ELECTRONICS
Sony posts US$1.3bn loss
Sony Corp sank to a ¥138 billion (US$1.3 billion) quarterly loss due to expenses from exiting its personal computer business and is forecasting more red ink as it struggles to execute a long-promised turnaround. The company also reported a loss of ¥128.4 billion for the fiscal year through March this year, about three times its loss of ¥41.5 billion the previous year. It forecast a ¥50 billion loss for the year ending March next year. Sony’s red ink is flowing despite an improvement in sales, which rose 14 percent to ¥7.7 trillion for the fiscal year.
SOUTH KOREA
Unemployment inches up
The unemployment rate rose slightly last month, with the number of newly created jobs falling for the second consecutive month, government data showed yesterday. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 3.7 percent, compared to 3.5 percent in March, Statistics Korea said. However, the employment market for young job seekers remained tough. The jobless rate for those aged 15-29 stood at 10 percent last month, up from 9.9 in March and 8.4 percent a year earlier.
EUROPE
Inflation rises slightly
Inflation in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, accelerated slightly for the first time this year, official final data showed yesterday. The cost of living rose by 1.3 percent on a 12-month basis last month, up from 1 percent in March, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Inflation in France also edged up last month, French official data showed yesterday, as consumer prices rose by 0.7 percent on a 12-month basis, the statistics institute INSEE reported.
TELECOMS
Telstra completes CSL sale
Australian telecommunications giant Telstra yesterday announced it had completed the sale of Hong Kong-based mobile business CSL to HKT Ltd (香港電訊), with proceeds for its stake totaling US$1.99 billion. Telstra revealed in December last year it planned to offload the operation, saying while revenue was growing strongly and market share was up, dynamics in the Hong Kong market meant it was time to sell. The sale equates to US$1.99 billion for Telstra’s 76.4 percent stake.
BANKING
Citic chair fined for criticism
A Chinese brokerage has fined its chairman two months pay — nearly 1 million yuan (US$161,000) — after he publicly blasted the nation’s largest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行) over its profits, state media reported yesterday. The penalty will be levied on Citic Securities Co’s (中信證券) Wang Dongming (王東明), the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper said, basing its estimate on Wang’s salary last year of 5.83 million yuan. China’s “Big Four” banks, which include ICBC, have long been criticized for high charges, poor service and their reluctance to lend to private firms.
AUTOMAKERS
Firm aims for 20% of electric
Nissan’s joint venture firm in China has said it is aiming to secure one-fifth of the fledgling electric vehicle market, which it expects to boom as authorities get to grips with choking air pollution. Dongfeng Motor Co (東風) has ambitions of claiming a 20 percent segment share with its local Venucia brand, which will be rolled out in September, Jun Seki, who heads the joint venture, said on Tuesday.
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