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Saudi Communications Minister Meets US Commerce Secretary for Talks on Strengthening Partnerships

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. (SPA)
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Saudi Communications Minister Meets US Commerce Secretary for Talks on Strengthening Partnerships

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha held talks in Washington on Tuesday with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as part of efforts to deepen partnerships in the digital economy, artificial intelligence, and advanced technologies.

The officials discussed advancing partnerships, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, and enabling public-private partnerships in both countries, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

The efforts aim to build an integrated digital economic ecosystem that supports sustainable growth and boosts knowledge and technology exchange between the Kingdom and the US.

Alswaha later met at the White House with Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios.

The meeting discussed developing joint innovation policies, supporting science and modern technologies, and exploring opportunities to accelerate innovation in future-oriented fields.

Saudi Ambassador to the US Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz attended the meetings.

In a separate meeting, Alswaha met with Special Advisor for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Crypto David Sacks.

The talks focused on strengthening the Saudi-US strategic partnership in AI, technology and innovation, and on exploring opportunities to accelerate the innovation ecosystem and bolster both countries’ leadership in advanced technologies.

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Technology

Samsung Electronics Denies Report That It Is Exploring US Listing

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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Samsung Electronics Denies Report That It Is Exploring US Listing

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's store in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. (Reuters)

Samsung Electronics denied on Tuesday a report that it was in the early stages of exploring a potential US offering of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

"Samsung Electronics is not reviewing the possibility of issuing American Depositary ‌Receipts," a ‌Samsung spokesperson said in ‌a ⁠statement.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg ⁠News reported that Samsung has held preliminary discussions with banks, but has not yet made a decision about whether to proceed, ⁠citing people familiar ‌with the matter, ‌adding that the discussions might ‌not result in a listing.

The ‌South Korean chipmaker previously reviewed the possibility of an ADR offering before ultimately deciding against ‌it, though the successful US listing of SK ⁠Hynix has ⁠given Samsung fresh motivation to revisit the idea, the report said.

Last week, rival SK Hynix priced its ADRs at $149 each, raising about $26.5 billion in the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company.

Technology

China Smartphone Shipments Fall for Fifth Straight Quarter as Costs Rise

A customer looks at a new Huawei Pura 70 series smartphone, as the series models go on sale at a Huawei's flagship store in Beijing, China April 18, 2024. (Reuters)
A customer looks at a new Huawei Pura 70 series smartphone, as the series models go on sale at a Huawei's flagship store in Beijing, China April 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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China Smartphone Shipments Fall for Fifth Straight Quarter as Costs Rise

A customer looks at a new Huawei Pura 70 series smartphone, as the series models go on sale at a Huawei's flagship store in Beijing, China April 18, 2024. (Reuters)
A customer looks at a new Huawei Pura 70 series smartphone, as the series models go on sale at a Huawei's flagship store in Beijing, China April 18, 2024. (Reuters)

China's smartphone shipments fell 4.3% to 66 million units in the second quarter from a year earlier, as many manufacturers hiked prices to ‌reflect rising memory ‌and component costs, research firm ‌IDC ⁠said on Tuesday.

It ⁠was the fifth straight quarterly decline, and first-half shipments were down 4.2% from a year earlier.

Huawei Technologies and Apple were the only vendors to post growth in the quarter, with shipments up 19.4% and 24.4%, ⁠respectively.

"Huawei and Apple held their ‌prices steady while ‌competitors were raising theirs, and that gave hesitant buyers ‌a reason to go ahead and purchase ‌in a quarter when most of the market was giving them a reason to wait," said Arthur Guo, a senior analyst at IDC China.

Huawei ‌ranked first with a 22.6% market share, while Apple came second with ⁠an ⁠18.1% share. Xiaomi , which ranked fifth, saw its second-quarter shipments down 21.7%, with Oppo and Vivo seeing shipments fall 9.7% and 11.4%, respectively.

Most Android vendors raised prices or cut back on budget models in response to surging memory chips and other component costs, discouraging consumers from upgrading. The fading effect of government subsidies also removed a prop that had supported demand in earlier quarters, IDC said.

Technology

Meta Expands Louisiana Data Center to 5 Gigawatts Compute Capacity

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta at the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, US, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta at the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, US, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo
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Meta Expands Louisiana Data Center to 5 Gigawatts Compute Capacity

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta at the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, US, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta at the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, US, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole/File Photo

Meta said ‌on Monday its data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana will expand to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, in a bid to support the social media company's AI ambitions.

Since breaking ground in December 2024, local Louisiana businesses have received more than $1.6 billion ‌in contracts from Meta, ‌the company said.

Here ‌are ⁠some details:

* Meta ⁠said that the data center expansion is an investment of more than $50 billion in the Richland Parish region.

* Last year, US President Donald Trump ⁠had said the company's data ‌center project ‌would cost $50 billion.

* With this ‌expansion, the company said it ‌plans to invest over $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water and wastewater systems.

* Meta, like its ‌Big Tech peers, has been pouring billions of dollars into ⁠AI ⁠data centers and computing power, as demand continues to outstrip supply.

* The company has pledged to invest $600 billion in US infrastructure and jobs over the next three years, as it builds out massive data centers to power CEO Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive bets on AI agent technologies.