■ Computers
Notebooks outsell PCs in US
In a sure sign that the era of mobile computing has arrived, notebooks have for the first time outsold desktops in the US in a calendar month, the research firm Current Analysis says. After tracking sales from a sampling of electronics retailers, Current Analysis says notebook sales accounted for 53 percent of the total personal computer market last month, up from 46 percent during the same period last year. San Diego-based Current Analysis does not follow worldwide personal computer sales. Spurring demand for notebooks is their overall price drop as quality has improved, says Sam Bhavnani, senior analyst for Current Analysis. Notebook prices fell 17 percent during the past year while desktop prices dipped only 4 percent.
■ Electronics
HannStar mulls merger
HannStar Display Corp (瀚羽彩晶) may seek to merge with rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) or Innolux Display Corp (群創光電), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported, citing unidentified people in the industry. The Walsin Lihwa Group (華新麗華集團), which controls HannStar, plans to sell some of its businesses, the newspaper cited Walsin Lihwa Corp chairman Chiao You-lun (焦佑倫) as saying. HannStar Display, Innolux, and Chi Mei all declined to comment, the newspaper said. HannStar Display, Taiwan's fifth-largest maker of flat-panel displays by market value, had a NT$4.5 billion (US$144 million) loss in the first quarter. Innolux Display is a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's largest electronics company by sales.
■ Banking
Japan increases lending
Japan's seven biggest lenders are increasing loans to real-estate businesses as land prices in metropolitan area have stopped falling, boosting construction, the Nihon Keizai reported, citing the Bank of Japan. New loans to the real-estate industry by domestic banks jumped 15.3 percent to ?8.17 trillion (US$75.9 billion) in the fiscal year ended on March 31, the newspaper said. The increase is driven by so-called nonrecourse loans, a type of lending that is restricted to a specific real estate business, the paper said. The balance of nonrecourse loans held by Japan's seven biggest lenders topped ?4 trillion (US$37.1 billion) at the end of March, an increase of 50 percent on the year, the paper said. Under nonrecourse loans, funds are provided for a specific real-estate project, and repayment is limited to the profits generated by that particular venture, putting the focus on profitability from rent and other income, the paper said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is