TECHNOLOGY
Yahoo details data requests
Yahoo Inc, the largest US Web portal, said it got as many as 13,000 requests for information from US law enforcement agencies, becoming the latest technology company to detail government data collection. The requests occurred in the six months ended last month, with the most common types related to fraud, homicides and criminal investigations, Yahoo said in a posting on Tumblr. The company said it cannot lawfully break out Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests and it urged the US government to reconsider its stance on the issue. The company said it plans to issue its first global law-enforcement transparency report later this year and will refresh it every six months with new statistics.
MALAYSIA
1MDB to list power assets
Sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) plans to raise about US$1 billion through a public listing of its power assets in Malaysia next year, Dow Jones Newswires has reported. The funds raised through the share sale will help pay off some of the debts of the investment company, Dow Jones said in its report on Monday, quoting people familiar with the plans. Government-owned investor 1MDB has bought several power plants since last year, including tycoon Ananda Krishnan’s power generation business for US$2.7 billion and Genting Bhd’s domestic energy operations for 2.3 billion ringgit (US$730 million), Dow Jones said.
UNITED STATES
Homebuilders’ confidence up
Confidence among homebuilders surged this month, staging its biggest gain since 2002 in one of the strongest signs yet that the housing recovery is gaining traction. The closely watched National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released on Monday, jumped to 52 this month from 44 the previous month, handily topping forecasts. The index has risen 23 points from a year earlier. Readings above 50 mean more builders see market conditions as favorable rather than poor. It was the first time the index has climbed above that dividing line since April 2006. The latest reading was also the highest since March of that year.
CHIPMAKERS
AMD unveils new products
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), struggling to compete with Intel Corp in the market for processors that run server computers, unveiled three new products aimed at making a dent in its larger rival’s sales. AMD will offer “Berlin” chips for data-center machines that handle basic tasks such as Web hosting, “Warsaw” for powerful servers that will compete at lower price and “Seattle,” AMD’s first server chip based on ARM Holdings PLC technology. AMD’s ARM-based chips will go on sale next year, the company said.
INTERNET
Facebook sparks buzz
A mysterious Facebook event set for tomorrow has sparked buzz that the leading social network could be adding video to Instagram smartphone picture-sharing service. The leading social network invited the media to its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park where “a small team has been working on a big idea,” but remained hush about what will be unveiled. Online speculation at technology news Web site TechCrunch and elsewhere has included the possibility that Instagram will start letting people share video snippets in a style similar to a hit Vine app launched by Twitter in January.
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