GOVERNMENT
Uber payments withheld
The Administrative Enforcement Agency on Friday ordered 33 credit-card-issuing banks to withhold payments collected on behalf of Uber Technologies Inc in a compulsory execution of back fines and taxes owed by the US-based ride-sharing service. Banks that oppose the order can file a dissent with the agency’s Taipei office detailing their reasons, it said. Outstanding fines and taxes owed by Uber stand at NT$1.06 billion (US$34.87 million) after more than NT$10 million was confiscated from Uber’s bank accounts in March, the agency said.
AUTOMAKERS
RAC may export to Japan
Taiwanese-made electric buses might enter the Japanese market next year, electric vehicle manufacturer RAC Electric Vehicles Inc (華德動能) said. The firm in April signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s Sumitomo Corp as part of a deal to export RAC’s buses to Northeast Asia. RAC on Friday said the buses are likely to be first introduced in Okinawa next year. The company said it has also signed an MOU with a firm in China’s Shandong Province to export electric bus parts to China in the second half of this year.
ELECTRONICS
Vive on Steam summer sale
HTC Corp (宏達電) on Friday said that it is offering a discount on its virtual reality headset, the HTC Vive. The company has joined forces with the Steam online distribution platform to mark down the Vive’s price during the online firm’s summer sale, it said. The sale started at 1am on Friday and is to run through 1am on Thursday next week. Steam users can purchase the Vive for NT$26,788 (US$881), instead of its original price of NT$28,288, HTC said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure