FINANCE
Temasek cuts SingTel stake
Singaporean investment firm Temasek said yesterday it would cut its stake in SingTel from 54.4 percent to 51.9 percent by selling 400 million shares in the local telecoms giant. Temasek’s sale of SingTel shares came a day after it was reported to be sounding out potential buyers for its 18 percent stake in British bank Standard Chartered, worth £6 billion (US$9.7 billion).
ELECTRONICS
New Nook tablets launched
Barnes & Noble is rolling out two new versions of its Nook tablet. The company said yesterday that its new Nook HD would come in two sizes, one with a 7-inch screen (measured diagonally), starting at US$199, and one with a new 9-inch screen, called the Nook HD+, starting at US$269. Barnes & Noble is also increasing the services the Nook offers, adding a video purchase and rental service.
FRANCE
Consumer confidence falls
Consumer confidence slipped 2 points this month from last month amid gloom over rising unemployment and a yawning budget gap, the national statistics office said yesterday. The consumer confidence index fell to 85 points from 87 in July and 90 in June, figures released by INSEE showed. Labor Minister Michel Sapin also said unemployment had breached the symbolic 3 million mark to about 10 percent.
UNITED STATES
Consumer confidence rises
Consumer confidence jumped this month to the highest level since February, bolstered by a brighter hiring outlook. The Conference Board said on Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 70.3. That is up from 61.3 last month, which was revised higher. And it is the highest reading since February, when the economy added 259,000 jobs. The reading is still below the healthy 90 level.
SINGAPORE
Industrial production drops
Industrial production unexpectedly declined for the first time in four months last month as companies reduced output of electronics. Manufacturing fell 2.2 percent from a year earlier after a revised 2.5 percent gain in July, the Economic Development Board said yesterday. Electronics production declined 7.3 percent from a year earlier last month, while pharmaceutical output rose 13.6 percent. Chemicals increased 6.6 percent, the report showed.
INTERNET
Google Maps goes diving
Google late on Tuesday began letting users of its online mapping service take virtual scuba dives to explore precious living reefs being surveyed by scientists. The first underwater panoramic images were added to Google Maps with the help of Catlin Seaview Survey scientific expedition. A small team of Catlin divers used a special camera to capture panoramic imagery woven together at Google Maps and in a special Street View online gallery to let people swim along without getting wet.
INTERNET
Yahoo replaces CFO
Yahoo is bringing in a new chief financial officer (CFO) as recently hired Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer prepares to share her vision for turning around the troubled Internet company. Software industry veteran Ken Goldman will replace Tim Morse as Yahoo’s CFO in a reshuffling announced on Tuesday. The 63-year-old Goldman is leaving computer security software specialist Fortinet Inc to become Yahoo’s CFO on Oct. 22.
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