Peter Chou (周永明), head of smartphone vendor HTC Corp’s (宏達電) Future Development Lab, has been appointed executive director of Hong Kong-listed Digital Domain Holdings Ltd (數字王國).
Digital Domain is engaged in a wide range of businesses, including media entertainment, digital visual special effects, coproduction of movies, property investment and development and trading.
On its Web site, Digital Domain states that it has delivered innovative visuals for more than 100 movies, including Iron Man 3, the Transformers series and Titanic.
The appointment by Digital Domain has stirred up speculation that Chou, 59, is leaving HTC, but the smartphone vendor said that he still works for HTC and by taking up the director position at Digital Domain, he aims to help HTC develop its virtual-reality (VR) business.
VIRTUAL REALITY
HTC is gearing up to grasp a share in the VR headset business by launching the Vive headset, hoping that this will help the company improve its bottom line at a time when the Taiwanese firm is faced with escalating competition in the global smartphone market.
Digital Domain said that Chou is scheduled to begin his new job tomorrow, and he is to hold on to the executive director position until the next general meeting, when he is to retire and become eligible for re-election at the meeting.
In March, Chou stepped down as the CEO of HTC, but shifted his position to head the smartphone brand’s Future Development Lab to help the company identify growth opportunities.
HTC cofounder and chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) assumed the CEO position.
HTC said that Chou’s new post with Digital Domain is expected to allow HTC to gain a better understanding of the development of the VR business, as the Taiwanese firm is determined to seek more business cooperation opportunities in this field.
HTC said that so far, it has more than 100 business partners in the sector.
In the first half of this year, HTC incurred NT$9.7 in loss per share, and the company has forecast that it will post an additional NT$5.85 to NT$5.51 in net loss per share this quarter.
On Friday, shares of HTC closed up by 0.53 percent to reach NT$47.1 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six