CURRENCY
Yuan deposits hit 70 billion
The central bank said on Thursday that 70.1 billion Chinese yuan (US$11.43 billion) had been deposited in Taiwan as of Tuesday, up from the 66.29 billion yuan recorded at the end of last month. Outstanding balance of yuan deposits totaled 34.42 billion yuan in the 58 domestic banking units in Taiwan as of the end of last month, while those in the 55 offshore banking units reaching 31.87 billion yuan, according to data by the central bank. The amount of Chinese yuan remitted by Taiwanese totaled 42.84 billion yuan last month, statistics showed. All Taiwanese banks settled a total of 94.7 billion Chinese yuan last month through the Bank of China’s (中國銀行) branch in Taipei — the clearing bank for yuan in Taiwan, the central bank said.
TECHNOLOGY
UMC to partner with IBM
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said on Thursday it had set up an alliance with IBM Corp to join the IBM Technology Development Alliance as a participant in the development of 10-nanometer (nm) process technology. The Taiwanese chipmaker said in a statement that it will send an engineering team to IBM’s 10nm process development center in Albany, New York. The company hopes to complete the first phase of development by the end of next year, it said. UMC and IBM also work together on the 14nm FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) process.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”