AVIATION
Dubai carrier to fly to Taipei
Dubai-based Emirates Airlines has announced that it will begin offering direct flights next year between Taipei and Dubai to vie for Taiwanese using the United Arab Emirates as a transit stop to Europe. The service will begin on Feb. 10, with initially six non-stop flights per week using 777-300ER passenger aircraft, the carrier said. While it has operated freighter service to Taipei since 2003, Emirates Airlines said it is hoping to provide more flight options for Taiwanese with its more than 134 destinations in 76 countries around the world. “Given [Taipei’s] status as a global trading hub and the demand, it is a natural progression for Emirates to launch passenger services to Taipei,” said Barry Brown, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president commercial operations east.
TECHNOLOGY
Flat panel demand tumbles
Quoted prices for large-sized flat panels in the second half of this month continued to tumble as TV screen sales proved slower than expected, a research report said on Saturday. The DisplaySearch report said prices were being pushed down by large inventory caused by weak demand. Prices for large-sized panels, used in TVs and computers, fell by between 2 percent and 4 percent over the second half of the month, while prices of larger TV screens fell by about 4 percent, it said. DisplaySearch’s findings were echoed by WitsView, which found quoted prices for TV screens have fallen an average of between 3 percent and 4 percent per month since the beginning of the third quarter because China ended a year-long subsidy on energy-efficient home electronics on May 31. China is planning next month to announce another round of subsidies on home alliance purchases which will take effect in January next year.
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