■ STEEL
Party opposes land grab
India's communists on Friday warned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against allowing land grabs in eastern India for steel giant POSCO's proposed plant. The South Korean company's plans to invest in a US$12 billion steel hub in the state of Orissa have been stymied by opposition from villagers who say they will be unable to earn a living if they lose their land to the project. "It is reported that the bosses of POSCO have now approached you in this matter," said A.B. Bardhan, a senior communist leader, in a letter to the prime minister.
■ ENERGY
Solar Decathlon held
A German university team was named on Friday the winner of the 2007 Solar Decathlon, a competition to design, build and run the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. Teams from universities in Canada, Germany, Puerto Rico, Spain and the US took part in the competition, which, like the sports version of the decathlon, consists of 10 categories. Teams in the competition erected their energy-efficient homes, powered exclusively by the sun, on the National Mall in Washington, in the shadow of the White House. The homes were open to the public for the duration of the competition.
■ HOTELS
Hilton purchase cleared
The European Commission on Friday cleared Blackstone Group's purchase of US-based Hilton Hotels Corp for US$26 billion, a buyout that would create the world's biggest hotel concern. "The Commission has concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition" in the EU area or any substantial part of it, the top competition regulator said in a statement. Private equity giant Blackstone will be adding Hilton, with more than 2,800 hotels and 480,000 rooms, to a list of hotels it has purchased over the past two years. This will give it a total of some 600,000 rooms, of which 560,000 are wholly owned.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Bridgestone invests
Japan's Bridgestone will invest more than US$11 billion over five years to boost production as it vies with France's Michelin for the title of the world's top tiremaker, a report said yesterday. The Japanese group plans to spend ¥1.3 trillion (US$11.2 billion) for five years from April, up 20 percent from the preceding five years, the Nikkei Shimbun said. The group's capital spending will increase as it puts new factories into operation in Mexico, Poland and Hungary during the five-year period while expanding existing plants in India and Indonesia, it said. The Nikkei said Bridgestone was also considering building a new factory in Russia.
■ INTERNET
Yahoo executive quits
Yahoo Inc, owner of the most visited US Web site, said Cammie Dunaway is leaving as chief marketing officer, the latest executive to depart amid a reorganization of the Internet company. Dunaway's last day will be Nov. 2, Yahoo said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Dunaway, 45, also oversaw the branding and design of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's products. In August, Yahoo announced the departure of Gregory Coleman, the company's head of sales. Dunaway's departure also follows the exit of Wenda Millard, who oversaw Yahoo's graphic ad sales, in June. Peggy White, head of the finance site, and chief technology officer Farzad Nazem also left since May.
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
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],”