CARS
Waymo adds claim to suit
Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit Waymo on Friday added a new patent claim to its intellectual property lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc and requested a preliminary injunction to stop the ride-sharing service from using what it says is proprietary information, a court filing showed. The two Silicon Valley companies are fighting over technology that is seen as part of the foundation of the future of transportation: autonomous vehicles. Waymo sued Uber last month over allegations that a former employee downloaded and stole more than 14,000 confidential files, including details on light detection and ranging sensor technology known as Lidar.
MOROCCO
World Bank approves funds
The World Bank says it has approved US$150 million in financing to support small enterprises and improve social programs in Morocco. The funds, approved on Friday, would help the government “modernize its national identification system and provide financing to promote innovative start-ups and job creation,” a statement said. Of that amount, US$100 million would “aim to develop systems to ensure that social programs are better targeted and reach the most vulnerable Moroccans,” it said, while the remaining US$50 million would help address a market gap in the supply of equity financing for innovative young small and medium enterprises.
PUERTO RICO
Plan changes proposed
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello is suggesting unspecific changes to the territory’s proposed 10-year fiscal plan in hopes of avoiding a US federal control board’s recommendation to slash public employees’ pay and working hours by 20 percent. The governor said on Saturday his proposed measures add up to US$262 million annually, but did not say if they are spending cuts or revenue increases. He said his administration would continue guaranteeing health care coverage for the island’s most vulnerable people. The board last week rejected the government’s proposed fiscal plan as too optimistic and is expected to certify a revised version today in New York.
Iran receives second Airbus
Iran received its second new Airbus plane on Saturday under an order that Tehran placed last year after a partial lifting of international sanctions. The A330-200 landed in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport to join national carrier Iran Air’s fleet for long-haul flights, state news agency IRNA reported. Iran Air received its first Airbus, a A321 used for domestic flights, on Jan. 12. It completed a deal for 100 Airbus planes with a list price of around US$20 billion on Dec. 22 last year after approval from Washington as some parts are manufactured in the US.
COFFEE
Refugee vow hurts Starbucks
Starbucks Corp’s vow to hire thousands of refugees after US President Donald Trump’s first executive order that temporarily banned travel from seven mostly Muslim nations appears to be hurting customer sentiment of the coffee chain. YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks consumers’ sentiment toward companies and their willingness to purchase from those brands, reported Starbucks’ consumer perception levels fell by two-thirds between Jan. 29 and Feb. 13. Starbucks’ Buzz score fell to 4 from 12 during that time. Such scores can range from 100 to negative 100, with a zero score meaning equal positive and negative feedback.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured