INTERNET
ITunes Store expands
Apple launched its iTunes Store in 12 Asian markets yesterday, giving access to millions of songs and movies including local favorites, but regional giants China and India were not on the list. The iTunes Store is now open to consumers with credit cards issued in Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. It was already available in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft fine to EU lowered
The General Court of the EU has upheld most of a massive fine against Microsoft Corp by the European Commission’s competition watchdog in 2008. In a ruling yesterday, it rejected Microsoft’s appeal, but did cut the fine by 39 million euros (US$48.7 million) to 860 million euros. The fine is technically a “penalty for noncompliance” with a 2004 order by the watchdog for Microsoft to make code available for its server software that would allow competitors’ products to interface properly.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford to shut Philippine plant
Ford Motor Co said it would close its 13-year-old assembly plant in the Philippines at the end of the year. Ford Group Philippines president Randy Krieger said yesterday that the company “could not make a strong enough business case for future manufacturing” in the Philippines. The plant has exported more than 80,000 vehicles since 2002. About 250 workers will be affected. The plant will close after the last Ford Escape SUV rolls out in December.
GERMANY
Egan-Jones cuts rating
Small US credit rater Egan-Jones lowered Germany’s rating on Tuesday, saying the European powerhouse’s finances would suffer significantly whether or not Greece quits the eurozone. Egan-Jones lowered Berlin’s sovereign rating to “A+” from “AA-” previously, pointing to the country’s large direct and indirect exposures, and those of local banks, to the frail economies of the eurozone like Greece.
MANUFACTURING
Italian sector confidence up
Confidence in the Italian manufacturing sector unexpectedly rose this month, defying economists’ forecasts that it would continue a downward slump as recession-hit Italy battles the eurozone debt crisis. The confidence index published by Italy’s National Institute of Statistics (Istat) rose to 88.9 points from 86.6 points last month. Even with the positive rebound this month, the confidence index is still at its lowest since October 2009. Istat also for the first time published an index that groups together confidence in Italy’s manufacturing, construction, services and retail sectors, which dropped slightly to 75.4 points from 75.5 points last month.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to close ex-US HQ
Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG said on Tuesday it would close its former US headquarters, a sprawling facility where the groundbreaking drugs Valium and interferon were invented. The move is part of a consolidation of research and development programs that will eliminate 1,000 jobs and shut down the site in Nutley, New Jersey, by the end of next year. The Basel-based maker of influenza treatment Tamiflu said the research and drug development conducted in Nutley would be consolidated with operations in Basel and Schlieren, Switzerland, and in Penzberg, Germany. That will result in about 80 more jobs in Switzerland and Germany.
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