09/08/2025

BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | AUG 9, 2025

FOLLOW

ON INSTAGRAM

14

Malaysian Paper

@thesundaily @t

Is rush into bitcoin too risky for companies?

Tesla shuts down Dojo team, shifts focus in AI overhaul BENGALURU: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered to shut down its Dojo supercomputer team, with team leader Peter Bannon departing the company, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Dojo supercomputer was designed around custom training chips to process vast amounts of data and video from Tesla EVs to train the automaker’s autonomous-driving soft ware. Tesla did not reply to a Reuters request for comment. CEO Elon Musk said on X that it didn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two different AI chips. Over the past year, Tesla, amid a company-wide restructuring, has seen multiple executive departures and thousands of job cuts. The company has redirected its focus to AI-driven self driving technology and robotics, with CEO Elon Musk pursuing an integration strategy across his business empire. In March, xAI acquired the social media platform X for US$33 billion (RM139 billion) to bolster its chatbot training capabilities, while Tesla integrated the Grok chatbot into its vehicles. The automaker also plans to increase its reliance on external technology partners such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for compute, and Samsung Electronics for chip manufacturing, as per the Bloomberg report. Last month, Samsung secured a US$16.5 billion deal to supply AI chips to Tesla, expected to power self-driving cars, humanoid robots and data centres. Tesla CEO Elon Musk earlier said that Samsung’s new chip factory in Taylor, Texas would make Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip. While no timeline was provided for AI6 chip production, Musk has previously said that next-generation AI5 chips will be produced at the end of 2026, suggesting AI6 would follow. “The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training. All effort is focused on that”, Musk said in an X post late Thursday. Musk also said that in a supercomputer cluster, it would make sense to put many AI5/AI6 chips. “One could call that Dojo 3, I suppose”, he said. About 20 Dojo team members left for new startup DensityAI, with the rest reassigned to other Tesla compute projects, Bloomberg reported. – Reuters

measures to boost the stock market. Recent listings in July include NTT DC REIT, which raised US$773 million (RM3.3 billion) in Singapore’s largest IPO since 2021, and a secondary listing by Hong Kong-listed China Medical System. Loh said SGX’s multi-asset platform is well positioned to capture shifting investor flows amid global volatility triggered by heightened geopolitical and trade tensions, including the tariff war under US President Donald Trump’s administration. SGX also plans to expand Singapore Depository Receipts programme, investment products that allow investors to buy shares of foreign firms directly on SGX, beyond Thailand and Hong Kong currently, Loh said. – Reuters Bitcoin’s price, currently around US$117,000 (RM494,701), has in recent years been boosted by large holders of crypto, referred to as “whales”. Harvey argues that in the case of “major buyer” Strategy, liquidating all their 600,000 bitcoin tokens is no simple task owing to the high value. “Assuming that you could liquidate all of those bitcoin at the market price is a heroic assumption,” he told AFP, adding such a deal would see the cryptocurrency’s price plummet. Jack Mallers, CEO and co-founder of bitcoin focused company Twenty One Capital, said his business embraced the sector’s volatility, adding the market would need to be flooded for the token’s price to crash. A bubble? According to its own calculation, Strategy’s stock is selling at about 70% above the value of its bitcoin reserves. The company – which did not answer AFP’s request for comment – is growing thanks to bitcoin purchases, which in turn is attracting investors and pushing up its share price. But ultimately it will need to monetise these crypto assets, for example by linking them to financial products, for its business to be sustained. Should Strategy and other so-called “bitcoin treasury funds” fail to do so, Benoist fears the crypto investment bubble will burst. He points out that the strategy of accumulation runs counter to the original philosophy of bitcoin, which was conceived in 2008 as a decentralised means of payment. Today, “bitcoins end up in electronic safes that are left untouched”, he said.

o Growing number of firms are hoarding crypto assets to hedge inflation and boost image, despite extreme volatility

