GERMANY
Economy maintains growth
The economy maintained its momentum this month as services growth surged to the fastest pace in almost three years, countering a slowdown at factories. A purchasing managers’ index of both industries held at 56.1 this month, close to the highest level in three years, Markit Economics said in London yesterday. It also said the drop in the manufacturing index does not alter the outlook for “solid” economic growth this quarter. The factory gauge remains above the 50 level that indicates expansion. The services PMI rose to 56.4 from 54.7 last month. That is the highest reading since June 2011, while the factory gauge dropped to 52.9 from 54.1, a sharper decline than was anticipated.
INTERNET
Sina Corp losses jump
Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp (新浪) says first-quarter losses more than doubled as it booked a US$40 million charge stemming from the stock listing of its Weibo (微博) microblog unit. Sina lost US$33.2 million in the January-to-March period, up from US$13.2 million a year earlier. Revenue rose by more than one-third to US$171.5 million. Weibo, reporting its first earnings since going public, said on Wednesday that its first-quarter loss also more than doubled to US$47.4 million, because of the same non-cash charge. Revenue grew by about two and half times to 67.5 million.
PROPERTY
Zoopla to list shares
British property Web site Zoopla plans to list its shares as its majority owner Daily Mail & General Trust moves to tap into the strong sentiment around the country’s property sector. The country’s second-largest property Web site said yesterday that shares held by its existing owners would be sold giving a free float of at least 25 percent. It will not issue new shares.
MINING
Fortescue warns strikers
Fortescue warned yesterday that a potential strike by tugboat deckhands could shut down its Australian iron ore operations. Maritime Union of Australia members employed by tugboat operator Teekay Marine at Port Hedland in Western Australia voted last week to walk out if they are unable to agree to pay and conditions. On Wednesday, BHP Billiton’s iron ore president Jimmy Wilson said a strike would impact Australian exports and the company was pursuing legal options to prevent industrial action.
INNOVATION
Smoke alarms recalled
The US Product Safety Commission on Wednesday issued a recall notice for 440,000 smoke and carbon monoxide alarms by Nest, a technology-driven start-up acquired by Google earlier this year. Nest last month disclosed that a “wave” feature that lets people disable alert sounds by flailing their arms could also accidentally be triggered by other gestures. Nest offered refunds and released software disabling the feature. It said there have been no reports of incidents, injury or damage related to the wave feature.
GAMING
ZeniMax to sue Oculus
US giant ZeniMax Media on Wednesday said it is suing virtual reality headgear star Oculus VR, recently bought by Facebook. ZeniMax, whose empire includes Bethesda Softworks and id Software, filed a suit in a US federal court in Texas accusing Oculus of misappropriating trade secrets relating to virtual reality and infringing on copyrights. Oculus vowed a vigorous defense against the lawsuit.
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