GAMING
Predator series launched
Taiwanese PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday launched a series of its Predator gaming desktops, monitors, laptops and tablets in Malaysia in a bid to expand its share of the gaming market there. “With this new addition to our already extensive portfolio of products in Malaysia, we hope this cross-platform offering of Predator gaming series will bring powerful and out-of-this-world gaming experience to its users,” Acer Sales & Services Sdn Bhd managing director Ricky Tan said.
STEELMAKERS
CSC to sell shares
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, said it has sold 5.34 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to boost its bottom line. China Steel said it would book a NT$635 million (US$19.23 million) asset gain from selling the TSMC shares, according to a company statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday. The announcement came after China Steel reported a second straight monthly loss before tax last month.
COMPUTERS
Clevo approves buyback
The board of PC maker Clevo Co (藍天) yesterday approved a plan to carry out another share buyback scheme. It is to be the second time the company has bought back its common shares this year. The company said it is to buy back 10 million of its shares at between NT$20 and NT$35 per share on the open market. The scheme started yesterday and is to continue through Feb. 15. Following the announcement in the morning, Clevo’s stock price surged by the 10 percent daily limit to close at NT$30 in Taipei trading yesterday.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
DCB inks Wako deal
The Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB, 生物技術開發中心) and Japan’s Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd yesterday inked an agreement to collaborate to develop new formulations of cell culture media to enter the biologics market. The partnership is to leverage the synergy from DCB’s experience in research and manufacturing of biologics — genetically engineered proteins from human genes — and Wako’s expertise in chemical manufacturing and production capacity. The collaboration is expected to speed up the development of cell culture media, helping both sides compete in the global market for biologics drugs, the two parties said in a press statement.
ELDERLY CARE
China plans announced
Shin Kong Group (新光集團) yesterday announced that it is to invest about 3 billion yuan (US$464 million) to build a care facility for elderly people in China’s Chongqing in collaboration with Mogenjun (重慶摩根郡旅遊開發公司), a developer based in the city. Shin Kong hopes to use its expertise in offering stellar elderly-care services in Taiwan and replicate the winning model in China, it said at a signing ceremony yesterday.
ECONOMY
First Financial head cautious
First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) chairman Joseph Tsai (蔡慶年) yesterday said he holds a cautious view over the outlook for the global economy next year, as there are many uncertainties, such as the US mulling interest rate hikes. He said he foresees that hot money would exit from emerging markets soon after an expected US rate increase. In a bid to reduce investment risks, First Financial has lowered its exposure in emerging markets, including in the Chinese market, to 60 percent, he said.
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