Five foreign semiconductor and pharmaceutical companies are to invest more than NT$11 billion (US$336.9 million) in Taiwan in the next three years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
To encourage more foreign companies to invest in Taiwan, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) led a delegation on a visit to 11 companies in the US and Canada from Aug. 8 to Tuesday last week.
“We inked letters of intent with five of the 11 companies, including semiconductor equipment manufacturer S-Cubed Inc and Pharmascience Inc,” Cho told a press conference in Taipei.
Vivian Lien (連玉蘋), director-general of the ministry’s Department of Investment Services, said this was the second year in a row that S-Cubed signed a letter of intent with the ministry.
The semiconductor equipment manufacturer last year invested NT$500 million in a logistics center in Taiwan, as part of the firm’s efforts to expand its reach in the Asian market, Lien said.
S-Cubed’s clients include Taiwanese chip packaging and testing services providers Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and Powertech Technology Inc (力成), she said.
After investing in a logistics center, S-Cubed plans to invest another NT$500 million to set up a research and development (R&D) as well as manufacturing center in the nation, Lien said.
Apart from S-Cubed, Lien said that Canadian IC solutions provider Sidense Corp, gaming developer Ubisoft Montreal Inc and Pharmacience also said they would like to establish R&D centers in Taiwan, Lien said.
The companies cited “Taiwan’s complete supply chains, industry clusters and pool of talent” as the main reasons for establishing R&D centers in the nation, she said.
Lien said the government in May amended regulations to encourage foreign companies to invest in such centers, offering a subsidy of up to 50 percent of their R&D investment if the centers are established through strategic partnerships with Taiwanese companies.
Although General Electric Co (GE) did not ink a letter of intent with the ministry, the US company is to invest an additional NT$1.5 billion into its joint venture with Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp (長榮航太科技) — GE Evergreen Engines Services (長異發動機維修), Lien said.
Moreover, GE plans to spend NT$2.7 billion to purchase aviation and medical equipment from Taiwan in the next three years, she added.
Foreign direct investment totaled US$5.75 billion last year, but reached only US$1.98 billion in the first half of this year, Investment Commission figures showed.
As part of the ministry’s efforts to boost foreign investment, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) last month led a delegation to Japan, followed by Cho’s visit to the US and Canada.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) is to lead a delegation to Germany, Switzerland and Finland next month, Lien said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS