INDIA
Singh to ink deals in Japan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to sign deals for US$15 billion in infrastructure projects on a visit to Japan this week, a report said yesterday. The trip, which starts today, will see Singh hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda and lunch with Japanese business leaders, said officials at the Japanese foreign ministry and industry lobby Keidanren (Japan Business Federation). A total of 19 infrastructure projects will benefit from the deals, which will involve Japanese manufacturers and trading houses, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. The agreements will be signed at summit talks between Singh and Noda tomorrow, the paper said.
COMPUTERS
AMD denies seeking sale
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-largest maker of personal-computer processors, said it is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or a significant sale of assets. “AMD’s board and management believe that the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD’s highly differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value,” spokesman Drew Prairie said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. The statement came after Reuters reported that AMD hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore options, including a potential sale of the company or its patent portfolio.
INTERNET
Zynga loses finance chief
Finance chief David Wehner is leaving Zynga Inc to join Facebook, the troubled San Francisco-based online game company said on Tuesday. His exact title will be vice president of corporate finance and business planning, Facebook said. Chief accounting officer Mark Vranesh is replacing Wehner as chief financial officer, returning to the post he held from 2008 to 2010, while Zynga was still a private company. Zynga also reshuffled its executive ranks, a move chief executive Mark Pincus said puts the company in a position for “long-term growth.”
TELECOMS
SingTel cuts forecast
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd cut its full-year sales forecast on declining Australian revenue after posting second-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates. Revenue will fall by a “low-single digit level” in the 12 months ending March, compared with a previous forecast for an increase, SingTel said in a statement yesterday. Net income fell 1.6 percent to S$868 million (US$710 million) in the July-September quarter, missing the S$953 million average of three estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Competition in Australia is crimping growth at Optus, SingTel’s biggest unit by sales, as the Singapore dollar’s appreciation against the Indonesian rupiah and the Thai baht cut the value of earnings from affiliates.
SOUTH KOREA
Jobless rate drops
The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than five years last month, despite a rise in the number of young people out of work, official figures showed yesterday. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 3 percent, down from 3.1 percent in September, was the lowest since February 2008, according to Statistics Korea. The unadjusted jobless rate fell to 2.8 percent last month from 2.9 percent in September. However, the number of unemployed under the age of 29 rose to 6.9 percent from 6.7 percent in September and the same 6.7 percent in October last year.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI