■ Graduates have gloomy job view
Around 50 percent of recent graduates think jobs are harder to find than expected this year, and a similar percentage of the graduates are considering joining professions that are different from their fields of training, according to the results of a recent survey. The survey was conducted by Career magazine from April 7 to April 12 on 2,371 students who are set to graduate this summer. Fifty percent of the respondents expect their starting salaries to range between NT$24,000 and NT$30,000, with those having a master's degree expecting NT$36,000 on average, those having a bachelor's degree expecting no more than NT$30,000, and those having a technical college diploma expecting no more than NT$28,000. The survey also shows that graduates from the fields of agriculture, tourism and leisure as well as education have the strongest desire to switch professions, while graduates from the fields of art and design, mass communications, and science and technology have the least desire to do so.
■ MediaTek board supervisor quits
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world's largest maker of chips for DVD players, said the representative of its major shareholder, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), resigned as a supervisor of MediaTek's board. The supervisor was scheduled to serve until May 15, MediaTek said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Tuesday, without providing details. UMC has a policy to sell its stakes in companies when they reach a mature stage, and that's the reason for its retreating from MediaTek's board, according to UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東).
■ Intralot gets lottery contract
Intralot SA, the world's third-biggest gaming technology and services company, received a 35 million euro (US$43.2 million) contract for Taiwan's Public Welfare Lottery, helping expansion in Asia. Athens-based Intralot will provide IT systems and maintenance for the duration of the seven-year contract, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday. The contract is with ChinaTrust Commercial Bank (中信銀), which has received the license to run the lottery from the government. The Taiwanese gaming market is estimated at 3 billion euros and will provide Intralot with a springboard into Asia, the world's biggest gaming market, the company said. The Taiwan contract may also allow Intralot to participate in the running of the lottery, the statement said. Cooperation may also be extended to sports betting games should such betting be permitted, the statement said.
■ BOE to sell extra shares
BOE Technology Group Co (京東方), China's biggest maker of flat-panel displays for computer monitors and televisions, plans to sell extra shares to fund 3.2 billion yuan (US$399 million) of projects to expand production and cut costs. The Beijing-based company intends selling 1.5 billion yuan-denominated A shares to investors, BOE said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. The shares will be priced at the average of the stock's past 20 trading days, the statement said. The private sale will raise 4.6 billion yuan, according to Bloomberg calculations. BOE will spend 2.5 billion yuan to build a production line to make color filters for flat-panel displays at its Beijing plant, the statement said.
■ NT dollar up
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.078 to close at NT$32.408 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$1.073 billion.
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