The world’s top PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co (HP), yesterday confirmed it would move to a new site at Nangang Software Park, confirming a Taipei Times report on Sept. 22 that it would set up a global research and development (R&D) center called the “Computing Hub” in Taiwan.
“Since it was established in 2002, HP’s Product Development Center [PDC] has developed well and had an outstanding performance,” the company said in a statement. “HP moving to Nangang Software Park demonstrates the company’s commitment to Taiwan as well as upgrading the PDC to a global ‘Computing Hub’ to realize HP’s global strategy.”
The new site offers its 1,000 employees 330,000m2 of R&D workspace, compared with the old site in Xinyi District that had 11,900m2, the statement said.
The new site cost NT$3.6 billion (US$112.5 million) and HP is expected to procure US$90 billion in electronics components from Taiwanese companies in the next three years, sources told the Taipei Times last month.
The center will focus on computer products, determining the design of the company’s new tablet “HP Slate” and related multi-touch applications.
Other products in the pipeline at the Computing Hub include 3D visual technologies for mobile products, where the US technology giant will work with local suppliers of special shutter glasses.
Personal cloud computing will also be a key theme for the center, where HP will develop related infrastructure and share its know-how with Taiwanese contract manufacturers.
“Innovation will be the key to the Computing Hub. It won’t carry out R&D for mid or low-end products. The center will also join hands with Taiwanese academic institutions,” Kai Hsiao (蕭國坤), HP Taiwan’s procurement head, said last month.
“This project will put Taiwan in a strategic position for HP’s global R&D operations,” Hsiao said, adding that the center is believed to be the largest R&D project in terms of the amount of investment in the nation’s technology industries.
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