■ SEMICONDUCTORS
No signs of inventory build
Qualcomm Inc, the world's second-biggest maker of mobile-phone chips, said manufacturers aren't stockpiling its IC chips ahead of a possible embargo by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) this week. "We haven't seen significant inventory build," chief executive officer Paul Jacobs told a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co conference in New York yesterday. The ITC is scheduled to rule on Thursday whether to ban phones with some Qualcomm chips after finding in December that they infringed a Broadcom Corp patent for a battery-saving feature.
■ SEMICONDUCTORS
Micron, IC makers win suit
Micron Technology Inc, the US' biggest memory IC maker chipmaker, and seven other chipmakers won dismissal of some claims they overcharged consumers by fixing prices of memory chips. US District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco threw out claims that would have allowed lawyers for consumers and other indirect purchasers of memory chips in dozens of states to seek triple damages against chipmakers for alleged violations of state and federal antitrust laws. The other defendants are Infineon Technologies AG, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, Elpida Memory Inc, NEC Electronics America Inc, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Mosel Vitelic Corp (茂矽) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子). Hamilton said that consumers lacked standing to pursue the antitrust claims because they didn't purchase DRAM chips directly.
■ STEEL
CSC inks iron ore deal
Kaohsiung-based China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) signed a four-year contract on Friday with Samarco to secure its supply of iron ore pellets. Under the contract, the Brazilian mining company will supply 1.9 million tonnes of iron ore pellets from next year to 2011, securing 25 percent of CSC's annual iron ore pellet demand. The two companies have maintained good commercial relations since 1998, when CSC first contracted Samarco to buy iron ore pellets, said the state-run CSC, which produces 11 million tonnes of raw steel per year.
■ SOFTWARE
Oracle expands SAP suit
Business software maker Oracle Corp has added copyright infringement and breach of contract claims to a lawsuit alleging rival SAP AG trespassed on its computers to obtain secret product information so it would have a better chance to reel in new customers. The documents filed on Friday in San Francisco federal court expands on a complaint that Oracle filed against Germany-based SAP in late March. The lawsuit charges SAP with "corporate theft on a grand scale." Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle alleges that SAP trampled on its intellectual property rights by heisting computer code and claiming it as its own.
■ TELECOMS
Aborigines seek damages
Aborigines in western Canada are seeking compensation from a local telephone carrier for every cellphone signal that crosses their lands. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs determined at a recent economic development summit to negotiate revenue sharing with Manitoba Telecom Services for signals that cross their reserves and traditional territories. "[The request is] based on the understanding that we do have some fundamental rights as indigenous people to land, water and airspace," Chief Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nation told public broadcaster CBC.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by