05/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | FEB 5, 2026

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AMD predicts weaker Q1 sales, shares plunge

COPENHAGEN: Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday that it expects 2026 sales to slide by up to 13% as prices for its Ozempic and Wegovy anti-obesity drugs fall in the key US market. Struggling in the face of growing competition, in particular from American rival Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk also reported that its 2025 sales rose 6% in 2025 to 309 billion kronor (RM192 billion), below 8% to 11% gain it had forecast in November. The figure was still higher than the 307.6 billion kronor analyst consensus forecast calculated by Bloomberg. Net profit edged 1% higher to 102.4 billion kroner. Novo Nordisk said it expected this year’s sales to be between 5% and 13% lower, at constant exchange rates, than for 2025. Last year had already been tough for the company that had until recently been Europe’s most valuable stock. Growth slowed, forcing it to lower profit forecasts for four quarters in a row. Novo Nordisk also cut 9,000 jobs, which it announced had cost €8 billion euros (RM37 billion), and changed chief executive as it sought to turn around its fortunes. “The sales outlook is impacted by lower realised prices, including impacts related to the ‘Most Favoured Nations’ agreement in the US and the patent expiry of the semaglutide molecule” in some markets, Novo Nordisk said. It also highlighted increased “competition”. The company said that it expects the global market for GLP-1, as the hormone responsible for the weight loss is known, to continue to expand. It said it would introduce new products such as the Wegovy pill and higher doses, “enabling Novo Nordisk to continue to increase patient reach and expand volumes”. “In 2026, Novo Nordisk will face pricing headwinds in an increasingly competitive market. However, we are very encouraged by the promising early uptake from the US launch of Wegovy pill,” said chief executive officer Mike Doustar. Novo Nordisk received US regulatory approval for its first oral version of Wegovy in December and launched sales in January, and it noted most early prescriptions were being paid for by patients. Novo Nordisk hopes to obtain a regulatory green light for its haemophilia treatment Mim8 and its next-generation obesity treatment CagriSema, its CEO said. The group also announced the launch of a share buyback programme worth up to 15 billion kroner. – AFP Novo Nordisk forecasts drop in 2026 sales

CEO Lisa Su said on a conference call with investors. The US government has placed restrictions on the exports of advanced chips to China, but AMD received licenses to sell modified versions of its MI300 series of AI chips there. Its MI308 chip competes with Nvidia’s H20 chip in China. AMD has accelerated its product launches and is moving into selling full AI systems to better compete against Nvidia, which now provides “rack-scale” systems that combine GPUs, CPUs and networking gear. Last year, it entered into a multi-year deal to supply AI chips to ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, which would bring in tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the startup the option to buy up to roughly 10% of the chipmaker. Su reiterated on Tuesday that the company expects sales of a new flagship AI server to OpenAI and others to rise rapidly in the second half of this year, saying a global memory chip crunch will not slow its plans. “I do not believe that we will be

supply-limited in terms of the ramp that we put in place,” Su said. As Big Tech and governments across the globe double down on investing in AI hardware, shares in Santa Clara, California-based AMD have doubled since the start of 2025, outperforming a 60% bump in the broader chip index. But analysts remain concerned that AMD’s success remains tied to a handful of customers that rivals such as Nvidia could try to poach. Reuters reported this week that Nvidia made a US$20 billion move to hire most of chip startup Groq’s founders after OpenAI held chip supply discussions with the startup. “Growth appears concentrated in large deployments and specific regions, and China shipments are significant enough to influence a quarter,” said eMarketer analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Revenue in AMD’s key data-centre segment grew 39% to US$5.38 billion in the fourth-quarter. But excluding sales of the MI308, which is a data-centre chip, that revenue would have been US$4.99 billion, below estimates of US$5.07 billion. – Reuters

o Analysts worry about customer concentration, potential poaching by Nvidia

SAN FRANCISCO: Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday forecast a slight decline in quarterly revenue, raising concerns about whether it can effectively challenge Nvidia in the booming AI market and sending its shares tumbling 8% in after-hours trade. The lacklustre prediction comes despite an unexpected boost from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China, which began in the last quarter after Donald Trump’s administration approved a license for orders that AMD received in early 2025. And without those sales to China which generated US$390 million, AMD’s data-centre segment would have missed estimates for the fourth quarter. AMD said it expects revenue of about US$9.8 billion this quarter, plus or minus US$300 million. That is down from US$10.27

billion in the fourth-quarter which was up 34% year-on-year and ahead of LSEG estimates for US$9.67 billion. Though AMD is seen as one of the few contenders that can seriously challenge Nvidia, investors noted the stark contrast between the two companies’ performances. AMD expects an adjusted gross margin of 55% this quarter. Nvidia has said it expects adjusted gross margin in the mid-70% range during its fiscal 2027. “The expectations for large blowout quarters for AI-related hardware companies have skewed what the market is looking for,” said Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research. The forecast for the current first quarter includes US$100 million from sales to China, where the situation remains “dynamic”, AMD

This aerial view shows the Port of Balboa at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal. – AFPPIC

CK Hutchison begins arbitration against Panama “detriment of the State’s treasury.” The company’s subsidiary Panama Ports Company (PPC) said in a press release it has begun arbitration “after a campaign by the Panamanian state specifically against PPC and its concession contract, throughout a year marked by a series of abrupt actions by the Panamanian state, culminating in serious damages.” government tapped Danish company Maersk to temporarily take over management of the port terminals until a new concession is awarded. Washington welcomed the court’s decision, but Beijing said it would take measures to “protect the legitimate and lawful rights” of Chinese companies.

PANAMA CITY: Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison said in a statement on Tuesday it has initiated international arbitration against Panama, after a ruling by the country’s top court annulled a concession allowing it to operate ports at the Panama Canal. Panama’s Supreme Court last week invalidated Hutchison’s contract following repeated threats from President Donald Trump that the United States would seek to reclaim the waterway he said was effectively being controlled by China. The court’s ruling declared the contract “unconstitutional” and found it had “a disproportionate bias in favour of the company” without “any justification” and to the

It argued the concession was “unconstitutional” and said Hutchison had failed to pay the Panamanian state US$1.2 billion due. The PPC argues it is the only port operator in which the Panamanian state is a shareholder and says it has paid the government US$59 million over the past three years. Panama has always denied Chinese control over the 50-mile waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is used mainly by the United States and China. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, who had called the CK Hutchison contract “extortionate,“ last week said the canal will continue operating “without disruption”. – AFP

The canal, which handles about 40% of US container traffic and five percent of world trade, was built by the United States, which operated it for a century before ceding control to Panama in 1999. The annulment of the PPC contract was requested last year by the office of the comptroller – an autonomous body that examines how government money is spent.

The statement did not specify the amount of money being sought through arbitration. Since 1997, Hutchison had managed the ports of Cristobal on the interoceanic canal’s Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific side. The concession was extended for 25 years in 2021. After the ruling, the Panamanian