CURRENCY
Yuan deposits hit US$16.2bn
A total of 98.66 billion Chinese yuan (US$16.2 billion) was deposited in the nation’s domestic banking units (DBUs) and overseas banking units (OBUs) as of the end of last month, the central bank said yesterday. The figure compares with 85.14 billion yuan recorded at the end of August, the bank said. Total yuan deposits in the nation had reached the 100 billion mark earlier this month, the central bank said. The outstanding balance of deposits totaled 66.28 billion yuan in the 62 DBUs as of the end of last month, from 54.45 billion yuan recorded the previous month, while those in the 55 OBUs totaled 32.38 billion yuan, data released by the central bank showed.
TELECOMS
Apple pre-sale goes well
The limited number of gold iPhone 5S devices put up for pre-sale by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) sold out in half an hour, the company said yesterday. The nation’s largest telecommunication service provider began to accept pre-orders for Apple Inc’s new generation of iPhones on Monday morning, but it did not reveal how many units were available for sale. The iPhone 5S comes in three colors (gold, silver and space gray) and three storage sizes (16GB, 32GB and 64GB). All nine iPhone 5S models up for pre-sale sold out within an hour, Chunghwa Telecom said. The iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will hit local stores on Friday next week.
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