INTERNET
Zynga opens online site
Facebook games star Zynga on Monday opened an online playground where users can enjoy hit titles without having to visit the world’s top social network. Zynga.com launched with CastleVille, Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles and Zynga Poker, along with a promise of lots more social games by the San Francisco-based company and outside developers. Zynga played up its online games community as an expansion of its partnership with Facebook rather than a quest for more independence. Zynga.com is connected to the Facebook “social graph” so game play and the actions of friends involved will follow users between the online venues, Zynga general manager Manuel Bronstein said.
BANKING
Swiss approve tax change
Swiss lawmakers have passed a tax proposal seen as key to settling a US probe into Swiss banks with hidden offshore accounts. The proposal, which clarifies how Switzerland would hand over data on US nationals suspected of dodging taxes at home, seeks to backstop an expected deal over US probes into 11 banks, including Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, that is likely to comprise a data handover and fine payment. Switzerland’s lower house on Monday passed the proposal by 110 votes to 56 votes, sealing an initial backing taken last week. Switzerland’s upper house passed the plan in December last year. Specifically, the plan would allow Switzerland to hand over data on suspected tax evaders, even if US tax authorities cannot identify alleged offenders by name or bank account. The move represented a weakening of Switzerland’s long-cherished secrecy laws, which have underpinned its finance industry on which the economy relies heavily.
AUSTRALIA
RBA holds rates steady
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) yesterday left official interest rates on hold at 4.25 percent, saying there did not appear to be a deep global downturn, while the local economy was growing close to trend. RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said the board had judged “the setting of monetary policy remained appropriate for the moment,” with some improvement in Europe, moderate growth in the US and Asia holding steady. It is the second consecutive month rates have been kept on hold, following two rounds of 25-basis-point cuts in November and December last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan to up UK investment
Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor is to invest US$200 million to build its new Invitation compact vehicle from the middle of next year in Sunderland, northeast England, where its work force will rise by 600 to 6,000. Japan’s No. 2 automaker yesterday said the move, which will be supported by a US$15 million loan from Britain, will create a total of 2,000 jobs at Nissan and its suppliers. Production of the Invitation is scheduled to start at an initial rate of 100,000 a year. More details will be given at a presentation at the Geneva Motor Show, which will be attended by British Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable. Cable called Nissan’s decision a “big vote of confidence in the British car industry.” He was also due to meet General Motors bosses to ask them not to axe its plant in Ellesmere Port, northwest England. Britain has been seeking to save automotive jobs as the European sector braces for capacity cuts.
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