Semiconductor Opportunities

Robotaxis in Beijing

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology has issued guidelines stipulating that autonomous vehicles in the city must have drivers or safety officers on board, or be interceptable remotely. Robotaxis are increasingly common in China, Bloomberg reported, although they are not uncontroversial: in Wuhan, 1,000 pilot cars running under Baidu’s [BIDU] Apollo platform have attracted the opposition of taxi drivers. Tesla [TSLA] will unveil its own robotaxi on 8 August; Elon Musk has received tentative approval to deploy the vehicles in China.

Semiconductor Opportunities

Private equity firm KKR [KKR] is to sell about half of its 43% stake in the Japanese chip equipment maker Kokusai Electric [6525:T], which will buy back the shares on the market, Reuters reported. Elsewhere, Broadcom’s [AVGO] share price continued climbing premarket Tuesday, ahead of next week’s 10-for-1 stock split. Lastly, Samsung Electronics [005930:KS] said Tuesday that it is to make artificial intelligence (AI) chips for Japanese IoT start-up Preferred Networks.

Stellantis Expands Hybrid Range

The American-French-Italian automaker [STLA] is to expand its affordable hybrid line in Europe to 36 models by 2026, it announced on Tuesday, in order to meet growing demand for hybrids. Elsewhere, a group of Hyundai [HYMTF] dealers are suing the automaker in Chicago. They say the South Korean auto giant inflated sales of electric vehicles (EVs), by pressuring dealers to misuse inventory codes.

Lucid Beat, Recall

Lucid [LCID] beat expectations on quarterly production and deliveries, producing 2,110 EVs, above a consensus expectation of 1,954, and delivering 2,394, above an expected 1,889, Bloomberg reported. Both figures were up 22% quarter-over-quarter. However, the EV maker is to recall 5,251 of its 2022–23 Air luxury sedans, according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, due to a software error, as well as 7,506 of its 2022-24 Air luxury sedans over a coolant heater issue.

Is Mounjaro Better than Ozempic?

Patients taking Eli Lilly’s [LLY] Mounjaro lost a mean 15.3% of body weight after 12 months, beating the 8.3% shed by users of Novo Nordisk’s [NVO] Ozempic over the same period, according to a new study published on the JAMA Internal Medicine website. Moderna [MRNA] and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma [TAY:DE] have entered a joint venture to co-promote Moderna's mRNA respiratory vaccine portfolio in Japan. Johnson & Johnson [JNJ] has agreed to pay Emergent BioSolutions [EBS] $50m over claims related to a terminated manufacturing deal for its Covid-19 vaccine. BlueAllele is suing Intellia Therapeutics [NTLA] over patent infringement.