Japan’s third-biggest department store operator Takashimaya Co said yesterday it plans to open a flagship store in Shanghai in 2012, hoping strong demand there will offset bleak sales at home.
The company plans to invest ¥4 billion (US$42.56 million) to build the 40,000m2, eight-story store — its first in China’s commercial hub, a statement said.
Takashimaya will become the second Japanese department store operator to set foot in China following Isetan Co, a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, in a bid to woo the country’s nouveau riche and affluent foreigners.
The company is also hoping to profit from a knock-on effect from the 2010 Shanghai Expo, which is expected to attract as many as 70 million visitors and for which roads and subways are now under construction, a spokesman said.
The official said it was unclear whether the company would open other stores in light of the worldwide downturn, from which China has not been immune.
China’s exports fell by their steepest margin in more than a decade last month, while growth fell back into single digits because of recessions hitting major export markets in the West and Japan.
Takashimaya already has regional flagship stores in Taiwan and Singapore.
Japanese companies are increasingly looking abroad to earn their fortunes as the population ages and tightens its purse-strings amid what the government has said is the worst recession since World War II.
Department stores in Japan made ¥7.4 trillion last year, nearly ¥2 trillion less than during their peak in 1991, according to the Nikkei business daily.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)