LONDON: US President Donald Trump’s media group and Tesla, the electric carmaker owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, are among an increasing number of companies buying huge amounts of bitcoin. The aim? To diversify reserves, counter inflation and attract investors, analysts say. Who also invests? Companies frequently own bitcoin – the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation – to take part in sector activities such as “mining”, which refers to the process of validating transactions in exchange for digital tokens. Tesla has previously accepted payments in bitcoin, while Trump Media soon plans to offer crypto investment products. Other players who had core operations totally unrelated to cryptocurrency, such as Japanese hotel business MetaPlanet, have switched to buying bitcoin. US firm Strategy, initially a seller of software under the name MicroStrategy, holds more than 3% of all bitcoin tokens, or over 600,000. Its co-founder Michael Saylor “created real value for its original set of investors” by offering the opportunity to invest in shares linked to cryptocurrencies, Andy Constan, CEO of financial analysts Damped Spring Advisors, told AFP. This was five years ago when other financial

products allowing investment in cryptos, without a need to directly own tokens, were not permitted. Why invest? Companies collect bitcoins “to diversify” their cash flow and “counter the effects of inflation”, said Eric Benoist, a tech and data research expert for Natixis bank. Some struggling companies are riding the trend in a bid to “restore their image” by “backing themselves with an asset perceived as solid and one that appreciates over time”, he added. Strategy’s current focus is on accumulating bitcoin, simply to attract investors interested in the currency’s potential. Bitcoin can also have a simple practical use, as in the case of the Coinbase exchange, which uses its own reserves as collateral for its users. The risks? Bitcoin’s value has soared around ninefold in five years, fuelled recently by US regulatory changes under Trump, a strong backer of the crypto sector. However, the unit’s volatility is four times greater than that of the main US stock index, the S&P 500, according to Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University in the US. Harvey warns against using a company’s cash reserves, “their safe haven”, to buy crypto. SGX declared a final quarterly dividend of 10.5 Singapore cents per share, up from 9 cents a year earlier, and said it plans to raise dividends by 0.25 cents each quarter from FY26 to FY28. Shares of SGX dropped 2.5% yesterday, but have gained about 25% year-to-date, LSEG data showed. The domestic benchmark stock index declined almost 0.8% on the day, but has climbed over 11% year-to-date. Interest in SGX listings is rising after Singapore’s February reforms, including a 20% tax rebate. In July, Singapore’s central bank said it will place S$1.1 billion with three asset managers as part of a S$5 billion programme under the

SGX posts record annual profit, eyes IPO surge SINGAPORE: Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported yesterday its highest annual earnings since its 2000 listing and said more than 30 companies are actively preparing to go public, signaling a revival in listings amid efforts to boost the country’s equities market. really considered that IPO is a route and have engaged advisers to do that.”

Adjusted net profit for the year ended June rose 15.9% to S$609.5 million (RM2 billion), driven by higher trading volumes across equities, currencies and commodities, according to SGX. Revenue climbed 11.7% to S$1.3 billion. “Our IPO pipeline is the strongest in years,“ CEO Loh Boon Chye told Reuters after the earnings release yesterday. “A pipeline in our definition is not about marketing to a prospect,“ he said. “Our pipeline is more refined, they are companies that have

India presses for global ‘code of conduct’ on pilot poaching NEW DELHI: India wants countries to agree a new code of conduct on hiring each other’s airline staff after raising concerns that its fast-growing aviation system is being stifled by the poaching of Indian pilots and cabin crew without adequate notice. India, one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, is wrestling with a shortage of experienced pilots, denting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aspiration of developing a job creating global aviation hub. The recent fatal crash of an Air India jetliner has sparked tighter scrutiny of the sector. develop its civil aviation sector in an orderly manner,“ India said in an Aug 1 working paper submitted to the UN’s aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). “Airlines from other (countries) tend to recruit experienced pilots, engineers, technicians, and cabin crew from Indian carriers, preventing India’s civil aviation sector from achieving planned and orderly growth,“ India wrote in the paper, without identifying any foreign airline by name. and operational improvements.” The paper was released on the ICAO website ahead of its triennial assembly. It has not previously been reported. India’s Civil Aviation Ministry was not immediately available for comment. India’s government said in April the country would need 30,000 pilots over the next 15–20 years, up from the current 6,000–7,000, as airlines collectively had more than 1,700 aircraft on order. India’s domestic aviation sector is led by IndiGo and Air India, while all major international airlines from Emirates to British Airways to Lufthansa operate regular flights. In 2023, Air India exchanged But foreign airlines are repeatedly hiring skilled staff from Indian airlines, “adversely impacting India’s ability to “This practice creates a vicious cycle where Indian carriers are forced to continuously recruit and train replacement personnel by diverting resources from expansion activities

India tells ICAO that foreign recruitment disrupts its civil aviation plans and drains critical talent. – UNSPLASH PIX

barbs with Akasa Air over the poaching of pilots domestically. The working paper asks for the creation of a code of conduct on the

movement of skilled aviation workers among ICAO’s member countries. It doesn’t specify how the code of conduct would work. – Reuters