10/04/2026

FRIDAY | APR 10, 2026

17

BIZ & FINANCE

Uniqlo-owner Fast Retailing flags record year

LONDON: Rene Haas, the CEO of chip designer Arm, is in line to lead much of parent SoftBank’s international business while keeping his current role at Arm, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter. SoftBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, while Arm, which is majority-owned by the Japanese conglomerate, declined to comment. Haas’s appointment aims to push forward SoftBank’s AI chip strategy, Project Izanagi, launched to compete with rivals such Nvidia, according to the FT report. Haas was expected to take a title reflecting his senior role at SoftBank Group International, but was not expected to run the company’s Vision Fund investment vehicles or its energy business, the report added. The role at SoftBank Group International would make Haas one of the most senior people working with SoftBank’s billionaire-founder Masayoshi Son, according to the report. The report comes as Son makes increasingly aggressive bets on artificial intelligence following years in which the group swung between outsized gains and heavy Vision Fund losses. Son’s “all in” bet on AI includes SoftBank’s agreement to invest US$30 billion in OpenAI through its Vision Fund 2. – Reuters Arm CEO Haas in line to lead much of SoftBank’s global business Kia boosts investment plan by 30% SEOUL: South Korean automaker Kia Corp plans to boost its investment plan over the next four years by 30% to boost vehicle electrification, software and other new businesses, according to an investor presentation yesterday. The firm plans to raise its investments to 41.4 trillion won (RM111 billion) from 2026 to 2029, it said. The presentation also showed Kia cut its 2030 target for electric vehicle sales by about 20% to 1 million units, reflecting weaker demand and the scrapping of EV subsidies in the US last year. Shares in the automaker slid, trading down 4.2% after earlier having risen as much as 2.5%. Kia also said it plans to introduce a test version of its so-called software defined vehicles by the end of 2027, which would mark a one-year delay. Hyundai Motor Group had touted the SDVs, which allow vehicles to improve features and functions constantly similar to Tesla vehicles. Kia also said it plans to launch a model equipped with semi-automated driving technology for both highways and urban driving environments in early 2029, followed by a fully autonomous robo-taxi model in 2030. Kia joined sister firm Hyundai Motor in unveiling plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots developed by Boston Dynamics. It will use them at a factory in the US state of Georgia from 2029. – Reuters

the Iran crisis impacts costs for Uniqlo, known for its inexpensive fleeces and everyday basics, many of which are made with polyester. Fast Retailing’s Tokyo-listed shares closed down 0.5% ahead of the results. Teijin Frontier, a Japan-based supplier to the company, said on Tuesday it would raise prices on polyester fibre by 20% due to higher oil prices. Europe’s retailers, including clothing giant H&M and British supermarket chain Co-op, have already warned that a prolonged Middle East conflict could drive prices higher and dent consumer demand. Fast Retailing is widely seen as a bellwether for consumer spending in Japan and mainland China, where it has almost 900 stores. From a single store in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima

in 1984, Uniqlo now has shops in more than 2,500 locations globally, and the franchise is rapidly expanding in Europe and North America as it looks beyond China, its largest overseas market. Fast Retailing’s domestic sales have been supported by a tourism boom driven by a weak yen, while growth in China has slowed due to weak consumer sentiment, prompting store closures and restructuring. The global retailer’s Asia-based supply chain last year came under pressure from wide-ranging and frequently shifting tariffs by the United States, and it now faces the added hurdle of elevated costs from the Middle East conflict. Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing’s founder and Japan’s richest man, has a long-standing aim to make his company the world’s No. 1 clothing brand and has been outspoken on the risks from tariffs. – Reuters

o Quarterly profit stronger-than-expected due to international growth

TOKYO: The Japanese owner of clothing brand Uniqlo raised its full-year forecast yesterday, flagging another record year, as international growth produced a stronger-than expected jump in quarterly profit. Fast Retailing said its operating profit rose 29.4% to ¥189.8 billion (RM4.7 billion) in the three months through February from ¥146.7 billion a year earlier. That beat an average estimate of ¥161.6 billion from seven analysts compiled by LSEG. The company raised its full-year operating profit forecast to ¥700 billion from ¥650 billion, putting the retailer on track for a fifth consecutive year of record earnings.

“Estimates incorporate some impact from the Middle East situation, based on current considerations such as higher transportation costs in some markets,” Fast Retailing said in a statement. For its 2026 fiscal year, no major impact is expected from a production and logistics perspective, it said. Its second-quarter ended just before the start of US-Israeli air strikes on Iran, a conflict that has sent oil prices soaring and upended supply chains. Markets are now on tenterhooks amid uncertainty over the prospect of a permanent peace deal. Investors will be looking at how

The Uniqlo logo is seen outside a branch in central Tokyo yesterday. – AFPPIC

FRANCISCO: Meta releases first AI model from Superintelligence Labs For now, Muse Spark is only available in the United States.

SAN on Wednesday released an artificial intelligence model, Muse Spark, it touts as smarter and faster than what it offered before shaking up its Superintelligence Labs unit. “Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up,“ the tech titan said in a blog post. Muse Spark succeeds Llama 4, released by the Silicon Valley-based firm a year ago, and will power Meta’s AI app and smart glasses along with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger features. Meta

recruited executives from rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – often personally and at heady costs. In doing so, the tech tycoon broke with the company’s previous approach of prioritising development of free, open-access AI models such as Llama. “The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the centre of your life,“ the company said. “We are building toward personal superintelligence - an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it.” – AFP

executive Mark Zuckerberg to overhaul its AI team, which saw the departure of its research boss Yann LeCun. LeCun spent 12 years leading the AI lab at Meta, where Zuckerberg has made the quest for“superintelligence” a priority. Zuckerberg embarked on a major recruitment campaign last year to acquire talent for the Meta’s efforts, poaching Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang and putting him in charge of a newly formed unit called Superintelligence Labs. Zuckerberg subsequently

The new AI model was described as being small and fast by design, capable of reasoning through complex questions in science, math and health. It is the first in a new Muse series, with the next generation already in development. Llama 4 lagged in the fierce AI race as heavyweight rivals from China, France, and the United States produced improved models at a rapid-fire pace. That prompted Meta chief