UNITED STATES
Q2 growth looking grim
The economy slowed less than initially thought in the first quarter, but softening business investment and moderate consumer spending are clouding expectations of a sharp acceleration in the second quarter. GDP increased at a 1.2 percent annual rate instead of the 0.7 percent pace reported last month, the Department of Commerce said on Friday in its second GDP estimate for the first three months of the year. That was the worst performance in a year and followed a 2.1 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter last year. The first-quarter weakness is a blow to President Donald Trump’s ambitious goal to sharply boost economic growth.
TRANSPORTATION
UPS ordered to pay NY
A US judge ordered the shipping giant UPS International Inc to pay US$247 million to the New York state and city governments for shipments of cigarettes that illegally evaded taxes. Federal District Court Judge Katherine Forrest found UPS “liable in each claim” and therefore the city and state “are entitled to compensatory damages and penalties,” court documents said. The judge ordered the company to pay US$166 million to the state and US$81 million to the city. The two plaintiffs claimed about US$872 million in damages. UPS said it was “extremely disappointed in the court’s ruling and imposed penalties and we will vigorously appeal the decision.”
SECURITY
Alleged hacker to appeal
A Canadian man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo Inc e-mails said he would appeal a judge’s decision to deny him bail. Karim Baratov on Friday made a brief court appearance in Toronto with his lawyer, Amedeo DiCarlo. Ontario Superior Court Justice Alan Whitten last month said that the 22-year-old Baratov is too much of a flight risk because of his easy access to money and his ability to ply his alleged trade from anywhere in the world. Baratov was arrested last month and faces extradition to the US. The 2014 breach at Yahoo affected at least 500 million user accounts. Baratov’s bail review is set for June 5.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sun says sales could drop
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, India’s largest drugmaker, warned investors that sales could decline next year amid downward pressure on generic-drug prices in the US and regulatory issues at one of its biggest factories. Revenue fell 6.6 percent to 71.4 billion rupees (US$1.11 billion) in the three month period that ended on March 31 from the same period last year. The slide could continue and result in a “single digit” percentage decline in annual sales next year, Dilip Shanghvi, the company’s founder and managing director, said on a conference call with analysts.
AUTOMAKERS
Faulty doors trigger recall
BMW AG is recalling more than 45,000 older 7-Series cars in the US because the doors can open unexpectedly while they are being driven. The recall covers certain 745i, 745Li, 750i, 750Li, 760i, 760Li and B7 Alpina cars from the model years from 2005 to 2008 that have the comfort access and soft door close options. The company said the doors might appear to be closed and latched, but can inadvertently open due to road conditions or occupant contact with the door.
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