Some Hong Kong AI stocks rose: Zhipu AI (02513.HK) up over 6%; Kingdee International (00268.HK) and Lenovo Group (00992.HK) up over 5%; Cambridge Technology (06166.HK) and GigaDevice (03986.HK) up over 3%.

SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son told shareholders UK chip design firm Arm (ARM.O) will evolve from a designer into a chip provider and that he will personally take part in its manufacturing. He predicted the AI era will be CPU-centric and said Arm still has more than 10x growth potential. Son added SoftBank’s roughly JPY300 billion investment in Intel, once controversial, has generated market-value gains amounting to tens of trillions of yen.

Qatari PM arrived in Muscat on Wednesday to begin talks with Oman that will launch negotiations involving Iran, the GCC and Iraq on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and its future operation, a diplomat said. Gulf states are expected to press for fee-free transit; the diplomat said transit fees are not on the table but Iran may propose charges for environmental, navigation and security services. The Iran–GCC–Iraq talks are distinct from US–Iran peace negotiations and demining arrangements and focus solely on future operational governance of the strait. Iran and Gulf states are also preparing separate regional reconciliation talks in Riyadh.