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Chinese smartphone maker Oppo in weekly AI talks with Google, Microsoft

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Chinese smartphone company Oppo ranks second in mainland China, and fourth worldwide, according to Canalys.

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BEIJING — Chinese smartphone company Oppo is doubling down on artificial intelligence as it holds weekly talks about AI with senior management at Google and Microsoft in the run-up to the launch of its flagship phone overseas.

The collaborations are part of the race to find the next artificial intelligence application. The rise of generative AI — tech that can produce human-like responses when prompted — has companies from Apple to Honeywell rushing to tap its capabilities.

“Google will also come to China to ask us, what needs and pain points do you have with your products? Let’s solve them together,” Billy Zhang, president of Oppo’s overseas market, sales and services, told reporters last week at the company’s office in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

“We know consumers’ needs, and we will use AI to satisfy [them],” Zhang said. The company is expanding further in Europe, but does not have immediate plans for the U.S., he said.

Oppo, which owns the OnePlus brand too, said it derives around 60% of its revenue from Southeast Asia, Europe and other overseas markets. The company ranked fourth globally in terms of smartphone shipments in the third quarter, making up 9% of all units shipped, according to Canalys. Samsung and Apple were tied for the first spot, followed by Xiaomi.

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While the U.S. leads in terms of AI capabilities, experts suggest Chinese companies will have an edge when it comes to consumer applications of the tech. That’s despite U.S. restrictions on exports of high-end chips to China.

Oppo has said its forthcoming flagship smartphone will be equipped with AI writing and recording summary tools from Google’s Gemini, and content generation features from Microsoft. Microsoft employs OpenAI products such as ChatGPT.

It was not immediately clear to what extent existing Oppo models use AI tools from the two tech companies. Oppo has yet to announce when its flagship phone will be available globally.

AI smartphones set for growth

Oppo in June announced it plans to integrate generative AI in 50 million of its devices this year. Its existing AI tools allow touching up photos — such as removing window reflections. Oppo also has a ChatGPT-like bot.

In addition to partnerships, Oppo said it has developed its own AI models since 2020 and opened an AI center in February.

“We are very optimistic about AI and have invested with great determination,” Zhang said. “AI is the most important area for tech in the future. All industries can be transformed by AI.”

Counterpoint Research predicts shipments of generative AI smartphones will skyrocket to 732 million in 2028 from 46 million last year, according to a whitepaper published Wednesday. The report did not specify how complex those generative AI features would be.

Apple next week is due to publicly release its first software update with AI tools. A subsequent update will allow removing unwanted elements in photos, and integration with ChatGPT, the iPhone maker said Wednesday.

Chinese smartphone company Honor on Wednesday revealed the next version of its operating system that can use AI to mimic actions on a touchscreen, such as opening an app to order coffee delivery.

Tech for production efficiency

Oppo plans to integrate AI into its factories, which are increasingly automated, Zhang said. “Today, automation improves quality and stability, lowers production costs and increases unit yield.”

At a production line for an entry-level smartphone in Dongguan, near Shenzhen, Oppo has this year replaced about 8% of the workers with machines, and moved those employees to work on more complex, higher-end phones.

Other companies have announced plans to integrate generative AI with the industrial sector. Honeywell this week announced a deal with Google’s Gemini to create AI assistants for factory workers and systems.

Oppo is rolling out its digital management system to its factories in seven other countries, starting with India and Indonesia. The company also produces phones in Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil and Egypt.

“Since our manufacturing process is largely digitalized and standardized, growing and expanding to global markets is much easier,” Danny Du, director of manufacturing management at Oppo told CNBC.

Oppo has cut its manufacturing costs by nearly 40% over three years, Du said, adding that technological integration with factory machines and systems has cut production time to six days, from 16. He said that allows Oppo to respond more quickly to market orders, instead of relying on longer-term forecasts that come with the risk of unsold inventory.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Eric Rosenbaum contributed to this report.

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Biggest banks planning to sue the Federal Reserve over annual stress tests

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A general view of the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, United States.

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The biggest banks are planning to sue the Federal Reserve over the annual bank stress tests, according to a person familiar with the matter. A lawsuit is expected this week and could come as soon as Tuesday morning, the person said.

The Fed’s stress test is an annual ritual that forces banks to maintain adequate cushions for bad loans and dictates the size of share repurchases and dividends.

After the market close on Monday, the Federal Reserve announced in a statement that it is looking to make changes to the bank stress tests and will be seeking public comment on what it calls “significant changes to improve the transparency of its bank stress tests and to reduce the volatility of resulting capital buffer requirements.”

The Fed said it made the determination to change the tests because of “the evolving legal landscape,” pointing to changes in administrative laws in recent years. It didn’t outline any specific changes to the framework of the annual stress tests.

While the big banks will likely view the changes as a win, it may be too little too late.

Also, the changes may not go far enough to satisfy the banks’ concerns about onerous capital requirements. “These proposed changes are not designed to materially affect overall capital requirements, according to the Fed.

The CEO of BPI (Bank Policy Institute), Greg Baer, which represents big banks like JPMorgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, welcomed the Fed announcement, saying in a statement “The Board’s announcement today is a first step towards transparency and accountability.”

However, Baer also hinted at further action: “We are reviewing it closely and considering additional options to ensure timely reforms that are both good law and good policy.”

Groups like the BPI and the American Bankers Association have raised concerns about the stress test process in the past, claiming that it is opaque, and has resulted in higher capital rules that hurt bank lending and economic growth.

In July, the groups accused the Fed of being in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, because it didn’t seek public comment on its stress scenarios and kept supervisory models secret.

CNBC’s Hugh Son contributed to this report.

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