomes a battle to export competing tech governance visions

Will the world choose Washington’s market-driven approach or Beijing’s open-source model that aims to be accessible and safe?

Is artificial intelligence causing a rise in natural human stupidity?

Buffett cuts off donations to Bill Gates’ charity after Epstein revelations

Why Chinese AI labs like DeepSeek and Zhipu are looking beyond models to chips

Custom silicon allows for hardware optimisation tailored to specific architectures, such as the DeepSeek-R1 model.

Can Alibaba’s AI transform superconducting materials discovery?

Damo Academy unveils an AI agent able to discover superconductors, which could revolutionise scientific materials research and innovation.

.css-1pcrwvc{color:#2aa191;}Opinion | Why the AI future won’t be decided by algorithms and chatbots

Just as geopolitical influence in the 20th century often rested on energy markets, so may the 21st century be dominated by infrastructure.

.css-1f6sr3w{color:#727272;}Exclusive | ByteDance targets early next year for next-generation CPU: sources

To accelerate development and help secure foundry capacity, ByteDance is collaborating with US chipmaker Qualcomm.

US billionaire Leon Black defends US$158 million paid to Epstein

‘I knew Jekyll. I didn’t know Hyde,’ the investor – who features prominently in the Epstein files – told US lawmakers.

‘Donald Trump Avenue’: Indian tech hub renames road

The move, in an opposition-ruled area, comes as the party accuses the PM of not ⁠taking Trump on ⁠on issues like tariffs and sailors’ deaths.

DeepSeek’s Harness team rushes to join the global AI agent race

Chinese AI start-up recruiting talent to build cutting-edge autonomous agents that adapt foundational language models into commercial tools.

AI boom sparks Kingboard subsidiary’s US$1.5b stake sale to ramp up PCB capacity

AI server backlogs and supply chain strains push Kingboard to tap markets and expand circuit board output.

SpaceX vaults past Amazon’s market value, briefly topping Microsoft

Elon Musk’s company was worth roughly US$2.655 trillion at closing – some US$800 billion more than at its record IPO last week.

Bill Gates says Epstein blackmailed him using knowledge of his affairs

Gates said the late sex offender used information about his infidelities to pressure him to ‘re-engage’.

Microsoft cuts hundreds of mainland cloud jobs, as China, US tighten data laws

The firm is laying off some employees at its cloud unit amid ongoing restrictions on cross-border data flows between the two countries.

No need for ‘AI Iron Curtain’, China’s Communist Party mouthpiece says

People’s Daily says China and US should work together to advance the development and governance of artificial intelligence.

Letters | Is ranking Hong Kong’s civil servants on a curve a good idea?

Readers discuss a proposed ranking system for the civil service, opportunities in Central Asia, and the Ebola threat.

Forza Horizon 6 brings the car racing franchise to Japan and it is a winner

Forza Horizon took racing simulation games from circuits into the ‘real world’ and Horizon 6, set in Japan, is one of the best editions yet.

US banks roll out American AI in Hong Kong despite geopolitical tensions

US AI companies have restricted access for users in Hong Kong and mainland China, forcing banks to navigate a compliance minefield.

Alibaba AI beats Google and OpenAI in global coding rankings

The Chinese tech giant is the only non-US firm to crack the top five in Code Arena’s latest leaderboard.

Is Hong Kong following Beijing’s lead and ousting Western tech?

A task force is implementing domestic technology in the mainland Chinese public sector, while Hong Kong has no official related policy.

Opinion | Investors in AI-driven bubble risk forgetting painful lessons

AI-driven stock market hype is not independent of what is happening in the rest of the economy.

AI | AI infrastructure investment bubble unlikely to burst by 2027: Macquarie

Investors are piling money into AI technologies – but revenues still have a long way to catch up, Macquarie’s Viktor Shvets says.

US jury rules against Musk in OpenAI feud, finding lawsuit came too late

Jurors deliberate for less than two hours before tossing Elon Musk’s breach-of-contract claims against OpenAI and its founders.

Armed with Nvidia chips, UAE aims to build an AI bridge to the Global South

With its Opec era over, the Gulf state has big post-war ambitions for Africa and beyond, bolstered by elite Nvidia chip deliveries.

Trump poured millions into tech giants seeking China deal, ethics filing shows

In the first quarter, Trump made at least nine trades in Nvidia, with transaction values ranging from US$1,001 to US$5 million.

Does China’s Jiuzhang 4.0 computer herald the age of quantum supremacy?

New programmable photonic quantum computing prototype completed a complex calculation in microseconds, developers say.

Alibaba, Tencent present a tale of two strategies for AI spending

Alibaba will focus its AI capex on cloud services, while Tencent is prioritising internal demand with its spending.

‘Basically a Chinese racket’: how China streaked ahead at a global AI conference

Mainland China accounted for 44 per cent of the top 50 institutions contributing to the ICLR in Rio de Janeiro, according to analysis.

Opinion | Why the AI future won’t be decided by algorithms and chatbots

Exclusive | ByteDance targets early next year for next-generation CPU: sources