FSC to keep fund going
In a bid to bail out failed financial institutions, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Wednesday that the government's collection of financial business taxes will be prolonged until the end of 2010 to help top up the Financial Restructuring Fund. This will generate an estimated NT$125 billion over the next five to six years, for injection into the fund, Gary Tseng (曾國烈), head of the commission's banking bureau, said at a press briefing. The NT$140 billion-restructuring fund was established in June 2002 and has been used to bail out 46 problem banks. But the fund's capital had dwindled to NT$11 billion as of last October, Tseng said.
Bargain-hunting boosts TAIEX
Shares ended flat yesterday but rebounded from their worst low since January after suspected government fund buying and bargain hunting, dealers said. The TAIEX finished 0.70 points higher, or 0.01 percent, at 6,019.49 in dealings valued at NT$62.86 billion (US$2 billion). During trading, the bourse dropped to 5,970.20, its worst performance since it fell to 5,900.37 Jan. 31. But brisk buying in technology sector lifted the main index, dealers said.
NT dollar ends losing streak
The New Taiwan dollar gained, snapping an eight-day slide. The NT dollar advanced NT$0.021 to NT$31.369 against its US counterpart, after trading as low as NT$31.491, the weakest since Feb. 22, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency also rose after central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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