12/08/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | AUG 12, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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Trump wants Beijing to buy more American soybeans

Rumble weighs US$1.17 billion bid for AI cloud firm Northern Data BERLIN: US video platform and cloud services provider Rumble is considering an offer of US$1.17 billion (RM4.95 billion) for German AI cloud group Northern Data, according to statements from both companies. Rumble said on Sunday that a deal would give it control of Northern Data’s GPU-rich cloud business, Taiga, and its large-scale data center arm, Ardent, with plans to integrate both into its own operations. The Taiga cloud unit holds a significant inventory of Nvidia GPU chips, including around 20,480 H100s and over 2,000 H200s. Northern Data said yesterday that its board is evaluating Rumble’s potential offer and is open for further discussions. Rumble is considering offering 2.319 shares for each Northern Data share, both companies said. The proposed offer values Northern Data at about US$18.3 per share, based on Reuters calculations, and represents a discount of about 32% to the German company’s last closing price in Frankfurt. A deal on the current terms would result in Northern Data shareholders owning about 33.3% of Rumble’s shares. Stablecoin platform Tether, the majority shareholder of Northern Data, has expressed support for the transaction, according to the statements. A potential offer assumes that Northern Data’s crypto mining unit will be divested prior to the completion of the deal, with proceeds from the sale used to reduce the existing loan extended by Tether to Northern Data. – Reuters M&S restores click and collect services 15 weeks after systems hacked LONDON: British retailer Marks & Spencer has resumed taking click and collect orders for clothing after a 15-week hiatus following a cyber hack and data theft. The 141-year-old M&S stopped taking orders through its website and app for clothing and home deliveries and collection from stores on April 25, three days after disclosing it was managing a “cyber incident”. It resumed taking online orders for delivery on June 10 but click and collect services, which allow customers to order items online and pick up in stores, had remained suspended. M&S’s website said yesterday that click and collect had resumed. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment. In May, M&S forecast the hacking of its systems would cost it about £300 million (RM1.7 billion) in lost operating profit in its 2025/26 financial year, though it hopes to halve the impact through insurance and cost control. As part of its management of the hack and data theft, M&S took other systems offline. That reduced both clothing and food availability in stores, further denting sales. Rivals, such as Next in clothing and Sainsbury’s in food, have been beneficiaries. – Reuters

Under the Phase One trade deal signed during Trump’s first term, China agreed to boost purchases of US agricultural products, including soybeans. However, Beijing ultimately fell far short of meeting those targets. This year, amid Washington–Beijing trade tensions, it has yet to buy any fourth quarter US beans, fuelling concerns as the American harvest export season approaches. “On Beijing’s side, there have been quite a few signals that China is prepared to forego US soybeans altogether this year, including booking those test cargoes of soymeal from Argentina,” said Even Rogers Pay, an agricultural analyst at Trivium China. Reuters previously reported that Chinese feedmakers have purchased three Argentine soymeal cargoes as they aim to secure cheaper South American supplies amid concerns about a possible soybean supply disruption in the fourth quarter. US soybean industry has been seeking alternative buyers, but no other country matches China’s scale. Last year, China imported 22.13 million tons of soybeans from the US, and 74.65 million tons from Brazil. – Reuters

mainly from Brazil and the United States. The most active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 2.13% at US$10.08 a bushel at 0446 GMT (12.46pm in Malaysia), having been little changed before Trump’s post. China imported roughly 105 million metric tons of soybeans last year, just under a quarter coming from the US and the remainder from Brazil. Quadrupling shipments would require China to import the bulk of its soybeans from the US. “It’s highly unlikely that China would ever buy four times its usual volume of soybeans from the US,” said Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting. It is unclear if securing China’s agreement to buy more US soybeans is a condition for extending the trade truce. China’s Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The country has steadily reduced its reliance on US soybeans in recent years, shifting more purchases to South America.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he hoped China would quadruple its soybean orders from the US adding that it was also “a way of substantially reducing” Beijing’s trade deficit with Washington. “China is worried about its shortage of soybeans. Our great farmers produce the most robust soybeans. I hope China will quickly quadruple its soybean orders. This is also a way of substantially reducing China’s Trade Deficit with the USA. Rapid service will be provided. Thank you President XI,” Trump said on Truth Social. A tariff truce between Beijing and Washington is set to expire on Augt 12, but the Trump administration has hinted that the deadline may be extended. China, which takes more than 60% of soybeans shipped worldwide, buys the oilseed o Analysts say quadrupling of orders is ‘highly unlikely’

A farmer loading soybeans from grain bins into a truck in the US village of Dwight. – AFPPIC

Nvidia to pay US 15% of AI chip sales to China: Reports WASHINGTON: US semiconductor giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the United States government 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China, according to media reports on Sunday. company ever to hit US$4 trillion (RM16.9 trillion) in market value. The California-based firm has, however, become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, which are waging a heated battle for dominance to produce the chips that power AI. Department started granting the licences for chip sales, the reports said. Silicon Valley-based Advanced Micro Devices will also pay 15% of revenue on Chinese sales of its MI308 chips, which it was previously barred from exporting to the country.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday and agreed to give the federal government the cut from its revenues, a highly unusual arrangement in the international tech trade, according to reports in the Financial Times , Bloomberg and New York Times . AFP was not able to immediately verify the reports. Investors are betting that artificial intelligenc will transform the global economy, and last month Nvidia – the world’s leading semiconductor producer – became the first

The deal could earn the US government more than US$2 billion, according to the New York Times report. The move comes as the Trump administration has been imposing stiff tariffs, with goals varying from addressing US trade imbalances, wanting to reshore manufacturing and pressuring foreign governments to change policies. A 100% tariff on many semiconductor imports came into effect last week, with exceptions for tech companies that announce major investments in the United States. – AFP

The US has been restricting which chips Nvidia can export to China on national security grounds. Nvidia said last month that Washington had pledged to let the company sell its “H20” chips to China, which are a less powerful version the tech giant specifically developed for the Chinese market. The Trump administration had not issued licenses to allow Nvidia to sell the chips before the reported White House meeting. On Friday, however, the Commerce