SEMICONDUCTORSC
Nanya signs loan deal
Local DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday inked agreements with 14 local banks, led by Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), for NT$12 billion (US$400 million) in syndicated loans. The company said it plans to use the funds to repay bank loans and buy new equipment.
LABOR
More workers furloughed
The number of workers who have agreed to take unpaid leave has increased by 15 percent over the past two weeks, according to data released yesterday by the Council of Labor Affairs. As of Tuesday, a total of 2,513 employees in 42 companies had agreed to take unpaid leave, with 1,501 already on furlough, the data shows. The numbers were higher than the figures released on Dec. 15, when 2,172 workers in 38 companies had agreed to unpaid leave, and 1,429 had already started.
TELCOMS
HTC struggling in China
Chinese consumers are still most interested in smartphones made by Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc, while HTC (宏達電) remains in a lower-tier group, according to a survey recently released by Morgan Stanley. The Taiwanese firm had a 4.9 percent share of the page views in November on ZOL.com, one of China’s biggest online shops, putting it in sixth place in the Chinese market. Samsung and Apple stayed in the top two spots with page view shares of 21.8 percent and 12.6 percent respectively.
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],”