ELECTRONICS
HTC announces new CFO
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced that Peter Shen (沈道邦) is to replace Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) as the company’s chief financial officer and spokesman, beginning on June 20. HTC said Shen, former chief financial officer at Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), has a strong background in the IT industry and his experience in fast-paced, cost-competitive environments makes him ideal for the position. Chang is to remain in his position as the head of HTC’s global sales division.
AUTO PARTS
Hota eyes aerospace foray
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業) yesterday said it plans to branch into the aerospace industry to improve its revenue growth. In the long run, the company aims to gain a solid footing in the global supply chain within this industry, Hota chairman and chief executive officer David Shen (沈國榮) said at a Taiwan Stock Exchange conference. During the first five months of the year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$2.41 billion (US$74.79 million).
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC’s revenue rebounds
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday posted its best monthly revenue data in seven months — NT$73.58 billion for last month — amid customers’ increased demand due to inventory rebuilding and deferred shipments from the first quarter. In the first five months of the year, TSMC’s revenue shrank 6.4 percent to NT$343.91 billion from NT$367.52 billion in the same period last year.
PANEL MAKERS
Innolux sees revenue rise
Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday said revenue rose 7.5 percent to NT$22.51 billion last month, from April’s NT$20.94 billion. That marked the third straight month of growth. However, last month’s figure plunged 27.9 percent compared with the figure from May last year. Shipments of PC and TV panels jumped 17.9 percent month-on-month to 9.62 million units last month, while those of smaller panels for mobile devices fell 5.2 percent to 17.99 million units.
CONSTRUCTION
Highwealth’s sales surge
Highwealth Construction Co (興富發), which last year focused on first-time and salaried home buyers, yesterday said sales surged last month because of contributions from new property projects. Sales reached NT$1.81 billion last month, up 231.09 percent year-on-year and 57.34 percent month-on-month, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Total sales from January to last month increased 16.96 percent to NT$12.098 billion year-on-year.
TAXATION
Tax revenue soars
The nation’s tax revenue last month totaled NT$334.9 billion, up 14.2 percent from a year earlier, on the back of better corporate income and property taxes, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. The ministry said it collected NT$108.1 billion in corporate income tax and another NT$46 billion in personal income tax. Securities transaction and property taxes remained a drag last month, declining 18.6 percent and 9.3 percent from a year earlier to NT$5.7 billion and NT$6.8 billion respectively, data showed. Tax revenue for the first five months of this year amounted to NT$780.5 billion, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier and 3.2 percent higher than the budget target, the ministry 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