Acer Inc (宏碁) will continue to invest in its cloud-computing service segment after a NT$1.75 billion (US$56.16 million) fund for cloud-computing development is fully utilized, its chairman said yesterday.
“We have different plans and schedules on cloud-computing development. We will definitely be pouring more investment into this segment,” chairman George Huang (黃少華) told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference on the progress of ticket sales for Taiwanese pop diva Jody Chiang’s (江蕙) farewell concerts.
The PC maker on Sunday sold out Chiang’s nine additional concerts via the firm’s cloud-computing unit within 26 minutes, a feat for the unit’s operations for which Huang expressed his satisfaction with.
Huang said Acer chief investment officer Jeff Chen (陳玠甫) has been assigned to handle the NT$1.75 billion fund this year for cloud-computing business investment, which is composed of NT$1 billion of capital from Taiwan and NT$750 million from overseas.
As part of the development of cloud-computing technology, Acer last week signed a memorandum of understanding with the nation’s largest telecom operator, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), on a network switch, Huang said.
Huang said the firm would continue to seek talent for the development of cloud technology, after more than 40 talented engineers joined its cloud-computing business unit last year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last