AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai, Kia face lawsuits
Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp face consumer lawsuits in the US after the South Korean automakers admitted they overstated the fuel efficiency of their latest models. A Hyundai owner and a Kia owner filed a complaint on Nov. 2 in federal court in Santa Ana, California, seeking to represent other owners of certain 2011 through 2013 models in a class action — or group lawsuit — over the misrepresentations. Hagen Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a Seattle-based law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement on Wednesday it filed a second lawsuit in Los Angeles on behalf of owners. The economic damage to Hyundai and Kia could approach US$775 million, the law firm said.
FINANCE
Lender to receive more help
France and Belgium have agreed to pump 5.5 billion euros (US$7.02 billion) into Dexia, the stricken lender the two states were forced to bail out a year ago, the Belgian finance ministry said yesterday. The prospect of throwing more money into Dexia, which already absorbed 6.4 billion euros in funds in 2008, threatens to undermine both countries’ efforts to rein in their deficits at a time of intense scrutiny of eurozone budgets. Belgium will inject 2.915 billion euros, or 53 percent of the amount, with France providing the remaining 2.585 billion euros, the ministry said in a statement.
ELECTRONICS
Lenovo claims PC top spot
Chinese multinational computer and electronics company Lenovo Group (聯想) said yesterday it had become the global market leader in consumer and notebook PCs, as it posted a 13 percent rise in net profit for the three months to the end of September of US$162.1 million from US$143.9 million a year earlier. Revenue climbed 11 percent to US$8.67 billion from US$7.79 billion a year earlier, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Lenovo’s share of the overall PC market reached a record high of 15.6 percent in the July-September quarter, it added, putting it just 0.2 percent shy of leader Hewlett-Packard Co.
AVIATION
EADS takes hit on A380
The cost of fixing problems on some A380 super jumbos weighed on third-quarter profits at Airbus parent company EADS NV. Net profit at the European aircraft giant fell 1 percent to 309 million euros in the July-to-September period, down from 312 million euros a year earlier. Sales rose 15 percent in the quarter to 12.3 billion euros, and the Netherlands, based company says it is on track to exceed its target of 10 percent sales growth for the full year.
RETAIL
Adidas reports earnings rise
Adidas AG, the German sportswear maker, has reported a 14 percent rise in third-quarter earnings, but lowered its full-year revenue forecast due to declines of its Reebok brand and the ongoing National Hockey League lockout in North America. The company, which previously forecast a full year rise of about 10 percent, said revenues would instead increase by high single digits. Net profit in the third quarter was 344 million euros, up from 303 million euros in the same period a year ago. Revenues rose 11 percent to 4.17 billion euros. Stripping out currency effects, revenues grew 4 percent, the company said.
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