JAPAN
New stimulus mulled
The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to propose a new stimulus package, a report said yesterday, as Tokyo looks to drag the country out of the economic doldrums. The government of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan is considering a stimulus package worth around ¥4.8 trillion (US$57.68 billion) as part of this year’s supplementary budget, the Nikkei daily said. The package would feature measures intended to secure stable supplies of rare-earth metals and to develop substitutes for them, as well as a new subsidy to revitalize regional economies by financing public works projects, it said.
INTERNET
Facebook splitting stock
Facebook, the world’s No. 1 Internet social network, is splitting its stock, as shares in the privately held company have surged roughly seven-fold in the past 15 months. A Facebook spokesman told Reuters on Friday that Facebook is enacting a five-for-one split of the company’s shares in order to bring the value “back down into the range of other private companies.” Facebook has no plans for an initial public offering of the company’s shares, spokesman Jonny Thaw said. He noted that Facebook has split its stock twice before, with a four-for-one split in October 2007 and another four-for-one split in July of the previous year.
FINANCE
Second loan released to Iraq
The IMF said on Friday it was releasing US$741 million in financing to Iraq after the country made good progress in reconstructing the war-torn economy. The loan is the second installment of a 24-month loan the IMF awarded to Iraq in February. The IMF executive board completed its first review of Iraq’s progress under a program supported by the loan, bringing the total resources currently available to Iraq to about US$1.204 billion, the Washington-based institution said in a statement.
OIL
Sinopec to buy Repsol stake
China’s Sinopec Group (中國石油化工集團公司) said on Friday it plans to buy 40 percent of Repsol’s deepwater oil assets in Brazil for US$7.1 billion as the Asian giant expands its presence in resource-rich Latin America. China has invested heavily in natural resource projects overseas to feed its surging domestic economy and is now on track to be the biggest foreign direct investor in Brazil for this year — underscoring the trend of growing investment flows between big emerging economies that are now less reliant on traditional partners like the US. Sinopec announced the -multibillion-dollar agreement just two days before Brazilians go to the polls to elect a new president. Dilma Rousseff, the handpicked successor of outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is widely forecast to win the election.
AUTOMOBILES
Daimler to finance in India
Daimler AG’s local unit will extend the German automaker’s financial arm into India, the Business Standard said citing Wilfried Aulbur, chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz India. Daimler Financial Services will focus on finance and leasing, dealer finance and insurance to private customers, dealers and groups, the report said. The company is awaiting government approval to begin operations, the newspaper said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is