Why Chinese companies are flocking to Mexico - The Economist   

Chinese investments have been pouring into Mexico lately. Last month alone brought two notable ones. The government of Nuevo León, a northern state bordering the United States, announced that China’s Lingong Machinery Group, which makes diggers and other construction equipment, would build a factory that it estimates will generate $5bn dollars in investment. The same day Trina Solar, a solar-panel manufacturer, said it would invest up to $1bn in the state. Both companies and their corporate compatriots can now find a home away from home at Hofusan, a Chinese-Mexican industrial park in Nuevo León.

Chinese companies’ heightened interest in Mexico dates to 2018 when Donald Trump, America’s president at the time, launched a trade war that included raising tariffs on imports from China. His successor, Joe Biden, has kept the tariffs in place. Mr Biden’s own America-first policies, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, are encouraging companies to consider “nearshoring” in North America, in large part to thwart China. The pandemic and the snarl-ups in supply chains it caused also pushed manufacturers to move closer to the American market. And setting up in Mexico has begun to look cheaper, as wages and other costs in China rise.

Mexico has tried to lure Chinese money before. The Mexico-China Chamber of Commerce and Technology organised events in 2008 to encourage the flow of capital but they were unsuccessful, says the chamber’s César Fragoz; back then China had no need to use Mexico as a way into America, which had yet to turn its back on Chinese companies. “The irony is that the first to react positively to an explicit policy against China are Chinese firms,” says Enrique Dussel Peters of the Centre for Chinese-Mexican Studies at UNAM, a university in Mexico City.

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Kahlil Gibran on Silence, Solitude, and the Courage to Know Yourself - The Marginalian   

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How Kia pulled off a massive turnaround in the U.S. - CNBC   

Korean carmaker Kia is something of a Cinderella story.

When the automaker arrived in the U.S. in 1994, its cars were poorly reviewed, and it was seen mostly as a low-cost value brand. 

Now, Kia is winning awards and commanding higher markups than its peers. U.S. sales have gone from about 12,000 units in 1994 to almost 700,000 units in 2022.

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Fresh off an Intel investment, Stability AI looks for buyers as investors pressure CEO to resign - Fortune   

Stability AI, the British artificial intelligence startup behind the Stable Diffusion image generator, has explored selling the company as management faces increased pressure from investors over its financial position.

The London-based firm has presented itself as an acquisition target in recent weeks, and held early-stage conversations with multiple companies, according to several people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. A deal is not imminent and the company could cut the process short without selling, they said.

The overtures underscore escalating tensions between Stability, once a venture capital darling, and some of its largest investors. Coatue Management called for Chief Executive Officer Emad Mostaque to step down in a letter to management last month, some of the people said. The demand came just a year after Coatue led a funding round that initially valued the startup at $500 million, according to a person familiar with the deal. Stability secured more funding for the round that ultimately led to a $1 billion valuation.

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