CONSTRUCTION
Council approves budget
The National Development Council yesterday approved a proposal for a NT$177.24 billion (US$5.68 billion) public works budget for next year. The council, responsible for integrating and coordinating economic development among different government agencies, said there are 199 major public construction projects next year that cost NT$177.24 billion to execute, according to preliminary estimates. The council said it also intends to ask for an extra NT$3.1 billion, without elaborating. The government is likely to increase its spending next year to help boost the nation’s economy after exports declined 13.9 percent last month.
TELECOMS
Asia Pacific in the red
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信) yesterday reported a pre-tax loss of NT$351 million for last month, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. That brought the company’s total pre-tax loss in the first six months of the year to NT$1.36 billion. Asia Pacific yesterday launched three new 4G rate plans in a bid to meet its goal to increase its number of 4G subscribers to 800,000 by the end of the year from 300,000. The new monthly rate plans — NT$399, NT$699 and NT$999 — target low and medium data users. Subscribers to the plans also get up to five minutes of free calls. Asia Pacific’s move came after the nation’s big three telecoms launched ultra-low Internet-access-only 4G rate plans for NT$298 a month.
GAMING
Cayenne sales plummet
Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒) yesterday reported sales of NT$109.88 million last quarter, a 45.24 percent decrease from the previous year. The result is also 34.29 percent lower than the NT$167.22 million it made in the first quarter. It marks the company’s lowest quarterly result since it was listed on the Taipei Exchange (櫃檯買賣中心) in June 2011. In the first half of the year, Cayenne’s consolidated revenue plunged 39.91 percent to NT$276.91 million from the previous year’s NT$460.85 million, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company attributed the weak quarterly performance to rising competition in the mobile game market and fewer mobile games being launched compared with last year. Looking ahead, Cayenne said it plans to launch three new mobile games this quarter in a bid to improve its sales performance.
ELECTRONICS
Ex-Samsung head hired
The former head of Samsung Electronics Co’s information technology and mobile businesses in Taiwan is to take up a position with Data Express Infotech Co (德誼), one of Apple Inc’s main distributors in Taiwan, a source familiar with the matter told the Central News Agency yesterday. Andy Tu (杜偉昱), who worked at Samsung Taiwan from 2009 until May, is to assume the post of general manager of Data Express on Aug. 1, the source said, requesting anonymity for confidentiality reasons. Tu was also appointed yesterday as vice president at Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-largest mobile telecom. During Tu’s tenure at Samsung, the company’s annual revenue from mobile communication services increased significantly, propelling it to the top spot in terms of sales of mobile phones with screen sizes larger than 5 inches, the company said on April 14 in a statement about Tu’s resignation.
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