BANKING
RBS profits surge
Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) said on Friday that its second-quarter pretax profit nearly doubled as the bank benefited from a decline in loan impairments. The results were better than expected and prompted the bank to issue them a week early. However, the bank, which is based in Edinburgh, warned that litigation and other legacy issues could drag down its results in future quarters. On a pretax basis, the bank, which is 81 percent owned by the UK government, posted a profit of £1.01 billion (US$1.72 billion) for the second quarter, compared with £548 million in the second quarter of last year. The bank said its preliminary net profit was £230 million, compared with a profit of £142 million in the same period last year. In the quarter, the bank was able to release £93 million that it had set aside for bad loans. In the same quarter last year, the company posted loan impairments of £1.12 billion.
INTERNET
Google ramps up buyouts
Google Inc more than tripled spending on acquisitions in the first half of the year to US$4.2 billion, as the company ramps up investments to expand its services. The world’s largest online advertiser spent US$3.2 billion for thermostat company Nest Labs Inc in February and an additional US$1 billion on other purchases in the first six months of this year, the California-based company said in a filing on Friday. That was up from US$1.3 billion for the same period a year ago, according to a previous filing. The numbers for this year exclude the more than US$1 billion that Google has announced it is paying for home-camera company DropCam Inc and satellite service Skybox Imaging Inc. Google’s scale of deal spending is climbing as it works to bolster its core search-advertising business and extend its reach into new markets such as mobile, telecommunications and driverless cars.
MINING
Freeport inks Indonesia deal
Freeport-McMoRan Inc clinched a deal with the Indonesian government on Friday allowing the miner to resume copper concentrate exports from the country, effectively ending a six-month tax dispute and paving the way for more miners to follow suit. Freeport, which is expected to export 756,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in the second half of this year, received its permit from the trade ministry on Friday after signing a memorandum of understanding with the government, Freeport Indonesia said. With its export permit in the bag, Indonesia’s top copper miner said it would resume full operations immediately, with concentrate shipments expected to resume next month.
TECHNOLOGY
Bose sues Beats Electronics
Bose Corp on Friday sued Beats Electronics LLC over patented technology for canceling noise in earphones. The suit filed in a US federal court in the state of Delaware pits the 50-year-old firm against an Internet-age youngster which is being bought by Apple Inc in a deal valued at US$3 billion. Attorneys said they had also filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission, which has the power to block imports of headsets found to infringe on patented technology. Bose accused Beats of infringing on five of its patents for cutting out unwanted noise in headphones, particularly by canceling it out with other sound waves.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks