INTERNET
Bezos surpasses Buffett
Jeff Bezos snuck past Warren Buffett to become the third-richest person on Earth. The Amazon.com Inc founder’s net worth was US$65.05 billion on Thursday, topping Buffett by US$32 million on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. With the gain, Bezos’ wealth has increased by US$5.4 billion this year, marking a resurgence after it fell to as low as US$43 billion in February amid turbulent global markets. Bezos, 52, lags only Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the Inditex SA founder who has US$73 billion, and Microsoft Inc’s Bill Gates, the world’s richest person, with US$89 billion.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Takeda mulls Wako sale
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co is exploring the sale of its majority stake in chemicals business Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd as the Japanese drugmaker seeks to sell noncore assets to raise cash, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Takeda is working with advisers at Nomura Holdings Inc to sell the business, which could fetch more than YS$1 billion, the people said. The sale could attract interest from companies and private equity firms, including Permira Advisers and Carlyle Group LP, the people said.
LIGHTING
Philips Lighting profit rises
Philips Lighting NV said second-quarter profit rose 16 percent, as the world’s largest lighting manufacturer boosted sales of products based on more energy--efficient LEDs. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization increased to 161 million euros (US$177.8 million), the company said in its debut earnings statement yesterday. Sales declined 6.2 percent to 1.73 billion euros, short of the 1.83 billion euros estimated by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
FINANCE
Visa’s Q3 earnings fall 76%
Credit and debit card processor Visa Inc said its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 76 percent from a year ago, largely due to the cost of completing the purchase of its operations in Europe. San Francisco-based Visa on Thursday said it earned a profit of US$412 million, or US$0.17 per share, down from US$1.7 billion, or US$0.69 per share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding one-time charges, Visa earned US$0.69 per share, US$0.02 more than the US$0.67 that analysts had forecast, FactSet said.
AEROSPACE
Boeing sees earnings drop
Boeing Co on Thursday said that its second-quarter earnings would be hit by US$2.1 billion in unexpected after-tax costs, including its third charge in a year on a large US Air Force tanker contract. Boeing said its quarterly earnings release on Wednesday next week is to recognize US$393 million in costs associated with the KC-46 tanker program, a next-generation military refueling aircraft. The latest costs are to address a load issue identified during test flights, it said.
ELECTRONICS
Pen lights up pictures
A Japanese start-up has developed a pen that can bring pictures to life using a silver quick-drying ink that conducts electricity. The “Circuit Marker” allows users to draw an electric circuit that can withstand up to 100 volts. The circuits are capable of lighting lamps and powering motors. Inventors AgIC demonstrated the pen by drawing a series of buildings on electronic-embedded paper that lit up to make a small 3D town, complete with street lights and a moving car. The pen costs US$14.99 and a sheet of the required A4-size paper is US$37.49.
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