US-based Avnet Electronics Marketing, one of the world's largest technology, marketing, distribution and services company, announced yesterday that it will set up a new service center in Taiwan to meet fast-growing demand in Asia.
Avnet Electronics Marketing President Andy Bryant said the company made the decision because it had reached its benchmark goal of US$1 billion in sales last year, representing an annual growth rate of 40 percent.
Avnet is determined to provide the best technology and service to its clients in Asia and the rest of the world by making increased investment in personnel and facilities to satisfy Asia's strong demand.
This includes recruiting 70 frontline workers last year to join the current line-ups in Taiwan and China, Bryant said, noting the opening of the Taiwan service center will bring to 20 the number of its offices in the Greater China area.
Raymond Tsang, head of Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia, said the current Taiwan team has made an outstanding contribution to the company's success in the region.
He added that the mother company will continue to invest in Taiwan in the face of the booming developments in the Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland markets.
Avnet has already opened a logistics hub in Taiwan, one in Hong Kong and three on the mainland, Tsang noted, adding that the five logistics centers have markedly shortened the traffic time of products and provide a sound warehousing environment in Asia.
The five Asian logistics centers, linked with others in the rest of the world, offer Avnet clients, including those in Taiwan, a quick and high-quality service in logistics flow and a warehousing network, Tsang said.
Avnet, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is a leading B2B supplier of interconnections, electro-mechanical and electric components and material logistic services.
Leading world-class companies, such as IBM, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft and HP are among its clientele. Business revenue of its 2003 fiscal year (as of June 30) hit US$9.05 billion.
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