AI agents write the swan song of hold music
Gavin Barfield - Ever found yourself stuck on hold, the same soft jazz playing on an endless loop? For decades, hold music has been the dreaded soundtrack of customer service – one that many Singapore customers associate with inefficient support. Hold music isn’t just an inconvenience; it actively drives custome ...
Why communication defines corporate resilience
Dan La Russo - Cyber risk has migrated well outside of IT departments and into the boardroom. Gone are the days when a cyber incident was limited to a company’s backrooms. With increasing digitisation of operations amidst global supply chains, a single breach can reverberate through every aspect of a business. W ...
No oil at Karim-1: RH Petrogas
Lin Daoyi - In an announcement on Dec 30, upstream hydrocarbons player RH Petrogas says that no oil was discovered at Karim-1 exploration well located in the Kepala Burung production sharing contract (PSC), Southwest Papua, Indonesia. As no oil was discovered, RH will undertake permanent plug and abandonment of ...
‘The timing is now right’: Koufu founder Pang Lim on handing over the reins to a new generation
Benicia Tan - Chua Sher Lin will lead the group in more M&As, which are a key growth strategy
TSMC says it started mass production of 'most advanced' 2nm chips
TAIPEI: Taiwanese tech titan TSMC has started mass producing its cutting-edge 2-nanometre semiconductor chips, the company said in a statement seen by AFP on Wednesday (Dec 31).TSMC is the world's largest contract maker of chips, used in everything from smartphones to missiles, and counts Nvidi ...
Sembcorp Industries’ acquisition of Filipino solar energy company delayed
Lin Daoyi - In a bourse filing on New Year’s Eve, utility and energy company Sembcorp Industries has announced that its acquisition of Puente Al Sol has been delayed, “pending certain conditions precedent to be fulfilled”. Puente Al Sol is a company developing a 96 MW solar farm in Cadiz, Philippines. Sem ...
CapitaLand India Trust to divest 20.2% stakes in three data centre assets for 7 billion rupees
Therese Soh - The assets will be acquired by CapitaLand Investment’s development-focused data centre fund, which completed its first close with S$150 million in equity
CapitaLand India Trust to divest 20.2% stakes in three data centre assets for seven billion rupees
Therese Soh - This is part of the trust’s portfolio reconstitution strategy
TSMC says started mass production of ‘most advanced’ 2nm chips
The rise in artificial intelligence has spurred demand for TSMC’s chips
Stocks to watch: Sembcorp, CapitaLand India Trust, ValueMax, Keppel Pacific Oak US Reit, SUTL
Shikhar Gupta - [SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Wednesday (Dec 31):
As gold hits records, Indians opt for bars and coins over jewellery
India’s gold demand fell 14 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2025
CLI raises $150 mil for India data centre fund, acquires 20.2% stake in three data centres for $99.73 mil
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - CapitaLand Investment (CLI) says it has successfully raised $150 million equity in the first close of its CapitaLand India Data Centre Fund (CIDCF). CIDCF will acquire a 20.2% interest in three data centres from CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) following the first close. According to a Dec 31 bourse f ...
IFA Zico Capital recommends Low Keng Huat shareholders to accept 'not fair' but 'reasonable' offer
The Edge Singapore - Zico Capital, independent financial advisor to the privatisation of Low Keng Huat (Singapore), believes that the 72 cents per share offer is "not fair" but "reasonable" and is recommending shareholders to accept the offer. The offer by the company's managing director Marco L ...
Trump administration removes three spyware-linked executives from sanctions list
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 : President Donald Trump's administration has lifted sanctions on three executives tied to the spy software consortium Intellexa, according to a notice published to the U.S. Treasury's website.The move partially reverses the imposition of sanctions last year by then-P ...
Warner Bros likely to reject Paramount’s latest hostile bid, source says
Paramount says its offer is more market-proof than Netflix’s proposal
Tesla’s vanishing order hastens fall of an US$800 million fortune
Analysts say L&F’s core business remains intact
Former GIC and Avanda's Sung Cheng Chih to be new chairman of SGX RegCo
The Edge Singapore - Professor Tan Cheng Han, founding chairman of SGX RegCo, will be stepping down after nearly 9 years on the board. Sung Cheng Chih, a former chief risk officer of GIC, will be taking over with effect from Jan 1. Tan, a former dean of the NUS Faculty of Law, was in the news recently for taking on the ...
