This week’s stories are about AI, e-commerce and semiconductors

1-Amazon Haul introduced to compete Temu

Amazon has launched a beta version of its new low cost, Amazon Haul, which features all products under $20 as it aims to compete with online retailers who consistently slash the prices, such as the Chinese Temu and Shein.  

Amazon Haul will be a part of the Amazon Shopping app and include products across a range of categories like fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics, and more. The products are all priced under $20, with most under $10, but customers will have to wait to receive them as the delivery times are between one to two weeks, untypically Amazon.

“Finding great products at very low prices is important to customers, and we continue to explore ways that we can work with our selling partners so they can offer products at ultra-low prices,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Services at Amazon.

This comes at a time when brands like Shein and Temu have sneaked up on retailers and gained a strong footing in the market due to the extremely low prices. The Chinese e-commerce giants can offer affordable prices as they employ vendors who ship directly from China to customers worldwide, cutting out the middleman who takes a profit. Amazon says its new approach will be building on a longstanding partnership they have formed with independent sellers who ship directly to customers or use its Fulfillment by Amazon service. (By the way I have a story here about Amazon’s fulfillment center opening in Turkey)

It’s not yet known whether the new website will expand into further countries and when this may be, but Amazon Haul is now rolling out in beta and is available to U.S. customers when they next update their Amazon Shopping app.

2-$166 billion: Global semiconductor sales at Q3 2024

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that global semiconductor sales hit $166.0 billion in the third quarter of 2024, marking a 23.2% increase compared to the same period in 2023 and a 10.7% rise from the previous quarter. September 2024 alone saw a record-breaking monthly total of $55.3 billion, up 4.1% from August’s $53.1 billion, according to SIA.  These figures, compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization, reflect a three-month moving average. Let me note that SIA covers 99% of the U.S. semiconductor market by revenue and nearly two-thirds of the global non-U.S. chip market.

“The global semiconductor market continued its growth trajectory in the third quarter of 2024, with the largest quarter-to-quarter increase since 2016,” said SIA President and CEO John Neuffer. He noted that September’s sales set a new monthly record, bolstered by a significant 46.3% year-over-year growth in the Americas.

Regionally, year-over-year sales in September rose in the Americas (46.3%), China (22.9%), Asia Pacific/All Other (18.4%), and Japan (7.7%), while Europe saw a decline of 8.2%. On a month-to-month basis, September sales grew in Japan (5.3%), Asia Pacific/All Other (4.5%), the Americas (4.1%), Europe (4%), and China (3.6%).

3-Google to establish AI hub in Saudi Arabia

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Google Cloud have announced a partnership to develop a new global AI hub near Dammam, Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. This partnership, revealed during the 8th Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII8), aims to position Saudi Arabia as an AI hub.

Pending regulatory approvals, the partnership will include joint research on Arabic language AI models and applications tailored to Saudi Arabia’s specific needs. The new hub will feature the latest Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators, alongside Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform for building generative AI applications.

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google, commented: “This partnership will accelerate AI adoption in the local language and across sectors such as healthcare, retail, and financial services, benefiting enterprises and startups in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.”

As part of the partnership, PIF and Google Cloud will focus on enhancing Arabic-language capabilities within Google’s Gemini generative AI models. By integrating additional Arabic datasets, local businesses, researchers, and developers can build sophisticated Arabic language AI tools and applications.

Research commissioned by Google Cloud and conducted by Access Partnership, a global tech policy advisory firm, suggests the new AI hub could contribute $71 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP over the next eight years. This initiative builds on Google Cloud’s existing operations in Saudi Arabia, including its Dammam cloud region, which launched last year as part of Google Cloud’s global network of 40 regions.

The cost and the launch date of the project weren’t announced.