TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空), a mid-sized Taiwanese airline, was named yesterday as one of the 1,000 fastest-growing companies in the world last year by the online International Business Times.
In 707th place, TransAsia was the only airline in the Asia-Pacific region to be included on the list.
The list was compiled by the online publication based on the compound annual growth rate of sales over the past three years of companies listed on stock markets around the world.
On its Web site, International Business Times said TransAsia’s growth rate over the past three years stood at 16.1544 percent.
TransAsia, which has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since November last year, posted NT$8.74 billion (US$291 million) in revenue last year, up 4.6 percent from 2010.
In the first three quarters of last year, the carrier recorded NT$1.31 in earnings per share, with a net profit margin of 9.64 percent.
TransAsia said it expects its sales to exceed NT$10 billion this year after the expansion of its flight routes in the Asia-Pacific region.
A total of 152 Taiwanese companies were included on International Business Times’ list of the 1,000 fastest-growing enterprises in the world. In 13th spot, Full Wang International Development Co (富旺國際) held the highest ranking among Taiwanese companies, followed by Sakura Development Co (櫻花建設) in 15th place; Mega Biotech & Electronics Co (美嘉生電) in 18th place; Ho Wang Construction Co (和旺建設) in 37th place; and Feng Sheng Technology Co (豐聲科技) in 41st place.
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