■STOCK MARKET
TWSE chief visiting US
Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE, 台灣證交所) president Samuel Hsu (許仁壽) is scheduled to leave for the US today on a mission to persuade high-tech businesses in the Silicon Valley to list in Taiwan, the company said. Hsu will hold a seminar on the subject in San Francisco on Tuesday and visit some businesses that had signaled their intention to list in Taiwan, a TWSE statement said. The trip follows a series of similar overseas promotional events that have been held by TWSE in China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.
High-tech stocks make up more than half of the publicly traded companies on the TWSE, the stock exchange said.
■INVESTMENT
PRC bank calls for easing
China should relax industry and administrative restrictions to encourage private investment and lower high savings ratio, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said. The limited choices for investment, especially in the service sector, have led companies to retain earnings or pour money into available industries, such as manufacturing, leading to overcapacity, the central bank chief said at a seminar in Beijing late on Friday. Postal, telecommunications, financial services and education are areas that now limit foreign and private investment, he said.
■GAMING
Las Vegas Sands plans IPO
Las Vegas Sands Corp plans to file with Hong Kong regulators as soon as next month for an initial public offering of shares in its Macau casinos, a person with knowledge of the plans said. The Las Vegas-based casino operator, controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is also seeking amendments to its Macau bank loan, including covenant relief and permission to issue as much as US$1.5 billion in new debt, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Las Vegas Sands is seeking funds to restart work on its US$12 billion, 20,000-room complex of hotels and casinos on Macau’s Cotai Strip.
■AUTO PARTS
Goodyear to cut jobs
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co said on Friday it would cut 500 jobs by closing its tire plant in the Philippines as part of a strategy to reduce manufacturing capacity that the biggest US tiremaker believes is no longer competitive. Goodyear opened the Las Pinas plant in 1956. The closure is to be completed by Sept. 30 and will affect most of the company’s 600 employees in the Philippines. Its sales and marketing operations there remain. Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear wants to transfer some tire production to lower-cost plants in the company’s Asia-Pacific Region, but did not specify where within the region.
■NETWORKING
Cisco to lay off hundreds
Cisco Systems Inc laid off 600 to 700 workers this week, bringing the world’s largest maker of computer networking gear closer to its goal of reducing its work force by about 2,000 positions. The cuts, reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, were made at Cisco’s San Jose, California, headquarters on Thursday, adding to the 447 California workers Cisco had already laid off since the end of February, according to notices filed with the state. As of the end of April, Cisco employed about 66,560 people. The company said in February that it planned to cut 1,500 to 2,000 jobs “in the near term.”
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI