SOUTH KOREA
Graduate jobless rate rises
South Korea’s unemployment rate rose to a six-year high last month, as more college graduates failed to land jobs amid slowing economic growth. Distortions from the Lunar New Year holiday were also a seasonal factor behind the rise. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate climbed to 4.1 percent last month, the highest since February 2010, Statistics Korea said yesterday. The agency said the youth unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 29 was 12.5 percent, the highest on record, with college graduates rushing to join the workforce after graduation.
BEVERAGES
Bacardi seeks Cuba reversal
Bacardi on Tuesday said it has asked a US federal judge to reverse a decision granting Cuba US trademark rights for Havana Club rum. Privately held, Bermuda-based Bacardi said it is the sole owner of Havana Club, which it has been selling in the US since the mid-1990s. French spirits and wine company Pernod Ricard sells its Havana Club rum in Cuba and a number of markets, notably Germany, France, Britain and Canada, but not the US.
AVIATION
Boeing shuffles leaders
Boeing Co reorganized leadership in its commercial airplane division as the company cuts costs and slows production of the 747 jumbo jet. Elizabeth Lund, general manager of the 777 program, will also oversee a combined operation for the 747 and 767 aircraft, Ray Conner, head of the commercial unit, said on Tuesday in a memo to employees. The general managers of the 747 and 767 programs are to assume new roles reporting to Lund. Boeing announced in January that it would trim production of the 747 to six aircraft a year starting in September.
TECHNOLOGY
Cloud services raise profits
Oracle Corp’s quarterly profit surpassed estimates as customers signed up for more cloud-based services. Profit excluding certain items was US$0.64 a share in the period that ended on Feb. 29, the Redwood City, California-based company said on Tuesday. Revenue including some adjustments fell 3.4 percent to US$9.01 billion during the fiscal third quarter from a year earlier. Sales of key cloud products grew 57 percent to US$583 million, a bright spot compared with sagging revenue in other services, the company said.
INTERNET
Amazon under investigation
Amazon.com Inc is under investigation in Italy for alleged tax evasion, Amazon chief for Italy and Spain Francois Nuyts said in an interview on Tuesday. The Seattle-based online retailer is cooperating with the probe, Nuyts said. “Amazon pays all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction where we operate, including Italy, and we are cooperating fully with the Italian authorities,” Nuyts said when asked about legal and tax issues.
? PHARMACEUTICALS
Valeant takes a 50% plunge
Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s share price plunged nearly 50 percent on Tuesday after it warned it was at risk of a debt default and slashed its earnings forecast. Valeant, already under fire for its pricing and accounting practices, said in a securities filing that bondholders can deliver a notice of default if the drugmaker fails to submit its annual 10-K report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission within 60 days. The 10-K report was due on Tuesday, but a filing within 60 days would “cure the default,” Valeant 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