INVESTMENT
Tesla sees record high
Tesla Motors Inc shares rose to a record high after the electric-car maker led by Elon Musk reached an agreement to create a vehicle-charging network in China with the country’s second-largest mobile-phone company. The shares advanced 2.2 percent to US$269.70 in New York, the highest closing price since the Palo Alto, California-based company’s June 2010 initial public offering. The stock has traded at or near all-time highs through most of this month. The automaker, which began selling its Model S sedan in China in April, signed an accord yesterday with China United Network Communications Ltd (中國聯通) to build 400 charging points in 120 cities at China United’s outlets, Tesla spokeswoman Peggy Yang (楊淑婷) said in a telephone interview.
TECHNOLOGY
Rovio CEO to step down
Rovio, the Finnish gaming company behind the popular Angry Birds franchise, said on Friday that chief executive officer Mikael Hed would step down by the end of the year as the company struggles financially. Rovio has struggled recently after quickly rising to prominence in 2009 when Angry Birds became a global phenomenon. The company has failed to respond to more recent trends in gaming, and the announcement highlighted once again the precarious situation of many mobile gaming companies, whose fortunes often rely on a single franchise or technology.
TECHNOLOGY
Tablet sales disappoint
Tablets are not set to eclipse PCs as fast as once thought, according to studies by market tracker International Data Corp (IDC). On Friday IDC cut its forecast for shipments of tablets and “two-in-one” devices combining tablet and laptop features to 233.1 million, saying growth would be about half of what was originally predicted. Meanwhile, the outlook for PC shipments was less poor than originally envisioned, due in part to businesses replacing machines powered by outdated Windows XP software. IDC forecast that worldwide PC shipments would fall by 3.7 percent this year instead of by 6 percent as it had predicted earlier.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bankers’ bonuses rise
Bonuses for British bankers and insurance workers rose at double the pace of those for the total workforce last year, despite politicians’ and regulators’ attempts to clamp down on bumper payouts at financial firms. Employees in the finance and insurance industry were on average paid a bonus of £13,300 (US$22,100) in the year to April, up 5.5 percent on a year earlier, according to data released by the UK’s Office of National Statistics on Friday. Across the whole of the British workforce, the average bonus per employee was just over £1,500, 2.6 percent higher than the previous year. Mining and quarrying workers were paid the second-highest average bonuses of £7,000. Employees in education, health and social work fared the worst, with negligible bonuses per head figures, the office said. A total of £40.5 billion was paid out in bonuses to British workers in the 12 months to April, almost 5 percent more than in the previous year. Bonuses made up 6 percent of total pay across the whole economy, the highest percentage since before 2008 and the economic downturn, when bonuses accounted for 7.1 percent.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six