SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC raises share dividend
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its board has approved a move to distribute a higher cash dividend of NT$4.5 per share this year, from last year’s NT$3 per share. That represents about 3.16 percent in dividend yield compared with TSMC’s closing price of NT$142.5 yesterday. The board also approved capital appropriation of US$2 billion for insulation of advanced ad mainstream technology capacity, installation of specialty technology capacity, research and development investments and other investments. In a separate statement, TSMC said revenue jumped 25.3 percent to NT$87.12 billion last month, from NT$69.51 billion in December last year, hitting a new high.
TECHNOLOGY
E Ink shuts two LCD plants
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), which supplies e-paper displays for Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle e-reader series, yesterday said it has shut down two unprofitable LCD plants of its South Korean arm, Hydis Technologies Co Ltd. E Ink said it had made efforts to improve products made at the plants and to streamline organization, but the turnaround efforts failed. E Ink made the remarks after some South Korean workers staged protests in Taipei against the factory shutdown. E Ink said it was in talks with Hydis’ labor union representatives about job relocations and it called on union representatives for negotiations.
FINANCE
Acer makes public offering
PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it completed its second public offering of 300 million common shares to raise a total of NT$5.4 billion (US$180 million) in funds. The new shares will be distributed to the shareholders today, marking the first equity raising plan since the firm spun off its former manufacturing operations, Acer said in a statement. The funds are to pay down bank loans, finance the euro convertible bond and bolster funds for new business investments for the company’s long-term sustainability, Acer said.
BANKING
FSC announces deregulation
Foreigners, including Chinese citizens, may open accounts in Taiwan’s offshore banking units by holding passports or other identification documents, such as Chinese residents’ Taiwan pass, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday. The easing aims to simplify procedures and further boost investments. “The commission has sent the official statement to notify local banks about the deregulation,” Banking Bureau Director-General Austin Chan (詹庭禎) told a media briefing. Some banks are expected to start the business before the Lunar New Year holiday, Chan said. The commission also plans to allow domestic banks to set up offices in airports or ports, and the liberalization might take effect in the first half of this year, Chan added.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai sales up by 25%
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads, yesterday reported monthly sales of NT$396 billion (US$12.55 billion) for last month, jumping 25 percent from the NT$314.55 billion seen last year. On a monthly basis, the sales figures dropped 23.19 percent from the previous month’s NT$515.56 billion, the company’s stock filing said. Hon Hai shares closed at NT$85.5 in Taipei trading yesterday, declining 1.72 percent from a day earlier, underperforming the TAIEX, which lost 0.3 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li