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SINGAPORE billionaire Goh Cheng Liang has died, Wuthelam Group which he founded, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

“The visionary founder of Wuthelam Group and a respected philanthropist passed away peacefully this morning with family members by his side,” according to the statement.

Goh founded Nippon Paint South East Asia, or Nipsea, which manages Asia Pacific’s biggest paint-making businesses. His stake in the closely held firm was through his Singapore-based investment company, Wuthelam Holdings Pte. His group owns a nearly 60% stake in Nippon Paint Holdings.

Goh, 98, had a net worth of $13.2 billion and was the Asian financial hub’s second-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The family’s other business ventures included a former shopping mall and Mount Elizabeth Hospital, both of which he developed and later sold.

–BLOOMBERG

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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed reports that semiconductor giant Nvidia would pay the United States 15 percent of its revenues from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump argued that Nvidia’s “H20” chips are “obsolete,” despite previously being targeted for export restrictions.

He said that to lift the restrictions, he had agreed to a 15-percent cut from Nvidia: “If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release. I released them only from the H20.”

The California-based company produces some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors but cannot ship its most cutting-edge chips to China due to concerns that Beijing could use them to enhance military capabilities.

Nvidia developed the H20 — a less powerful version of its AI processing units — specifically for export to China.

That plan stalled when the Trump administration tightened export licensing requirements in April.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump at the White House last week and agreed to give the federal government the cut from its revenues, a highly unusual arrangement in the international tech trade, according to reports in the Financial Times, Bloomberg and New York Times.

“While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide,” a Nvidia spokesperson told AFP.

The company spokesperson added: “America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America’s AI tech stack can be the world’s standard if we race.”

Investors are betting that AI will transform the global economy, and last month Nvidia — the world’s most valuable company and a leading designer of high-end AI chips — became the first company ever to hit $4 trillion in market value.

The firm has, however, become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, which are waging a heated battle for dominance to produce the chips that power AI.

Political tariff

The United States has been restricting which chips Nvidia can export to China on national security grounds.

After Huang’s meeting with Trump, the Commerce Department on Friday started granting the licenses for chip sales, according to media reports.

Silicon Valley-based AMD will also pay 15 percent of revenue on Chinese sales of its MI308 chips, which it was previously barred from exporting to the country.

AMD did not respond to requests for comment.

The move comes as the Trump administration has been imposing stiff tariffs, with goals varying from addressing US trade imbalances, wanting to reshore manufacturing, and pressuring foreign governments to change policies.

A 100 percent tariff on many semiconductor imports came into effect last week, with exceptions for tech companies that announce major investments in the United States.

“It’s a political tariff in everything but name, brokered in the shadow of heightened US-China tech tensions,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said. –AFP

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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said Monday he will deploy military and federal law enforcement in Washington as he seeks to curb violent crime in the nation’s capital.

The Republican leader told a White House news conference he plans to place the DC Metropolitan Police under the direct control of the federal government while sending in the National Guard.

The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged — although violent offenses are down.

“This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.

Trump — a convicted felon who has pardoned around 1,500 people involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot in Washington — complained that police and prosecutors aren’t tough enough.

He had repeatedly threatened a federal takeover of the city of 700,000, saying crime in Washington is “totally out of control.”

The new approach echoes Trump’s immigration policies that have effectively sealed the southern border amid mass deportations while deploying active-duty troops against protesters in Los Angeles.

He told reporters he planned to roll out the policy to other crime-ridden cities, spotlighting problems in New York and Chicago.

Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.

Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.

Preliminary data from DC police show significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.

Trump posted on social media ahead of the news conference that he wants to “stop violent crime” and tackle homeless encampments, after signing an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people.

Trump ordered homeless people to “move out” of the city in a Truth Social post on Sunday, vowing to “make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”

He promised individuals “places to stay,” but “FAR from the Capital.” Trump said criminals would be jailed and that it would all happen “very fast.” –AFP

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