■ Taiwan leads in nanospending
Taiwan led the world in per capita government research and development spending in nanotechnology last year at US$9.40, nearly twice the amount of per capita spending by the US, which invested US$5.42, according to a report released by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday. Nanotechnology has been applied in various information technology products, including semiconductors and liquid crystal display parts. As of February this year, Taiwan had been issued 12 patents of application of nanotechnology, mostly for carbon nanotube display applications, the report said, citing a study from Lux Research. According to estimates from the Nanotechnology Research Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the annual output of Taiwan's nanotech industry is expected to top NT$1 trillion (US$31.4 billion) by the year 2010, representing 3 percent of the global market, the report said.
■ Local bank invites bids
Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), a lender 44 percent owned by the government, said it has started inviting bids from local and foreign investors as part of the government's plan to speed up financial consolidation. "We have hired a financial adviser to handle this," Lee Chun-sheng (李俊昇), executive vice president of the bank, said yesterday.
■ NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar remained weak against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.100 to close at NT$31.966 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$805 million.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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