■ New outlet for Breeze Center
Breeze Center (微風廣場) announced yesterday that its second outlet, next to the MRT Zhongxiao-Dunhua station, will be inaugurated today. The building, formerly known as the ATT shopping center, changed hands as the original leasing contract with the landlord, Union Bank of Taiwan (
■ MOEA to help small firms
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday launched a project aimed at helping small- and medium-sized businesses improve their digital capabilities to narrow the digital gap between industrial sectors. The project will be implemented in collaboration with local Internet firms and is scheduled to run from 2005 to 2008. It aims to help 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses establish broadband networking and 150,000 others employ e-commerce, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said during the launching ceremony in Kaohsiung. The project is expected to create business opportunities worth NT$7.3 billion (US$233.22 million) a year and will enhance the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized businesses, Ho said.
■ Foreign investment soars
Net foreign remittance to the stock market totaled US$3.361 billion last month, or the second-largest amount in a single month, next only to February's US$3.748 billion, according to the Securities and Futures Bureau. The commission said that since the government allowed foreigners to invest in the stock market in December 1990, net foreign remittance has reached US$91.034 billion. ■ BenQ targets Brazilian market
BenQ Corp (明基電通) plans to enter Brazil's portable computer market by the end of the year, Valor Economico reported. Electronic notebooks will be produced on the company's behalf in Manaus, Brazil, by Elgin SA, the newspaper cited Orlando Sodre, director of BenQ's Brazilian unit, as saying. BenQ also plans to enter the country's mobile telephone market and is studying the possibility of producing projectors and liquid crystal monitors in the country as well, the newspaper said.
■ Motherboard exports rise
Exports of desktop PC motherboards and computer cards made by companies in China and Taiwan are expected to total US$6.4 billion this year -- a 21 percent increase compared to last year, the media firm Global Sources said yesterday in a report. Taiwanese firms will continue to be the top suppliers of motherboards in the near- and mid-term, said Mark Saunderson, the report's publisher.
"But mainland China companies are significantly increasing their production capabilities," he said. Global Sources operates an online business-to-business market for import and export traders.
■ NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, losing NT$0.039 to close at NT$31.308 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$684 million, down from US$801 million on Wednesday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six