Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) and Japan’s Softbank Corp are planning to set up a joint venture to produce robots, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), and Softbank have agreed on the joint venture deal, which is scheduled to launch production by the end of this year, with an annual capacity of 10,000 units, the report said.
STILL IN TALKS
Foxconn and Softbank are still in talks to hammer out more details, such as the paid-in capital of the new company and the stakes the two partners are set to take in it, it added.
Hon Hai yesterday declined to comment on the report.
The newspaper said that SoftBank and Foxconn have been working with each other since June last year, when the Japanese firm unveiled Pepper, a robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics SA, a SoftBank subsidiary in France, and built by Foxconn.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that the new company would first focus on mass producing and marketing Pepper.
Several enterprises in Japan have used or are planning to use Pepper, the report said. Among them, Nestle Japan Ltd uses Pepper to sell its coffee machines, it added.
According to the report, Pepper is expected to hit the general public market this summer, priced at ¥198,000 (US$1,597).
The newspaper said that Foxconn chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) plans to cooperate with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to sell Pepper robots worldwide.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday said that Foxconn and Alibaba are planning to spend US$500 million to take a 10 percent stake in Indian e-commerce firm Snapdeal.com, and that the deal is pending regulatory approval from India.
Snapdeal has been operational for five years, selling a wide range of products, such as handsets, cars and even homes.
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