TAIEX closes slightly up
The TAIEX moved in a narrow range and ended slightly higher yesterday as the market fell into consolidation mode following recent strong gains, dealers said.
However, China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) closed up 5.52 percent at NT$7.27 after it announced a plan on Monday to buy back up to 200 million shares on the open market at prices ranging between NT$6.89 and NT$10 each from yesterday to Jan. 26.
The weighted index closed up 22.83 points, or 0.31 percent, at 7,430.20, after moving between 7,384.97 and 7,436.78. Turnover totaled NT$71.42 billion (US$2.45 billion) during the session.
Samsung eyes notebook market
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday said it aims to grab a double-digit share of Taiwan’s notebook market next year as it expands retail channels and breaks into the commercial sector.
The electronics giant began its notebook sales in Taiwan in March and accounts for only a single-digit share in a market dominated by local vendors Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁).
Samsung said it would not compete directly against Asustek and Acer in the lower-priced notebook segment, as it aims to build itself as a premium brand with most of its notebook products selling for more than US$1,000.
Low-end phones to drive growth
Mid and low-end smartphones will become the main drivers of smartphone shipment growth next year, as demand for the low-cost smartphones continues to increase in emerging markets, Digitimes Research said in a recent report.
Next year, Digitimes forecast Samsung Electronics Co will continue to lead the smartphone market with low-cost smartphone shipment growth of 30 percent in emerging markets, followed by Apple Inc, Sony Corp, Huawei (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興).
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) will replace Motorola Mobility to become the sixth largest smartphone vendor in the world and HTC Corp (宏達電) will hold its No. 7 ranking, followed by LG Electronics Inc, Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) and Nokia Oyj.
Chocolatier opens Taipei store
A French chocolatier yesterday entere Taiwan’s high-end chocolate market by opening its first store in Taipei.
“Now is the right time because Taiwan is a mature market,” said Bernard Poussin, general director and the eighth-generation owner of Debauve & Gallais, a chocolate manufacturer established in 1800.
After opening stores in the US, Japan, China and the Middle East, the company chose Taiwan as the location for its 16th overseas store.
Poussin said it is planning to open a second store in Taiwan in May or June next year, but the location has not been decided.
CAA issues merger reminder
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) yesterday reminded domestic air carriers wanting to form joint ventures with foreign partners that overseas investors cannot hold a majority stake in a local airline.
“The ratio of foreign capital in any joint venture must not exceed 49 percent,” the regulator said, while responding to TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) chairman Vincent Lin (林明昇), who said on Monday that the company was assessing whether to form an alliance with foreign carriers to make inroads into the budget air market.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.014 to close at NT$29.129.
Turnover totaled US$670 million during the trading session.
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