OIL
Iran, China sign deal
Iran and China agreed to jointly invest US$12 billion over 10 years in developing Iran’s Azadegan oil field, state-run Press TV reported on its Web site. Azadegan, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, has 42 billion barrels in reserves and will add 600,000 barrels a day to the nation’s daily crude oil output, Press TV said, citing Petroleum Engineering & Development Co managing director Naji Sadouni. The first phase of the field’s development will take 52 months, during which 185 wells will be drilled, it said.
FINANCE
EU finances to improve
Chief Executive Officer of the European Stability Facility (EFSF) Klaus Regling believes the eurozone will overcome its current debt crisis by 2014. “One can justifiably expect the crisis to be over within two to three years,” he told Spiegel in the edition out yesterday. “In all eurozone countries the fundamentals are improving.” All eurozone countries have started putting their finances in order and already some of those worst affected by the crisis, such as Ireland, are back on their feet, he said. The EFSF was set up last year to help shore up debt-ridden countries. Its role is shortly to be expanded in line with measures agreed to by eurozone leaders last month. Regling believes the eurozone’s financial situation is better than that of the US. “The US deficit, for example, is three times as high as that of the eurozone,” he said.
INTERNET
Facebook to end Deals
Facebook is to end a Deals program launched in April which offered online bargains like Groupon, LivingSocial and other companies. “After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” the California-based social network said in a statement. “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses ... We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” Facebook began testing Deals in five US cities in a bid to expand its revenue stream beyond advertising and carve out a niche in the growing online bargain space. Chicago-based Groupon, which offers subscribers discounts on a broad range of consumer goods and services, has enjoyed a spectacular rise since its founding in 2008 and rejected a reported US$5 billion takeover offer from Google last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Car boss makes donation
South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor said yesterday that its chairman would give US$462 million to charity, partly fulfilling a pledge made in 2006 when he was being investigated for corruption. Chung Mong-koo will donate shares worth 500 billion won (US$462 million) in Hyundai Glovis — a Hyundai Motor subsidiary — to help children from poor families, the company said in a statement. The money will be donated to a charity group founded by Hyundai, it said, adding the sum was the largest personal donation ever made in South Korea. The move came amid calls for Chung, 73, to honor his promise to donate 1 trillion won. Chung was later convicted of embezzling 90 billion won in company funds through fraudulent accounting, with the intention of establishing a slush fund to bribe government officials and politicians in return for business favors.
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
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
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
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