SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook sues over data
Facebook Inc accused an application developer in a lawsuit of continuing to display information about users of the social-networking Web site after Facebook tried to add protections to the data. Profile Technology Ltd failed to keep its agreement to delete the Facebook user data it accessed and displayed on the ProfileEngine.com Web site, according to a complaint filed on Friday in federal court in San Jose, California. Profile Technology, based in Auckland, New Zealand, was supposed to delete the information in October 2010, but continues to “use and display out-of-date user data to this day,” Facebook said in the complaint. The information includes, among other information, users’ names, photographs and names of friends with links to data that Profile Technology stored, according to the filing.
GAMING
PlayStation 4 ‘on its way’
Sony is poised to unveil the next PlayStation game console on Feb. 20, a date that would give the Japanese electronics company a head start over Microsoft’s expected announcement of an Xbox 360 successor in June this year. Sony Corp invited journalists to an evening press event in New York. The company has not said what it plans to show off, but signs indicate that it will be the PlayStation 4. Sony would only say that it “will deliver and speak about the future PlayStation business.” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said it is a “super smart” move for Sony to pre-empt Microsoft. This way, the PlayStation 4 will get the spotlight without much competition.
BANKING
CEO declines bonus
New Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has opted not to take a bonus for last year, saying he should “bear an appropriate degree of accountability” for the difficult year his bank endured. Jenkins, who became CEO in August last year, said he was aware of considerable speculation about his bonus, so to avoid further unnecessary public debate he decided this week that he did not want to be considered for an award on top of his base salary of £1.1 million (US$1.72 million). He was entitled to an annual bonus of up to £2.75 million. Bankers’ pay has become a political hot potato in Britain, with lawmakers from all parties demanding a crackdown on bonus payments to appease a public which has become disenfranchised with its banks following the 2008 financial crisis.
OIL
Refiners reap profit rewards
Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, the largest US energy producers, are boosting profits with oil refineries that some analysts and investors urged them to divest as recently as last year. Earnings from processing crude into fuels such as gasoline and diesel more than made up for lagging returns from oil and natural gas exploration during the final three months of last year, Exxon and Chevron reported yesterday. Fuel refining helped propel fourth-quarter net income to a five-year high of almost US$9.95 billion for Exxon and a record US$7.25 billion for Chevron. Exxon’s full-year net income rose 9.3 percent to US$44.88 billion, just US$340 million shy of the US profit record the company set in 2008 when it raked in US$45.22 billion.
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