Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, May 14th. I'm Victoria Craig for the Wall Street Journal.

The former chairman of a once high-flying chip conglomerate was convicted in China on corruption charges and given a de facto life sentence.

Zhao Wei Guo, who until 2022 chaired the government-supported Xinghua Un Unigroup was sentenced to death with a two-year

reprieve, according to a state broadcaster. But those penalties are typically commuted to life

imprisonment. Zhao was accused of abusing his power to benefit friends and family, and illegally

acquiring state assets valued at roughly $65 million. He was also charged with arranging improper

transactions that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the company and the

state. Elsewhere, a pause in the U.S.-China trade war is giving a reprieve to Chinese

bargain site, Temu. The company has been slowly adding back items shipped directly from China

after halting shipments in early May due to steep tariffs on small-value goods.

But there's a catch.

Popular items from China are back with a higher price.

A laptop screen protector, according to one product tracker, for example,

will cost you just more than $11.

That's a 16% jump from its original price.

And finally, what's old is new again. Warner Brothers is rebranding its streaming service once more

to HBO Max. It dropped HBO from the brand name in 2023, much to the chagrin of long-time

fans. Over the last year, the company is focused

on entertainment geared toward adults rather than options for all audiences. That, Warner Brothers

hopes, has led the service to sign up more subscribers. At the end of last year, worldwide

subscriptions totaled 117 million. By the end of next year, it projects at least $150 million.

For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Thursday's Tech News Briefing podcast.

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