06/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | DEC 6, 2025

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Bank of America widens crypto access for wealth clients BENGALURU: Bank of America said on Thursday that it will begin permitting its wealth advisers to recommend cryptocurrency allocations within client portfolios starting next month. The move marks a significant development for the digital assets sector, as it represents one of the most notable endorsements of crypto investment options by a major US financial institution. Starting Jan 5, advisers at Bank of America Private Bank, Merrill, and Merrill Edge will be authorised to suggest a range of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) to their clients. This permission will apply without any minimum asset requirement, allowing advisers to make such recommendations to clients regardless of portfolio size. The bank said that clients who met certain predefined asset thresholds have been able to access bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) since early 2024. However, the latest policy change shifts the function of its advisers — moving them from simply carrying out client-initiated crypto transactions to actively providing guidance and recommendations on such products. As US President Donald Trump continues to push regulatory relief for the asset class, crypto has been benefiting from widespread institutional adoption. Several of these investors prefer to hold crypto via ETFs and ETPs, which provide greater liquidity and security, and simplified regulatory compliance compared to managing the underlying asset directly. “For investors with a strong interest in thematic innovation and comfort with elevated volatility, a modest allocation of 1% to 4% in digital assets could be appropriate,“ said Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank. Proponents of crypto have long championed it as a diversification tool against inflation and conventional assets. However, critics warn against its volatility and security concerns as an asset class. Bitcoin lost more than US$18,000 (RM74,000) in value over the month of November, as an unprecedented wave of money exited the market. This sharp decline marks its biggest monthly drop in dollar terms since May 2021, a period during which several major cryptocurrencies experienced significant collapses. “The link between adoption and long term value is real but not guaranteed, and periods of speculative excess can distort prices far above true utility,“ Merill said in a note. – Reuters

AI boom fuels excitement, job worries

o Automation is reshaping work as companies slow hiring, cut roles, and rethink job needs amid heavy investment

NEW YORK: Panellists at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York sidestepped concerns about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, focusing instead on the transformative effects of AI and how it may upend work and job growth. Artificial intelligence represents the biggest technological upheaval to the world economy since the rise of the internet a quarter-century ago. It has brought trillions of dollars of investment and dizzying stock market gains, but also a shortage of memory chips, regulatory scrutiny, and rising anxiety about job displacement. The numbers are eye-popping. In the first half of 2025, AI-related capital expenditures contributed more to GDP growth than the consumer, according to JP Morgan Asset Management. Investment advisory Bespoke Investment Group recently estimated about one-third of the rise in global market cap since the introduction of AI assistant ChatGPT comes from 28 AI-related companies. Corporate executives at Reuters NEXT on Wednesday and Thursday largely focused on how AI would transform work, though some talked about the threat to jobs. “All

Department, compared with the nation’s 4.4% rate. Joe Depa, EY chief innovation officer, likened the changes to previous tech upheavals like the development of the internet, but “the difference this time is that the disruption is faster.” Depa said “adaptability is the new job security,” with his biggest worry around the middle-management class. Tracey Franklin, Moderna’s chief people and digital technology officer, said what has changed is how companies are starting to evaluate employment needs in tandem with technological needs, rather than separately. “We’re pooling teams together and really looking at, what is their IT portfolio, what is their human capital strategy, how do we pull that together to meet their business objectives. So we’re having these integrated conversations we didn’t have before,” she said. The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed 61% worried about increased electricity consumption from data centres, which is only set to grow. Jeff Schultz, senior vice president of portfolio strategy at Cisco Systems, noted the infrastructure to run AI and the chips needed already consume a lot of power, and that network traffic needed for agentic AI is much higher and steadier than sporadic demand from AI chatbots. Schultz, asked about AI bubble concerns, said the massive investments into the technology were warranted, given the opportunity. But backlash is growing to the energy hogging data centre clusters that have contributed to rising utility prices. It is evident in places like Virginia and Pennsylvania, even among supporters of President Donald Trump, who has championed AI development and is considering ways to restrict state-level regulations. There was also notable trepidation among speakers at Reuters NEXT from the media and creative industries, due to concern that AI-generated content could replace the creative work of writers or actors.

