Morning Brief: Top Stories Dominating Financial Media on Friday, March 25

Benzinga

Nio’s Plan To Double R&D Spend This Year Is Big Take For The EV Maker: Analyst

• Nio Inc’s NIO plan to more than double its R&D spend this year is a big step up for the electric vehicle maker, US Tiger Securities analyst Bo Pei told Benzinga on Friday.
• Nio said on Friday it sees 2022 as a year of acceleration and plans to more than double its Research a Development (R&D) investment towards new technology and product development for 2023.

Whales Send $152M Bitcoin To Coinbase In Series Of Rapid Transfers

• A series of high-value Bitcoin BTC transfers to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN on Thursday.
• According to data from blockchain wallet tracker Whale Alert, 2,000 BTC worth $85.6 million was sent to Coinbase from an unknown wallet.

Apple Says Epic Games Lost Trial Due To Failure In Proving Wrongdoing

• Apple Inc. AAPL said Thursday that Epic Games Inc. lost its antitrust lawsuit trial against the tech giant last year due to the “Fortnite” videogame maker’s failure to prove wrongdoing.
• Apple said Thursday in a new brief filed with an appeals court that Epic Games did not lose the trial due to legal errors on the judge’s part.
• The iPhone maker urged the court to uphold Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ ruling in September, which did not find the Tim Cook-led company as an antitrust monopolist and was largely ruled in its favor.

BP To Inject £1B In UK Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

• BP plc BP has announced a £1 billion investment for the U.K. electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure over ten (10) years.
• The investment, which will see a tripling of charging points by 2030, was unveiled during an official visit by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to BP pulse’s UK headquarters in Milton Keynes.

CNBC

Russia-Ukraine Crisis Could Further Jeopardize Ongoing Semiconductor Chip Crisis

• Russia’s war in Ukraine could hamper the production of neon, a critical gas in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, further aggravating the semiconductor chip crisis.
• Neon is fundamental for the lasers in a chip production process known as lithography, very vital for Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSNLF, Intel Corp INTC, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd TSM.
• CNBC notes that a handful of companies in Ukraine, including Ingas, Cryoin, and Iceblick, account for more than 50% of the global neon production as per an analyst.

Reuters

After US, Big Tech Sees More Trouble From EU: Reuters

• E.U.’s latest bill on Big Tech imposed a penalty of 10% of a company’s annual global turnover to 20% for repeat offenders who could face an acquisition ban.
• The companies assigned as online gatekeepers would have six months to comply.
• The Digital Markets Act will likely be effective by October.

Volkswagen Forced To Defer EV launch Due To Ukraine War Bottleneck

• Volkswagen AG VWAGY looked to postpone the launch of its ID.5 electric car by a month.
• Volkswagen’s Zwickau plant produced the ID.5. Supply bottlenecks caused by the Ukraine war led to a production halt and were due to resume next week.
• Volkswagen now aimed to release it in the first week of May due to wire harness supply disruption in Ukraine.

Boeing May Not Win Certification For 737 MAX 10 By Year-End, Warns FAA

• The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned Boeing Co BA earlier this week that it might not gain certification of a lengthened version of the 737 MAX ahead of a key safety deadline set by Congress, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
• According to the source, Ian Won, acting manager of the FAA aviation safety office that oversees Boeing, asked the U.S. planemaker in a letter dated March 21 to provide a “mature certification schedule.” Won also sought updates on progress for both the 737 MAX 10 and 777-9.

US, EU Ink Deal As Europe Explores Options To Cut Russian Gas

• U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the formation of a task force to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian oil.
• The U.S. will supply 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European Union in 2022.
• Russia supplies 41% of the European Union’s gas needs, amounting to 155 bcm.

WSJ

President Biden Says US Will Respond If Russia Uses Chemical Weapons In Ukraine

• U.S. officials said that President Biden had embraced a longstanding U.S. approach of using the threat of a potential nuclear response to deter conventional and other non-nuclear dangers and nuclear ones.
• During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden promised to work toward a policy in which the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal would be to deter or respond to an enemy nuclear attack.
• The new decision, made under pressure from allies, holds that the “fundamental role” of the U.S. nuclear arsenal will be to deter nuclear attacks.

Bloomberg

Instacart Cuts Valuation By 40%

• American grocery company Instacart Inc has slashed its valuation by 40% to about $24 billion.
• The food-delivery startup had been valued at $39 billion in its most recent fundraising round, the report added.
• The pandemic darling hoped the move to boost talent retention.

Apple Weighs Hardware Subscription For iPhones

• Apple Inc AAPL is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products.
• Apple’s move could make device ownership similar to paying a monthly app fee similar to Peloton Interactive Inc PTON.
• A Bernstein analyst pitched the idea in 2016, saying that it could help Apple get to a $1 trillion market valuation.

Boeing 737 Passenger Jet China Crash New Evidence Suggests Midair Breakup

• In the recent findings, it has been discovered that at least one piece of the Boeing Co. BA 737-800 that crashed in China appears to have broken loose well before impact.
• The piece was found about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the main wreckage area, stated Chinese officials at a briefing Thursday.

Financial times

Goldman Sachs Pauses Relations With Sanctioned Oligarch Linked PE Firm

• Goldman Sachs Group GS and Kirkland & Ellis halted new business with Pamplona Capital Management.
• Sanctioned oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne investment group accounted for 80% of the funds of the $9 billion private equity firm.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons