NEW DELHI — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will not travel to India next week for the India AI Impact Summit, which is likely to be attended by global technology industry and political leaders, the company announced on Saturday.
Hwang was expected to be one of the biggest attractions at the summit where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sworn in on Thursday.
Mr. Hwang was scheduled to address the media in New Delhi on Wednesday, but the company’s Indian media agency MSL said in an email that Mr. Hwang would not travel due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Reuters
VW sticks to policy despite changing US climate regulations
BERLIN — Volkswagen said Friday it remains committed to more efficient, lower-emission vehicles in the long term, noting recent changes to U.S. climate regulations under President Donald Trump.
“Irrespective of political and regulatory developments, the Volkswagen Group remains committed to its long-term transformation path,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“As a global company, we consider specific market conditions in our strategic planning and comply with regulatory requirements in all countries,” the spokesperson added. Reuters
Manappuram receives RBI approval for joint venture with Bain Capital
BENGALURU – India’s Manappuram Finance announced on Saturday that it has received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India for Bain Capital to acquire joint control and up to 41.66% of the company’s shares and convertible instruments.
The RBI approval relates to an agreement signed in March, under which Bain committed to invest approximately INR 43.85 billion (R7.8 billion) in a fully diluted 18% stake valued at INR 236 per share.
Bain Capital’s stake will range from 18% to 41.7% depending on acceptance of the tender offer, while the existing promoters will hold 28.9% on a fully diluted basis, the company said in a statement. The RBI last month raised concerns about the deal as Bain already holds a controlling stake in another Indian lender. Reuters
ByteDance unveils Doubao 2.0 ahead of Lunar New Year
BEIJING – China’s ByteDance said on Saturday it has rolled out the Doubao 2.0 model, an upgrade to the country’s most widely used artificial intelligence app.
ByteDance is one of several Chinese companies hoping to generate buzz overseas and at home about its new AI models during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Sunday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese people will attend family gatherings in their hometowns.
The company, like rival Alibaba, was caught off guard by DeepSeek’s rapid rise to global fame during last year’s Chinese New Year. At the time, Silicon Valley and investors around the world were shocked to find that a Chinese company had come up with a model that appeared to rival OpenAI’s best, and was developed at a fraction of the cost.
The release of Doubao 2.0 ahead of the highly anticipated new DeepSeek model is likely aimed at preventing such a scenario from happening again. Seedance 2.0, the video-generating AI model released by ByteDance on Thursday, has already been compared to the success of last year’s DeepSeek after going viral on Chinese social media and garnering praise overseas on platforms such as X, including from owner Elon Musk. Reuters
Great Wall Motors aims again at Europe with hybrid propulsion
BEIJING/LONDON – Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motors (GWM) says it is ready to reintroduce hybrid and internal combustion engine models in Europe after previous attempts failed, as part of an ambitious plan to double overseas sales to 1 million units by the end of this decade.
“Europe still has great potential for Chinese brands,” Parker Shi, president of GWM International, said in an interview at his headquarters in Baoding, northern China’s Hebei province.
GWM plans to open a European factory to produce 300,000 cars a year by 2030, which would require a nearly 100-fold increase in sales.
However, a lot has changed in the European market since the GWM debuted at the Munich car show in 2021. Meanwhile, many Chinese rivals have found success in Europe, where European automakers are also launching cheaper models to counter challenges from the East. Reuters
Uber expands delivery operations to seven new markets in Europe
BENGALURU — Uber will expand its delivery operations to seven new European countries this year, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, as the tech group ramps up its efforts in the multi-billion euro food delivery market. Reuters
Department of Defense to sever ties with AI companies over usage restrictions
BENGALURU — The Pentagon is considering severing its relationship with artificial intelligence company Anthropic over the company’s insistence on maintaining certain restrictions on how its models are used by the U.S. military, Axios reported Saturday, citing administration officials.
According to the Axios report, the Pentagon wants the four AI companies to allow the military to use their tools for “all lawful purposes,” including areas such as weapons development, intelligence gathering, and battlefield operations, but Anthropic has not agreed to those terms and the Pentagon has tired of them after months of negotiations.
Other companies included OpenAI, Google, and xAI. Reuters
