IRAN
Tehran calm after protests
Calm returned to central Tehran yesterday, a day after it was rocked by unprecedented protests over Iran’s plunging currency, but all money-changers and most shops were closed, witnesses said. On Wednesday, hundreds of police and security personnel flooded central Tehran, closing the exchange bureaux and arresting unlicensed money-changers. The police action was part of efforts by authorities to halt the dive of the rial, which is at an all-time low against the US dollar. In the past week the currency has shed about 40 percent of its value, sharply accelerating a slide that has gone on throughout this year as Western sanctions have worsened Iran’s underlying economic problems.
MALAYSIA
Lynas’ plant license on hold
A court kept on hold the license granted to Lynas Corp Ltd’s controversial rare earth plant by delaying until Wednesday next week a decision on whether it will consider judicial reviews to permanently block production. The Australian company said that the Kuantan High Court’s decision leaves the temporary operating license suspended until Wednesday, extending a one-week halt that expired yesterday. The rare earth plant — the biggest outside China — has been ready to fire up since early May, but the company has been embroiled in environmental and safety disputes with local residents since construction began two years ago.
FOOD
Hershey makes cocoa vow
Candy maker Hershey is vowing to use only certified cocoa for all of its chocolate products by 2020 and accelerate programs to help eliminate child labor in the cocoa-producing regions of West Africa. The central Pennsylvania company said on Wednesday its plan to use certified cocoa — which is produced according to certain social, economic and environmental standards — should “significantly expand” the global supply of such cocoa, especially from West Africa, which produces about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa. Currently, certified cocoa accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s cocoa supply, Hershey said.
BEVERAGES
McDonald’s turns to coffee
McDonald’s Corp has filed a trademark using its name for ground and whole-bean coffee, the US Patent and Trademark Office said. The registration was made last month and the Wall Street Journal says it signals the quintessential US fast food chain could be considering selling packaged coffee in grocery stores.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook tests paid posts
Facebook has begun testing a new feature that would allow users to increase the visibility of their posts for a fee, in what appears to be a new bid to add more profitability to the social network. The option will be made available to users with fewer than 5,000 friends and subscribers, Facebook said. The company did not specify the price of the new service, but said the testing began in New Zealand in May.
COMMUNICATIONS
Motorola buys Viewdle
Cellphone maker Motorola said on Wednesday it had purchased facial recognition firm Viewdle for an undisclosed amount. The Silicon Valley-based Viewdle produces applications for photo management, gaming, networking and marketing, and has operations in Europe and South America. Motorola was purchased by Internet giant Google for US$12.5 billion last year.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is