AVIATION
TNA cash dividend approved
Local airliner TransAsia Airways Corp (TNA, 復興航空) yesterday said the board has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.1 per share for shareholders. The distribution is based on TNA’s net profit for last year of NT$304.91 million (US$9.73 million), or NT$0.55 per share. In a separate filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, TNA said the board has approved the issue of a maximum of 50 million common shares via a private placement and to issue corporate bonds worth as much as NT$1.5 billion to replenish operational capital, repay bank loans and buy fixed assets. The board also approved the company’s proposal to buy four Airbus A321-200 planes from Airbus SAS, rather than six as originally planned. An airplane leasing company will buy the other two planes, it said. TNA still plans to buy two Airbus A330-300 airplanes as planned.
STOCK EXCHANGE
Listed firms’ revenue rises
Taiwan’s listed companies made a total of NT$6.71 trillion (US$214.09 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 3.5 percent from a year ago, driven by the nation’s semiconductor, electronics and construction industries, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. However, Taiwan’s cement, chemical, gas and electricity industries showed signs of a decline in sales in the first three months of the year, according to their filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the statement said.
SMARTPHONES
HTC’s US market share grows
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) saw its market share in the US rebound slightly in the three months ending in February, its first gain in more than two years. The Taoyuan-based company was ranked the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in the US, with a 3.8 percent share from December last year to February, up 0.1 of a percentage point from the September-to-November period, according to a report published on Thursday last week by market research firm comScore Inc. It was HTC’s first gain over a three-month period since comScore released US smartphone market share figures regularly from the July-to-September period of 2012, when HTC had a market share of 12 percent. Apple Inc remained the top smartphone vendor in its home market, but its share dropped by 0.1 of a percentage point to 41.7 percent in the three months ending in February, while second-placed Samsung Electronics Co fell 1.1 percentage points to 28.6 percent. LG Electronics Inc was a distant third, with its market share expanding by 0.7 of a percentage point to 8.3 percent, followed by Motorola Mobility in fourth with a 5.1 percent share, comScore said.
TECHNOLOGY
MediaTek targets developers
Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) has launched a new development platform to help developers commercialize their products or services using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The MediaTek LinkIt Assist 2502 platform is designed for advanced developers looking for a professional environment in which they can design and prototype the software and hardware for consumer-ready wearables and IoT devices. The new module-based approach makes it easier to get access to MediaTek chipset technology and simplifies final hardware design for developers, the Hsinchu-based company said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to