companies to trim hiring plans. An August Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 71% were concerned AI will be “putting too many people out of work permanently.” Striking a more optimistic tone that became one theme of the Reuters NEXT conference, economist Joseph Lavorgna, counselor to the US Treasury secretary, said the focus should be on how the technology could enhance labour rather than replace it. “AI is an incredible tool that I think is complementary to the existing workforce,” he said. “We need policies that are going to encourage businesses to invest, and AI is a complement to it.” Nevertheless, employment data is hard to ignore. Recent college graduates have seen a sharp rise in unemployment, with a current jobless rate of 9.5% for those between 20 and 24 with a bachelor’s degree, according to the US Labour

(of our customers) are focused on slowing headcount growth,” said May Habib, CEO and co-founder of AI startup Writer. “This has happened just in the last few weeks. You close a customer, you get on the phone with the CEO to kick off the project, and it’s like, ‘Great, how soon can I whack 30% of my team?’” SAP CEO Christian Klein said that at a recent company town hall, the top question from employees was how their jobs would be impacted by AI. “We are rolling out AI across the company, even my general counsel, my legal department, is not secure, something that you can do more efficiently with AI,” he said. The fears about job displacement brought on by the AI boom are backed by a US Federal Reserve report noting data and surveys that say artificial intelligence is already replacing entry-level positions and causing

Speakers note rising public concern as polls show broad anxiety over workforce changes and soaring energy demands. – UNSPLASH PIX

Baidu’s Kunlunxin, valued near 21b yuan, plans IPO in Hong Kong BEIJING: Kunlunxin, the AI chip unit of Chinese internet search giant Baidu, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, having recently completed a fundraising that valued it at 21 billion yuan (RM12.2 billion), three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move comes as China pushes to develop domestic alternatives to US semiconductors amid escalating Washington export restrictions on advanced chips, and follows several other Chinese AI chip companies eyeing public market debuts. In a sign of massive appetite for AI chip stocks, Moore Threads yesterday, which makes graphics processing units (GPUs) used for artificial intelligence computing, debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange at more than five times its IPO price. Investment materials reviewed by Reuters showed that Kunlunxin wanted to complete an IPO by early 2027. Two of the sources said the company was communicating that it aims to file a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as the first quarter of 2026. Kunlunxin completed its latest funding round in the past six months, raising over 2 billion yuan from a China Mobile fund and other private investors, the two people and a third source said. The round valued Kunlunxin at around 21 billion yuan, up from 18 billion yuan in its previous fundraising, the people said. The sources declined to be identified as the information is not public. Baidu did not address questions about the IPO plan. Developing domestic GPU capabilities has become critical for Beijing as the US has tightened restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, including barring sales of Nvidia’s latest chips. Kunlunxin joins a wave of Chinese chip companies planning public listings. Following Moore Threads’ listing, MetaX is expected to debut in coming weeks. Biren Technology, which has been blacklisted by the US, is also planning a Hong Kong listing, Reuters reported in June. Founded in 2012 as an internal business unit developing AI chips for Baidu, Kunlunxin has since become independently operated, though Baidu retains a controlling stake. The company mainly supplied chips to Baidu but has gradually expanded external sales over the past two years. Kunlunxin expects its revenue to grow to more than 3.5 billion yuan this year and to achieve break-even, according to the investment materials reviewed by Reuters. In 2024, it booked a net loss of about 200 million yuan on revenue of around 2 billion yuan. In 2025, over half of its revenue is expected to come from external sales, according to the first two sources. The company’s most advanced product, the P800 chip, has gained traction this year, primarily supplying data centre projects built by state owned firms and governments.