■ Securities
Analyst fined over rumor
The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) fined an analyst US$75,000 for circulating "a false and sensational rumor" about RF Micro Devices Inc, the first time the regulator has disciplined an analyst for rumor-mongering. Walter Piecyk called or sent instant messages to at least eight clients on Aug. 22, 2002, with a bearish rumor that chipmaker RF Micro was delaying shipments to Nokia Corp, its biggest client, the NASD said. "As he circulated the rumor, Piecyk sold short a total of 3,000 shares" of RF Micro, earning a profit of US$7,815 when he closed his position more than a month later, the NASD said. RF Micro subsequently denied the rumor, but the company's stock fell about 10 percent in morning trading, which the NASD said was "due at least in part to the rumor." The NASD also censured Piecyk for failing to conduct a reasonable inquiry into whether the rumor was true.
■ Technology
HP combines printing, PCs
Hewlett-Packard Co has combined its printing unit with its personal-computer division, helping end speculation that the technology giant would follow competitors in spinning off divisions. The move aims to strengthen the company's market position and get new products out faster, the company said on Friday. In December, Hewlett-Packard Chairman Carly Fiorina said the company's board had three times considered breaking up the technology giant, but decided its diversified portfolio of printers, computers, digital cameras, servers and information-technology services helped it weather fluctuations in the cyclical technology sector. Palo Alto-based HP named Vyomesh Joshi head of the newly created division. Joshi currently leads the printing unit, the company's most profitable.
■ Automakers
Sales soar in western Europe
Western European car sales jumped by 7.7 percent on the year last month, due to higher demand in Germany, the Association of European Auto Manufacturers (ACEA) said on Friday. Registrations of new cars, which mirror sales, totaled 1.04 million vehicles in 15 western EU countries, including non-EU countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The number of cars sold in December 2003 stood at 968,855. "While calendar effects this time had a positive influence, this result points to an encouraging end of the year," the ACEA said. In Germany, December car registrations rose 21.5 percent over 2003, reaching 281,749 after 231,985 a year ago. Denmark and Sweden also posted gains of more than 20 percent. For the whole of last year, the ACEA reported a 2.1 percent increase for newly registered cars, reaching 14.51 million, compared with 14.21 million in 2003.
■ Low-cost carriers
Singapore awards contract
A contract to build a terminal at Singapore's Changi Airport for low-cost carriers was awarded to Sanchoon Builders, the Civil Aviation Authority announced yesterday. The terminal, to be made up of two adjacent single-storey buildings connected via linkways, is scheduled for completion early next year. Four low-cost carriers are currently using Changi. They are Valuair, Tiger Airlines, Jet Star and Thai AirAsia. The terminal will have an initial capacity of 2.7 million passengers a year, the authority said in a statement. The S$24.7 million (US$15 million) contract stipulates construction work to begin during the first quarter of this year.
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)