CHEMICALS
Bayer boosts forecasts
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals powerhouse Bayer AG upped its growth forecasts for the year after a strong second quarter saw profits surge by 19 percent. While revenues fell 1.4 percent to 11.8 billion euros (US$13 billion), profits hit 1.4 billion euros. The company pointed to strong growth in sales of prescription and non-prescription drugs as the main contributor to the boost. Annual revenues are expected to hit about 35 billion euros, excluding income from the recently separated plastics business Covestro, the company said. Earnings before interest, tax and special items are expected to see almost 10 percent growth over the whole year, it said.
AVIATION
Airbus profits rise
Airbus Group’s profits rose in the first half of the year thanks to asset sales and a satellite launch merger, but the planemaker suffered losses linked to its troubled A400M military transporter and A350 passenger jet, its long-delayed rival to Boeing’s popular 787. The Toulouse, France-based company reported profit of 1.76 billion euros, up from 1.52 billion in the first half of last year. First-half sales were steady at 28.8 billion euros, compared with 28.9 billion last year. Overall orders were down despite a spate of deals announced at the recent Farnborough Air Show.
BANKING
Deutsche Bank profit falls
Deutsche Bank AG yesterday blamed a weak economic environment and its complicated restructuring for a 98 percent plunge in its second-quarter net profit. Net earnings in the second quarter totaled 20 million euros, compared with 796 million in the same period of last year. Deutsche’s performance fell well short of the average of 188 million euros expected by analysts surveyed by Factset. Revenue for the quarter was 7.4 billion euros, down 20 percent year-on-year. The bank also said it is nearing an agreement with the US Department of Justice to settle a long-running investigation into its mortgage-backed securities business.
CHIPMAKERS
Analog Devices buys Linear
Analog Devices Inc has agreed to acquire Linear Technology Corp for about US$14.8 billion, potentially restarting a scramble by chipmakers to add scale amid record industry consolidation. Analog will pay US$60 a share for rival Linear, in cash and stock — a premium of 24 percent to its closing price on Monday — the two companies said in a statement on Tuesday. They expect to close the transaction by the first half of next year. The deal is expected to give Analog Devices, which specializes in data converters and chips that translate real world things into electronic signals, access to the market for chips that control power in devices.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan profit drops
Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co yesterday reported a ¥136.4 billion (US$30.7 million) profit for the fiscal quarter through last month, down nearly 11 percent from the same period last year. The result was in line with forecasts from analysts surveyed by FactSet. Quarterly sales shrank 8.4 percent to 2.65 trillion yen due to a stronger yen. The Yokohama-based automaker kept its full-year forecast for a ¥525 billion profit, up slightly from the ¥524 billion earned the previous fiscal year. Nissan blamed volatility in emerging markets for the lower profit, noting vehicle sales dipped in South America, the Middle East and Africa.
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