■GREEN BUSINESS
Buffet buys share of BYD
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc agreed to pay HK$1.8 billion (US$231 million) for a minority stake in BYD Co (比亞迪), China’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries. Berkshire Hathaway unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co will buy 225 million BYD shares, equivalent to a stake of about 10 percent, in the Shenzhen-based manufacturer, a statement issued yesterday. The partnership with MidAmerican would help BYD bring its electric vehicles and other environmental protection measures to the global market, Wang Chuanfu (王傳福), the Chinese company’s chairman, said in the statement. BYD aims to start selling gasoline-electric hybrid cars in the US as early as 2010, it said in January. It also plans to roll out its first all-electric auto in China next year.
■SHIPPING
Yang Ming launches ships
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), Taiwan’s second-largest shipping line, launched two new container ships on Friday, increasing the number of vessels in its fleet to more than 100. Lu Feng-hai (盧峰海), chairman of Yang Ming, and Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文隆), chairman of CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) — the builder of the two ships — jointly presided over the launching ceremony for YM Upward and YM Enhancer at CSBC’s deep-water wharf in Kaohsiung. YM Upward can carry 4,250 containers, known as 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) , while YM Enhancer has a capacity for 8,241 TEUs.
■AIRLINE
Pilots agree to takeover
Pilots at Alitalia SpA gave their green light to a rescue plan for the Italian airline after nearly 15 hours of nonstop negotiations, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported yesterday. The pilots agreed to a takeover by a consortium of private investors after negotiating a reduction in sackings and manager contracts for captains. The agreement meant only Alitalia’s flight attendants union had yet to approve the deal designed to keep Italy’s flagship carrier from collapse. Talks were scheduled with that union tomorrow. Under plans for the takeover, the private investor group, the Italian Air Co, has demanded at least 3,000 jobs be cut.
■AUTO
Chrysler fires 250 workers
Chrysler LLC has resorted to firing 250 salaried workers in order to meet targeted job reductions as it shrinks its struggling US operations, the automaker said on Friday. “There are involuntary separations underway,” Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan said. “It’s certainly very difficult. But we have to take these steps to ensure the long term financial health and competitiveness of the company.” The layoffs are part of a cost cutting plan announced in June that involved the elimination of 1,000 white-collar positions. The company said at the time that it hoped to eliminate the positions through buyouts and retirements.
■COMPUTERS
Apple unlocks iPhones in HK
Apple has started selling unlocked models of its popular iPhone 3G in Hong Kong that allow users the freedom to select the telecom provider of their choice. The eight gigabyte version was on sale yesterday at Apple’s online store for HK$5,400 (US$700), while the 16 gigabyte model was HK$6,200. Apple said the phone can be activated with any wireless carrier. The move is a shift from Apple’s previous strategy of tying the phone exclusively to a single mobile operator in each country or territory.
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],”