An international developer bidding to build a casino resort on Matsu yesterday said it has budgeted US$2.5 billion to construct supporting infrastructure.
This will remove the biggest obstacle facing Matsu’s development: a lack of transportation infrastructure, Weidner Resorts chairman and CEO William Weidner said.
The money would be used mainly to upgrade Beigan Airport so that it can handle larger aircraft such as Airbus SAS’ A320s and Boeing Co’s 747s, Weidner said.
Photo: Tsai Wei-chi, Taipei Times
A bridge connecting the Matsu chain’s Beigan and Nangan islands, a ferry harbor and a yacht terminal would also be built, he said.
“[The project] will develop Matsu’s infrastructure and help connect it to the rest of the world,” Weidner said.
He said that the US$2.5 billion, which is part of the US$8 billion in funds for the entire project, came from Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse.
Weidner said the resort could generate 70,000 job opportunities.
Matsu County residents approved a referendum in July last year allowing casinos to be built on the island chain.
However, such projects cannot proceed until a bill governing the operation of casinos is passed by the legislature.
The Cabinet is currently working on drafting legislation toward that end.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS