■ TSMC approves expansion
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co's (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors yesterday approved US$1.4 billion in capital appropriation to expand production capacities. TSMC spokesperson Lora Ho (何麗梅) said the board approved US$67.3 million in capital appropriation to expand the capacities of 6-inch and 8-inch fabs, while agreeing to use US$1,334 million to expand the capacity of its 90nm copper process at Fab 12.
■ Koo appoints KGI staffers
China Development Financial Holding Corp (開發金控) president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) appointed several of his former staff at KGI Securities Co (中信證) to take up the company's vice presidencies, according to a statement yesterday. They include Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp (國喬石化) chairman Daniel Wu (吳春台), Chinatrust Venture Capital Corp's chief executive officer David Chen (陳鑫) and Stan Siao (蕭子昂), who doubles as the chairman of its subsidiary Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券).
■ Union Bank promotes credit
Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行), the nation's sixth-largest cash-advance card issuer, yesterday launched its "Lucky 7" promotion to offer cardholders one month free of interest for every seven transactions made. Under the promotion, cardholders can save NT$4,563 in interest payments for every NT$300,000 borrowed in a single month, or NT$50,188 in 11 consecutive months if seven transactions are made every month.
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
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
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)