State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is the nation’s largest company by paid-in capital, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) second, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
According to ministry data, Taipower had paid-in capital of NT$330 billion (US$10.73 billion), ahead of TSMC’s NT$259.3 billion, as of Dec. 31 last year.
However, Taipower is unlikely to retain the No. 1 title for long, as the Legislative Yuan has passed an amendment to the Electricity Act (電業法) to liberalize the power supply market and restructure the company.
The changes, passed last month, call for splitting Taipower’s operations into two sectors: power generation and electricity transmission, distribution and sales.
CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) ranked third, with paid-in capital of NT$194.9 billion, followed by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), with NT$173.2 billion; China Steel Corp (中鋼), with 157.7 billion; and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), with NT$149.7 billion, the ministry’s data showed.
State-run Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水) was seventh, with NT$137.5 billion, ahead of Mega Financial Holding Co’s (兆豐金控) NT$135.9 billion, Cathay Financial Holding Co’s (國泰金控) NT$133.9 billion and CTBC Bank’s (中國信託銀行) NT$131.1 billion, the data showed.
Among the top 500 Taiwanese companies in terms of paid-in capital, 282 are registered in Taipei, accounting for 56.4 percent of the total, while 46 are registered in Kaohsiung, 32 in New Taipei City and 29 in Taoyuan.
Thirty are registered in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), including TSMC.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained