TSMC acquires Taoyuan factory
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday signed an agreement with Qualcomm Inc’s local display unit to acquire a factory in Longtan Township (龍潭), Taoyuan County, for US$85 million.
The company might use the factory to boost its advanced chip testing and packaging capacity, while providing more in-house chip testing and packaging services for customers.
TSMC offers cost-efficient INFO packaging service for chips used in mobile devices and high-end 3D CoWoS packaging services for chips used in servers.
Manufacturing output rises
The output of Taiwan’s manufacturing industry hit NT$3.72 trillion (US$120.85 billion) last quarter, up 5.77 percent from last year’s NT$3.52 trillion and up 1.69 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$3.66 trillion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Output of electronic parts set a quarterly record of NT$992.94 billion, up 9.1 percent year-on-year and 5.92 percent quarter-on-quarter, thanks to strong demand for new products from handset brands, the ministry said.
Overall, manufacturing output in the first three quarters increased 3.7 percent annually to NT$10.78 trillion, the ministry said.
Microsoft mulling data center
Microsoft Corp is considering building a data center in southern Taiwan and could invest at least US$600 million next year at the earliest, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources.
The paper said that Microsoft is assessing the possibility of a supersized data center to cater to Taiwan’s original design manufacturers.
Two teams from Microsoft are studying the matter, it said.
Microsoft is seeking “infinite” data storage space coupled with its cloud service to make inroads into Google Inc’s clients, the paper said.
Oaktree to sell golf firm shares
Oaktree Group LLC is to sell its 48 percent stake in Fu Sheng Industrial Co (復盛工業) after investing in the world’s largest maker of golf club heads for seven years, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the situation.
Oaktree acquired the Fu Sheng shares in 2007 for US$852 million. Dow Jones said the planned share sale could value the company at about US$1 billion. Oaktree has hired UBS AG to sell the shares, but the deal is still at an early stage, the report said.
Asus eyes cloud cooperation
Asus Cloud Corp (華碩雲端), a subsidiary of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), said yesterday it will seek strategic alliances in overseas markets to scale up the user pool of its cloud services.
The company has 37 million personal cloud users worldwide and aims to have more than 40 million by the end of the year, before leaping to 100 million next year through cooperation with telecoms and gaming companies in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and China, Asus Cloud CEO Peter Wu (吳漢章) said at a conference in Taipei.
Hon Hai arm eyes local trading
General Interface Solution Holding Ltd (GIS, 業成), a touchpanel manufacturing arm of Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), has applied to trade its shares on the local stock market, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) said in a statement yesterday.
GIS, registered in the Cayman Islands, supplies touchpanels for tablet and smartphone brands in the US, Europe and China, TWSE said.
The company has an initial capital of NT$2.86 billion (US$92.63 million). In the first three quarters of this year, GIS made NT$785 million in net profit, or NT$2.84 per share, on revenue of NT$51.83 billion.
Australia names yuan clearer
Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行) has been named as the official clearing bank for the yuan in Australia and agreed to boost cooperation with ASX Ltd, operator of the country’s main stock exchange.
The accord between the bank and ASX is aimed at lifting transaction volumes in an existing settlement service for yuan. The companies will encourage the use of yuan-denominated fixed income products and promote ASX across Asia.
Hua Nan, Huarong sign MOU
State-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with China Huarong Asset Management Corp (中國華融) to help the bank-focused conglomerate to explore the Chinese market, the local financial services provider said in a statement.
The two sides will first engage in exchanges of market intelligence, personnel training and legal requirements. In the long run, the cooperation will allow Hua Nan to gain a better understanding of the Chinese market and enhance its expansion plans there, the statement said.
Huarong is one of the top four largest asset management companies in China with total assets of 4 trillion yuan (US$653 billion), the statement said.
China Steel monthly profits dip
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday reported pretax profit of NT$2.94 billion for last month, down 1 percent from NT$2.97 billion the previous month, but up 30.67 percent from NT$2.25 billion the previous year, the nation’s only integrated steel maker said in a statement.
From January through last month, pretax profit was NT$23.21 billion, up 14.39 percent from NT$20.29 billion a year earlier thanks to declining iron ore prices.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by