15/10/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | OCT 15, 2025

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Google to invest US$15b in India over next five years

JAPAN SHARES DIVE AS TRADING RESUMES AFTER LONG WEEKEND TOKYO: Japanese shares sank yesterday after a long weekend, clocking their sharpest one-day drop since April, as investors fretted over uncertainty surrounding the country's next premier and per sistent US-China trade tensions. The Nikkei share average closed 2.58% lower at 46,847.32, while the broader Topix slid 2% to 3,133.99. Japanese investors re turning from a national holiday on Monday faced a complex global backdrop, including a stronger yen and a steep Wall Street sell-off on Friday. On balance, weaker US stocks and a stronger yen since the start of Japan's extended weekend weighed on the market, said Maki Sawada, an equity strategist at Nomura Securities. In addition, the initial euphoria from fiscal dove Sanae Takaichi's election as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party at the start of the month has faded after coalition partner Komeito pulled support. – Reuters CHINA SEMICONDUCTOR BODY SLAMS DUTCH ACTIONOVER WINGTECH BEIJING: China’s leading state backed semiconductor asso ciation said yesterday it “firmly opposes” Dutch authorities inter vening over a European sub sidiary of Chinese chip firm Wingtech. The Netherlands invoked the Goods Availability Act to take control of Dutch based chip maker Nexperia in late September, citing national security concerns, a statement published by the Dutch govern ment said Sunday. This means that while the company – based in the Dutch city of Nijmegen – can continue regular production, its decisions can be blocked or reversed by the Dutch govern ment. The China Semiconductor Industry Association said it supported its member Wingtech in safeguarding its rights and interests, slamming the Dutch authorities’ latest moves. “We oppose the practice of abusing the concept of ‘national security’ and imposing selective and discriminatory restrictions on overseas branches of Chinese enterprises,“ the CSIA said in a statement. – Reuters

BR I E F S

executive Dario Amodei meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi, in a post on X, told Amodei that “India’s vibrant tech ecosystem and talented youth are driving AI innovation”, adding that he wanted to “harness AI for growth”. Anthropic’s move follows a flurry of announcements by other top AI firms looking to court Indian users. OpenAI has said it will open an India office later this year, with its chief Sam Altman noting that ChatGPT usage in the country had grown fourfold over the past year. AI firm Perplexity also announced a major partnership in July with Indian telecom giant Airtel, offering the company’s 360 million customers a free one-year Perplexity Pro subscription. Google has committed to spending some US$85 billion this year to build out data centre capacity as big tech companies spend heavily on building new data centre infrastructure as they compete to fill booming demand for AI services. Earlier, state officials had estimated the investment at US$10 billion for the centre, which the state government has said is expected to generate 188,000 jobs. – AFP, Reuters

growing adoption by businesses and individuals. India’s Information Technology Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, thanked Google for the investment. “This digital infrastructure will go a long way in meeting goals of our India AI vision,” he said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu called it a “very happy day”. Andhra Pradesh state Technology Minister Nara Lokesh said the deal was a “game-changing investment” that came after “a year of intense discussions and relentless effort”. “It is a massive leap for our state’s digital future, innovation, and global standing,” Lokesh wrote on X. “This is just the beginning.” Google parent Alphabet Inc counts India as a key growth market where its YouTube video services has most users, and Android phones dominate smartphone usage. Microsoft and Amazon have already poured billions into building data centres in India, a key growth market, in which nearly a billion users access the internet. Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have also unveiled investments in building capacity for data centres. This month US startup Anthropic said it plans to open an office in India next year, with its chief

o US tech giant to build mega data centre and AI base in southern state of Andhra Pradesh NEW DELHI: Google said yesterday it would invest US$15 billion (RM63.4 billion) in India over the next five years as it announced a giant data centre and artificial intelligence (AI) base in the country’s south. “It is the largest AI hub that we are investing in anywhere outside of the US,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, at a ceremony here. He announced “capital investment of US$15 billion” over the five years and a “gigawatt-scale AI hub in Visakhapatnam”, a city in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Google has plans for the centre to eventually “scale to multiple gigawatts”, Kurian added. Demand for AI tools and solutions has surged in India – projected to have more than 900 million internet users by year’s end – driven by

