North Asia

SoftBank has said it will spend $3bn annually to deploy customised AI across its group of companies; the JV, known as SB OpenAI Japan, will sell to Japanese firms.

The release of a competitive low cost large language models not only shifts the AI narrative away from expensive hardware, but also prompts debate about a potential inflection point for fund managers, with some models potentially not surviving.

Effie Vasilopoulos, formerly at Sidley Austin, will lead Broadfield's Apac operations as the newly created firm looks to build out the team quickly to cover the region across funds, private equity and corporate advisory.

After US president Donald Trump issued executive orders to place 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports (now delayed) and 10% on Chinese goods (starting February 4); China has now retaliated with tariffs on US coal, gas, crude oil and more.

The CEO and chairman have stepped down as the company looks to solve "temporary liquidity difficulties", in part through the support of its largest shareholder, the state-owned Shenzhen Metro Group.

The commodities group has returned to the market for the first time in three years and the PBOC has given approval for the funds to be repatriated offshore.

With China's DeepSeek already shaking up 2025's AI market, around $70bn was raised last year by Asia's tech firms.

BoCom becomes the first Chinese financial institution to issue a digitally native bond in Hong Kong with a $300m floating rate offering.

The Hong Kong property developer secured the deal with a consortium of international, Chinese and local banks; the company cited "challenging" market conditions in mainland China and Hong Kong as 2024 profits fell 25%.