23/03/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | MAR 23, 2026

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China’s premier vows to expand global ‘trade pie’

OpenAI to introduce ads to all ChatGPT free and Go users in US

SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI will begin showing ads to all users of the free and Go versions of ChatGPT in the United States in the coming weeks, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. The move was first reported by The Information . OpenAI has recently integrated Criteo, an advertising technology firm that provides an interface for buying ads and improving targeting, into its advertising pilot for the free and Go versions of ChatGPT in the US, Criteo said in a statement earlier this month. Criteo has been pitching advertisers on committing between US$50,000 and US$100,000 in spending, according to The Information . OpenAI has also advised advertisers that supplying more variations of ad text and visuals can increase how often ads are shown and improve performance, the Information added. OpenAI has been exploring advertising as a new revenue stream as usage of ChatGPT has surged, Reuters has reported. The company is seeking to diversify revenue as it faces rising costs for computing infrastructure amid intensifying competition in generative AI. The Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, that OpenAI plans to nearly double its workforce to 8,000 from 4,500 by the end of 2026. OpenAI plans to deploy most of the new hires across product development, engineering, research and sales, the FT said. The ChatGPT-maker is also ramping up recruitment of specialists focused on “technical ambassadorship”, aimed at helping businesses make better use of its tools, the report added. The company’s latest funding round valued it at US$840 billion, as Big Tech and Masayoshi Son’s Softbank joined its blockbuster US$110 billion round. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red” in early December last year, pausing non-core projects and redirecting teams to accelerate development in response to Google’s Gemini 3. – Reuters

o Li criticises growing unilateralism and protectionism from certain countries

BEIJING: China’s number two leader Li Qiang said yesterday that his country was willing to help expand the global “trade pie” by further opening up, state media reported, while he slammed unilateralism from certain countries. Many of China’s key trading partners have increasingly called on Beijing to reduce its soaring trade surplus owing to its impact on local competition. Its trade surged by a fifth in the first two months of the year, official data showed earlier this month, significantly outpacing forecasts. China “will steadfastly advance high-level opening up, import more high-quality foreign goods, and work alongside all parties to promote the optimised and balanced development of trade”, Premier Li Qiang told business executives in Beijing yesterday, according to Xinhua. Li was speaking at the opening of the annual China Development Forum, attended this year by prominent business leaders including Apple CEO Tim Cook. The Chinese premier added that Beijing would work with other countries to “join forces to make the global economic and trade pie larger for everyone”. He slammed growing unilateralism and protectionism, which he said was “no panacea for resolving problems”. Beijing has been seeking to steer a shaky economy onto a more stable path since the end

Li is seen on a big screen live broadcasting his speech at the opening of the China Development Forum 2026 held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing yesterday. – AFPPIC

Tehran has retaliated with strikes across the region and beyond in a conflict that has threatened global energy security as well as China’s oil supplies. Li told the China officials and global business executives the international rules-based order was suffering “severe disruption” with power politics “running rampant”. Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng met with senior representatives of multinational companies including HSBC, UBS, Schneider Electric and Standard Chartered on Saturday, Xinhua reported. – AFP build the Terafab,” the billionaire said. An “advanced technology fab” in Austin will have the facilities to design, manufacture, test and improve each chip, Musk said. Eventually, the project aims to make chips to support 100 to 200 gigawatts of computing power on Earth, and a terawatt in space. Musk did not give a timeline for the Terafab’s output, and has previously promised grand results from other projects on compressed time scales. He said the Terafab would ultimately help humanity become a “galactic civilisation” capable of harnessing the resources of other planets and stars. – AFP

of the pandemic, particularly by boosting consumption. It had been locked in a blistering trade war last year with Washington after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on countries including China. The recent trade boost is a lifeline for China, the world’s second-largest economy, as domestic consumer activity has slumped, and adds to the record surplus achieved last year. The China Development Forum convenes as the Middle East war, triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran, rages on.

Musk launches ‘Terafab’ project to make AI chips WASHINGTON: Elon Musk announced on Saturday a plan to make chips for artificial intelligence, robotics and data centres in space, in the latest bold project by the world’s richest person. He did not disclose the initial investment. Previous US media reports have put the figure between US$20 billion and US$25 billion.

Musk, who has no prior experience in semiconductors, said the Terafab was necessary because Tesla and SpaceX’s demand for computing power was expected to far exceed that of global chip suppliers. “We’re very grateful to our existing supply chain, to Samsung, TSMC, Micron, and others ... but there’s a maximum rate at which they’re comfortable expanding. “That rate is much less than we would like ... and we need the chips, so we’re going to

The “Terafab”, a manufacturing facility based near Austin, Texas, will aim to produce one terawatt of computing power per year, Musk said. A terawatt is equivalent to one trillion watts. That is slightly less than the total power generation capacity of the United States, according to an industry group. Musk said the project would be run jointly by his electric-vehicle firm Tesla and his rocket company SpaceX.

BASF touts bumper China project’s long-term payoff FRANKFURT: BASF has underscored the need to boost its China presence with the single largest investment project in the company’s history to tap into long-term growth there even as global markets cool down. While demand from China makes up about half of global chemicals markets, the country accounted for only 14% of BASF’s global revenues. this year amid geopolitical tensions, after reporting a drop of almost 10% in 2025 operating profit.

Iran had not altered its plans in China. Overall, the situation was volatile and the conflict’s financial implications were not yet fully clear, it added. Government concerns over recent years that the German economy is growing too reliant on China amid increasing tensions between China and Europe have long brought BASF’s Zhanjiang expansion project into Berlin’s focus. Kothrade sought to allay fears, in particular, that China’s increasingly assertive sovereignty claims on Taiwan could escalate into an armed conflict. “That would be a situation with only losers on all sides. Nobody would gain from it.“ – Reuters

“Of course, we would have preferred supply and demand to be more in balance at the time of ramp-up,“ Kothrade said, adding that production at the site would grow slower than initially hoped. “We can still compete at current price levels, whilst many of our competitors’ plants are simply standing idle or operating below capacity,“ he added. BASF was upholding its target for the site to generate between €1 and €1.2 billion in earnings by 2030. The company said the US-Israeli war in

Kothrade said that thanks to the Zhanjiang project, China would account for about one fifth of group sales by 2030, but BASF took a far longer view. “We build such a plant to last 40, 50 years or more,“ said the executive. The new complex, to be powered entirely with electricity from renewables, will produce petrochemicals and key materials for industrial use. The company warned last month that global manufacturing growth would slow significantly

The German chemical group’s executive board member in charge of Asia, Stephan Kothrade, told Reuters the company needed to overcome an “absolute underrepresentation” of China within the group’s global network of chemical plants. The executive spoke to Reuters ahead of the planned opening ceremony on March 26 of its new chemical complex in southern China’s Zhanjiang, which is costing it about €9 billion (RM41 billion) to complete by 2028.