FINANCE
Belarus applies for IMF loan
Belarus has applied to the IMF for a loan that could help rescue the former Soviet republic from its fiscal crisis, IMF spokeswoman Yulia Lyskova said yesterday. Neither the government nor Lyskova disclosed the amount Belarus is seeking nor the terms of the potential deal. The fund’s chief representative in Minsk was meeting with government officials and the IMF was to release details later yesterday, Lyskova said. Belarus has been hit by a dire cash shortage that was sparked by a jump in the price Russia charges for energy, as well as massive state spending ahead of the presidential election last year.
AUTOMOBILES
Toyota sees faster output
Japanese auto giant Toyota said yesterday its domestic production would return to about 90 percent of pre-quake levels this month thanks to a faster-than-expected recovery of parts supplies. The forecast, which is much higher than the previous estimate of 70 percent, will be a huge improvement on April, when output was just 21.6 percent of the same month last year. Production recovered to about 70 percent last month as suppliers were able to restore operations faster than expected. There are no precise figures for production abroad, but expectations for this month are between 70 percent and 100 percent, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said.
INTERNET
Twitter adds ‘Follow’ button
Twitter on Tuesday broadened its reach by letting Web sites add “Follow” buttons that visitors can click to begin tracking posts at the globally popular microblogging service. Twitter billed the button as “a new way to follow Twitter accounts directly from the Web sites you visit every day.” The feature was rolled out the same day Web advertising company AdGrok announced it has been bought by San Francisco-based Twitter. Twitter took in US$45 million in global advertising revenue last year and was on track to more than triple that figure this year, according to industry tracker eMarketer.
INTERNET
Yahoo, Alibaba agree
Yahoo Inc, owner of the largest US Web portal, reached an agreement with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) over online-payment business Alipay (支付寶), Reuters reported, citing people close to the matter. The accord requires the consent of Softbank Corp founder Masayoshi Son, who sits on the board at Alibaba Group, the report said. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, the biggest shareholder of Alibaba Group, has been negotiating with the Chinese company over the loss of Alipay. Alibaba spokesman John Spelich declined to comment on the report. Yahoo also declined to comment on the report in an e-mailed statement.
SHIPPING
Hyundai wins new order
Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said yesterday it had clinched a US$1.12 billion order to build two drilling ships for a US company. Hyundai said the ships, which are used to find oil and gas, would be delivered to Rowan Companies by the second half of 2013. The contract includes an option to order an additional ship in the same class, the company said, adding it brought Hyundai’s total drill ship orders this year to US$5 billion with options to build three more. Hyundai has secured orders valued at US$11.7 billion to build 44 ships so far this year, achieving 60 percent of its yearly target of US$19.8 billion.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to