Taiwan stocks rose for a third day, led by AU Optronics Corp (
"The lower-than-expected discount reflects market optimism in the company and the industry," said Yu Wei-kuo, who manages NT$130 million (US$4 million) at Polaris Investment Trust Co (
The TWSE Index surged 156.44, or 2.8 percent, to 5706.40, its highest one-day percentage gain since March 11. Within the index, about 26 stocks rose for each one that fell. The total value of trade was NT$87.4 billion, the highest this week, but still almost three-tenths below the six-month daily average of NT$123 billion.
At forex market, the New Taiwan dollar finished NT$0.031 lower against its US counterpart yesterday to close at NT$34.414. The turnover totalled US$640 million, compared with the previous day's US$454 million.
AU Optronics rose NT$2.90, or 7 percent, to NT$44.50 after it raised US$578.5 million from an overseas share sale at a 4.5 percent discount to its local share price.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) rose NT$2, or 1.7 percent, to NT$121. Taiwan's largest computer-motherboard maker forecasts profit margin in the second quarter will not narrow from the previous quarter as the company increases production in China and introduces more profitable products such as hand-held computers, a Chinese-language newspaper reported.
Benq Corp (明電) rose NT$4.50, or 6.7 percent, to NT$72. Benq, which makes mobile phones for Motorola Inc and is Taiwan's largest supplier of the handsets, forecast handset shipments in the second quarter would rise 30 percent from the previous quarter to at least 4 million units.
Benq's current president Lee Kun-yao (
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to