ASX welcomes competition as regulatory issues persist SYDNEY: Australian Securities Exchange chief executive Helen Lofthouse said yesterday she welcomed competition in the sector but said there were benefits to having one “marketplace” for equities trading, especially in price discovery. Australian regulators last week approved a bid by Cboe Australia, the local unit of the Chicago headquartered exchange operator, to list new companies on its boards, ultimately providing direct competition to the ASX as a listing venue. The ASX has been under regulatory pressure for a number of failures in the past few years, primarily for equity trading settlement delays and slow technology upgrades. prove beneficial if it allowed markets to grow and be more vibrant. But she warned equity price discovery processes and transparency could be fractured with more than one major exchange operator. “If you have one marketplace where everyone comes for that price discovery, that is helpful for price transparency or you’re looking at settlement system, there are benefits for customers if everyone is using the one settlement system,” she said “That is the core challenge in the financial market infrastructure, space, it’s balancing the network benefits from one provider with the competitive benefits you get from multiple providers.” ASX waiver that meant it did not need to seek its own shareholder approval to go ahead with the US$8.75 billion (RM37 billion) cash and stock purchase of US builder AZEK. Typically, companies issuing new shares worth more than 15% of its existing equity capital to fund an acquisition would need a shareholder vote but the ASX has the power to waive that requirement. The ASX has said it would review listing rules around that shareholder vote requirement and Lofthouse said the ASX was calling for submissions on a consultation paper that would be prepared. “It’s very understandable that investors want more control particularly in those companies making decisions they might not support but we need to be mindful about the vibrancy of public listed markets,” Lofthouse said. “Companies have choices where to raise capital, there’s listed markets all around the world and private capital options.” – Reuters LG Electronics India soars 50% in trading debut, notches US$13b valuation The Reserve Bank of Australia in September criticised the ASX and said it must make “foundational changes” to its governance, culture and risk management after last year’s trading settlement failure. Lofthouse told a Citigroup conference here yesterday that competition to the ASX could ASX’s regulatory woes has weighed down the company’s stock price, with shares down 11.62% so far this year. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 is up about 9%. The exchange also came under fire earlier this year after James Hardie said it had received an

MUMBAI: LG Electronics India surged 50.4% in its trading debut yesterday and notched a valuation of US$13.07 billion (RM55.2 billion), eclipsing its South Korean parent’s market capitalisation, as investors piled into the country’s most bid-for IPO since 2008. Shares of the Indian arm of LG Electronics made a strong debut on the National Stock Exchange of India, opening at 1,710.10 rupees (RM81.46) and rising to 1,714.90 rupees, well above the issue price of 1,140 rupees. The debut valued the company above its US$8.73 billion target and its South Korean parent’s roughly US$9 billion market cap. It also put the firm ahead of its India listed peers such as Whirlpool, Voltas, and Havells, which are valued between US$1.7 billion and US$10.4 billion.

received bids for more 3.8 billion shares -- making it the most subscribed big Indian IPO in nearly two decades. Analysts say cheap valuations, LG’s reach across middle-class Indian homes and the company’s superior margins made it attractive to investors. LG’s two existing plants in India accounted for more than 85% of sales in the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to estimates by financial services firm Axis Securities. The South Korean giant also started construction of a third manufacturing facility in southern India earlier this year, pushing spending to about US$600 million over the next four years. The company says the investment “underscores India’s potential as a critical hub” within its global supply chain. – Reuters, AFP

The company’s listing perfor mance was the best for a billion dollar IPO in India since 2021, and comes in the midst of what is India’s second-busiest quarter on record for IPOs, with WeWork India and Tata Capital posting lacklustre debuts in recent days. “After a long time, we’re seeing a genuinely strong IPO in the consumer space – solid funda mentals, reasonable valuations and sector-leading growth prospects,” said Dhiraj Relli, managing director and CEO of HDFC Securities. LG Electronics, India’s second biggest appliance maker, whipped up strong demand at the bidding stage. Investors snapped up its US$1.3 billion IPO within hours of opening, with bids worth a stag gering US$50 billion. The offer, which involved the sale of a little more than 71 million shares,

LG Electronics Inc president and CEO William Cho (second, left) and National Stock Exchange chairman Ashish Kumar Chauhan (second, right) applaud during LG India’s listing ceremony in Mumbai yesterday. – AFPPIC