ELECTRONICS
Flexium eyes revenue rise
Flexible printed circuit board supplier Flexium Interconnect Inc (台郡) yesterday said revenue for this year is forecast to grow by a double-digit percentage from last year’s NT$19.096 billion (US$627.3 million), driven by strong demand in the second half from clients for high-end smartphones. Analysts have said that Flexium is expected to see higher margins and increased shipments in the second half on the back of the next-generation iPhones from Apple Inc. At Flexium’s annual general meeting yesterday, shareholders approved a company proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.5 and a stock dividend of 5 percent on last year’s earnings of NT$2.28 billion, which translates to earnings per share of NT$8.42.
ELECTRONICS
Qisda elects new chairman
Local electronics maker Qisda Inc (佳世達) yesterday said its board has elected president Peter Chen (陳其宏) as chairman, succeeding Lee Kun-yao (李焜燿). Lee, 65, is to serve as a honorary chairman, Qisda said. Shareholders yesterday also approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.32 per common share, the highest in 12 years. That was based on the company’s net profit of NT$4.34 billion for last year, or earnings per share of NT$2.21.
SHIPPING
Yang Ming seeks bailout
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday announced that it has submitted an application for a government bailout and other assistance, such as reduced docking fees. The container shipper, which posted a net loss of NT$14.91 billion for last year and NT$900 million for the first quarter of this year, has met the requirements set by the Executive Yuan to borrow NT$60 billion as a troubled transportation company, as Yang Ming has been in the red for four consecutive quarters. The company said at a shareholders’ meeting that capital reduction has bolstered its financial condition, while cost-cutting measures have begun to take effect.
TELECOMS
Chunghwa to offer 4Ca
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said it is to offer four-carrier aggregation (4Ca) services next month to boost Internet connection speeds by including some configurations that utilize two new spectrums. The company, which is to be the first local carrier to offer services using 4Ca technology, said it expects to accelerate Internet connections by up to 500 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with 300 Mbps plans on 3Ca technology. The company said it would expand its 4G bandwidth to 110 megahertz next month after adding two new spectrums on the 1,800-megahertz band.
TELECOMS
Sercomm director approved
Telecommunications equipment maker Sercomm Corp (中磊) yesterday said shareholders approved the election of Internet industry veteran Rose Tsou (鄒開蓮) as one of the company’s independent board directors. Tsou is head of Oath’s Asia Pacific unit, which is a new entity created by Verizon Communications Inc this month following its acquisition of Yahoo Inc. Tsou is to join two other independent directors to form an audit committee to enhance Sercomm’s corporate governance, it said. Shareholders yesterday also approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.2 per common share on record profit of NT$1.46 billion last year, translating to earnings per share of NT$6.02.
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
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
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