South Korea 2025 consumer inflation roughly in line with central bank target
SEOUL, Dec 31 : South Korea's consumer inflation for 2025 slowed to 2.1 per cent from 2.3 per cent in 2024, official data showed on Wednesday, roughly in line with the Bank of Korea's target of 2 per cent to potentially bolster the case for the bank to pause interest rates at the cur ...
South Korea Dec headline inflation at 2.3%, as expected
SEOUL, Dec 31 : South Korea's consumer prices rose 2.3 per cent in December from a year earlier, in line with median forecasts of 2.30 per cent, Statistics Korea data showed on Wednesday.The consumer price index increased 0.3 per cent on a monthly basis, compared with a 0.2 ...
Fee income, recovery in loan growth are key drivers for Singapore banks in 2026
Tan Nai Lun - But analysts expect overall results to be flattish or lower, weighed down by net interest income
More contract hiring, higher foreign labour costs: The trends shaping Singapore’s manpower landscape in 2026
Sharon See - Gloomier hiring sentiment persists despite economy ending year on better-than-expected note
Musk's xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power
Dec 30 : Elon Musk said on Tuesday his artificial intelligence startup xAI has bought a third building to expand its infrastructure, aiming to boost training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power.The latest expansion underscores xAI's ambitious push to compete more effectively with ...
US Fed officials showed deep divisions at December meeting: minutes
THE US Federal Reserve agreed to cut interest rates at its December meeting only after a deeply nuanced debate about the risks facing...
Commentary: The quantum era crept up while you were watching AI
The sheer pace of quantum activity from tech firms in 2025 would have been unthinkable even five years ago, says Catherine Thorbecke for Bloomberg Opinion.
Oil flat as Russia-Ukraine peace hopes fade, Yemen tensions rise
[HOUSTON] Oil was steady after a choppy session on Tuesday as investors weighed dented hopes of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal and rising geopolitical...
European stocks hit another record close as banks, miners lead
EUROPEAN stocks logged a second consecutive record close on Tuesday, lifted by banks and commodity-linked shares, although gains were capped by thin, year-end...
US stocks: S&P 500, Nasdaq end flat in holiday-thin trade, Meta gains on deal
[NEW YORK] The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed little changed in choppy trading on Tuesday, as gains in communication services stocks were offset...
Meta is sued by US Virgin Islands over ads for scams, dangers to children
Dec 30 : The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands has sued Meta Platforms, accusing the Facebook and Instagram owner of deliberately profiting from advertisements for scams and failing to keep its social media platforms safe for children.“Meta knowingly and intentionally exposes its user ...
Two US cyber experts plead guilty to cooperating with notorious ransomware gang
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 : Two U.S. cybersecurity professionals have pleaded guilty after they were accused of working with a notorious ransomware gang to shake down American targets, the Justice Department said in a statement on Tuesday.Justice Department officials said that Ryan Goldberg, 40, of Geor ...
Nvidia in advanced talks to buy Israel's AI21 Labs for up to $3 billion, report says
JERUSALEM, Dec 30 : Nvidia is in advanced talks to buy Israel-based AI startup AI21 Labs for as much as $3 billion, the Calcalist financial daily reported on Tuesday.Nvidia declined to comment, while AI21 was not immediately available to comment.A 2023 funding round valued AI21 at $1.4 billion. N ...
Wall Street closes slightly lower near the end of a banner year; gold rebounds
NEW YORK, Dec 30 : U.S. stocks slumped on Tuesday, while gold bounced back on the penultimate trading day of 2025.All three indexes dipped into negative territory in a light-volume pre-holiday session in a subdued ending to a volatile year.Having weathered a year of tariff wars, the longest gover ...
Wall Street muted near the end of a banner year; gold rebounds
NEW YORK, Dec 30 : U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday, while gold bounced back and benchmark Treasury yields turned higher on the penultimate trading day of a turbulent year.All three indexes dipped into negative territory shortly after the opening bell of what is likely to be a light-volume sess ...
SoftBank has completed its US$40 billion investment in OpenAI
It has been building one of the largest private technology investment programmes in the world, with a particular focus on AI and...
Warner Bros likely to reject Paramount's latest hostile bid, source says
Dec 30 : Warner Bros Discovery will likely reject Paramount Skydance's amended $108.4 billion hostile bid for the storied Hollywood studio despite a personal guarantee from billionaire Larry Ellison backing the media giant's offer, according to a person familiar with the matter.The boar ...
