TELECOMS
Vodaphone investors eye pact
Some of the biggest investors in Vodafone Group PLC say they are open to a European tie-up with Liberty Global PLC, as the British company is now in a stronger position to negotiate a deal with the cable group. Shares in the world’s second-largest mobile operator hit a 14-year high last week after Liberty Global chairman John Malone said a much-mooted union would be a “great fit” for his company. The positive reaction stands in contrast to previous occasions when talk of a deal sent shares in Vodafone tumbling on fears that it, as the suitor, would overpay in order to snare Liberty Global, Europe’s biggest cable operator. “There is a strategic rationale to the combination of the assets,” one top 10 shareholder in Vodafone told reporters on condition of anonymity. “And until last week, the market assumption had been that Vodafone was coming from a position of weakness. What has changed with John Malone’s comments is that the conversation between the two parties might actually be a more equal one.”
STOCK
Nikkei gains continue
The Nikkei 225 chalked up an 11th consecutive daily gain yesterday as the yen dropped to about a 12-year low against the US dollar, while Shanghai extended losses following the previous day’s hefty plunge. The euro continues to face downside pressure over concerns that Greece and its creditors would not reach an agreement on reforming its bailout, with the head of the IMF warning the crisis could end with the country leaving the eurozone. Tokyo pared most of its early losses, but ended marginally higher, adding 11.69 points to end at 20,563.15. The index is now enjoying its best rally since February 1988 at the height of its stock market bubble.
INTERNET
US mulls subsidies
The US’ top telecom regulator on Thursday unveiled plans to subsidize high-speed Internet for low-income households, saying the service was essential for people trying to better themselves. US Federal Communications chairman Tom Wheeler proposed the plan to overhaul the Lifeline program, which provides low-cost telephone services, to include online access as well. “Broadband access is essential to find a job — more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 job openings are online,” Wheeler said in a blog post. However, Wheeler said nearly 30 percent of US citizens, mostly low-income households, still lack broadband access.
INVESTMENTS
Japan Post alters strategy
Japan Post Holdings, the world’s biggest holder of Japanese government bonds (JGB) after the Bank of Japan, said yesterday that it plans to significantly alter its investment strategy as the state-owned group revamps its US$2.4 trillion portfolio. Japan Post president Taizo Nishimuro told a regular news conference that he met with Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda last week and told him that “we will greatly change how we manage the investment of JGBs.” Japan Post owns a bank and an insurance company, and their combined investment portfolio is worth about ¥300 trillion (US$2.4 trillion). That makes the group one of the largest institutional investors in the world. Traditionally, its investment strategy has been conservative, with the low-yielding government bonds making up more than half of its portfolio. The move will likely see a bulk shift of money from the bonds to riskier, but higher-return assets like stocks and foreign bonds.
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