TRADE
WTO to rule on rare earths
The WTO has concluded that restrictions by China on the export of rare earths are not in line with global body’s rules, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The newspaper cited sources in countries that have challenged the Chinese measures, but said the WTO had not yet issued its findings. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirmed the existence of an interim report, but could not comment on its contents, including the ruling. A final report was expected around year-end, a ministry spokesman said.
SOUTH KOREA
Output falls on auto dispute
South Korea’s industrial output fell last month, with labor disputes limiting production at leading automakers, government data showed yesterday. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries shrank 2.1 percent from a month earlier and 3.6 percent from a year ago, Statistics Korea said. That also compares with a revised 1.6 percent month-on-month rise in August.
INTERNET
Baidu posts profit increase
Baidu Inc (百度), which operates China’s most popular search engine, yesterday said quarterly profit rose 1.3 percent as it invested to expand its fledgling mobile business. The Beijing-based firm earned 3 billion yuan (US$498 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30. Revenue rose 42.3 percent to 8.9 billion yuan, but sales and administrative costs more than doubled mainly due to mobile-related expenses. Development costs rose 77.5 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Toshiba upgrades forecast
Toshiba Corp yesterday raised its full-year operating income forecast by 12 percent amid a rally in memorychip prices. It expects operating profit of ¥290 billion (US$2.9 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, compared with a previous projection of ¥260 billion, the company said, while keeping its net income forecast at ¥100 billion.
GAMING
Nintendo returns to profit
Nintendo yesterday said it swung back to profitability in the six months to September thanks to a sharply weaker yen, but the Japanese videogames giant struggled with tepid sales of its Wii U console. The firm said net profit for the half-year period came in at ¥600 million, compared with a ¥28 billion loss a year earlier, but it still logged an operating loss of ¥23.3 billion. The company’s sales fell 2.2 percent to ¥196.6 billion.
AUTOMAKERS
Porsche cuts into VW profit
German auto giant Volkswagen (VW) yesterday said that one-off effects in connection with its takeover of Porsche hit profits in the third quarter. VW said it booked a net profit of 1.856 billion euros (US$2.55 billion) in the period from July to September, down from 11.265 billion euros. Operating profit rose 19.9 percent to 2.777 billion euros on a 3.6 percent increase in units sales to 2.387 million cars worldwide, while revenues fell 3.8 percent to 46.985 billion euros.
INTERNET
LinkedIn falls into red
LinkedIn Corp on Tuesday reported a loss of US$3.4 million, or US$0.03 per share, in the July-September period. It had earned US$2.3 million, or US$0.02s per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 56 percent to US$393 million. LinkedIn forecast revenue of US$415 million and US$420 million for the current quarter, which is below Wall Street’s expectations of US$438.9 million.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to