Investment targets on track
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said investments from the private sector totaled NT$995.6 billion (US$32.99 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, 90.51 percent of its full-year target of NT$1.1 trillion.
New foreign investment hit US$8.85 billion in the January-to-October period, 98.36 percent of the ministry target of US$9 billion this year.
The ministry said it attracted NT$14.28 billion of investment from both domestic and foreign firms in the booming electric vehicle sector and related components during the first 10 months.
That amount already surpasses the ministry’s full-year target of NT$12 billion, it said.
Elpida sues Nanya Technology
Elpida Memory Inc said it has filed a patent lawsuit against Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) with the Taiwan Intellectual Property Court and the US International Trade Commission.
The Japanese chipmaker said in a statement yesterday that Nanya had violated its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) patents.
In September, Tokyo-based Elpida filed a complaint against Nanya Technology and its US unit in the Northern District Court of California, accusing the chipmaker of illegally using four of its patented technologies relating to DRAM manufacturing.
ITC delays S3 patent ruling
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has delayed until Monday its final ruling on a complaint filed by HTC Corp (宏達電) subsidiary S3 Graphics Co against Apple Inc.
The ITC was originally scheduled to release a final ruling on the case on Tuesday, but in a notice posted on its Web site, the agency said it had decided to extend the target date for the completion of the investigation “on certain electronic devices with image processing systems, components thereof and associated software that infringe patents asserted by S3.”
S3 accused Apple in May last year of violating four patents owned by the company.
The ITC handed down a preliminary ruling in the case on July 26, in which it found that Apple’s Mac OS X system had infringed on two of S3’s texture compression patents, but that the iPhone and iPad had not.
HP to launch its first ultrabook
Hewlett-Packard Co, which last month abandoned a proposal to spin off its PC unit, plans to introduce its first lightweight ultrabook laptop to compete with Apple Inc’s MacBook Air.
The HP Folio laptop has a 13.3-inch screen and weighs 1.5kg. The PC will go on sale on Dec. 7 priced at US$900, according to a statement.
It is Hewlett-Packard’s first entry into the ultrabook category of laptops created by chipmaker Intel Corp. The Folio features a metal case, 4 gigabytes of memory, a solid-state hard drive and Intel’s Core i5 chip, HP said in the statement.
The company said the Folio’s battery can run as long as nine hours without recharging.
Euro woes weaken NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar fell against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.020 to close at NT$30.230, a reflection of the weakness of the currencies in the Asia-Pacific region because of concerns over rising borrowing costs in debt-ridden Italy, dealers said.
The fears over the debt problems in the eurozone escalated after 10-year Italian government bond yields jumped above 7 percent again overnight, which prompted traders to forecast that the European country might need a bailout, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$674 billion during the trading session.
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s