ELECTRONICS
Samsung-Apple war spreads
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said yesterday it would seek a ban in France and Italy on sales of Apple’s newly released iPhone, in the latest round of its legal battle with the US technology giant. A spokesman for Samsung warned that it was “virtually going into an all-out war” with Apple as the two computer giants continue to row over copyright infringements. Samsung said in a separate statement it would file preliminary injunctions in the two countries to ban sales of the iPhone 4S, citing what it called two patent infringements regarding mobile technology. The company said it would also file preliminary injunctions in other countries “after further review.”
AUTOMAKERS
Honda to cut Japan exports
Honda Motor intends to slash its exports from Japan by about half over the next decade as it looks to cope with a high yen, its president said in an interview published yesterday. He added the Japanese automaker would focus on smaller vehicles at home in order to boost domestic sales in the near term. “Battered by such appreciation of the yen, the company sees clearly that Japan can no longer be the world center of its production and exports,” Honda president Takanobu Ito told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “Honda currently exports 30-40 percent of its domestic production, but it is hard to sell overseas while fretting over currency movements,” he said.
RETAIL
Tesco reports profit increase
Tesco PLC, the world’s third-largest retailer, reported a 16 percent increase in net profit for the half year ending Aug. 27 despite a drop in sales in its main British market. Tesco yesterday reported a net profit of £1.38 billion (US$2.13 billion) for the period, up from £1.18 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.8 percent to £31.8 billion pounds. Sales excluding gasoline and sales tax fell half a percent in Britain, reflecting a broader retrenchment in consumer spending. Tesco recently launched a “Price Drop” campaign to shore up its dominant market share in Britain of around 30 percent.
FOOD
Yum Brands posts strong Q3
KFC parent Yum Brands Inc reported a quarterly profit that met Wall Street’s expectations, helped by another quarter of strong sales in China. China — the world’s fastest-growing major economy — is Yum’s biggest earnings driver, accounting for just more than 40 percent of overall profits. Yum’s third-quarter net income rose to US$383 million, or US$0.80 per share, from US$357 million, or US$0.74 per share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, Yum’s profit was US$0.83 per share, matching analysts’ average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to US$3.27 billion from US$2.86 billion a year earlier.
COMMODITIES
Nickel Asia resumes mining
The Philippines’ top nickel producer, Nickel Asia Corp, has resumed operations at its biggest nickel mine, Taganito, in Surigao del Norte province, after a raid by rebels early this week and expects to ship ore in the next three weeks, its chief said yesterday. Nickel Asia, partly owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Corp, said it does not expect a big reduction in shipment tonnage this year, adding it has started buying new equipment to replace damaged machinery. However, the company cannot determine yet if there would be delays in the 2013 target to complete a new US$1.4 billion nickel processing plant adjacent to the mine.
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
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
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