Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chip maker, announced yesterday that work on its first thin-film solar cell plant would begin in September.
Rick Tsai (蔡力行), president of TSMC’s new businesses division, said the new plant will focus on developing modules for copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, after entering the silicon solar cell sector by purchasing a 20 percent stake in Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), Taiwan’s biggest solar cell maker, in January.
Construction on TSMC’s LED research and development center and plant in Hsinchu began last March and mass production is expected next year. TSMC has moved aggressively into the solar cell industry this year, becoming Motech’s single largest shareholder and acquiring a 21 percent stake in US solar photovoltaic company Stion last month to obtain thin-film solar cell technology.
Tsai said TSMC expects to recruit at least 500 people to help develop its green energy businesses over the next 12 months.Lu Ming-kuang (盧明光), chairman of Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美晶), Taiwan’s top maker of wafers for solar cells, also said at the job fair that the company will increase its workforce from 2,400 to 6,000, in five years.
The job fair attracted more than 200 local companies including TSMC, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技) and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and offered more than 10,000 related job opportunities.
“The green energy industry in Taiwan has the support of well-developed semiconductor, photonics, machinery, materials and electronics industries,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said at the opening ceremony.
In terms of its green technology capability, Taiwan ranks sixth globally and second in Asia, behind Japan, according to a survey released by the Lausanne-based Institute for Management Development (IMD) last month.
The nation is already the world’s largest producer of energy-saving LED lights and has the second highest output value globally, according to the ministry’s Bureau of Energy.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is the world’s fourth-largest solar cell maker, said Taipei-based 1111 Job Bank, which co-organized the one-day event.
The green energy industry will generate over NT$200 billion (US$6.3 billion) in value and create 20,000 job opportunities this year, the energy bureau said. Industry output is expected to reach NT$1.16 trillion by 2015.
A poll on Monday conducted by the job bank shows that 76 percent of local office workers intend to become “green collar” workers. However, more than 55 percent of the poll’s respondents considered the lack of proper government promotion or private investment to be one of the major hurdles for green energy development in Taiwan, the survey found.
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