Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest contract electronics maker, yesterday said it had established a research and development (R&D) company in Japan to develop advanced displays and touch screen technologies.
The new technologies will be used for electronics such as handsets and tablets, as the company expands its business to displays and cloud computing.
“The research center will become a strategic part of Hon Hai’s plans to develop display and cloud applications,” the company said in a statement.
Foxconn Japan RD Co Ltd will have operations in Sakai, Osaka and Yokohama in the initial stage, Hon Hai said in the statement.
PURPOSE
The technologies developed by the R&D company will be used in consumer electronics, commercial products and medical devices, the statement said.
Hon Hai did not disclose how much it has invested in the R&D company.
The Taiwanese firm also operates one R&D center in Taiwan and another in China.
It will integrate resources in these two R&D centers with Foxconn Japan RD, hoping the R&D company to help strengthen Hon Hai’s designing and manufacturing, the statement said.
Separately, a leading Indonesian cell phone distributor and retailer said it signed a deal to set up a partnership with Hon Hai in Indonesia, an Indonesian newspaper said on Thursday.
MOU
The Jakarta Globe cited Erajaya Swasembada president and director Badiarto Halim as saying that the company had reached an agreement with the Taiwanese company.
“We have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be Foxconn’s local partner,” Badiarto was quoted as saying.
The form of the partnership, the financial structure of the deal and the feasibility of future plans are still being discussed, the paper said.
Erajaya, which the paper described as the top handset retailer in Indonesia with a 30 percent share, can bring its expertise in distribution and retailing to the partnership, while Hon Hai would likely be responsible for manufacturing, Badiarto said.
INVESTMENT
Hon Hai has announced plans to invest US$10 billion in Indonesia over the next five years to set up a manufacturing base there and supply electronic devices to the country’s rapidly growing consumer market.
The company had originally planned to sign a MOU with the Indonesian government on investment, covering investment incentives and conditions in the middle of last month, but a Hon Hai source said details are still being worked out.
Indonesian Minister of Industry Mohamad Hidayat said recently that Hon Hai plans to build a 500-hectare factory to produce cell phones, tablet computers and other electronic products.
Hon Hai shares slid 0.65 percent to NT$76.7 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.14 percent.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the