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NYT: AI-generated microdramas in China are projected to top $3B in 2026, part of a broader $14B+ microdrama market. In March alone, nearly 50,000 new AI microdramas hit Douyin, almost matching all of 2025, helped by tools like ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0.

Tried to explain Huawei's Ascend 950 interconnect architecture in the thread but it's honestly hard to follow in text. So I mapped it out visually.

🔴 Samsung Electronics (Market Cap: KRW 1,321.3T) 📁 Preliminary Earnings Results Based on Consolidated Financial Statements — Fair Disclosure Apr. 30, 2026, 08:46 (Current price: KRW 226,000, +1.8%) Revenue: KRW 133.8734T (Consensus: KRW 117.4850T, +13.9%) Operating Profit: KRW 57.2328T (Consensus: KRW 38.2309T, +49.7%) Net Income: KRW 47.2253T (Consensus: KRW 31.5201T, +49.8%) * Recent Earnings (Period / Revenue / Operating Profit / Net Income) 1Q26: KRW 133.8734T / KRW 57.2328T / KRW 47.2253T 4Q25: KRW 93.8374T / KRW 20.0737T / KRW 19.6417T 3Q25: KRW 86.0617T / KRW 12.1661T / KRW 12.2257T 2Q25: KRW 74.5663T / KRW 4.6761T / KRW 5.1164T 1Q25: KRW 79.1405T / KRW 6.6853T / KRW 8.2229T - Earnings surprise: +49.7% - Highest operating profit in the past five quarters - Highest operating margin in the past five quarters: 42.8%

I used the AI function on Alibaba's mapp app GaoDe to make a restaurant reservation. This was on a Chinese phone. Surprised to find it's based on OpenAI rather than Qwen. Many Chinese companies still rely on leading US models, despite local models beating benchmarks.

[Exclusive] Samsung Electronics to Be Split Up Amid Union Strike?… ‘Spin-off’ Raised with Government Samsung Electronics, facing mounting pressure from a looming union strike, has reportedly raised the idea of a spin-off — splitting the company in two — with the government. The plan would carve out the semiconductor business, which is enjoying an AI-driven super cycle, from the TV and home appliance businesses, which are struggling against Chinese competitors, into independent entities. Regardless of whether the plan actually materializes, even the possibility alone is expected to draw fierce backlash from the company’s 4–5 million shareholders. According to government and industry sources on the 29th, a senior Samsung Electronics official recently brought up the idea of a spin-off at a meeting between the government and major corporations. Speaking about the union’s strike action centered on the Device Solutions (DS) division, the official reportedly lamented: “There are massive disparities in profitability across Samsung Electronics’ divisions, and we can’t match semiconductor compensation in the home appliance segment — yet this is what the union is fighting over.” He then added, “But a spin-off is difficult given the damage it would do to shareholder value,” and asked the government to “take a more flexible view on this matter.” The remarks reflect management’s struggle to push back against the union’s demands for an astronomical performance bonus. While calls for a spin-off have long been raised both inside and outside Samsung, the union’s strike threats are now being interpreted as the trigger that has pushed the issue into the open. Samsung’s union is demanding 15% of this year’s operating profit (estimated at roughly 45 trillion won) as performance pay and has declared a general strike beginning on the 21st of next month. Against this backdrop, Samsung Electronics has been continuously reviewing both restructuring of the Device eXperience (DX) division — which is suffering deteriorating earnings and faces possible annual losses this year — and a spin-off of the DS division. The plan would separate the semiconductor business, which has been operated independently of the finished-goods business (smartphones, home appliances, etc.), into a standalone company. However, both inside and outside the company, the consensus is that practical constraints — shareholder backlash and legal hurdles — make this unlikely to actually happen. Still, with strike pressure from the union mounting and friction between the DS and DX divisions intensifying over the performance compensation system, a spin-off scenario is once again on the table. An industry source said, “Even if it can’t be carried out immediately, a spin-off is something that has to be considered, and management would naturally raise the related institutional limitations with the government.” In other words, with every business outside semiconductors struggling, the company has no choice but to respond by exploring a range of scenarios.