Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, plans to hire up to 300 engineers after forecasting more than 80 percent growth in shipments this quarter, said recruiting agency 104 Corp (一零四), which is helping with the headhunt.
The recruitment drive is part of TSMC’s long-term investment in technological research and development, ensuring that it will be among the earliest companies to benefit once the economy recovers, 104 spokesman Max Fang (方光瑋) said.
“It is good timing for local employers to launch large-scale recruitment drives because the nation’s tough job market means a bigger selection,” Fang said. “We believe TSMC is just the beginning and there will be more recruitment programs by local companies later this year because hiring is usually closely linked to an economy improving, as it is now.”
An average of 10 candidates apply for each job offered by high-tech firms today, Fang said, as electronics firms hit by the recession remain cautious about hiring.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker intends to hire between 200 and 300 design, processing technology and research engineers initially, potentially adding more positions later, Fang said.
As of the end of February, TSMC had about 22,000 employees globally, down 3.8 percent from about 22,800 at the end of last year, the company’s annual report said.
Meanwhile, competitor United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said it had no plans for significant additions to its payroll because prospects for the second half of the year were still unclear.
However, a UMC official said that the company expected strong growth in shipments in the second quarter.
UMC launched a major restructuring in the second half of last year, tweaking its organizational structure and streamlining its workforce to cut costs and improve profitability.
Separately, a survey conducted by 104 suggested an improvement in the domestic job market.
Job openings have increased 13 percent to 203,000 — the highest figure since last October — since the beginning of the year, when 180,000 jobs were on offer.
However, the number of job openings is half the number of current job seekers, meaning that the unemployment rate may not see an improvement in the short term.
The jobless rate hit a new high of 5.81 percent in March, with 670,000 adults unemployed, government figures showed.
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