What's in this episode:

• TOP BIT: US Sanctions Turn China’s AI Chip Star into a Billionaire
  • Cambricon's founder Chen Tianshi has seen his fortune surge to $23 billion USD.
  • Stock Surge: Share price up over 765% in 24 months after being pushed onto the US Entity List in 2022.
  • Revenue Boom: Q3 revenue hit $240 million USD and net profit reached $78 million USD (a 500%+ increase year-over-year).
  • The US chip ban and Beijing’s "buy local" policy redirect orders to domestic suppliers like Cambricon, despite a technology gap with Nvidia's ecosystem.
• NUMBER OF THE DAY: 491.000
  • The percentage of China-Japan flight bookings canceled since the start of the diplomatic dispute.
  • This cancellation wave risks shaving up to 0.5 percentage points off Japan’s GDP and is pushing tourism back to Covid-era levels.
• MARKET BIT: L’Oréal Buys into China’s Skincare Boom
  • L’Oréal takes a minority stake in "clean-beauty" label LAN (following an earlier $62 million USD stake in Chando).
  • This shortcut strategy counters the $75 billion USD "C-Beauty Boom," where local brands are rapidly gaining market share against foreign competitors.
  • The goal is to stabilize L’Oréal China's business, which grew 3% in Q3, by tapping into local speed and mass-market access without cannibalizing core brands.
• HEAD OF THE DAY: Chen Tianshi 
  • The Cambricon founder whose net worth is now $23 billion USD, a visible leader of the new generation of Chinese chipmakers.
  • His early AI chip vision was once rejected for funding and called "fantasy."
•  Highlights:
  • Goldman Sachs is in exclusive talks to buy Burger King Japan for about $452 million USD.
  • European PE firm EQT plans to triple its Asia investments to $110 billion USD over five years, challenging KKR and Blackstone.
  • Luckin Coffee reports Q3 revenue growth of 50% to €1.8 billion and record 110 million monthly active customers, but downplays US relisting plans.
• Country Reads: AirAsia X uses Istanbul to reach Europe; Samsung hikes memory chip prices by up to 60%; Vietnam and Germany deepen high-tech alliance.

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