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On January 27th, Micron Technology (MU.O) announced a $24 billion investment over the next decade in Singapore to expand its manufacturing capacity amid a memory chip shortage caused by artificial intelligence. According to a company statement, the Boise, Idaho-based chipmaker will use the funds to build a new NAND flash memory factory. The company said Tuesday that the new investment will create approximately 1,600 jobs, with wafer production expected to begin in the second half of 2028. The new factory will incorporate artificial intelligence and automation. In early 2025, Micron had already announced a $7 billion investment over the next few years to expand its manufacturing scale in Singapore to meet the demand for advanced memory chips needed to train artificial intelligence.

On January 27th, UOB Kay Hian issued a research report stating that China Merchants Bank (03968.HK) is expected to see a 1.2% year-on-year increase in net profit to RMB 150.2 billion in 2025, exceeding both the bank's and market forecasts. This is mainly due to improved net interest income and a continued narrowing of the year-on-year decline in non-net interest income. China Merchants Bank expects its revenue to remain stable year-on-year last year; ROE is expected to fall by 105 basis points to 13.4%. The report mentions that China Merchants Bank's provision coverage ratio has plummeted to below 400%, possibly due to stricter bad debt recognition standards and accelerated disposal of non-performing assets. Despite this, China Merchants Bank's provision coverage ratio remains above its peers. The bank maintains its "Hold" rating on China Merchants Bank but lowers its target price from HKD 52 to HKD 49 to reflect the latest earnings revisions and lower long-term ROE forecasts. The bank raised its 2025 earnings forecast for China Merchants Bank by 1%, but lowered its 2026 and 2027 forecasts by 2.9% and 1.1%, respectively.

Samsung Electronics shares rose 3%.

January 27 - Today, senior executives of CITIC Group spoke at the Asian Financial Forum, stating that the group will actively participate in the construction of the entire industry chain of the Hong Kong gold market.

On January 27th, at the "Star Computing & Intelligent Connectivity" Space Computing Power Seminar organized by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), Wang Yabo, Executive Vice President of Guoxing Aerospace, revealed that in November 2025, Guoxing Aerospace will deploy the Qwen3 large-scale model to the "Star Computing" Project 01 Space Computing Center. This is the world's first time that a general-purpose large-scale model has been transferred from the ground to an in-orbit satellite, achieving in-orbit deployment.

January 27th - The 51st House of Representatives election in Japan was announced on the 27th, with voting and vote counting scheduled for February 8th, officially kicking off the 12-day election campaign. This election will contest 465 seats, including 289 single-member constituencies and 176 proportional representation seats. NHK reported that as of the 26th, over 1,200 people had expressed their intention to run.

January 27 - On the morning of January 27, President Xi Jinping will meet with Finnish Prime Minister Orpo, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

January 27th - According to the official WeChat account of Tencent Cloud, Tencent Sogou Input Method has updated to version 20.0, officially announcing its full AI integration. In this version, model-level upgrades have been completed for the three core scenarios: voice, typing, and translation.

January 27th - The Sixth Session of the Eighth People's Congress of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, opened today. It was announced at the meeting that Nanshan District will successfully become a trillion-yuan city by 2025. In his government work report, Nanshan District Mayor Li Xiaoning stated that compared to 652.7 billion yuan at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Nanshan's economic scale has crossed four 100-billion-yuan thresholds in five years, with an average annual growth rate of over 5.8%. Nanshan District has become the first prefecture-level city district in my country to surpass one trillion yuan in GDP. Nanshan District is an important center for technological innovation and industrial manufacturing in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with its economic output even exceeding that of some European countries. Xiang Tianye, Director of the Nanshan District Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, said that Nanshan currently has over 20 robot assembly companies, over 200 upstream and downstream enterprises, and over 1,000 large-scale artificial intelligence enterprises.

The yield on Japan's 20-year government bond rose 4.0 basis points to 3.205%.

On January 27th, CNBC reported that local officials have approved Microsoft's (MSFT.O) plans to build 15 additional data centers in Pleasant Hills, Wisconsin, near the company's existing data center expansion area. The new data center capacity will allow Microsoft to recognize revenue already booked from OpenAI and other clients. Amazon, Google, and Oracle are racing with Microsoft to build data centers equipped with Nvidia chips to train and run generative artificial intelligence models. Finding suitable locations for these facilities has been challenging because utility companies cannot always provide the necessary energy. Furthermore, residents living near potential data center sites are increasingly putting up opposition. Homeowners and officials in Pleasant Hills have generally welcomed Microsoft's expansion in the village. Microsoft can now submit final civil engineering plans and apply for building permits.

Market news: The state of Wisconsin has approved Microsoft's (MSFT.O) plan to build 15 new data centers near the company's existing data center expansion area.

Sources say Micron Technology (MU.O) will announce as early as Tuesday its investment in building a memory chip manufacturing facility in Singapore.

On January 27th, the highest 7-day annualized yield of Tencent Wealth Management's "Current Account +" was 1.4900%, and the lowest was 0.8640%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of WeChat Pay's "Lingqian Tong" was 1.1360%, and the lowest was 1.0330%. The highest 7-day annualized yield of Alipay's "Yu'ebao" was 1.2020%, and the lowest was 1.0060%.

Hong Kong-listed insurance stocks rallied in early trading, with AIA Group (01299.HK) up 2.35%, China Life Insurance (02628.HK) up 1.8%, and Prudential (02378.HK), PICC Group (01339.HK), and China Taiping (00966.HK) all rising more than 1%.

January 27th - A new customs supervision model for multimodal transport officially came into effect today. The General Administration of Customs decided to launch a pilot program for multimodal transport supervision of import and export goods, including sea-rail intermodal transport and water-to-water transshipment, building upon previous pilot programs for export road-rail intermodal transport. This aims to further improve the facilitation of customs clearance for international multimodal transport goods and construct a comprehensive "land, sea, and air" international logistics corridor.

The China Earthquake Networks Center officially reported that a 5.6-magnitude earthquake occurred at 09:20 on January 27 in Java, Indonesia (8.01 degrees south latitude, 111.26 degrees east longitude), with a focal depth of 120 kilometers.

Jiufang Smart Investment Holdings (09636.HK) rose 14.97%. The company recently announced that it has approved a share repurchase program for no more than 10% of its issued shares (excluding treasury shares).