Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s third-largest chip packager and tester, yesterday said the company this week would complete first-phase fundraising for a semiconductor investment entity.
The Taichung-based company has joined forces with several local technology firms — including United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電) and Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) — to establish the entity, which aims to invest in Taiwan’s listed semiconductor companies.
Reports say the entity would have initial capital of NT$12 billion (US$365.3 million).
SPIL yesterday declined to comment on whether the entity will invest in SPIL in an attempt to counter the share purchase by local rival Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體).
In September, ASE completed the share purchase in SPIL for NT$35 billion to become the latter’s biggest shareholder with a 25 percent stake.
While SPIL tried to team up with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in a share swap deal to fight against ASE, the planned deal was rejected by SPIL shareholders in the middle of last month.
SPIL yesterday said the investment entity has thus far raised NT$6.9 billion, with the biggest investment of NT$3 billion from UMC. SPIL said it has invested NT$2.4 billion in the entity.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained