TELECOMS
FIH India workers arrested
Nearly 200 employees at a factory operated by FIH Mobile Ltd (富智康), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), were arrested on Monday for trying to force their way into the plant in Sriperumbudur Taluk, India, after production was suspended last week. It was the second attempt at a forced entry into the facility after a similar attempt by hundreds of employees on Tuesday last week, according to the Press Trust of India. Three rounds of tripartite talks were held in the presence of Sriperumbudur’s labor commissioner, but they had yet to reach any conclusions, the report said. A fourth round of talks was scheduled to take place today.
INVESTMENT
Delegation to visit India
Taiwan will send a delegation composed of officials from the ministries of economic and foreign affairs and business representatives to an investment summit in India next month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. “The business representatives on the delegation are mainly from the electronics, shipbuilding and textile industries,” Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Elliott Charng (常以立) said at a news conference. The delegation is scheduled to visit India from Jan. 10 to Jan. 14, and the investment summit is to be held from Jan. 11 to Jan. 13 in the state of Gujarat, Charng said.
FOUNDATIONS
Chang Gung names chair
Chang Gung Medical Foundation (長庚醫療) yesterday appointed Lee Pao-chu (李寶珠), the third wife of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) cofounder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), as chairperson, replacing Wang Yung-tsai (王永在), the foundation said in a statement. Known for its operation of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, the foundation is one of the group’s nonprofit organizations as well as its investment arm. Wang Yung-tsai, another cofounder of the group and a younger brother of the late Wang Yung-ching, passed away on Nov. 27.
TRAVEL
Richmond plans listing
Richmond International Travel & Tour Co (山富旅遊) yesterday said the company is seeking to list on the Emerging Stock Market, which is a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses, the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the GRETAI Securities Market. The company said in a statement that its board had authorized chairman Chico Chen (陳國森) to negotiate terms with potential underwriters and proceed with the planned market debut with the stock exchange regulator. No specific date has been set for the debut.
HOUSEWARES
Xiaomi working on purifier
Xiaomi Corp (小米) is working on a water purifier as it expands its range of home products that can be controlled over the Internet, an early investor in the company said. The company has shown some backers a prototype of the new purifier, said Jenny Lee, managing partner at GGV Capital, an early investor in China’s largest smartphone vendor. Xiaomi spokeswoman Joy Han declined to comment on products that have not been announced. Xiaomi founder and chief executive officer Lei Jun (雷軍) said on Monday that the company would unveil a new “flagship product” next month, without supplying further details. GGV’s Lee did not say if the water purifier would be that product.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is