The government plans to sell a 3 percent stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
The National Development Fund (
The stake will be sold next year, according to an official at the state-owned fund who declined to give a price or be identified.
The government is planning more asset sales to finance spending as President Chen Shui-bian (
"This would have to pass the legislature," said Michael Ding (丁予嘉), who counts shares in TSMC among the equivalent of US$4.2 billion at International Investment Trust Co (國際投信). "We anticipate this will create some quarrels."
Shares of the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips have surged 69 percent this year as technology shares rebounded worldwide on expectations of increased spending on personal computers and other electronic products. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index of 18 chipmaker stocks has gained 47 percent this year.
The government's sale of an US$822 million stake in TSMC in the US on July 9 didn't halt the rally in the stock, which has risen 10 percent since then. The shares gained NT$0.50, or 0.8 percent, to NT$66.50 on the TAIEX yesterday.
The planned sale of 640 million shares would cut the government's stake in TSMC to 4.6 percent from 7.7 percent, Lee said. The government pared its stake to 9.56 percent in the July sale, after selling a 1.5 percent stake in the company for US$871 million on Feb. 1 last year.
But the management committee of the development fund later yesterday disputed Lee's claim, saying the government plans to sell only about 600 million shares in the chipmaker next year, while the date of the sale will depend on market conditions, the fund said in a statement.
Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (
TSMC used 86 percent of its production capacity in the second quarter, the busiest its plants have been since the fourth quarter of 2000.
Lin said the government considers that its mission to support TSMC in the company's initial stages has been completed and now is the time to divest.
TSMC, which posted a 32.8 percent rise in sales for July and August from a year ago, may use as much as 100 percent of its production capacity in the fourth quarter, Citigroup Inc analyst Andrew Lu (陸行之) said in a report this month.
Based on yesterday's closing price, the shares to be sold would be worth NT$42.6 billion. The government may be able to raise more by selling shares overseas.
Neither Lee nor the development fund official said whether the government plans to sell shares overseas.
Lee said he opposes the TSMC sale because the proceeds will help to finance public spending designed to secure Chen's re-election. The government has increased spending on social welfare at the expense of public works projects, he said.
The government plans to sell other state assets, according to Lee. It aims to raise NT$104 billion next year selling stakes in Taiwan Power Co (
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
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
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