Asia Centric by Bloomberg Intelligence

SoftBank is doubling down on artificial intelligence with a $30 billion commitment to OpenAI and ambitious plans for Stargate – even as risks mount. After a 200% surge earlier this year, shares tumbled 40% in November when Google’s Gemini 3.0 gained traction, threatening ChatGPT’s dominant position in the AI race. Credit stress is rising, with CDS widening to nearly 300 basis points as funding concerns build. Inve...

It’s time to look ahead and make bold predictions for Asia in 2026. After a standout year, Asian equities are on track to beat the S&P 500 by the widest margin in eight years. Can the rally continue, and which markets will lead? Are investors overlooking US funding stress, potential QE, and the risks behind multi-decade tight credit spreads? And what’s next for Asian currencies and gold?

Asia Centric convenes Bloomb...

Regulators around the world, from the US to Singapore and Australia, are trying to revive initial public offerings. The London Stock Exchange raised less than $2 billion since the beginning of 2024, its worst drought since 1998, while the number of publicly listed companies in the US has halved from 8,000 in 1996. Regulatory burdens, litigation risks and abundant private capital have pushed companies to remain private.

Paul Atkins,...

Inflation has returned to Japan after decades of near-zero price growth, with consumer prices rising close to 3% – the fastest since the 1980s. The cost-of-living squeeze, driven by food prices, helped topple the previous administration and propel Sanae Takaichi to power as Japan's first female prime minister. Her pro-growth, big government stance promises fiscal stimulus, but risks complicating the Bank of Japan's efforts to...

South Korea's Kospi Index has surged about 70% this year, driven by AI-linked tech stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Retail investors, who poured more than $100 billion into US equities since the pandemic, are now turning their attention homeward. President Lee Jae Myung's pro-market and corporate governance reforms, including dividend tax cuts from 49% to a proposed 25%, are reshaping investor sentiment and capital ...

China's AI rollout diverges sharply from the US, favoring open-source models and broad adoption over high-cost infrastructure. China's top tech firms including Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba will invest less than 10% of the $370 billion that US hyperscalers plan to spend on AI capex this year. This cost-conscious approach aligns with Beijing's AI Plus strategy, aiming to embed AI across all sectors by 2027 to boost productivity.

Who wi...

Some of the world’s largest companies by revenue – such as Vitol, Trafigura, and Cargill – operate outside the public eye, trading oil, metals and grains at scale. These private firms have quietly become central to global supply chains, recording substantial profits since 2022 as wars and sanctions re-routed flows. 

Giovanni Serio, former global head of research at Vitol, joins John and Katia to unpack...

The world's demographic shift is often framed as a looming crisis, but new data suggests a more nuanced outlook. Hong Kong leads the longevity frontier with an average life expectancy of 86 years, having steadily increased by 0.25 years annually for over 150 years. Meanwhile, a landmark IMF study finds that today's 70-year-olds have the same cognitive ability as 53-year-olds in 2000, underscoring how healthier aging is reshaping wo...

In this live episode, recorded at Bloomberg's Investment Management Summit in Singapore, we sit down with Matthew Michelini, head of Asia-Pacific business for Apollo Global Management. We explore his optimism about Japan, driven by its corporate governance reform and the vast $7.5 trillion in consumer deposits. We also discuss how private capital is shaping asset allocation and the challenges posed by intense competition in the pri...

Singapore’s government is investing heavily to become a global hub for finance, commodities and transportation. The spending includes $3 billion for Changi airport’s terminals and infrastructure and equity market reform to attract more capital. Singapore’s household assets could nearly double to $4 trillion by 2030 and the MSCI stock index is set to double in the next five years, according to Morgan Stanley.

N...

The competition is intensifying among global hedge funds giants to attract top traders and analysts. There's particularly high demand for talent at "pod shops", which allow portfolio managers to run their own strategies and manage allocated capital.

High-profile managers with strong track records can command pay packages in the tens of millions of dollars.

"The type of manager we're trying to hire, they are hiring us. It's not [us]...

Hong Kong's financial sector is roaring back, with IPOs surging and the city's exchange leading the world in public fundraising. The Hang Seng Index is up more than 30% this year, driven by biotech and tech stocks, while new stablecoin regulations are positioning Hong Kong as a digital-assets hub. Billions in untapped funds from mainland China are flowing in, fueling a wave of new family offices and a generational shift in wealth m...

A seismic shift is underway in global finance, led by a new breed of trading firms. Electronic market makers such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities are outpacing traditional Wall Street banks with cutting-edge technology, aggressive hiring strategies and lower regulatory burdens. In 2Q alone, Jane Street generated more than $10 billion in net trading revenue, eclipsing all of Wall Street's banks including JPMorgan and Goldman S...

For all the doomsaying about US President Donald Trump's trade and economic policies, the world's biggest economy has held up relatively well, at least on the surface. Markets are up, trade demand remains firm and the Federal Reserve is moving toward interest rate cuts, which could spur more activity.

But Steven Okun, founder and CEO of APAC Advisors, warns that the worst is yet to come. Global exports that surged in the run-up to ...

The Genius Act in the US and a new regulatory framework in Hong Kong have helped legitimize stablecoins, potentially setting the stage for increased usage. The two largest issuers of dollar-backed stablecoins, Tether and Circle, hold more than $270 billion in US treasuries. At least one person – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – sees that rising to $2 trillion.

This should reinforce the dollar's role as the world's ...

China's consumers are a powerful force – the world's second-biggest spenders after the US. Officials want to harness this to transform the nation into a "mega-sized consumer powerhouse," and there are some initial signs of success with increased spending on home appliances, toys and jewelry.

But how sustainable is this uptick in conspicuous consumption, and how much should investors worry about the Chinese consumer being fund...

US tariffs are seen as broadly inflationary at home and disinflationary abroad, so countries across Asia – where central banks have already begun a cycle of easing – face increased pressure on economic growth and prices.

The levies loom at a time when China is mired in deflation, and Japan is trying to reinflate prices that are also weak in other Asian economies. Should investors be worried about disinflation across the...

Advanced semiconductors, the tiny components crucial for everything from smartphones to national defense, are at the heart of US-China geopolitical rivalry. It's no wonder, then, that the US has increasingly restricted China's access to these chips, while Beijing fights back with its own trade barriers.

So where are we in the great chip war? Why are they so important and difficult to make? And what are the prospects for new allianc...

China has a near monopoly on rare earths due to decades of government foresight. The country controls 70% of mining and nearly all processing of the vital minerals used in cars, data centers and defense equipment. It's one of the biggest cards China can play in trade talks with the US.

When China restricted its flow of rare earths to the US earlier this year, companies shuddered. Ford had to stop production at some plants. How did ...