■ Wistron raises US$140 million
Wistron Corp (緯創), the computer-making spin-off of Acer Inc, said it raised US$140 million selling shares overseas.
The company sold 15 million global depositary receipts at US$9.3448 each, with one unit representing 10 common shares, Wistron said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. It didn't say how it plans to use the share-sale proceeds.
Wistron said on July 19 it planned to sell shares to investors abroad for funds to buy raw materials. In a separate statement to the stock exchange, Acer said it raised US$65.4 million selling 7 million global depositary receipts of Wistron.
■ TSMC to use 45nm technology
The world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), plans to start using 45-nanometer technology, which will help cut costs.
The measurement refers to spaces between transistors. The company can make more chips per silicon wafer by shrinking chip sizes, helping to lower costs.
"We certainly have plans" to introduce the technology, Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓), a spokesman for the Hsinchu-based company said yesterday. "We'll use the technology for production when time is right," he said, without giving a timeframe.
In the second quarter, TSMC generated 43 percent of sales from 0.13 micron (130 nanometer) technology and more advanced ones, the company said on July 26. TSMC plans to start producing chips using 65-nanometer technology around the end the year, Tzeng said. Currently the smallest is 90 nanometers.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day